ESRI-MUG 2007 Annual Conference

The ESRI-MUG 2007 Annual Conference was held November 27-29, 2007, at the Union League in Philadelphia, PA.  By all accounts it was a very successful conference.  We had a total of 264 attendees, including 50 participants in the pre-conference seminars, 214 conference attendees, and 28 exhibiting organizations.  Check our web site at www.esrimug.org for the conference program, abstracts of the conference presentations, and some great pictures.

Many thanks to Brendan Ford and Gary Rockwell for organizing the keynote speakers and the panel of experts; Elisa Lockhart and Justin Kauffman for fitting all the presentations into a coherent program; Cindy Delaney, conference coordinator; Janice Valgoi, on-site conference coordinator; our keynote speakers - Jack Dangermond and Dr. Cynthia Brewer; our “State of the States” panel - Barney Krucoff (DC), Mike Mahaffie (DE), Andy Rowan (NJ), Dan Widner (VA); all of our other presenters; our sponsors; all of our exhibitors; the ESRI staff; the Union League; and the ESRI-MUG Board of Directors for all their hard work that made this another successful conference!

 

ESRI Pre-Conference Workshops

The conference started off with a series of all-day seminars taught by ESRI staff.  The seminar topics were: 

• Introduction to ArcGIS; Instructor: Aisha Jenkins, ESRI Philadelphia
• Introduction to ArcGIS Server; Instructor: Kevin Deege, ESRI Washington DC
• Using JTX and PLTS; Instructor: Jennifer Steinhagen, ESRI
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Keynote Speakers

Our keynote speaker on Wednesday was Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI.  Jack spoke about some of the improvements we can expect to see with the release of ArcGIS 9.3, including Mash-up support, some cartographic improvements, and improvements in image management, statistical modeling, model building, scripting, and networks and schematics.  He provided some information about the newly released Cadastral Editor, which provides a link between GIS and survey data.  He spoke about some Server improvements we can expect as well as some enhancements to replication, ArcGIS Mobile, and ArcGIS Explorer.

Our keynote speaker on Thursday was Dr. Cynthia Brewer, Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Geography, Penn State University.  Dr. Brewer is a proponent of the intelligent use of color in mapping as a way to help users understand complicated data and better see relationships.  She is the author of a new book, Designed Maps: A Sourcebook for GIS Users due out in February 2008, and is also the designer of ColorBrewer, an on-line tool that helps users choose and test color schemes for map data.  She presented some compelling examples of how the good use of color can enhance our maps and help present our data in a more meaningful way.

State of the States Panel

On Thursday, we heard a “State of the States” panel discussion moderated by our president, Brendan Ford.  We heard some of the Mid-Atlantic region’s leading GIS authorities speak about trends in the industry, what is on the horizon for their jurisdictions, and how they see the industry evolving in the next few years.  The panel members were:

• Barney Krucoff, District of Columbia
• Mike Mahaffie, Delaware
• Andy Rowan, New Jersey
• Dan Widner, Virginia

Roger Barlow of USGS, also provided some input on some GIS initiatives in Maryland, and Keota Silophone, of Worcester County, MD, provided the county perspective on some of the initiatives presented.

Sponsors

Special thanks to M&M Solutions, LLC and Spatial Data Logic, Inc, our Gold Sponsors, and Route Smart Technologies, Inc, our Silver Sponsor, for their continued support of ESRI-MUG. 

Thanks also to the University of Pennsylvania College of General Studies, our vendor reception sponsor, and Tele Atlas, our refreshment break sponsor.

Exhibitors

Thirty-three organizations were on hand to showcase their latest products and services for the GIS community.  The exhibitor reception Wednesday evening was well attended and those who stayed enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, beverages, and good talk. 

Presentations

Conference attendees also heard presentations on business intelligence, emergency management, enterprise GIS, GIS in education, the GIS profession, government, land use, mobile GIS, natural resources, remote sensing / QC, SOA – web services, transportation, utilities – public works, and web based GIS.  Read the presentation abstracts here.

Doctor’s Office

Lots of attendees joined the ESRI technical staff in the Doctor’s Office to get answers about the latest ESRI software products.  In conjunction with the Doctors Office, ESRI also set up a Technical Showcase to let us “test-drive” the latest ArcGIS software and other ESRI solutions.

Election Results

Elections for ESRI-MUG officers were held during the conference with results announced at the business meeting on Friday morning.  Our newly elected officers for 2008 are:

President – Brendan Ford

Vice President – Gary Rockwell

Treasurer – Mario Field

Secretary – Sue Hoegberg

Poster Contest

Congratulations to the winners of the poster contest:

Peoples Choice and 1^st  Prize: John Duchneskie, The Philadelphia Inquirer, won five days of ESRI training for “Shootings in Philadelphia”

2^nd Prize: Rita Noorzad, Fairfax County, won 5 days of ESRI training for “Lincoln-Lewis-Vannoy Conservation Area”

3rd Prize: Jack Flood, Spatial Data Logic, won 3 days of ESRI training for “New York City Storm Surge Risk”

Student Winner: Yimei Wang, University of Cincinnati, won 3 days of ESRI training for “Westwood Neighborhood, Cincinnati, Ohio” 

Recorded by:

Sue Hoegberg, ESRI-MUG Secretary