URISA Annual Conference - Wednesday Program
Conference Program - Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Welcome and Opening Session
8:00 – 10:00 AM
Gather at 8:00 for the URISA 2006 Opening Ceremony. URISA President, Cindy Domenico will welcome attendees to Vancouver and Conference Chair, Sandi Majewski, will note some of the highlights of this year’s conference. Several URISA award recipients, including GIS Hall of Fame inductees, will also be recognized as we begin URISA 2006!
Tim Barker, President of the Spatial Sciences Institute, will discuss the important issues facing our colleagues in Australia.
Keynote Address
Ward Chapin, Chief Information Officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
URISA is honored to welcome Ward Chapin, CIO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games as this year's keynote speaker.
The work is underway and the team is being assembled to welcome the world to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler. Operational plans and schedules are being drawn up and venues will be built or renovated over the next five years. By Games time, a strong team of staff and volunteers will be in place to host more than 5,000 athletes and officials from more than 80 countries who will travel to BC to celebrate the spirit of the Olympic movement.
For an optimist, Ward Chapin spends a lot of time these days thinking about what can go wrong. It’s not surprising: as VANOC’s Chief Information Officer, he is leading the team that will implement and manage all the technology and systems critical for staging the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Chapin’s scope of responsibility is as diverse as the technology and the systems he oversees, spanning day-to-day office requirements for 1,200 staff to systems that manage the accreditation, communication, security and transportation functions for all Games’ participants. The coordination of timing and scoring systems for all competitive events is another of his key areas, as is working with broadcasters to meet their technical requirements. In addition, Chapin and his team are liaising closely with immigration and security officials to ensure a foolproof interface between their respective information systems.
Referring to the project as a “huge coordination and team effort,” Chapin stresses that while the main priority is to guarantee that everything works, the challenge is to anticipate what won’t. A number of test events are planned to give his team experience with unsuspected surprises.
Biography: A longtime executive with HSBC Bank, Chapin built a progressive career with the financial services company in Canada and abroad. Prior to joining VANOC, he was responsible for Information Technology Operations for the HSBC Investment Bank in London, England. He also spent more than three years in Paris as director of IT Operations, assisting with the integration of HSBC’s acquisition of CCF Bank, a federation of 11 banks. During his tenure with HSBC Bank Canada, Chapin served as Vice President, Technical and Corporate Services, and also held various IT-related roles in information systems auditing, systems development and IT operations.
Chapin began his career in audit while at Montreal Trust, moving on to operational and information systems positions for CitiBank, Toronto Dominion Bank and Bank of BC. As one of the first experts in automated teller machines, he quickly became a popular figure on the North American IT speakers’ circuit.
After several years in Europe, Chapin is pleased to be back home and considers his opportunity to work for Canada’s Games a privilege. He also hopes that, through technology, one of the many legacies of the 2010 Winter Games will be improved accessibility for people with a disability.
Raised in Montreal, where he learned to speak French, Chapin graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Industrial Relations. He and his wife now live in Vancouver.
When he’s not imagining possible technical glitches, Chapin can likely be found pursuing his passion for sports in the stands, on the golf course, or on a ski hill. Enthusiastic travelers, he and his wife are committed to one day visiting Budapest and Venice, the last two places on their top 20 list of travel destinations.
Exhibit Hall Hours
10:00 AM – 6:30 PM
Educational Sessions
10:30 AM – 12:00 Noon
Management
Collaborative Efforts
Learn about the opportunities of developing a collaborative approach to managing and sharing geographic information and services. Discover some of the complex challenges associated with implementing a program that crosses not only functional boundaries but political and fiscal boundaries as well.
- Geocity - Building Common Ground
Danielle Coulter and Richard Gorecki, City of Calgary, Calgary, AB - “One Road” and the Washington Statewide Transportation Framework Project
Tami Griffin, Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia, WA - Interactive Map Server (IMS) Applications in Delaware County, Ohio
Shoreh Elhami, GISP, Delaware County Auditor’s Office, Delaware, OH
Management
Marketing, Marketing, Marketing . . . Costs, Benefits and Collaboration
All organizations are faced with cost reduction efforts related to managing their infrastructures and the growing cost of development and deployment of GIS applications. Hear the common challenges faced by geospatial technology professionals and explore new technologies to help leverage existing investments and minimize costs when sharing geographic data. Case studies will demonstrate how effective collaboration can reduce cycle times, maximize resources, reduce costs and errors, and ensure access to the right information when and where it is. And learn some online marketing techniques to showcase your GIS products or services.
