Every July, San Diego fills up with tens of thousands of people who care, deeply, about maps and GIS. The Esri User Conference is the industry's biggest reunion and its biggest showroom at once — a week of packed sessions, hallway catch-ups, and demo floors buzzing with what's newly possible in GIS.
If you've ever been to Esri for an event, briefing, or meeting, it's quite likely you've visited the GeoExperience Center (GeoXC) for demonstrations and conversations about the art of what is possible with ArcGIS. Many of the GeoXC staff members will be at the User Conference, doing what they do best - explaining how to get the most out of ArcGIS and how you can creatively leverage what is possible in your own organization.
You won't always see the Geo Experience Center (GeoXC) team's name on a session title. But look closely and you'll find our fingerprints everywhere — in the session demos, Expo showcases, the special exhibits, demos, the physical models people stop to photograph. Some of us are presenting. Some are working booths. A few of us are staying back in Redlands and still ending up on the show floor, through the work.
Here's where to find us, what we've been building, and how we're making an impact.
Hannah Nisonson — Connecting Data for Conservation
Be sure to say hi to Hannah (@Hnisonson) at the UC Information Booth — she'll be there all week helping attendees find their way around! She'll also be presenting and showcasing her work in the Exhibit Hall.
Species loss doesn't happen in isolation — it ripples through an ecosystem. In her session, Coordinating Conservation Operations with GIS, Hannah shows how ArcGIS Knowledge makes those ripples visible, weaving biodiversity data from GBIF, iNaturalist, and the Global Biotic Interactions database into a single knowledge graph. It's disconnected data made legible.
She's also behind a time-lapse of a Mount St. Helens 3D print and several physical models on display in the Expo — worth a detour if you're wandering that hall.
Catch Hannah:
Chad Lopez — From Flight to Insight
If drones, imagery, or reality mapping are your thing, you'll cross paths with Chad (@ChadLopez3) . He's running multiple sessions covering the full drone workflow — flight planning, capture, processing, reality mapping, GeoAI — designed for everyone from newcomers to advanced practitioners.
The standout this year: a collaboration with Wingtra, The Nature Conservancy, and UC Santa Barbara using drone imagery collected at the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve, showing how that data helps manage sensitive natural land. Between sessions, he'll be in the Imagery & 3D Showcase in the Expo.
Catch Chad:
- Taking Flight: Drones in Education — Saturday, 8:30–9:30 AM, Grand Ballroom Salon 11, Education Summit
- Integrating Imagery and Remote Sensing with GIS — Sunday, July 12, 8:30–9:30 AM, Grand Ballroom Salon 8, Education Summit
- Imagery & Remote Sensing: Workflows and Activities — Sunday, 10:00–11:00 AM, Grand Ballroom Salon 11, Education Summit
- Imagery and Remote Sensing Education SIG — Sunday, 4:00–5:00 PM, Grand Ballroom Salon 8
- Imagery & 3D Showcase — Tuesday–Thursday, Exhibit Hall
- Drone Reality Mapping: A Complete Workflow from Capture to Insights — Thursday, 8:30–9:30 AM (Room 31B) and 2:30–3:30 PM (Learning Session Room 2)
Amanda Stanko & Thomas Emge — Your Questions Answered at the AI Island
Amanda (@amanda_stanko) and Thomas (@ThomasEmge) are both stationed at AI Island for the week, fielding questions and walking attendees through how AI is showing up across the ArcGIS platform — whether that's a first "what even is this" conversation or a deep dive into where it's headed next.
Amanda has also contributed to demos on ArcGIS Indoors and AI-assisted evacuation planning: practical, safety-focused applications of the same underlying tech.
Catch Amanda & Thomas:
- AI Island, Exhibit Hall — Tuesday-Thursday
Christine LaMunyon — Bringing Equity into the Digital Twin
Christine (@ChristineLaMunyon) is holding down GeoXC operations in Redlands during UC week, but her work is on full display in San Diego. Her Boston GeoEquity application — built in ArcGIS Experience Builder — treats a digital twin as more than infrastructure: it layers income, housing affordability, education, employment, transit access, and park access into a single neighborhood Equity Index. An AI-powered data explorer lets users query it in plain language, putting complex civic data within reach of planners and decision-makers who aren't data scientists.
It's a good answer to a question a lot of local governments are asking: how do we move past pretty maps and actually understand our communities?
Catch Christine's work:
Ed Bulliner— Protecting Critical Habitat with ArcGIS Knowledge
Ed's (@EdBulliner) work can be found at the Conservation Kiosk in the GIS for Good showcase, and it's a good companion piece to Hannah's: another case study in what ArcGIS Knowledge is for. He's linked EPA Toxic Release Inventory data, watershed boundaries, critical habitat designations, and ecological research into a single knowledge graph, giving researchers a way to trace how industrial activity might be affecting threatened aquatic species — connections that are easy to miss when that data lives in separate systems.
Catch Ed's work:
- Conservation Kiosk, GIS for Good Showcase
Dave Johnson — Visualizing Water in Motion
Dave's (@DaveJohnson5) contribution to David Maidment's GeoWater Special Exhibit turns ERA5 atmospheric data into a set of 2D and 3D visualizations of water vapor moving through the atmosphere, built with Python, ArcPy, and ArcGIS. The goal is simple to state and hard to execute: make an invisible, planet-scale process feel intuitive.
Catch Dave's work:
- David Maidment's GeoWater Special Exhibit
Linda Peters — Everywhere, All Week
Linda (@LindaPeters) will spend the week catching up with customers, partners, and colleagues from around the world. Be sure to say hi if you see her!
Catch Linda:
- Linda can be found in the GIS Leadership Summit on Sunday at the Marriott Marquis with her peers ready to lead the way in geospatial innovation
- On Tuesday, catch up with her at the National Geospatial Symposium at the Hilton, talking about the importance of building geospatial ecosystems to address common challenges
- During the week find her at the Mapping and Statistics Island in Hall A, leading the Census Advisory Meeting and talking on the importance of GIS to the Integration of Mapping and Statistics
- … and all over UC — if you see her, stop her
Ian Nicolas — Behind the Scenes at the Plenary
Plenary is one of UC’s biggest moments, and it doesn’t run without people like Ian (@IanNicolas) . He’ll be working backstage supporting the production team.... helping make sure it all comes together without a hitch. Lights, Camera, Action!
Nate Strout — Spinning Globes and Practical AI
I'll (@NateStrout) be back in Redlands during UC, holding things down for GeoXC visitors — but a few of my projects made it to San Diego without me.
In David Maidment's GeoWater exhibit, there's a set of interactive animated globes I built to make environmental datasets easier — and more engaging — to explore.
Two AI tools that I wrote will also be shown at the AI & ArcGIS Summit and AI Island at the Exhibit Hall. First, a tool that automatically generates image descriptions for ArcGIS Pro attachments to a field and second, an ArcGIS Online notebook that scores metadata quality and consistency, to make content easier to find and govern. Both are practical, powerful examples of AI solving real problems in everyday GIS workflows. I won't be presenting these myself, but you can learn more about these tools and how to get a copy there.
Catch Nate's work:
- David Maidment's GeoWater Special Exhibit
- AI & ArcGIS Summit — Tuesday, July 14, 8:30–11:00 AM PDT, Hall F
- AI Island Demos, Exhibit Hall
Excited to Share and Learn in San Diego!
It's been a big year for the Geo Experience Center filled with great work that we're proud of — and we're excited to share it with you.
If you spot one of us this week, say hello. We'd love to hear what you're building and share more about what we're doing in the GeoXC!
See you at the Mappiest Place on Earth! 
