Survey Summit and Esri International User Conference Coming Up

July 20, 2012 - By Eric Gakstatter

This weekend is the Survey Summit conference, which is a joint effort between Esri and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM). I expect it will attract around 500 people. It’s immediately followed by the Esri International User Conference, which runs all of next week and will likely attract ~13,000 attendees. Both conferences are in San Diego.

The Survey Summit agenda format is a bit different this year. First of all, it’s at the Hyatt Hotel next to the San Diego Convention Center. Second, it’s starting two days later, on Saturday, as opposed to starting earlier in the week on Thursday. The first day of the Summit is now a series of lightning talks and presentations followed by a keynote presentation to wrap up the day into the the expo and reception.

8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.WelcomeOpening Remarks – BrentJones, Esri

9:00 a.m. – 9:10 a.m.Lightning TalkThe National Survey Society: Road Ahead Curt Sumner, National Society of Professional Surveyors, NSPS

9:10 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.Lightning TalkSupporting the Next Generation, Rich Vannozzi, NSPS Student Competition

9:20 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.Lightning TalkCelebrating 200 Years with the GLO, Don Buhler, Bureau of Land Management, BLM

9:30 a.m. – 9:40 a.m.Lightning TalkA New Approach for New Datums, Ronnie Taylor, National Geodetic Survey, NGS

9:40 a.m. – 9:50 a.m.Lightning TalkLand Surveys in Support of Fish and Wildlife, David Clark, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, FWS

9:50 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.Lightning TalkGPS Day, Donny Sosa, Esri

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.Break

10:30 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.Industry PresentationSurveyor 2.0, CheeHai Teo. International Federation of Surveyors , FIG

10:50 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.Technology PresentationUAVs for Mapping and Survey, Rowland Harrison, Hawkeye UAV

11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.Technology PresentationPreserving the California Missions with 3D, Tom Greaves. CyArk

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.Technology PresentationMapping Our Future, Lawrie Jordan, Esri

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.LUNCH

1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.Technology PresentationSurveying the New Frontier, Mike Beavers, Frontier Surveying

2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.Break

2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.Keynote PresentationNOAA’s Geospatial Information Officer, Tony Lavoi , NOAA

3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.Survey Summit EXPO and Reception

On Sunday, the technical presentations are in a traditional format (45-minute presentations) on subjects from surveying in the cloud to UAV mapping to handling lidar data. Of course, there’s also the annual discussion of surveying vs. GIS.

There’s no real discussion about GPS/GNSS (albeit a talk about GEOID12) at the Survey Summit, which is surprising given that GPS/GNSS such a prolific tool for surveyors and high-precision GIS users. But, you have to realize that at the end of the day, this is a vendor conference and not an industry conference. I see a real shift going back to state and regional conferences, as opposed to a national surveying conference. It just seems that attendees will get more localized and relevant information in that type of venue, and I also see the trend of state/local conferences bringing in nationally recognized speakers talking about national issues that complement the local speakers and presentations.

Esri International User Conference

Yes, it’s a vendor conference, so you get a lot of Esri Kool-Aid. But, that said, there’s no better place in the U.S. to network with your colleagues about geospatial technologies and issues like this venue. If nothing else, it’s due to the sheer volume of geospatial people that converge on San Diego…~13,000.

Nearly all, if not all of the geospatial technology trends I write about (mobile GIS, BIM, UAVs, GPS/GNSS, RFID, satellite imagery/lidar, etc.) are being discussed at this conference in some form or another. You may have to dig into the agenda a bit to find them, but they are there, and there are plenty of experts attending the conference who are presenting, manning exhibit booths, and otherwise walking around that can answer nearly any question you have. The challenge is finding the people you want to talk to among the 13,000 other people.

I’ll be there all week attending sessions and talking with exhibitors about their work, products, services, and vision. If you want to keep up with me during the week, make sure you follow me on twitter. Twitter is replacing blogging to a certain degree. I’ll be posting photos, links, and interesting comments via Twitter throughout the day, every day at the conferences. You’ll get the latest news in almost real-time.

On Wednesday, I’ll have a professional film crew following me around the User Conference as I talk with different exhibitors and attendees. We’ll produce some pretty neat videos of the conference that will be posted to a special Video Gallery section at 98.27.162.175/gpsworld.com. I’ll be asking exhibitors to talk about their newest GIS, surveying, and mapping products and services, their customers’ requirements and success stories, and any special features they may be unveiling at the show. The videos will be edited to 3- to 5-minute clips for posting to the Geospatial Solutions website. Relevant interviews may also be featured on GPS World’s website.

On Thursday at 10:15 a.m. in Room 31B, I’ll be giving a presentation on the latest developments in GPS and GNSS technology. It’s part of the “Using a Mobile GIS to Manage Assets in the Field” session in the Mobile GIS topic track. I’ll be touching on the newest developments in SBAS, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and maybe a little bit about LightSquared. As always, there’s a lot happening in the world of GPS/GNSS and some major changes that you should know about, so stop by and join me.

Esri Acquires ArcPad Developer Maptel

In late-breaking news today, Esri announced it has acquired Austrailian-based ArcPad developer Maptel. This adds an interesting twist to Esri’s mobile GIS development efforts. While it’s been clear that Esri has been pushing ArcGIS for Mobile as the mobile GIS path for the future, the acquisition may be signaling a change in that strategy. ArcPad is the most widely deployed mobile GIS software in the world with well over 500,000 copies deployed. Look for more on this subject from me next week while I’m in San Diego.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric