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Events

Attendees at the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference in Philadelphia.

We are thrilled to announce the return of the Cesium Developer Conference, taking place June 8-10, 2026, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, at the Loews Hotel. Join us to connect with fellow developers and innovators from around the globe who are shaping the future of open geospatial technologies.

The 2026 Cesium Developer Conference is a unique opportunity for the community to come together, share ideas, and collaborate on solving real-world challenges. We invite you to be a part of the conversation by submitting a presentation proposal. The call for presentations is open now, January 5, through Friday, January 30.

We are looking for engaging, technically oriented presentations that showcase the incredible work being done across 3D geospatial. Whether you're pushing the boundaries of 3D, AI, and data technology, transforming AEC and digital twin workflows, or pioneering new applications in aerospace and defense, we want to hear from you.

Last year's conference featured a wide range of inspiring sessions, including:

 "A Cesium-Based Web Application for Accessing NOAA Scientific Data"

"Accelerating AEC Workflows with 3D Geospatial Context in Runtime Engines"

"Gaussian Splatting with 3D Tiles and glTF"

"High Fidelity NASA Surface Operations for Astronaut Training Using Cesium Moon"

“One World Terrain’s Well Formed Format 2025”

This year, we look forward to another lineup of groundbreaking presentations from the community. We encourage both full-length talks (20 minutes) and lightning talks (5 minutes) that highlight your innovations and experiences with 3D creation engines, CesiumJS, iTwin, 3D Tiles, interoperability, and openness. Submit your presentation here; the submission window will close end of day on January 30, 2026. 

The conference will feature community-driven tracks, a pre-conference workshop for a hands-on deep dive, and numerous opportunities for networking and collaboration.

Call for presentations: January 5 - January 30

Early bird registration: January 19 - March 16

Conference + pre-conference workshop: $650

US government employees: complimentary. Contact us for your registration code.

Students (conference only): Discounted registration is available; contact us for your discount code.

Don't miss this opportunity to share your expertise, learn from your peers, and help grow the open geospatial ecosystem. Submit your presentation proposal and be a part of the event that is "a glimpse into the future of geospatial technology," as one attendee put it.

Share Your Vision: Present at the 2026 Cesium Developer Conference

With our work at the intersection of computer graphics and 3D geospatial, Cesium has a long history with SIGGRAPH. We’re excited to join again this year—the team will be in Vancouver, Canada, August 10-14. 

Accelerating AEC Workflows with 3D Geospatial Context in Runtime Engines 

Vancouver Convention Centre, West Building, Ballroom C 

Cory Barr will join Adam Liss, Philip Luhn, and David Willard of HNTB to discuss how HNTB uses Cesium to enhance AEC workflows and integrate 3D geospatial context. 

glTF: Innovations in 3D Content Delivery and Use

Vancouver Convention Centre, East Building, Room 15 

Get an in-depth look at how glTF is evolving to support richer, more realistic textures and new interactive applications, including gaming and metaverse use cases. Sean Lilley will deliver "Advancements in glTF for Geospatial," covering Gaussian splats, voxels, AEC rendering, and glX.

ACM SIGGRAPH Cartographic Visualization Birds of a Feather (Carto BOF)

Vancouver Convention Centre, East Building, Room 8 

This session is organized by our friend Theresa-Marie Rhyne and explores how viewpoints and techniques from the computer graphics community can be effectively applied to cartographic and spatial datasets. Jake Adelgren will discuss 3D Tiles. 

Metaverse Standards Forum Frontier Workshop: Town Hall: Gaussian Splats - Ready for Standardization 

Gaussian splats are a rapidly emerging method for the fast and efficient creation of photorealistic 3D visualizations. This Frontier Workshop will address the current technologies, formats, and use cases and investigate the potential for standardization to enable interoperability and sustainable growth. Jason Sobotka and Patrick Cozzi will participate. 

Metaverse Standards Forum State of 3D Asset Interoperability using USD and glTF BOF 

This session covers updates on alignment of PBR materials, physics extensions, roundtripping between glTF and USD, interactivity, animation, FBX, and new geometric representations. Amanda Morgan, Adam Morris, and Patrick Cozzi will participate. 

