About the Symposium

The annual GEO Symposia provide a key opportunity for the GEO Work Programme community to exchange knowledge, share experiences, and foster collaboration. 

For the first time since 2019, the GEO Symposium 2023 will be held in person in Geneva on June 13-14, 2023, followed by the Open Data and Open Knowledge Workshop. 

Speakers and participants will draw on GEO's previous accomplishments to highlight how GEO can accelerate equitable access to Earth observations and develop and share information that leads to impact. The theme of the Symposium is “Stand out in the crowd: GEO Work Programme for Nature, People, and Planet.” 

Objectives of the GEO Symposium 2023:

1. Support the development of the Ministerial Declaration and Post 2025 Strategy.
2. Advance collaborations on a GEO Work Programme that provides integrated, innovative and co-designed products and services.
3. Provide the GEO Work Programme community with opportunities to showcase their work and network with each other. 

 

 

Programmme

This Symposium programme will be continuously updated as session details, including speakers information, becomes available. 

The GEO Work Programme activities will be invited to participate in and contribute to structured discussions. 

Interactive dialogues:

GEO Work Programme activity leads will join Post-2025 Working Group members, Programme Board members, users and partners, and other key stakeholders to have interactive dialogues on the GEO Post-2025 strategy and the GEO Work Programme. Each of the dialogues will unpack a key topic of the post-2025 strategy with a panel discussion.  

Thematic sessions

GEO Work Programme activities will contribute to the following discussion on collaborative efforts:  

• Biodiversity and Nature: In this session, GEO’s efforts to create the world’s first Global Ecosystem Atlas will be examined, via the showcase of a few illustrative applications.  
• Urban Resilience for Heat and Health: The session will describe GEO plans to develop an integrated heat and health service built upon state-of-the-art Earth observations for urban resilience against climate change.
• Multi-Hazard Risks and Impact via the GEO Work Programme: Through this session, the GEO Work Programme activities focused on systemic risks will discuss how, why and where GEO is best positioned to deliver impact for countries and local communities.
• Operational services via the GEO Work Programme: The objective of this session will be to unpack the key characteristics of effective operational service from the perspective of users and partners and identify challenges and opportunities for the GEO Work Programme activities to become more operational and focused. 

Flash talks:

GEO Work Programme activities will speak for 5 minutes each using a maximum of three slides on the following topics: 

• Enablers for scaling the impact of the GEO Work Programme; and  
• Mobilizing resources for the GEO Work Programme. 

How can you contribute?

If you would like to contribute to one of the above-mentioned sessions, please write to geo-wp@geosec.org, with ‘GEO Symposium’ in the title, and elaborate the content of your contribution. 

Logistics

Time 

• Tuesday, 13 June: 9:00-18:15 CEST
• Wednesday, 14 June: 9:00-15:15 CEST

Venue 

• Obasi Room, ground floor of the WMO Building
• Address: 7bis avenue de la Paix, Geneva, Switzerland

Confirmation of in-person participation by Thursday, 8 June 

This is crucial for GEO Secretariat to prepare your badges, so kindly respond promptly. For registered participants, you should have received a personalized email to confirm in-person participation. If you don’t have this email, please check the Junk Email folder.  

Badge pick-up for both GEO Symposium and ODOK Workshop 

Time 

• Monday, 12 June: 15:00-17:00 CEST  
• Tuesday, 13 June: 8:00-10:00 CEST
• Wednesday, 14 June: 8:00-10:00; 15:00-17:00 CEST  
• Thursday, 15 June: 7:30-10:30 CEST
• Friday, 16 June: 7:30-9:30 CEST

Location 

• Entrance of the WMO Building

On site printing of your meeting badge is NOT POSSIBLE. If you are not able to confirm your participation in advance, please bring your passport and collaborate with the WMO Security team to obtain a temporary badge. 

Remote participation 

• Zoom webinar link

Meals 

• Coffee breaks will be provided by the meeting organizers. 
• Lunch is not provided. Here are the options:
• WMO cafeteria (on the top floor) serves hot meals ranging from 10 to 15 CHF. Sandwiches and other snacks also available for a slightly lower price. 
• A food truck operates daily between 11:00 – 14:30 CEST on Rue Kazem-RADJAVI (behind the WMO building)

Accommodation 

Hotels Nearby  

Participants are strongly advised to arrange their own hotel booking as soon as possible. Below are names of hotels located in walking distance of the meeting venue:  

• Hotel Eden, Rue de Lausanne 135, eden.ch 
• Hotel Mon Repos, Rue de Lausanne 131, monreposhotelgeneva.com 

Affordable alternatives  

• B&B Hotel Geneva Airport hotel-bb.com/en/hotel/geneva-airport  
• Ibis Genève Aéroport https://all.accor.com/hotel/3535/index.fr.shtml  

There are many other hotel options in Geneva, and the rates tend to go higher during high-level meetings in the city. In that case, it is advised to look for hotels outside of Geneva, in the neighboring areas (Nyon, Annemasse, or Ferney-Voltaire). It is very easy to travel by bus and tram from most hotels to the meeting venue within 10-25 minutes. Hotels at United Nation’s rates (please refer to the list)