20th Nordic Surveying Congress takes place in Finland
Järvenpää, Finland, July 8-10, 2004
The 20th Nordic Surveying Congress took place in Järvenpää, Finland 8-10
July 2004. The theme of this four-yearly congress was this time “Surveyor
in a Unified Europe”. Almost 200 surveyors from Denmark, Finland, Norway
and Sweden gathered to the Järvenpää Concert Hall for two days followed by a
joint technical tour to the medieval city of Porvoo. The participants also
had a change to visit Ainola, home of the famous Finnish composer Jean
Sibelius in Tuusula. Songs of the composer were also presented at the
opening ceremony of this conference in his home city.
The Nordic conference has long tradition – the first conference was held
already in 1920 in Copenhagen – and has thereafter been rotating between the
four Nordic countries every four years. The previous congress was held in
Stockholm in 2000 and the next one will be held in Denmark in 2008. It is
also characteristic to this event that it is a real family event, which
gathers surveyors with their spouses and children to these meetings – many
of the participants have attended the meetings since 1960s. However, the
younger generation is well represented. The second specific feature is that
the conference is held in the Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish and
Norwegian) so that each participant is able to speak his/her own language
and the other participants can understand the presentations. The Finnish
participants make their presentations in Swedish, which is the second
official language of the hosting country.
Because the theme of this year’s congress was the European integration
the invited keynote presentation was given by Paul van der Molen,
Chair of FIG Commission 7. His presentation was titled “The European
integration gets deeper and wider – How does this influence land surveyors?”.
In the programme there were also two other presentations from FIG: newly
elected Vice President Stig Enemark, President of the Danish DdL made
a presentation on future needs of competences for surveyors and Markku
Villikka, Director of FIG office representing Finland made his
presentation on the surveyors role in Europe in the future.
The social programme included the traditional home visits to local
surveyors, where the Nordic visitors could enjoy the mid-summer night and
the Finnish hospitality and a farewell dinner in a traditional Finnish style
with song and dance and admiring the midsummer sun at the lake.
![Click picture for bigger format](http://vwwv.fig.net/news/archive/news_2004/nordic_2004/viertio_250.jpg)
Sakari Viertiö, President of MIL, Finland was together with
Congress Director Mikko Uimonen in charge for the conference
arrangements. |
![Click picture for bigger format](http://vwwv.fig.net/news/archive/news_2004/nordic_2004/mjos_250.jpg)
Leiv Bjarte Mjøs, President of the Norwegian Surveyors’s
Association and Chair of the Nordic Surveying Committee brought the
greetings on behalf of the Nordic surveyors. |
![Click picture for bigger format](http://vwwv.fig.net/news/archive/news_2004/nordic_2004/ratia_250.jpg)
Jarmo Ratia, Director General of the National Land Survey,
Finland addressed the congress on behalf of NLS. Mr. Ratia had attended
the congress for the first time already in 1960. |
![Click picture for bigger format](http://vwwv.fig.net/news/archive/news_2004/nordic_2004/vandermolen_250.jpg)
Paul van der Molen, Chair of FIG Commission 7, was the keynote speaker
at the opening ceremony. |
![Click picture for bigger format](http://vwwv.fig.net/news/archive/news_2004/nordic_2004/choir_2_250.jpg)
The Chamber Choir of the Sibelius Gymnasium presented some Finnish folk
songs arranged by Pekka Kostiainen at the opening ceremony. |
![Click picture for bigger format](http://vwwv.fig.net/news/archive/news_2004/nordic_2004/choir_250.jpg)
The other songs presented by the choir included songs written by Jean
Sibelius to Swedish and Finnish poems. |
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