Hands-On Class: A No-Code Introduction to Creating Geospatial Worlds with 3D Tiles and Cesium 

Vancouver Convention Centre, West Building, Exhibit Hall B 

This class walks participants through how to create global-scale virtual worlds using real-world geospatial data that leverages Cesium and 3D Tiles on the web and in game engines. Cory Barr will lead this hands-on lab. 

glTF & 3D Commerce: Unlocking New Possibilities for Real-Time 3D 

Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, British Ballroom 

Sean Lilley will address glX and 3D Tiles. 

Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, Waterfront Ballroom Foyer (lobby level) 

Cesium is proud to be a sponsor of this event. Meet members and enjoy a cold drink and snacks after a long day of sessions. See live demos in action and make some new connections. Please RSVP if you plan to join us. 

We look forward to seeing you in Vancouver! 

The 2025 Cesium Developer Conference was a celebration of the accomplishments of the 3D geospatial community, a look into the future of developing digital twins for the built and natural environment, and a chance to hang out with hundreds of kindred spirits in Philadelphia, our hometown. I appreciate the knowledge and enthusiasm everyone brought to this inaugural event, and I’m happy to share that the session recordings are now available. 

Kicking off the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference.

Some of Dr. Norm Badler’s former students gathered as we presented the Bentley Lifetime Achievement Award to Norm’s wife, Ginny Badler.

Ronda Schrenk, CEO, USGIF, joined us to talk national security as part of the opening keynote.

Lightning talk by Sharel Liu, architectural designer and technologist.

Panel: Pragmatic Approach to Open Standards with Emily Stearns, executive director, Metaverse Standards Forum; Scott Simmons, chief standards officer, OGC; Neil Trevett, VP, developer ecosystems, NVIDIA; David Rees, senior director for ground combat modeling and simulation, Maxar; and Amy Rose, CTO, Overture Maps Foundation.

Andrew Lunstad, CTO, Terradepth, discussed undersea data after leading attendees in singing sea shanties.

Community partners and attendees connected during meals. 

When we said this was by and for the community, we meant it.  

Eighty-seven of the 101 speakers were from the community, with sessions spanning 3D, AI, and Data Technology; AEC and Digital Twins; Aerospace and Defense; Cesium, iTwin, and 3D Tiles; Climate and Disaster Resilience; and Market and Education. We honored Dr. Norm Badler, hosted the Khronos glTF Ecosystem Forum, welcomed community partners, and heard from people doing meaningful work across the ecosystem in talks, keynotes, panels, and fireside chats.  

The sold-out pre-conference Cesium Deep Dive workshop accommodated 50 engaged learners, and I got to spend time with a number of our Certified Developers at their reception. With so much going on, I wish I could have been in multiple places at once. 

We closed out the conference with a party at The Franklin Institute. 

We're grateful to our knowledge partner, Geospatial World, our technology sponsor, Google Cloud, and Bentley for their support in bringing the conference to life. 

Thank you and congrats to everyone who joined us. I was blown away by the energy of the community as we came together to share, learn, and connect. Let’s do it again—we’ll share details in the fall. In the meantime, check out the recordings and let us know your favorites on LinkedIn. 

2025 Cesium Developer Conference Session Recordings Now Available 

The final session at this month’s Cesium Developer Conference features a trio of exciting talks focusing on the vitality of open data and fascinating reality capture stories from the field.

Register for the Cesium Developer Conference

Dr. Amy Rose, CTO of the Overture Maps Foundation, will kick off our closing session with an update on the foundation’s efforts to create and foster the use of open data. Overture was started by a consortium of companies and organizations to compile common geospatial data layers at a global scale that could be used by the entire community.

Overture’s datasets are spatially accurate, high quality, and well documented. The foundation’s content can power applications in just about any industry, including many of the applications and projects being worked on by the devcon audience. Dr. Rose will highlight Overture’s impact and discuss the datasets and technology advancements that they are driving next.

Bentley Systems partner spotlight on Geomatex.Courtesy Bentley Systems.

Partner Spotlight: Geomatex

Bentley Systems’ partner Geomatex Integrated Solutions won and delivered a reality capture project to support tourism facilities renovation at one of the most recognizable locations on the planet: the Pyramids of Giza.

Geomatex will present on the group’s use of done data and iTwin Capture to provide precise 3D models of the site—down to the hieroglyphics!

CNN special on Pete Kelsey’s work. Courtesy CNN.

