This edition of the INSPIRE Conference offers an opportunity to explore INSPIRE's contribution to Europe's 2020 strategic goals and to root its further implementation and development in the EU 2020 follow-up programmes. The overall theme of this fifth edition is "INSPIREd by 2020 - Contributing to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth". The INSPIRE Conference attracts approximately 700 representatives of government, industry, and academia, and has become Europe's single most important venue for discussing the development and implementation of Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE). This year's edition of the Conference will see the introduction of three dynamic plenary discussion sessions with contributions from key members of industry, government and NGOs.

The three themes to be covered in these sessions, reflecting the flagship initiatives of Europe 2020, are Resource Efficiency, Innovation and Smart Growth and E-government and the Digital Agenda.

09:00 Welcome from local hosts John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for finance and sustainable growth
09:25 Evidence-based policymaking, Leen Hordijk, Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability, European Commission Joint Research Centre
09:50 INSPIRE Evolution of the Environmental Acquis and implementation in the Member States, Hugo De Groof
10:05 Progress on the development of the INSPIRE Implementing Rules Legal Acts, Daniele Rizzi
10:25 Announcement of the CEN/TC 287 award for excellence in INSPIRE winner, Ken Harkin

Panel Members:

Tim Allen, Local Government Association, UK
Pedro Díaz Muñoz, European Commission, Eurostat Director for Sectoral and Regional Statistics.
Julian Kirby, Friends of the Earth
Martin Whitworth, Environment Agency, UK
Leen Hordijk, Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability, European Commission Joint Research Centre

Panel Members:
Miles Parker, UK Location
David Wortley, ex CEO Serious Games
Henk Scholten, GEODAN
Ed Parsons, Google
Louisa Wood, Head Marine Assessment and Decision Support Programme, United Nations Environment Programme

Reports from other conferences
Cambridge Conference: Vanessa Lawrence, Ordnance Survey (Video link)
International Symposium on Environmental Software Systems, Jiri Hrebicek

Panel Members
Guenther Pichler, ESRI
Prof Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Southampton University
Karel De Vriendt, Senior Advisor, DG DIGIT, European Commission

Announcement of INSPIRE Conference 2012: Mr. Ahmet Civi, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Turkey

Close of conference: Alessandro Annoni