Never Been Before

[DaveTenney]

All,

   i have heard some equate the FedGIS Conference to a "mini international users conference", and i was wondering if those that have attended both would agree with that?

   we cant always send our employees the the UC in san diego so it would be nice if the above statement were true as the FedGIS Conference is a more affordable option.

   Also, do none govt employees find this conference usefule?

thanks

Dave

[JayJohnson2 · Accepted solution]

Dave,

I have been to both, sometimes in the same year.  FedUC is a bit shorter than the international conference, and has fewer topics.  It has more going on than the typical state GIS conference, but only due to the large number of federal agencies that are able to attend without a registration fee or much travel.  It could potentially be useful to someone not able to attend San Diego.  That being said, both the developer conference and international conference are well worth the trouble and expense.  UC has an average attendance of 10,000 people, and there is nothing like it.  (Well, maybe FOSS and Autodesk University, but still.)  Everyone who uses ESRI should go once.

I suggest reading the agenda, and that will answer whether you ought to attend any particular conference.

Jay

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

I've always assumed that the FedUC is limited to (US) federal agencies, but I am not 100% sure.  Another way to compare the sessions, etc. from the different events is to look at the Recent Proceedings  for each.  Also, the youtube sites like esri - YouTube  and the Esri Videos | E360 Videos: GIS, Events, ArcGIS Products & Industries  have many of the tech sessions recorded, you can take a look at those to see if they differ much.  The Develop Summit (that was help last week) is also a very good conference, and focuses on techie/development, vs the more general/all-encompassing UC.