A drone and a robot dog revealed lost secrets of Alcatraz

Pete Kelsey has flown drones, captured lidar, and created high-resolution reality capture data in places as diverse as Easter Island and the underwater USS Arizona Memorial. Before last year, he hadn’t imagined that sleeping in a jail cell would be a prerequisite for capturing point clouds. 

We are thrilled to have Pete, owner of VCTO Labs, present his most recent project, which has been featured in global news. With a team of volunteers supplied with donated hardware and software, Pete and a crew spent 18 nights on Alcatraz Island so that they could capture the inside and outside of the grounds and the facilities after tourists were gone for the day.

Pete’s story is a fantastic example of collaboration across the AEC and geospatial community, and we’re honored that he will share it with us at the conference.

Every geospatial application requires data. With stories about open data movements and the latest technologies in data collection, developers will leave the conference inspired to create new experiences and value for their users. 

Check out the full conference agenda here, and read more about session tracks.

Our speakers are excited to meet up with industry colleagues, share learnings, and hear feedback. Register to attend and connect with the community in Philadelphia, June 23-25. The last day to take advantage of the discounted hotel room block is Friday, June 6.

Reality Capture and Open Data at the Cesium Developer Conference

At the upcoming Cesium Developer Conference Geospatial World will spotlight emerging trends and the transformative role developers continue to play in the open geospatial ecosystem. We will explore how developer-led innovation is unlocking new economic opportunities, advancing sustainability, and shaping the digital infrastructure of tomorrow.

Geospatial technologies—once confined to scientists and specialized industries—are now deeply woven into the fabric of everyday life. From ridesharing and food delivery to disaster response, climate monitoring, and urban infrastructure, geospatial data powers an expanding array of essential and commercially valuable services. In fact, the geospatial market is projected to grow from USD $661 billion in 2025 to approx. USD $1.2 trillion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5%.

This growth is not monolithic; it reflects the differentiated roles of distinct technological verticals (see Figure 1). Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and positioning, for example, is expected to more than double in size from 2022 to 2030—driven by its pivotal role in real-time navigation, autonomous mobility, and synchronized telecommunications. Meanwhile, GIS and spatial analytics are forecasted to grow from USD $111 billion to USD $263 billion, fueled by accelerating use cases in smart city design, precision agriculture, infrastructure management, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliance.

Figure 1: Global Geospatial Market Size and Forecast (2022-2030). Source: Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure Readiness Index 2025 by Geospatial World.

Looking ahead, the industry is undergoing a structural shift toward Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure (GKI)—a knowledge-led, integrated paradigm that positions spatial data as a strategic asset at the heart of digital economies.

At the same time, macroeconomic and policy drivers—sustainability mandates, climate resilience goals, and data sovereignty concerns—as well as the rise of generative AI, are converging to elevate the importance of open systems. Capitalizing on this transformation requires open geospatial ecosystems: well-managed open data platforms, clear interoperability policies, customizable tools, and robust regulatory frameworks.

Hence, open-source geospatial tools are no longer niche alternatives; they are becoming foundational. Their flexibility, cost-efficiency, and adaptability make them ideal for a broad range of users, from startups and municipalities to national governments. Supported by thriving commercial ecosystems—consulting, subscriptions, and “X-as-a-service” models—open systems are fundamentally reshaping how geospatial value is created, delivered, and scaled.

Developers: Catalysts of Open Innovation in Global Geospatial Industry Growth

Central to this shift is a global, self-organized community of developers. Developers are a critical driving force behind the growth of the geospatial industry, particularly through their role in cultivating and expanding open ecosystems. By building, contributing to, and integrating with open-source platforms (such as QGIS, GeoServer, Cesium), APIs, and developer tools, they create a foundation for scalable innovation and interoperability across sectors. This open ecosystem approach accelerates product development cycles, reduces barriers to entry, and fosters collaborative innovation, enabling organizations to build on shared standards and community-driven advancements.

As developers harness frameworks to create novel, high-impact geospatial applications—climate modeling and smart city infrastructure to disaster response and precision agriculture—they dramatically expand the accessibility and utility of geospatial technologies. These innovations not only increase platform usage and enable new commercial models but also generate significant socioeconomic value by empowering public institutions, startups, and underserved communities with actionable spatial intelligence, thus growing the geospatial market significantly.

