2026 Tasmanian Surveying & Geospatial Conference Program

8:30am REGISTRATION
Keynote Session \| Chair: Anthony O’Flaherty \| [1.5 GE pts]
9:00am	Welcome Anthony O’Flaherty, Head of BI & Analytics, RACT, Tasmanian Spatial Information Council (TASSIC) Member
9:05am	Official Opening Minister Nick Duigan, Minister for Energy and Renewables, Minister for Parks and Heritage, Minister for Sport
9:15am	TerraLuma Drone Research Group Steve Harwin, Lecturer in 3D Analysis & Geospatial Science, Course Coordinator for BGeospSci, University of Tasmania
9:30am	All-Hazards Spatial Infrastructure Project – LISTmap/COP Rebuild, An introduction to the newly developed LISTmap and Common Operating Rob Meijers, Senior Spatial Analyst, Location Services, Land Tasmania
2:20pm	Using a combination of surveying and reality capture techniques to capture and create a virtual 3d model of a range of sensitive first nations sites across Tasmania Paul Digney, Global Principal & Practice Leader Geospatial, Jacobs
10:30AM — MORNING TEA — SPONSORS — NETWORKING
Plenary Session \| Chair: Matthew Reid \| [1.5 GE pts]
11:00am	Locus Alliance Update Rachel Greenwood, Chief Executive Officer ISNSW
11:20am	Locus Alliance – Call for state committee and special interest groups Paul Digney, Global Principal & Practice Leader Geospatial, Jacobs
11:30am	Grass Geometry: The Science Behind Satisfying Mowing Patterns Steven Harvey, Senior Engineering Surveyor, Launceston City Council
11:50am	Major Event Partners Esri Australia (11:50 – 12:05) CRKennedy (12:05 – 12:20) UPG (12:20 – 12:35)
12:35PM — LUNCH — NETWORKING

	Surveying Stream Chair: Matthew Reid \| [1.5 GE pts]	Geospatial Stream Chair: Steve Harwin \| [1.5 GE pts]
1:15pm	Institute of Surveyors Tasmania Inc Annual General Meeting Andrew Birch, President	What country is Paris in? Rob Rowell, CEO and Founder, Insight GIS
1:45pm	TasWater requirements for the issuing of Practical Completion TasWater	The Advancing Use of AI in Geospatial Processing Esri Australia
2:25pm	Creation of Community Development Title in Tasmania Vic Cochrane, Registered Land Surveyor	The Accidental AI Strategy: How a Metrics Program Built Our Geospatial Footprint Anthony O’Flaherty, Head of BI & Analytics, Data, AI & Insights, RACT
2:50pm	Documentary vs possessory title boundaries Scott Strong, Deputy Surveyor-General, Office of the Surveyor General	Session Wrap Up Dr. Steve Harwin

3:00pm AFTERNOON TEA
Closing Session \| Chair: Steve Harwin \| [1.5 GE pts]
3:30pm	Panel Forum – Geospatial Project Pricing Craig Turner – Director of Surveyors Australia Adrian Eberhardt – Director PDA Molly Marshall Paul Digney Or Maurits Van der Vlugt Geospatial project pricing
4:30pm	Surveyors Australia – 2026 Tasmanian EISSI Awards (Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information Awards) Jasmine Bulman, Head of Advocacy & Certification
5:00pm	Closing Remarks Matthew Reid, Surveyor General at Land Tasmania
5:00pm — NETWORKING EVENT & REFRESHMENTS (Tonic Bar)
6:30pm – Event Concludes

Selected Abstracts

What country is Paris in?
Rob Rowell, CEO and Founder, Insight GIS
Why Context Matters in Geospatial Data and AI? As AI becomes more widely used, context is becoming increasingly important in helping us understand and make better use of geospatial data. Traditional GIS is very good at telling us where things are, what they are and how they relate to each other. AI can take this further by interpreting information, identifying patterns and helping people make decisions. But to do this well, AI needs to understand more than just locations and data. This presentation looks at why context matters, how it helps AI better understand geospatial information and why it will play an important role in getting real value from geospatial data in the future.

The Accidental AI Strategy: How a Metrics Program Built Our Geospatial Footprint
Anthony O’Flaherty, Head of BI & Analytics, Data, AI & Insights, RACT
Most organisations treat GIS as a specialist capability with its own platform, data and vision. At RACT, our geospatial footprint grew from somewhere less obvious: a data governance initiative to define the metrics our organisation runs on. Under our Data & Analytics Strategy, the Metrics Program set out to give every strategic and operational metric an owner, a purpose and a consistent definition. Once those definitions carried a location dimension (Mesh Block, suburb, local government area, electorate), scorecards became maps, and geospatial became a beneficiary of governed enterprise data rather than an isolated program.
This presentation follows that path. It covers the strategy and its pillars, the Metrics Program as a key enabling initiative, and a Geospatial Sub-Strategy, with examples ranging from GeoBI dashboards to data science uses and the story tellying narrative. The presentation then touches on how the same governed definitions, metadata and semantics form the basis of an organisation-wide approach to AI, including GeoAI. The message for practitioners is that geospatial cannot thrive on an isolated vision: getting data governance right builds a solid GIS and prepares the organisation for AI.