- Geocité - Municipal Governments Sharing GIS Costs and Benefits
Michael Howard, Ville de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC - Using Collaboration Technology to Maximize the Value of Geospatial Data
Jonathan Knowles, Autodesk, San Francisco, CA - Strategy for Online Marketing Your GIS Products or Services
David Gadish, California State University, Los Angeles, CA
Data
Making Use of Census Data
Census data can do far more than tell us how many people live in a particular country or locale. Attend this session to learn about numerous data products generated from census data and how these products can be utilized.
- Statistics Canada’s 2006 Census Geography Digital Products and Their Uses
Paula Hurtubise, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, ON - Using the Census Bureau’s Public Use Microdata for Migration Analysis
Mark Salling, GISP and Ellen Cyran, GISP, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH - Robert LaMacchia, US Census Bureau, Washington, DC
Data
Solving Workflow Challenges
Data is abundant but is it collected efficiently? Is there consistency to the process? Just because it’s in the system, does that mean it’s accessible to everyone who needs to use it? Come learn how others have tackled these workflow challenges.
- Creating an Enterprise Level Maintenance Workflow in Waukesha County, Wisconsin
Donald Dittmar, Waukesha County, Waukesha, WI - Optimizing Post Construction GIS Data Collection and Reduction Processes
Andrew Walther, K-Tek Solutions LLC, Vancouver, BC - System Architectures for Minimizing Data Redundancies Using Open Standards
Karen Stewart, GISP, Township of Langley, Langley, BC
Applications
Municipal Applications – Part I
This session visits a number of municipal applications, including utilizing GIS and other technologies. The focus is on improving various municipal process including routing, subdivision approval and municipal annexation.
- A GIS Tool to Estimate Financial Impacts of Municipal Annexation
Judy Sheppard and Chunguang Wayne Zhang, Cobb County, Marietta, GA - All Digital Subdivision Application and Approval Process: No More Paper
Don Read, City of Edmonton, Edmonton, AB - A Practical Approach to Routing and Network Analysis
Bob DenOuden and Warren Roe, Lane Council of Governments, Eugene, OR
Applications
Innovative GIS Applications – Part I
With GIS becoming more prevalent and understood, new uses of this technology are emerging everyday. This session focuses on three innovative uses of GIS including a multi media tour of historic sites, crime and risk mapping, and environmental and engineering collaboration.
- A Multimedia Spatialweb Application on Historic Structures for Three Florida Cities
Juna Papajorgji, GISP, Alachua County, Gainesville, FL - Crime and Risk Mapping From Historic Count Data
Akinsola Fasubba, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK - Innovative Tools for Environmental and Engineering Collaboration in a Large-Scale EIS
Hilary Perkins AICP, GISP, Jacobs Civil, St Louis, MO
Dave Clark, Quantm, Riverside, CA
Hot Topics
Emergency Preparedness, Are You Ready? — Part I
In the event of an emergency or disaster of any scale, access to accurate and quality information is the key to saving lives and minimizing property loss. Often, GIS can be the conduit through which this information can be brought together effectively. These presentations discuss different applications of geospatial technology used by local, state, and federal agencies for emergency planning and recovery operations.
- Online GIS for Real-Time Landslide Susceptibility Monitoring in Urban Environments
Gerry James, BGC Engineering Inc, Vancouver, BC
Shawn McLeod, The District of North Vancouver, North Vancouver, BC - Municipal Emergencies: What is the Role of the GeoSpatial Technologies?
Alan Little, City of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON - U.S. Geological Survey's Hurricane Katrina Unified Search and Rescue Operations
James Johnston and Steve Hartley, USGS, Lafayette, LA
Professional Development
How to Influence Decision-Makers
Conveying technical information to managers is often a challenge, but managers of spatial information technology must be able to communicate this information to key decision-makers for crucial support of projects and processes. This session will explore proven techniques to hone your message and get it across concisely. Prior to the start of the presentation, Hilary Perkins will briefly describe URISA's Professional Development Program.
- Communicating with Power Brokers
Susan Johnson, City of Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Cindy Domenico, Boulder County, Boulder, CO
12:00 Noon – 2:00 PM
Roundtable Lunch & Dedicated Exhibit Hours
Demonstration Theatre Showtimes:
12:45 - 1:15 PM Municipal Software demonstration
1:30 - 2:00 PM Autodesk demonstration
Educational Sessions
2:15 – 3:45 PM
Management
It Is ALL About the Worker Bees – Getting the Buy-in
There are many components involved in the successful implementation of GIS applications. Learn how to successfully get the users to buy into your GIS / IT project. Explore the components that are often overlooked, including a strong Piloting Plan, User Acceptance Testing programs and measurement tools to support data tracking and monitoring.
