GIS Manager's Group

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.

The 12th annual State of the Cities report identifies the unique challenges and opportunities facing cities, towns and villages across the United States, offering a comprehensive analysis of community priorities in 2025.   This is essential information if you work in municipal GIS. It is critical that you align your work to support the priorities of executives and elected officials. This report helps document those priorities.

https://www.nlc.org/resource/state-of-the-cities-2025/

The 2025 Esri Senior Executive Summit videos are online. These are great ways to show execs the benefits & potential of GIS, so be sure to share them. You can never have enough executive sponsorship...

https://mediaspace.esri.com/channel/2025%2BEsri%2BSenior%2BExecutive%2BSummit/382857813

We're counting down to the GIS Managers Summit, with previews of the content your peers will be sharing...

How can I be a leader in my organization, without and official leadership title?

We're counting down to the GIS Managers Summit, with previews of the content your peers will be sharing...

What does it mean for a manager to be a true leader, and how do I get there?

Yes, that’s right – building on the success of last year’s Summit, the 13th GIS Managers Summit is new and improved for 2025. Get ready for one of the best single-day, GIS events on the planet. Join 500+ of your peers, from across the US and abroad, to discover best practices and learn practical leadership tips from some of the foremost leaders and SMEs in the industry. This event is for current and future GIS Managers/Leaders, as well as others interested in learning more about the business of enterprise GIS and how to follow The Path to Geospatial Excellence.

Tip #2: Build a Geospatial Mindset into Your Team

Tip # 1 - Build a GIS “Team of Action” from your team