On Wednesday morning, 15 January 2014, the Tenth Plenary Session of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO-X) opened in Geneva, Switzerland, with welcoming remarks from the Head of the Swiss delegation, Karine Siegwart, GEO Secretariat Director Barbara Ryan and the four GEO Co-Chairs, Kathryn Sullivan (US), Jianlin Cao (China), Rudolf Strohmeier (European Commission), and Philemon Mjwara (South Africa). The opening session also recognized Georgia as a new Member, approved 10 new Participating Organizations and two observers, and approved the report of GEO-IX.

GEO-X then examined the documents provided to the Ministerial Summit, particularly the draft vision to 2025, a proposal for the process to develop a new implementation plan, and the draft Geneva Declaration. The Plenary approved the vision document with an amendment suggested by Australia. A decision on the proposal for the implementation plan process was postponed until Thursday to allow Members more time to review the proposal.

In the afternoon, the Plenary considered the reports on Assessment of Progress, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Progress on Implementation of Recommendations from GEOSS Evaluation. The Secretariat presented the proposed update of the 2012-2015 Work Plan, which was approved subject to review and update in 2015. The day’s Plenary finished with highlights from GEOSS implementation, including specific presentations on the Global Network for Observations and Information in Mountain Environments (GEO-GNOME), the AfriGEOSS initiative, and the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI).

Throughout the day, the EU sponsored a "Speakers' Corner" with presentations on a number of issues linked to GEOSS, while separate special events were held on citizen observatories, China Earth observation technology, a scientific roadmap toward Integrated Earth System Science in 2015-2025, and the International Astronautical Federation's (IAF) role in GEOSS.

In the evening, a reception was held for GEO-X participants hosted by the Swiss Government.