As I prepare for the 2026 Esri GIS Leadership Summit, the fourteenth overall and my tenth, I thought it appropriate to reflect on the history, evolution, and impact of this annual event and share it with the community. The Summit started as the Esri GIS Managers Open Summit on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, during the Esri International User Conference.
My first Summit was not until 2014, but fortunately there is a summary of that first Summit in the Fall 2010 issue of ArcUser. There were over 270 attendees and the goal was:
To build a community and share information and experiences. This community would address the unique requirements of GIS managers who must understand the technology and recognize how best to apply it while performing classic management functions and overcoming organizational challenges specific to implementing GIS.
