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Geo Week 2026 – Denver, CO

Keynote: Precision and Intelligence: Powering the Next Era of Geospatial Innovation

Hosted by Carla Lauter, Senior Content Manager, Geo Week

Geo Week 2026 opened its second day in Denver with a keynote address from Burkhard Boeckem, Chief Technology Officer at Hexagon, setting the tone for what he called "the age of intelligence." Moderated by Carla Lauter, Senior Content Manager at Geo Week, the session drew a packed room and wove together the history of human measurement, the evolution of spatial data capture, and a series of major hardware and software announcements from Hexagon that signal where the geospatial industry is headed next.

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Hexagon — Keynote: Precision and Intelligence | Burkhard Boeckem, Chief Technology Officer

Boeckem opened with a philosophical challenge: in a world saturated with artificial intelligence, notifications, and competing decisions, what is real? His answer: "Real is spatial. Real is intelligent." Drawing on Lord Kelvin's famous maxim that "to measure is to know," he traced the arc of human measurement from the Egyptian cubit to the speed of light — arguing that every major technological breakthrough in history, from the moon landing to the Rogfast tunnel in Norway, rests on the foundational ability to measure reality accurately. The Rogfast tunnel example was particularly pointed: drilling from both sides over kilometers with millimeter-precise total stations, the team set a goal of five centimeters of alignment and achieved three — because close enough was never an option.

Three Pillars of the Age of Intelligence: Boeckem outlined three essentials for thriving in what he calls the age of intelligence. The first is a results-oriented mindset and track record grounded in real-world experience. The second is precision — the right level of accuracy for any task and any scale. The third is a deep understanding of the physical world in at least three dimensions. Together, he argued, these qualities generate the kind of intelligence that allows organizations to better manage and improve the world around them, rather than simply simulate it.

From Capture to Living Model: As measurement tools evolved from static to continuous, Boeckem traced the emergence of digital twins — not as a buzzword, he was careful to note, but as a necessity. When reality is measured continuously, it becomes a living model that lets organizations design, operate, and improve systems over time. Cities, construction sites, transportation networks, and farmland all become measurable systems that can be tested and optimized before decisions are made in the physical world.

Full-Stack Reality Capture: Boeckem organized Hexagon's hardware portfolio around a complete, connected view of the world — from underground to ground level, to vehicles in motion, all the way to the air. The Leica DS4000 ground penetrating radar makes the subsurface visible before work begins, delivering clear 3D subsurface models via high-frequency radar and advanced signal processing. The Stream Map system extends that capability to traffic-speed corridor mapping, making underground modeling fast and repeatable across large areas. At ground level, the BLK360 scanner has made high-accuracy 3D measurement portable and accessible, while the BLK2GO handheld scanner turned reality capture into continuous, intuitive movement — no complex setup required.

New Announcement – IDS G-Radar MIMO: Boeckem announced the IDS G-Radar MIMO, a compact, portable, and affordable structure health monitoring system that Hexagon says will make structural monitoring a standard practice rather than a specialist undertaking. The system fuses RGB imagery, 2D radar imaging from a terrestrial interferometric MIMO array, and 3D point clouds from photogrammetry into a single unit — removing the dense sensor installations previously required and making large-scale deployment practical across bridges, buildings, and complex infrastructure.

Mobile Mapping at Corridor Scale: The TK700 Neo mobile mapping platform combines long-range lidar, imagery, GNSS, IMU, and SLAM technologies in a single platform that mounts to vehicles, rail, and boats. With in-field artifact processing built in, digital twins, inspection workflows, and change detection are available immediately after capture — one system, one operator, one workflow built for real-world scale.

New Announcement – CityMapper 3: Hexagon introduced the CityMapper 3, a next-generation airborne mapping system combining imaging and lidar in one configurable platform purpose-built for productivity. Designed for dense urban environments and wide regional networks alike, the CityMapper 3 delivers applications-ready 2D and 3D data and achieves up to 30% higher acquisition efficiency than its predecessor — meaning every flight captures more, faster.

New Announcement – Leica Multimapper: The session's centerpiece announcement was the Leica Multimapper, which Boeckem described as "a revolution" and "the first of its kind" — a fully integrated compact hybrid aerial system. Built on a lightweight carbon fiber E-frame, the Multimapper houses 13 heading-corrected framing cameras in a multi-view array alongside a new miniaturized LiDAR sensor, delivering nadir and oblique imagery plus dense point clouds in a single flight from ground to rooftop. The system integrates seamlessly with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, enabling rapid deployment and same-day operation with local aviation partners. A new single-app software suite handles everything from mission planning and parameter review to in-flight quality control and delivery.

Boeckem emphasized that the Multimapper was designed without sacrificing accuracy or reliability — and that it bridges the gap between UAV, mobile, and traditional aerial mapping in a form factor that can reach hard-to-access areas, support city modeling in constrained airspace, and enable rapid post-event response.

Spatial Intelligence and HXDR: The keynote's second act addressed what Boeckem called "spatial intelligence" — AI grounded in the real, measured world, rather than the generative AI of large language models. Hexagon's spatial intelligence technology enables rapid model generation from reality capture data, automated classification of digital twins at massive scale, and enhanced image resolution in the cloud. These capabilities are embedded in HXDR, Hexagon's digital reality platform, which now directly integrates NVIDIA Omniverse. The result, demonstrated using the Breakers mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, is photorealistic digital twins built from scanning and reality capture data — immersive 3D worlds where every detail is available at high resolution and navigable in real time.

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About Geo Week 2026

Geo Week is the premier annual event connecting the geospatial, built environment, and related technology communities. The 2026 event took place February 16–18 in Denver, Colorado, bringing together professionals from surveying, mapping, AEC, remote sensing, and spatial computing for sessions, demos, and exhibitions on the show floor.

Presenting at This Session:
Hexagon – Keynote: Precision and Intelligence | Burkhard Boeckem, Chief Technology Officer