I just returned from the 2012 Location Intelligence and Oracle Spatial User conference in Washington, DC, held by Directions Magazine. It was a great conference with presentations from across the country and globe, networking with Oracle Spatial users and meeting new customers and partners.

As part of the yearly event, Oracle recognizes special customers and partners for their contributions to advancing mainstream solutions using geospatial technology. This was the 8th year that Oracle has recognized innovative, industry leaders. 

 The awards were given in three categories: Education/Research, Innovator and Partnership. Here's a little on each of the award winners.

Education and Research Award Winner: Technical University of Berlin

The Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation Science of the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) was selected for its leading research work in mapping of urban and regional space onto virtual 3D-city and landscape models, and use of Oracle Spatial, including 3D Vector and Georaster type support, as the data management platform.

Innovator Award Winner:  Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Istanbul is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe. One of their greatest challenges is organizing efficient public transportation for citizens and visitors. There are 15 types of transportations organized by 8 different agencies. To solve this problem, the Directorate of GIS of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has created a multi-model itinerary system to help citizens in their decision process for using public transport or their private cars. They choose to use Oracle Spatial Network Model as the solution in our system together with Java and SOAP web services. 

Partnership Award Winners: CSoft Group and OSCARS. 

CSoft Group- the largest Russion integrator and consultancy provider in CAD and GIS. CSoft was selected by the Oracle Spatial product development organization for the key role in delivering geospatial solutions based on Oracle Database and Fusion Middleware to the Russian market.

OSCARS - Provides consulting/training in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. With only 3 full time staff, they have achieved significant success with leading edge customer implementations leveraging the latest Oracle Spatial/MapViewer technologies, and delivering training throughout Europe.

 Finally, we also awarded two Special Recognition awards for two partners that helped contribute to the Oracle Partner Network Spatial Specialization.

These two partners provided insight and technical expertise from a partner perspective to help launch the new certification program for Oracle Spatial Technologies.

Award Winners: ThinkHuddle and OSCARS 

For more pictures on the conference and the awards, visit our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/OracleDatabase