- Overlooked, Misunderstood, and Rushed: User Acceptance Testing in Enterprise Application
Gregg Ambrosi, GISP, Software Techniques, inc, Winter Park, FL - The Power of Piloting
David Spencer, HDR Engineering, San Diego, CA - GIS as a Resource Management Tool
Amy Ahner, Village of Glenview, Glenview, IL
Management
Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure
Details coming soon
Data
Using Demographic Analysis to Benefit the Citizenry
Whether analyzing human migration trends, looking at accessibility of immigrant service centers, or finding a suitable living environment, demographic data is important to the process. Learn how this data can be aggregated and queried to answer questions about areas of concern.
- Using GIS to Identify Neighborhoods with Special Characteristics
Earl Bossard, San Jose State University, Davis, CA - Accessibility to Settlement Services in Toronto: The Case of 7 Immigrant Groups
Alejandro Cervantes, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC - Human Migration Analysis of the Austin and San Antonio Economic Areas
Ben Sherrouse, US Geological Survey, Denver, CO
David Hester, US Geological Survey, Denver, CO
Data
Data Model Design
All GIS databases start with a data model design, both formal and informal. This session spotlights some of the development processes for a successful data model design from the abstract conceptual design to the highly detailed, integrated data model.
- An ArcGIS Base Map Design for Emergency and Event Response Support
Charlie Frye, ESRI, Redlands, CA - Geodatamodeling for Regional Planning: The Experience in Denver, CO
Simon Montagu and DeVon Culbertson, Denver Regional COG, Denver, CO - Traffic Engineering Signals Geodatabase: Design and Implementation
Douglas Adams, Baltimore County, Towson, MD
Applications
Municipal Applications – Part II
This session visits a number of municipal applications, including utilizing GIS and other technologies. The focus is on improving various municipal process including asset management, field inspection and spatial enablement.
- The City of Vancouver Realizes Important Benefits from Spatially Enabling
Jonathan Mark, City of Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
Geoff Zeiss, Autodesk Inc, Ottawa, ON - Visualizing and Managing Field Inspection Activity in Pasadena
John Reimers, City of Pasadena, Pasadena, CA - Streamlining Naperville’s Asset Management Process with Systems Integration
Sarah Jenniges, City of Naperville, Naperville, IL
Dylan Thomas, Woolpert Inc, Englewood, CO
Applications
Collaboration in GIS
As GIS implementations mature, agencies are looking at ways to work together for their mutual benefit. This session showcases three examples at the provincial, regional and municipal levels.
- Partnership in Regional Urban Planning Initiatives
Terry Hoff, Bob Denboer and Lyle Walker, Greater Vancouver Regional District, Burnaby, BC - Leveraging Collaboration Technology to Maximize Value of Investments in Geospatial
Jonathan Knowles, Autodesk, San Francisco, CA - The Integrated Land and Resource Registry
Simon Lanoix, Sierra Systems Consultants, Victoria, BC
David Chater, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Victoria, BC
Hot Topics
Emergency Preparedness, Are You Ready? — Part II
In the event of an emergency or disaster of any scale, access to accurate and quality information is the key to saving lives and minimizing property loss. Often, GIS can be the conduit through which this information can be brought together effectively. These presentations discuss different applications of geospatial technology used by local, state, and federal agencies for emergency planning and recovery operations.
- Location-based Information Sharing for the Public Safety and Security Community
Philip C Dawe and Ken A Marshall, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON - The Use of GIS Technologies for Emergency Management and C. I. Protection in BC
Brian Klinkenberg, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
Professional Development
Innovative Funding Mechanisms to Sustain a GIS
The question of how to fund government services plagues government executives and elected officials year after year. As the annual budget process begins, GIS managers look to present their case to these government leaders for a share of the limited budget resources. Since geographic information systems (GIS) require a combination of hardware, software and personnel these GIS managers must look to develop sustainable funding streams. This session will explore innovative strategies that government organizations have deployed to establish and grow their programs. An emphasis on understanding the return on investment of deploying a GIS will compliment this session as a means of providing justification for these expenditures.
- Chris Thomas, ESRI, Redlands, CA
- Generating Revenue Through Selling GIS Products and Services from a Government
Richard Bolen, Metro Regional Services, Portland, OR
Educational Sessions
4:00 – 5:00 PM
Management
Entrepreneurial GIS
This session will present a variety of innovative methods used by two enterprise county GIS operations to meet the business needs of their user communities. Learn how the management of an entrepreneurial approach to providing GIS services leads to a culture of organizational, and technical innovation – and how new sources of revenue can be generated and new funding mechanisms discovered.
- Entrepreneurial Approaches to Countywide GIS Services
Peirce Eichelberger, Chester County, West Chester, PA
Gregory Babinski, GISP, King County, Seattle, WA
Applications
Large Scale Public Portals
Governments are increasingly using the web to disseminate a wealth of information to the public. Find out how web technology can be used in this way.
