Peter Hillary, son of Mt. Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary, and accomplished mountain climber in his own right, was on hand as the keynote speaker to tell of his exploits with cohort Jamaling Norgay, son of his father's original expeditionary partner Tenzing Norgay, as they commemorated the 50th anniversary of their fathers’ historical ascent. Hillary was an animated and passionate speaker as he regaled the audience with tales of his ascent one year ago.

In one instance, he told of a pre-arranged satellite phone call he made from the summit with CNN only to reach an uninformed staffer who didn't know who he was or why he was calling. In another humorous incident, an Australian radio station that wanted to capture the event live for their audience called him on the day before the ascent was to occur. However, the timing of the ascent did not quite meet the requirements of the radio station in order for them to reach the peak audience listening hour, i.e. the “drive time” segment of their show and he was asked to delay summiting for several hours. Needless to say, Hillary's response to the radio producer could not be printed. Anyone who has read of the conditions while trying to reach the peak of Everest knows of the life threatening conditions that can arise and reaching the top takes an inordinate amount of focus and concentration.

After the keynote, both Hillary and Dangermond were presented with tokens of appreciation from Pradeep Mool, remote sensing analyst with the Interntional Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) who were attending the conference and who were responsible for GIS in their country.

Hillary was later on hand to sign autograph's of National Geographic's commemorative issue of the 50th anniversary of his father's climb of Mt. Everest. To this day, Hillary commented, his father has never revealed who summited first, him or Norgay, preferring to cite that they were a team and could not have accomplished their feat without each other's assistance.