The BaSYS User Conference (UC) is the central gathering for all BaSYS users in German-speaking regions. The conference was held for the seventh time already on 6 and 7 July 2016, once again providing a platform for the exchange of experiences related to the efficient use of the network information system BaSYS. More than 80 conference participants responded to the invitation and, in the course of UC7, attended eight technical presentations and 19 workshops at the Leonardo Hotel Heidelberg.

After a warm welcome from Claudia Hickmann, Sales Manager at BARTHAUER, the first day of the conference was opened on schedule at eleven o’clock by Manfred Fiedler, long-time manager of the Sewer Planning and Rehabilitation department at Göttinger Entsorgungsbetriebe. He examined the integration of the entire infrastructure into a geoinformation system in detail yet in an entertaining manner. This was followed by Hendrik Hees of ZIOR Beratender Ingenieur GmbH with his presentation “From the Scatter Plot to the BaSYS Structure”. The process for surveying manhole structures by means of laser scanning and the input of the technical details in BaSYS was illustrated. Then Thomas Weber, Head of Consulting at BARTHAUER, presented improvements related to the BaSYS Plan Water module for data collection, planning and the visual administration of supply network data. The first day of the conference ended with a presentation by Martin Gatterer of Stadtentwässerung und Umweltanalytik Nürnberg. He reported about quality assurance for mass data from survey projects conducted by the city of Nuremberg.

Bernhard Kneuer of Landesbaudirektion an der ABD Nordbayern opened the second day of the conference and, with his presentation, provided information on reviewing and transferring data from a property-specific wastewater disposal concept using BaSYS. Then Dr. Andreas Meyer of Geoventis GmbH presented “BaSYS WEB with QGIS” – an intranet pilot project with Abwasserentsorgung Salzgitter GmbH. This was followed by three individual workshops aligned with the desired topics of the participants that were submitted with the conference registrations. A practical presentation of the BaSYS land drainage application that supports all methods prescribed by law was next. The second day of the conference was concluded with the presentation “From Rehabilitation Design to Rehabilitation Documentation” by Martin Waldl, DDL GmbH. The technical presentations were framed by the charming moderation of Claudia Hickmann, whose theme was the number seven.

16 interactive BARTHAUER workshops were held in parallel to the technical presentations on both conference days. Thomas Weber, Jürgen Reihl and Andreas Koch, all from BARTHAUER, provided the participants with useful tips and tricks for the efficient use of BaSYS within the scope of their topics.

Productive discussions with colleagues, partners and most of all BARTHAUER employees were just as important as the presentations and workshops. That is why the conference breaks and the social event following the first day of the conference are permanent elements of the BaSYS User Conference. This year the conference participants looked forward to an interesting and unique tour of the city of Heidelberg. Experienced guides with comprehensive historical knowledge and entertaining anecdotes presented interesting locations that bear witness to centuries past and define the cityscape to this day. A dinner at the historic Restaurant "S"-Kastanie brought the evening to a culinary conclusion and offered plenty of opportunities for conversation.

Thank you to all participants and contributors for taking part in our conference! We are already looking forward to UC8.