07 February 2007

Ordnance Survey invites you to the great outdoors, indoors

This year’s Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show promises to be the very best yet. Ordnance Survey has a number of fresh, exciting ideas to encourage you to go out and enjoy the country’s magnificent landscapes.

Of course there will be all the things that you’ve come to expect from the UK’s biggest and best showcase of all things outdoor. A huge selection of new gear will be available to delight pros and novices alike as well as expert advice and celebrity guest speakers.

This year also boasts a chance to try your hand at windsurfing and dinghy sailing, in addition to the usual diving, canoeing, mountain biking and climbing.

As the principle sponsor and the nation’s mapping agency, Ordnance Survey is at the heart of outdoor leisure and exploration in Great Britain. Key staff will be on hand during all three days of the show to offer expert advice so that once you’re in the great outdoors, you don’t get lost. Ordnance Survey will also be offering you the chance to win some spectacular prizes in The Great Outdoors Prize Draw.

Ordnance Survey will also be showcasing its new online services, the pick of which is an interactive route planner. It enables you to choose routes by length and suitability for criteria such as birdwatching, cycling, horse riding and wheelchair use. You’ll be able to read what others have written about your chosen route, and when you’ve completed it you can upload your own comments and pictures for future explorers to enjoy. The initiative, developed with input from walking groups, will support a web community of outdoor enthusiasts.

The Ordnance Survey Theatre will be offering a range of lectures from guest speakers on all things navigational. There is sure to be something to interest anyone, from those who are taking their first steps into the great outdoors to seasoned climbers and ramblers.

The show will be an opportunity to see the latest range of OS Explorer Maps, which are now specially coated to make sure they stay dry when the Great British weather does its worst. All of Ordnance Survey’s 403 orange-covered OS Explorer Maps are available to order in weatherproof versions, called OS Explorer Map – Active, which also allow you to highlight your favourite routes on a write on/wipe off surface.

Visitors to Ordnance Survey’s stand – OU170 in Hall 1 – can also order site-centred maps through the increasingly popular OS Select service. You can discover how digital technology helps to create full-size, full-scale maps centred anywhere in Great Britain, such as your house, holiday cottage, or favourite walk.  

Vanessa Lawrence, Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, says: "We’re very proud to be sponsoring The Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show once again in 2007.

"We always welcome the opportunity to talk to our customers in person. It’s a wonderful chance for us and our partners to demonstrate what we have to offer and to hopefully inspire everyone to get out and enjoy Britain’s beautiful countryside.

"This year’s show promises to be the biggest and best yet. It’s a superb chance for anyone interested in getting outdoors to come along and see the best of the best under one roof".

Some of Ordnance Survey’s partners – Fugawi, Garmin, Pitkin Publishing, Magellan, Memory-Map, GPS Training, Walking World, and Satmap – will be demonstrating the benefits that mapping data has made to their very latest navigation products in the Ordnance Survey In Action area.

For mapping at the touch of a button, Garmin’s Topo Great Britain provides Ordnance Survey data such as contours, digital elevation shading and trig points as well as street-level mapping for navigating by road. There are even Garmin GPS units to help you improve your fitness and performance. The Garmin Forerunner and Edge for example measure speed distance and heart rate to enable you to analyse each training session. To find out more visit Garmin at Stand OU172 in Hall 1.

Fugawi provides powerful and easy-to-use tools to extend the features of almost any hand-held GPS, whether you wish to transfer waypoints from a GPS receiver to your PC, navigate your powerboat using your PDA or enjoy stunning 3-D perspectives of your favourite topographic map. Fugawi will be on stand OU 284 in Hall 1.

Pitkin (previously Jarrold Publishing) is a nationally renowned publisher of the market-leading Pathfinder and Short Walks walking guides. Both series explore Britain’s most scenic regions and offer a variety of circular walks, from short and easy walks to longer, challenging hikes, all with easy-to-follow directions supported by Ordnance Survey maps. See stand OU 285, Hall 1.

Memory-Map, stand OU 174 of Hall 1, will once again be introducing its software to new users and demonstrating the more advanced features to people wanting to expand their knowledge. Memory-Map will be giving visitors the chance to see and try out their new Road Angel Adventurer, a fully waterproof Personal Navigation Device (PND) that contains both vector turn by turn guidance for on-road travel and  preloaded raster OS Landranger mapping. For the first time, Memory-Map will be introducing guest speakers to demonstrate how they use the Memory-Map's software and how it has impacted on their daily lives. The guest speakers include editors from leading outdoor enthusiast magazines, world beating expedition climbers and a wildlife photographer, to name but a few. All the demonstrations will take place on the Memory-Map stand as well as the usual show offers and product training.

Satmap is launching a fully integrated outdoor sports GPS and digital map system. The Satmap Active 10 is an all-weather, day or night sports GPS. It displays high-quality OS Explorer Maps and OS Landranger Maps supplied by Satmap on SD memory cards that simply plug straight into the Active 10.

The Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show runs from 16–18 March at the NEC in Birmingham.

Notes for editors:

1. Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and the public.

2. Ordnance Survey, the OS Symbol, Explorer, Landranger and OS are registered trademarks and OS Select is a trademark of Ordnance Survey.

3. Edge, Forerunner and Garmin are registered trademarks of Garmin Ltd. Fugawi is a registered trademark of Northport Systems INC. Magellan is a registered trademark of Thales Navigation, Inc. Memory Map is a trademark of Evo Distribution Ltd.

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Head of Corporate Communications - Rob Andrews

Email: rob.andrews@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2265

Senior Communications & PR Officer - Paul Beauchamp

Email: paul.beauchamp@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Phone: (+44) 023 8079 2568

Press Office fax: (+44) 023 8030 5295