- The BLM Offers New Ways to Access Federal Lands and Mineral Data
Leslie Cone and Larry Money, Bureau of Land Management, Denver, CO - First Steps toward Location Intelligence with Data Warehousing and GIS
Gordon Kennedy, Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia, WA
Hot Topics
US National Land Parcel Database Overview
Early in 2006 the United States National Research Council's Mapping Science Committee formed a committee to develop a National vision for Land Parcel Databases. Building from the NRC's 1980 report "Need for a Multipurpose Cadastre," this study is designed to highlight the status of land parcel databases in the United States, provide a vision for the future, and develop a strategy to complete this NSDI Framework data layer. The session will report on the current status of cadastre data in the United States. While this session will not be able to report on specific recommendations that the committee has developed it will report on the findings from two major initiatives conducted by the committee. The first initiative used a web based instrument to gather comments from more than 430 stakeholders. The second initiative is a national summit on land parcel databases held in Washington. This summit consisted of three panels representing leaders from Federal Agencies, the Private Sector, Policy-Makers and National Associations.
- David Cowen, University of South Carolina, Dept of Geography, Columbia, SC
- Other members of the NRC Committee
Data
Data Standards
Data Standards set criteria and specifications to ensure that all data are accurate and consistent in style and content, have a high level of integrity and can be easily shared and accessed. This session highlights the importance of data standards, working together, establishing partnerships and sharing data to create efficiencies and versatility. The focus is on improving processes and integrity of data by creating and enforcing data standards. The presentations emphasize the use of data standards and collaboration at utility, municipal and provincial or state levels.
- On the Road to Underground Utility Data Standards
Walter Kowalenko, City of Toronto, Toronto, ON - Integrated Cadastral Information Society (ICIS) – Opportunity & Risk
Peter Flagg, ICIS, Victoria, BC
Tools
Super-Hot Tools That Do 3-D Stuff
Advancements in 3-D data acquisition has opened the door for more precise data collection and advanced visualization products. This session will focus on using 3-D products (such as ortho/oblique imagery, DEMs, etc.) to streamline data collections efforts and the creation of high-level presentation products.
- Sea to Sky Highway Visualization and Traffic Flow Models
Karl Kliparchuk, McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd, Vancouver
Brendan Walashek, McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd, Vancouver, BC - Oblique Imagery - Real World Applications & Uses
Art Kalinski, GISP, Atlanta Regional Commission, Atlanta, GA
Applications
Urban Transportation Modeling
This session includes examples of how GIS and other technologies can be used to evaluate trip reduction programs and incorporate results into transportation plans, which can significantly effect future land use change. The St. Louis and Puget Sound Washington areas are the subjects of this analysis.
- Dynamic Integration of Land-Use and Transportation Model
Zhanli Sun, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL - Evaluating a GIS-Based Approach for Analyzing Trip-Reduction Programs
Elizabeth Goss and Ed Hillsman, Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia, WA
Applications
GIS Applications for Social Issues
The consideration of social issues has always been an important part of planning for a community growth and sustainability. In recent years there have been some interesting advancements in how we analyze these issues. GIS is now playing a very important role in this area and will help planners and developers make educated decisions for regional and local development.
- Adolescent Conduct Problems In Portland, OR: A Geo-Spatial Perspective
Erich Seamon, Erich Seamon & Associates, San Francisco, CA
Maria Gartstein, Washington State University, Pullman, WA - Allegheny County Human Services Resources: HumanServices.net
John Pierce and John Detwiler, Allegheny County, PA
Professional Development
Developing the GIS Strategic Plan and Ensuring Its Continued Relevance: A Key to Long Term Success
There can be no substitute for shared visioning and strategic planning. These are the activities that will guide a project and set its direction in the future. But does anyone really like this part of a GIS initiative? Strategic planning, like GIS, is never done; it is an ongoing effort in which project leaders and participants must reevaluate the situation and direction at given intervals. This session will focus on the experiences of the presenters in the development, implementation and evaluation of GIS strategic plans, and the integration of the GIS strategic plan with the rest of the organization’s strategic and IT plans.
- Dianne Haley, GISP, Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, Calgary, AB
- Jonathan Mark, City of Vancouver, BC
- Kim McDonough, GISP, Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville, TN
5:00 – 6:30 PM
Networking Reception in Exhibit Hall
Demonstration Theatre Showtimes:
5:15 - 5:45 PM Orion Technology demonstration
6:00 - 6:30 PM
6:30 - 8:00 PM
Speed Networking Event for Practitioners and New Professionals/Students
The fundamental idea behind networking is that we all have something to offer someone else. Whether from a big city or small jurisdiction, we can find some common ground with one another. More information about this exciting event offered through URISA's Professional Development Program will be forthcoming.
6:30 - 8:00 PM
Vendor Hospitality/User Group Meetings
- ESRI User Group Meeting 6:45 - 8:00 PM
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