
Organized by CartONG every two years since 2008, the GeOnG forum gathers humanitarian actors and professionals specialized in information management. Take a look at this year's pictures!
GeOnG: The Humanitarian Data Forum
The GeOnG is dedicated to addressing issues related to data in the humanitarian & development sectors, including topics related to mapping, GIS, data collection & information management. To this end, the forum is designed to allow participants to debate current and future stakes, introduce relevant and innovative solutions and share experience and best practices.
The GeOnG is the biggest independent forum on the topic in Europe, with an average of 140 participants from 70 organizations in the last two editions. In the last ten years, it has become a major event on issues related to mapping, mobile technology, information management and, more generally, on the use of new technologies in the humanitarian and development sectors.
The 6th edition of the forum took place from October 29th to October 31th at the Congress Centre Le Manège in Chambéry, France and gathered 180 participants from more than 90 organizations. Discover below the after movie of this year's edition!
If you want to know more about the GeOnG, please check out the videos of the 2016 and 2018 GeOnG roundtables available on Youtube.
Main Theme of the 2018 GeOnG Conference
After editions tackling the role of these tools in decision-making processes (2008), new data collection technologies (2010), cloud-computing-related challenges (2012), operational data analysis (2014) and the impact of humanitarian information management (2016), CartONG has decided to focus the 2018 edition on:
'Perfection' versus 'Good enough' in Information Management
Adjusting to context, scale, phase & funding.
The 'good enough' principle has been of increasing interest in the humanitarian and international development sectors, for its potential implications for people, tools, processes or practices. Why would developing 'good enough' information management solutions sometimes be better than aiming for perfection?
We engaged discussions on how to tailor information management solutions to a given context, scale, phase or funding; while also paying attention to key stakes in the sector such as responsible data practices, capacity-building, interoperability of data & systems, or user-friendly and human-centred tool design.
Take a look at the 2018 GeOnG agenda!
A Variety of Sessions & a Few Novelties
The GeOnG traditionally opens with a plenary session about the main theme of the conference in order to build a general framework for debate for the whole event. During the three-day event, the participants can then take part in roundtables to discuss current stakes in the sector, in workshops enabling them to get trained in the use of new tools, and in short-length sessions serving as platforms for project initiators to present their ideas and share best practices.
This year, we also organized a fail fest as part of the GeOnG with the understanding that if not all failures are good to share, some should actually be put forward and discussed so all humanitarian actors can learn and find their own path to successful solutions and adequate practices. Additionally, we also put a special emphasis on networking during the 2018 GeOnG forum.
Open Call for Suggestions: Submit your Ideas for the Program!
For the first time, CartONG decided to launch an Open Call for Suggestions in order to gather recommendations and ideas for the 2018 GeOnG program. The open call was closed in July 2018.
Discover below the poster of the 2018 GeOnG Forum:
***
Take a look at this year's pictures!