ESRI/UC 2009: GeoDesign Promises a More Planned Future

The 2009 ESRI International User Conference took place in San Diego, Calif., from July 13-17. This year's event attracted more than 12,000 people, with the theme, "GIS: Designing Our Future". Sustainability was again a strong theme in the plenary session as well as throughout the conference program.

"We need a future that doesn't just simply happen to us," explained Jack Dangermond, founder and president of ESRI, in his plenary addressing this year's conference theme. "This concept of geodesign is a systematic methodology for geographic planning and decision making. It takes GIS, all the knowledge that you build and maintain, layers of information, measurements, and analytic models, and it connects us to an interactive design process where we can design and get feedback right away."

Dangermond went on to outline future GIS capabilities where users sketch plans and receive instant analysis and metrics that allow them to evaluate the effectiveness of their ideas. This new capability, and the collaborative capability of the Web, prompted Dangermond to proclaim that this is 'the most exciting time of my life' for GIS as he sees the technology beginning to explode.

There was much focus on the enhanced functionality for Web mapping that began with ArcGIS 9.3, and will be enhanced with ArcGIS 9.4. A strong emphasis was placed on "Web GIS," with the focus on extending GIS functionality online beyond simply web mapping.

ESRI embraced social media at this year's event, with a special area for Twitter users in the plenary session, and a special social media lounge on the exhibit show floor. The Web was used very effectively before and during the conference, and for sharing event content when the show was over. There are full length videos of the plenary session that are available here, the full Proceedings are also available online here, and there's a video of the Q&A from the Closing Session here .

Read the following Blog posts for detailed reports from the event.

What’s the value of a clear and consistent corporate vision?

Sun. July 12

GIS Leads Business Process Change in Boston

GIS is California’s #1 Enterprise Technology Priority

Mon., July 13

Top Nine Innovations with ArcGIS 9.4 Desktop

The FedEx Mobile Sensor Web

ArcGIS Explorer – GIS for Everyone

Dealing with a Rapidly Changing Planet

India Elevates GIS for Urban Planning

Tues., July 14

Global Biodiversity Data to be Hosted by ESRI

Wed., July 15

Netherlands GeoFort Will Promote Geography