Monday 28 May 2012

2012 Esri Canada User Conference

For GIS people, the Place to be this Wednesday, May 30, 2012 is the Fort Garry Hotel for the annual Esri Canada User Conference.  This conference is an annual event in Winnipeg for the last 15 years (or so).

The conference follows the same formula, year after year, starting with corporate news and new product information and demos from Esri Canada President Alex Miller and Esri technical experts.  Hearing what is new and what is coming always creates a buzz at the coffee and lunch breaks.  This is a great opportunity to see Esri’s latest technology and their vision for the future.  Even if you are not an Esri GIS user, the conference provides wonderful insight into the future and trends of GIS from the market leader.

Following Alex are the Award of Excellence, Education shout out and user presentations.  This year the user presentations from Rob Gerry, Jim Boyd & Tony Viveiros and others look extremely interesting.  Since there are two tracks, it may be tough picking which one to go see.  Personally, I am looking forward to the ArcGIS for SharePoint Technical Session.

For me, the best part of the conference is the fabulous networking with other GISers.  Every year the Esri User Conference is one of the best gathering places for GIS people in Manitoba.

The 2012 Esri Canada User Conference should be an excellent program that is well worth the time and entrance fee.

For more information go to the Esri Canada User Conferences section on the Esri Canada web site.

Friday 4 May 2012

MGUG Announces its 2012 Keynote Speaker



Mark your calendars, it’s now official … Ed Parsons of Google is coming to Winnipeg as the Keynote Speaker for the Manitoba GIS Users Group (MGUG) 2012 Fall Conference & Annual General Meeting (AGM) on September 25th at the Victoria Inn Hotel & Convention Centre.  Ed Parsons is Google's Geospatial Technologist.  Based in London England, Mr. Parsons is responsible for Google's mission to organize the world's information using geospatial tools including: Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Maps for Mobile.  As a geospatial evangelist, Mr. Parsons is on the leading edge reshaping how humanity views the earth and our place in it.

Mr. Parsons will present his perspective on new geomatics applications and concepts.  He will address latest advancements in utilization of geospatial concepts in Google products.  Mr. Parsons will discuss utilization of Google geo-spatial tools in your applications, and answer related questions.

Previous Conferences have attracted many geomatic professionals and students.  Attendance last year topped 350 attendees.  With an outstanding slate of geo-spatial presentations, excellent networking opportunities, new larger venue, and phenomenal exhibition trade show, attendance goals for the September 2012 Conference are set at 500 attendees.  In preparation and anticipation of the “GeoDrive to 500” an online gauge has been created to track the number of conference registrations on the MGUG website.

This is a preliminary announcement.  Additional Conference information will soon be available on the MGUG website.

We welcome any suggestions in helping to build our largest and most successful event to date and thank you for your involvement and interest as we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, September 25th at the Victoria Inn Hotel & Convention Centre.

Today's GeoBlog is brought to you by:
Richard Lebedynski, B.A., Adv. Dip. GIS, C.E.T.
MGUG President