Building Resilience Through Open Standards

A core strength of the open geospatial ecosystem lies in its interoperability. Developers work with widely adopted standards (e.g., GeoJSON, KML, GML, and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) protocols) to ensure seamless data exchange between tools and platforms. This adherence to open formats avoids vendor lock-in and lays the foundation for resilient, future-proof systems. Community contributions, from bug fixes to localization efforts, accelerate the evolution of tools and ensure they remain responsive to real-world needs, especially in under-resourced environments.

Developers are going beyond being technologists; they are often on the front lines of digital inclusion. Working with incomplete or unstructured datasets, they collaborate with grassroots organizations to turn data into insight, often in regions where institutional support is minimal or nonexistent.

Civic tech movements like Code for America and Code for Kenya have mobilized developers to build tools that visualize budget data, improve healthcare access, and simplify the delivery of social services. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), a globally distributed network of mappers and developers, has been instrumental in crisis zones. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, thousands of volunteers mapped roads and relief centers within hours, enabling more efficient aid delivery by organizations like the Red Cross.

Environmental initiatives have also benefited. The Mapati Project, which uses urban tree mapping to combat heat islands, and Global Forest Watch, which tracks deforestation in real time, both rely on open data and developer-built platforms. These tools give communities, indigenous groups, and environmental watchdogs the ability to hold actors accountable and participate in global sustainability efforts.

If the geospatial industry is to realize its projected USD $30 trillion economic impact, the strategic role of developers cannot be overstated. Beyond technical implementation, developers act as enablers of last-mile connectivity, translating complex geospatial capabilities into accessible, localized, and scalable solutions. Their work fuels the creation of real-time applications, dynamic decision-support systems, and data-driven public services that directly influence livelihoods, infrastructure, and policy outcomes. By bridging the gap between high-resolution data and community-level impact, developers transform code into catalysts for economic inclusion, environmental resilience, and societal progress.

Challenges Ahead and the Evolving Role of Developers

Despite the clear opportunity, the open geospatial community faces persistent challenges. Maintaining open-source tools often depends on volunteer labor. Questions of data privacy, ethics, and unequal access—particularly in developing regions—remain pressing concerns. The geospatial industry is also expanding faster than the talent pool can support, creating a widening skills gap. This signals a growing opportunity for the developer community not only to meet demand but to shape it—welcoming a broader, more diverse range of contributors, including designers, civic activists, and even artists. As generative AI and machine learning become central to geospatial workflows, the role of the developer is even more critical to open geospatial ecosystem innovation. No longer confined to code, developers are becoming interpreters of complex data, translating geospatial intelligence into socially meaningful outcomes.

Connect with developers and integrators shaping the future of open geospatial at the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference, and hear from Geospatial World, this year’s knowledge partner. Register to join us in Philadelphia in June.

The Geospatial Revolution Is Open: How Developers Are Transforming the Landscape

Our third installment highlights two more tracks at the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference: community-contributed aerospace and defense topics and sessions on Cesium, iTwin, OGC 3D Tiles, and other open technologies compiled by the teams at Cesium and Bentley Systems who work on them.

With Cesium’s roots in aerospace and commitment to interoperability and rapid innovation for tackling the hardest problems in 3D geospatial, we were excited to receive a group of full and lightning talk submissions focused on space, the Moon, flight systems, and mission-critical visualization and analysis.

To provide the community with a closer look into the advancements happening with Cesium and 3D Tiles, we decided to group a set of talks from the Platform team in Bentley Systems. The Platform team comprises development teams from Cesium, iTwin, and iTwin Capture, bringing together global geospatial, cloud-based-BIM (building information modeling), and reality capture.

Calculating access to communications satellites in DigitalArsenal's OrbPro. Courtesy DigitalArsenal.

In today’s complex geopolitical environment, we’re seeing expanded interest in access to open geospatial technologies. Recent investments in the space industry have created satellite constellations with thousands of new spacecraft in just the last few years, and we’re hearing from developers who want to implement full global geospatial 3D experiences for training, planning, operations, and analysis.

