No change to Bangkok Map Conference

The Asia-Pacific Board of the 27 year old organisation voted last week to hold the course. This conference will also add a timely “Disaster Mapping” session and panel discussion, to replace a speech by a speaker from the US who was prohibited to travel to Bangkok by his company's insurance due to travel warning.

"You are only scared of an enemy when you don't know where they are, and community-developed realtime maps like 'www.gamling.org' show flood waters are nowhere near our conference hotel and have never been throughout the lead up to the event.  So, if we canceled we would be doing so on false information," Davis said.

A closed planetary session is provided for governmental agencies to meet and discuss mapping trends and developments, though Thai officials have not confirmed attendance. Noleen Zander Executive Secretary of the IMTA Asia-Pacific, said "We have invited many regional government officials and hope they will use this occasion to push forward usage of disaster preparedness mapping, as preparation saves lives in the end."  Thai officials have not confirmed attendance.

Part of the reason was emotional.  President Davis was a flood victim himself two years ago in Brisbane, when flood waters inundated his house, forcing an evacuation. "My heart goes out to the flood victims and this country needs our support," he remarked, adding that conference attendees were asked to bring an item for auction with the funds going to a flood charity.

This is the first time Thailand has ever hosted the conference, and it was already cancelled once in 2009 after the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport. The conference was then diverted to Singapore.