GIS Leadership User Group

Insider tip – The GIS Leadership Summit is close to maximum capacity, and registration may close early!

Leading a GIS program without a dedicated GIS team or sufficient staffing is not for the faint of heart. Connecting across the organization to evangelize and collect new GIS use cases (and wins!) is challenging when you have a long list of work that needs to get done. Challenging…but not impossible.

For those of you attending the Esri User Conference, please join me, my Esri colleagues, and your peers at the GIS Leadership Summit on Sunday, July 12.  There you will discover successful strategies that even a one-person team can deploy to gain attention and grow interest in GIS solutions.

I’m excited for my talk with Corey Unger, GIS Program Manager at the Utah Department of Transportation, and Trich Maupin, Department Manager at Bonneville County, Idaho. Corey and Trich will share their experienced-based learnings and practical advice to scale your influence, no matter what size team you lead.  Find out how Trich and Corey laddered strategic relationship-building, impact tracking , and empowering others to use GIS to successfully drive engagement with their programs. 

At this year’s Summit, together we’ll explore current trends, topics, and timely reflections on the unique power of GIS and your collective work to create a more intelligent world. I hope to see you there!

Register for the GIS Leadership Summit

• Sunday, July 12
• Marriott Marquis, Pacific Ballroom, Level 1
• 8:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
• Includes breakfast, lunch, and an evening social

Already registered for the User Conference? Be sure to register for the GIS Leadership Summit as well!

If you would like to share ideas or just chat, find me during the GIS Leadership Summit or during the conference, or connect on LinkedIn.

This is a story about a GIS professional that shared advice with the community, to help others, and how that led to an opportunity to present these ideas and more to hundreds of people at a live GIS leadership event.

Other than my incredible colleagues at Esri, and our distributors and partners, here are 16 amazing reasons to attend the 2026 Esri GIS Leadership Summit. These are the remarkable speakers that will be sharing their 300+ years of knowledge and guidance with a select number of attendees.

With the growth of those leading the impact of GIS in their organizations, this group has seen many people joining in, with titles outside of the realm of "GIS Manager".  To reflect this, we're updating how we talk about this community, to focus on GIS Leadership more broadly.

I’m thrilled to announce that the GIS Managers Summit is now the GIS Leadership Summit! This new name reflects the event’s expanded focus and the evolving role of GIS professionals as leaders and innovators. Along with the rebranding, there are exciting changes to the event itself—new opportunities for learning, collaboration, and networking that will make this year’s summit more valuable and inspiring than ever before.

After being involved with the Esri GIS Leadership Summit for the past 15 years, I’ve seen firsthand how this event brings together the best minds in GIS. Each year has offered something new, but this year, I’m especially excited about the changes coming to the summit in San Diego on July 12, 2026.

from Matt Lewin – At this year’s GIS Manager’s Summit, I was fortunate to host a panel titled Enabling Innovation where we discussed how embracing innovation is crucial for GIS teams to stay relevant and impactful in their organizations.

from Andrew Sandifer – 

I was honored to host an inspirational panel of GIS professionals at the 2025 GIS Manager Summit in July, on a discussion about leading without a title.

from Adam Carnow – It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since the GIS Managers Summit!   It was a day of powerful presentations, discussions, and networking – more to come later – but first, I wanted to recap the panel I was honored to host.

To recap, or if you couldn’t make the summit this year, myself and three great GIS leaders got together on stage to talk about transitioning from manager to leader.

from Adam Carnow –
Just over a month ago, over 450 GIS leaders from 51 countries and 54 industries got together in San Diego, California, for a day of inspiration and empowerment.  426 attendees, 11 panelists and presenters, and dozens of Esri staff gathered on July 12, 2025 for the 13th annual GIS Managers Summit, the day before Esri’s User Conference kicked into full gear.