These trends are reflected in the talk submissions we grouped in the Aerospace and Defense track, including:

A presentation by Maxar on 3D Tiles and One World Terrain

A photogrammetry sandbox built with Cesium for Unreal by the French Air Force

A flight status indication system from Takram

Military planning using agentic AI from our former colleague Brady Moore

Astronaut training on the Moon with Buendea

The Aerospace and Defense sessions are in a track the morning of June 24, and a series of seven lightning talks will be featured during the afternoon of the 24th on the main stage.

Maxar Precision3D Surface Model of Kabul International Airport. Courtesy Maxar Technologies.

We want the community to take center stage, and we want to feature enough sessions that developers can get a taste of what is happening now that Cesium is part of Bentley Systems.

The track focusing on Cesium, iTwin, and 3D Tiles will feature sessions on topics such as:

Bringing AI analytical tools for reality capture data into Cesium ion

Working with BIM data and the Design Tiler

How Gaussian splats and 3D Tiles are coming together

An exploration of new user interfaces combining geospatial and BIM data from the Bentley iLab team

The Cesium, iTwin, and 3D Tiles track will run through the morning of June 24 and into the morning of June 25.

You can find out more about what’s happening with Cesium and 3D Tiles in the pre-conference Cesium Deep Dive workshop and in mainstage presentations.

An iModel of a Philadelphia Metrostation on top of an iTwin Reality Mesh shown in CesiumJS.

There are six tracks with over 90 full sessions and lightning talks. We’ll be releasing more information about our fantastic mainstage presentations soon, including a closing session that will feature two reality capture stories featured in recent news!

The full agenda for the conference is live. Read more about this year’s tracks on the Cesium blog.

Our speakers are excited to meet up with industry colleagues, share learnings, and hear feedback. Register to attend and connect with the community in Philadelphia. We’ll see you there.

Aerospace, Defense, and Open Geospatial Technologies at the Cesium Developer Conference

GEOINT Symposium is one of my favorite events of the year. It’s where the geospatial intelligence community comes together to share how we’re advancing national security through geospatial innovation, and Cesium is proud to once again sponsor and participate. 

Next week, May 19-21, you can find us in St. Louis at BOOTH 2231, where we’ll showcase the latest from Cesium’s 3D geospatial platform, from open standards to secure, mission-ready deployments, from seabed to space.

Visit Cesium in BOOTH 2231 at GEOINT Symposium 2025.

our Moon Lander Game, built with Cesium for Unreal and Cesium Moon Terrain,

One World Terrain Well Formed Format, powered by 3D Tiles, and

daily partner demos, including Ansys, Sedaro, The Weather Company, and C3.AI.

Working in a disconnected or classified environment? We’ll also highlight Cesium ion Self-Hosted and how it's supporting high-side workflows today.

You’ll also get a look at CesiumJS, Cesium for Unreal, Cesium for Unity, Cesium for Omniverse, and the new 3D Tiles for Godot plugin, developed through our ecosystem grant program.

Don’t miss Patrick Cozzi’s keynote on Monday, May 19, at 1:30 p.m. in the Government Hub, and the USGIF Modeling, Simulation & Gaming Working Group on Tuesday, May 20, at 4:15 p.m.

And, of course, join a great crew from across the geospatial community at the Cesium Reception Monday night at the Marriott St. Louis Grand, from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. 

Stop by BOOTH 2231 or reach out to schedule time with the team. We look forward to connecting with you at GEOINT.

Our next update on sessions and tracks at the Cesium Developer Conference includes two significant sets of community-submitted talks: one focused on Climate and Disaster Resilience and the other on 3D, AI, and Data Technology.

As we saw in the fantastic abstracts submitted by the community, these topics are deeply integrated as emerging technologies and user experiences enable new tools and analyses that we can bring to bear when examining the impacts of climate change and planning for and responding to natural disasters.

We live on a dynamic planet, and open geospatial technologies enable us to monitor, measure, and respond to weather and climate-related changes in the built and natural environment around us.

Both main days of the conference, June 24 and June 25, will feature blocks focused on stories of open technologies applied to climate and risaster Resilience. On the 24th, we’ll kick off our lightning talks with four stories, including using Cesium to simulate the world at +4ºC by Columbia University and building a Cesium-based geospatial search tool for NOAA scientific data. The lightning talks will be given on the conference main stage to the entire audience.

June 25 features a block of 20-minute sessions on related topics. These talks will discuss using open geospatial technologies to build a first responder AR tool, mapping the USS Midway with GeoCam and Cesium, and using OGC GeoPose for real-time collaboration during emergency management operations.

