GIS-Pro 2012: Thursday Program Highlights

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Thursday morning was filled with important plenary sessions.

URISA Past Presidents' Plenary Session

URISA has been honored and blessed to have dozens of influential Past Presidents leading the organization over the years. Many of these individuals are still incredibly active in the organization, serving as committee chairs, program leads, etc. They have collaborated on a comprehensive publication (23 chapters) celebrating URISA's impressive history. Titled "Foundations of Urban and Regional Information Systems and Geographic Information Systems and Science," the publication will be a valuable historical retrospective on both the evolution of technology and URISA. This session will highlight URISA's history and influence and will surely be entertaining as well! (The Foundations publication was a big seller at the conference. It is available, for free, as a downloadable publication here or contact URISA to purchase a hard copy - $10 URISA International member price/ $20 for nonmembers plus shipping and handling fee of $10 for US orders; $15 for Canadian orders.

Tom Conry has a real collectors' item with signatures from several of the Foundations book contributors on his copy. Here, Will Craig signs the book.

For this session, URISA Past Presidents got creative and several prepared brief "Ignite style" presentations to coincide with a letter in URISA's name:

U(rban) – Peirce Eichelberger
R(egional) - Ed Crane
I(nformation) – Will Craig
S(ystems) – Nancy Tosta
A(ssociation) – Ken Dueker
I(nternational) – Greg Babinski

Ed Crane Will Craig

Nancy Tosta Ken Dueker

Greg Babinski

...with Barry Wellar serving as Master of Ceremonies (Tmekeeper in Chief)!

Thought Leaders' Panel Discussion

The second feature session of the morning involved a very high-powered panel of industry luminaries discussing solutions for obstacles facing GIS professionals as they try to advance their projects and careers. Cy Smith, URISA Past President, facilitated the session. For those lucky enough to be there, you'll remember the GIS jazz ensemble feel of the discussion. The panelists played off each other and kept the conversation flowing. Good stuff!

Cy introduces the session.

The distinguished Panelists included:
- Sean McGrath, Chief Technology Officer, Propylon, Ltd.
- Gary Maguire, President of the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute of Australia/New Zealand
- Don Cooke, Esri Community Evangelist & Founder of GDT
- Jack Dangermond, President, Esri, Inc.
- Greg Babinski, Finance & Marketing Manager, King County GIS, URISA President

Sean McGrath

Gary Maguire

Babinski & Dangermond talk it out.

Question from the crowd.

Don Cooke addresses the challenge of discriminating between authoritative and best-available data.

Closing Keynote Address

Jack Dangermond – President of Esri, URISA GIS Hall of Fame inductee, and long-time URISA member – was the ideal person to inspire us as GIS-Pro 2012 concludes. From URISA as his 'safe place' to his discussions with will.i.am, Jack delivered!

URISA Annual Business Meeting

We heard from URISA officers about the Board's activities over the past year, plans for the future, and recognized outgoing and incoming Board members. Al Butler began his term as URISA president during this meeting and we expressed our gratitude to Cy Smith, David DiBiase, Carl Anderson and Twyla McDermott for their dedication.

Thanks for coming!