The Digital Forester

Dave Ginther is the Owner of Voice Directed Tally Systems Inc. (VDTS) and joins us from Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Dave’s background is in the IT sector where for over 25 years he worked as both a general manager and consultant. Dave founded VDTS after discovering Voice Recognition as an effective tool for hands free data gathering and over the years has gained clients in forestry, lumber manufacturing, and agriculture. Come have a listen and learn about VDTS voice directed solutions for forestry.

Marko Gasic is the Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Mosaic Forest Management and joins us from Vancouver, BC. At the time of recording, Marko was the Vice President of Information Technology and Planning at Mosaic and successfully led several major digital transformation projects for the company. Come have a listen to Marko’s thoughts from an executive level on the forest technology landscape and his leadership approach to realizing success.

Andrew Davis is the Product Manager for Visual Forester and joins us from Bend, Oregon, USA. In his role, he helps natural resource professionals connect with stakeholders through digital twins of forests and the creation of immersive visualizations from their existing data. Come have a listen to learn how Stand Designer and Visual Forester Pro save people time and headaches by ensuring everyone sees the same picture beyond the data and charts.

Mark Books is the Geospatial Services Manager at LandMark Spatial Solutions. Mark is a Certified Forester of the geospatial variety and has applied these skills for over 25 years to research and forest management, including prescribed burning. He brings his experience to assist fellow foresters and natural resource managers in using geospatial technology to enhance their work. Further desiring to set up forestry and foresters for success, Mark has also been an executive volunteer in his role as President and Co-founder of the Esri Forestry Group since 2008.

George M. Banzhaf is the CEO and co-founder of TreeTracker. His career in the forest industry has been wide ranging, from marketing timber, managing corporate inventory programs, field data gathering, R&D, reforestation and seedling genetics, drone and imagery, silvicultural operations, and GIS mapping. Envisioning a better way for technology to be used to improve information, communication, and collaboration, TreeTracker was developed as a platform (online and in-the-field app) that everyone – no matter their sector of industry or size – could use to organize, develop, and share their data for increased functionality, efficiency, and success. Come learn more about TreeTracker’s mission to provide the highest quality information management system available to every sector of the forest community.

Andre Cheung is the Founder and CEO of Robotics Cats and joins us from Hong Kong with Mike Ross and Rob Vernon, Founder and CTO, and CEO, respectively, of Indicium Dynamics from Tasmania. Robotics Cats is a machine vision startup comprised of a team of talented engineers with diverse cultures focused on computer vision, AI, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Indicium Dynamics is a full-service IoT and data integration solutions provider. Their low-code and affordable IoT solutions provide control over the collection, analysis, and display of data, optimising processes across a wide range of industries and organisations. Come have a listen about how Robotics Cats and Indicium Dynamics are collaborating on the XPRIZE Wildfire challenge.

Preston Green is the Assistant Vice President of cut-to-length (CTL) Systems at Miller Timber Services in Philomath, Oregon, USA where he responsible for harvesting management on a select number of harvesting teams, research and development of CTL innovations, and production analytics across a fleet of CTL equipment.

Dr. Kerry Halligan is the GM of Technology at the Woodland Solutions Group. Kerry is a software developer with a background in forestry and a passion for combining the best in mobile, web and geospatial technology to solve complex data collection, management and analysis challenges. He is the lead architect and developer for Woodland Solutions Group’s MobileMap, InventoryManager, Spatial CMS framework, and the US Forest Service Digital Mobile Sketch Map application.

Donn is a consulting forester, frequent speaker at forestry workshops and conferences, and developer of the Forest Metrix timber cruising software. Forest Metrix sprang from the woods of central Vermont with its development driven by foresters and the forest industry. Forest Metrix is deployed with state agencies, some of the largest TIMOs and forest and arboriculture service companies, log buyers, and countless consulting foresters, arborists and ecological professionals. Come have a listen to Donn’s journey as a forester and entrepreneur, and his passion for solving problems and helping others.

Lidar from space? Impossible, right? NUVIEW came out of stealth mode earlier this year and their mission is to revolutionize the Earth observation industry by building the premier commercial satellite constellation dedicated to annually mapping the planet’s entire land surface using lidar technology. NUVIEW’s cutting-edge data will elevate worldwide capabilities, transforming human understanding of Earth and expanding the horizons of what is possible. Come listen to Clint Graumann, CEO of NUVIEW, talk about the future of space lidar, Mr. Spoc and Leonardo DiCaprio.