Because the Cesium Developer Conference is a technology-focused event, we would be remiss to not feature tracks and sessions that are oriented at geospatial technologies more generally. The conference will feature blocks of sessions on both days and a block of lightning talks focused on a range of technologies and applications of open data and open geospatial software and standards.

Here are some of the topics that stand out: 

Panoramic images in talks by Virtual City Systems and AerialSphere

Integrating 3D Tiles into the Godot open game engine

Demonstrating cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs in CesiumJS by HoBu

Several sessions on extended reality (XR) and augmented reality (AR)

Integrating CesiumJS and 3D Tiles into open developer tools

Scaling the production of Gaussian splats with Atomic Maps

Using open geospatial technologies to build games with the Athens School of Fine Arts

Philadelphia City Hall at night from Broad Street.

Yes. There are six community and colleague-submitted tracks, represented in full sessions and lightning talks. Plus we have mainstage talks that will cover these topics and more. Find out more about the themed tracks in our blog and on the conference pages.

The full agenda for the conference is now live.

Climate Change, Disaster Resilience, and Technology Converge at the Cesium Developer Conference 

We’re proud to welcome Google Cloud as the technology sponsor and Geospatial World as the knowledge partner for the inaugural Cesium Developer Conference, June 23-25 in Philadelphia.  

Yosemite National Park, California, United States, visualized with Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles using Cesium for Unity.

We are grateful to be able to announce Google Cloud as the conference technology sponsor. At Cesium and the broader Bentley Systems, we are big fans and users of Google Cloud for the innovation it helps us bring to our customers, including the innovations we harness from Google Maps Platform. This is the 20th anniversary of the launch of Google Maps, a significant industry event that transformed digital mapping. Google Maps Platform is used by millions of websites and apps, not just to solve their geospatial problems but to unlock new capabilities. 

We’re excited to have Sean Wohltman, Google Global Head of Cloud Geography, present on the main stage during the event and share about Google’s recent impacts in the open geospatial market and about their initiatives to continue to deliver valuable spatially connected services and applications into the future.  

In the last two years, Google entered into partnerships with Cesium and Bentley Systems. The Cesium partnership helped bring to the market the availability of Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles for users in 2022. Recently, Google and Bentley announced a new initiative connecting Blyncsy to the Google Imagery Platform, which will allow access to Google Street View and Google’s Vertex AI for automated roadway asset identification. 

Geospatial World has been a driving force in geospatial thought leadership. With a mission to enable more sustainable societies, economies, and environments, Geospatial World delivers actionable insights to decision-makers via its Consulting, Events, and Communications divisions—bringing together leaders from government, industry, and academia. At this year’s Cesium Developer Conference, Geospatial World will participate as the Knowledge Partner. 

GW Consulting, the boutique research and intelligence arm of Geospatial World, provides developers, innovators, and organizations with tailored insights through consulting services, syndicated reports, technology and policy analysis, and access to the industry’s first Geospatial Resource Platform. 

The Geospatial World team will present two sessions at the conference, focused on the business value and socioeconomic impact of the open geospatial ecosystem, offering insights into how open data and interoperable tools can unlock real-world outcomes. 

We’re just two months away from celebrating the open ecosystem with you. Join us for the pre-conference workshop, two full days of learning and connecting with leaders and peers, and social opportunities throughout the event. 

Technology and Knowledge Partners for the Cesium Developer Conference  

We’re pleased to be able to share the full agenda and plenary highlights for this year’s Cesium Developer Conference. Join us June 23-25 in Philadelphia for meaningful talks, networking, and learning. 

You can now peruse the full conference agenda!

There are six tracks of content, spanning approximately 70 20-minute sessions and over 20 lightning talks that will be presented on the main stage. The lightning talks will be hosted by the dynamic Dr. Christopher Tucker, Chairman of the American Geographical Society and active startup entrepreneur.

Philadelphia as Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles via Cesium ion.

