I first went to an ESRI YPN event that was hosted in the Charlotte office back in 2023. I was unsure of how it would go, but it soon turned out to be an event I looked forward to throughout the following years. It is nice to meet up with folks of different backgrounds, all coming together to foster a community around GIS. Individual backgrounds of attendees from my experience range from local gov, utilities, and engineering firms. To recent graduates and post-grads, firemen, IT, and many more. To note, despite the name, YPN does not mean you have to be young to attend, as anyone is welcome via event registration.
This year, I was asked to return as a guest speaker. The roster for the event included representatives from Sunbelt Rentals, City of Mount Holly, and myself representing Duke Energy. I chose to discuss some snapshot info about Duke Energy, GIS distribution, and how we receive/work with the data provided to us for our posting processes. I also spoke on the work our team has done around data integrity and what it means for our data to be accurate and reliable, as well as additional cleanup efforts for this. Downstream systems depend on our work to make informed decisions regarding supporting the customers we serve. In relation to data integrity, I spoke a little about the NextGen transition and the impacts that moving from SmallWorld to the Utility Network will have on our GIS teams and our business processes. To prepare our current datasets, I discussed conflation, its processes, and examples of before/after results. This seemed to be a big hit with the other attendees and got a lot of questions and discussions.
This event was a nice introduction to speaking externally to not just Duke Energy employees, but to emerging and experienced GIS professionals. I learned a lot from these events about ESRI products and workflows. Some standout topics I have noted are ESRI Experience Builder, Dashboards, and living 3D modelled "twin cities" for GIS analysis. I encourage others to look into ESRI's YPN and check it out yourself if you are interested. I think it is a great opportunity and can be a great source for networking, practicing public speaking, and an opportunity to be an ambassador for your local GIS community.
Thanks to Logan, Moe, and Daniel from the Charlotte branch for the invite! It was a great experience and I hope to return soon!
