David Schell, who founded the OGC and who was for many years the OGC's president, CEO and chairman, was presented with a “Making a Difference” Award by Jack Dangermond, Esri's president, last week at the Esri Federal GIS Conference. Dangermond opened the conference by presenting the award.

David has certainly made a difference, not least for those of us who work with him and those of us who have known him for many years. When the OGC began, there was nothing quite like it in any industry. David invented it and kept reinventing it, steering a course that has enabled the OGC to grow and thrive while holding onto its original vision and basic principles.

There are many, many international geospatial conferences. There are those dedicated to scientific topics, some related to specific topics, such as the GSDI Association conferences and spatial data infrastructures, and then there are many vendor-specific conferences and exhibitions. However, there are very few geospatial events dedicated to bringing together all the industry leaders from the public sector, the private sector, academia and research.

The OGC's process and standards play a critical role as business requirements for communication of location become a key issue for the mobile industry.