We’re thrilled that notable geospatial industry contributors from a variety of commercial, non-profit, and academic organizations will join us. Specifically, we’ll be featuring:

Dr. Nadine Alameh, Executive Director of the Taylor Geospatial Institute

Peter Rabley, CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium

David Rees, Senior Director for Viz/Sim at Maxar

Dr. Amy Rose, CTO of the Overture Maps Foundation

Ronda Schrenk, CEO of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation

Scott Simmons, Chief Standards Officer of the Open Geospatial Consortium

Emily Stearns from the Metaverse Standards Forum

Sean Wohltman, Global Head of Cloud Geography, Google

A special fireside chat will be conducted with Dr. Vijay Kumar, Professor and Nemirovsky Family Dean from Penn Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Khronos and the Khronos Group logo are registered trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc.

Patrick Cozzi, Cesium founder, has been a significant contributor to open 3D standards, and the Khronos Group has helped provide a forum and process for establishing and promoting standards such as glTF.

In coordination with the conference team, Neil Trevett of NVIDIA and Alexey Medvedev of Meta will lead a Khronos Group feedback session, the glTF Ecosystem Forum, held in the main stage room of the conference. With glTF as an industry-wide standard for transmission of 3D content on the web, the group is eager to hear developer-suggested updates and discussion around it.

We’ll release more details on keynotes and events as we get closer to June. We look forward to bringing together the open geospatial community.

Full Agenda and Plenary Highlights for the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference

When we issued the call for proposals for this first Cesium Developer Conference, we were curious how many talks we would receive and what themes would stand out. Cesium has a history in aerospace and now serves a thriving community of open source geospatial users across many different industries, including architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC).

We were happy to see submissions from longtime advocates of CesiumJS, 3D Tiles, and other complementary technologies and topics from the open community—and some surprises. In fact, we received so many abstracts that we expanded the total number of presentations from approximately 50 to 90! There will be a ton for attendees to explore at the event.

The biggest concentration of talks came from AEC and digital twin implementations. We were able to accept 21 full sessions and five lightning talks for the conference from submitted AEC/digital twins abstracts. The sessions are split into three groups, two of which will have to run concurrently, because of the volume. It’s a great “problem” to have.

The topics for this category range from aggregating multiple project sites in a single geospatial experience to providing XR experiences for inspecting and exploring asset conditions in the context of a dynamically updated digital representation of a system. Some presenters will focus on using the rich information in building information modeling (BIM) data in geospatial context, while others will focus on using a 3D map as a communication vehicle.

There will be digital twin projects presented that focus on rail, roadways, buildings, campuses, and whole cities. We anticipate these presentations will drive conversations at the conference networking events about how to bring open geospatial concepts into even more corners of the AEC industry.

A few of the organizations who will present in the AEC and Digital Twins track: 

Arcadis will share how they are using Cesium for Unreal Engine for architectural visualization. 

Holosim will present an exciting story about using immersive gaming technologies and 3D Tiles to plan theme parks.

Pennoni will demonstrate how their team uses 3D Tiles and Cesium with game engine technologies to visualize future plans. 

EARTHBRAIN will demonstrate how they are digitalizing the construction process, especially around earth moving workflows. 

Mott MacDonald will discuss how they use Cesium for a web-based GIS for AEC. 

CalTa will demonstrate how they create digital twins from reality capture information to help customers manage real-world assets. 

Project Controls Cubed will present on how they are using iTwin and Cesium to modernize water treatment systems.

Proposed “dolphin” cylinder protection at Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA)’s Delaware Memorial Bridge. Courtesy Pennoni.

Where can I catch AEC and Digital Twins material at the conference?

Relevant AEC industry content will appear in user-submitted 20-minute sessions, in 5-minute lightning talks on the main stage, and in demonstrations from key customers and product teams from Bentley Systems and Cesium, showing off AEC capabilities that integrate with open geospatial technologies.

Of course, you’ll also be able to meet the speakers and other attendees at the conference’s socials and meals.

Will there be more than AEC and Digital Twins topics?

Yes. There are six tracks, represented in full sessions and lightning talks. Find out more about the themed tracks in our blog and on the conference pages.

Share Your Vision: Present at the 2026 Cesium Developer Conference

Cesium at SIGGRAPH 2025

2025 Cesium Developer Conference Session Recordings Now Available

Reality Capture and Open Data at the Cesium Developer Conference

The Geospatial Revolution Is Open: How Developers Are Transforming the Landscape

Aerospace, Defense, and Open Geospatial Technologies at the Cesium Developer Conference

Cesium at GEOINT 2025