Feeding Your FOMO for the 12th Esri GIS Manager’s Summit

AdamCarnow

If you were not one of the lucky 450+ attendees of the 2024 Esri GIS Manager’s Summit (GISMS) on Sunday, July 14, 2024, during Esri UC, then here’s a heaping dose of FOMO that should convince you to add it to your future Esri International User Conference (UC) agendas.

This is not simply a day of slide presentations and demonstrations – this interactive event includes networking exercises, group discussions, and panel sessions. It is intended for current or future GIS/IT managers, with the goal of helping them become leaders through reinforcement of GIS best practices. It is designed to provide attendees with actionable information that they can apply to improve their GIS program and professional development. No formal invitation is required; it is included with your Esri UC registration.

The 12th version of the GISMS set the record on a couple of key fronts. First, this was the largest attendance, with over 450. Second, it had the most ambitious agenda and diverse group of presenters.

For Esri, we were represented by twelve SMEs from various groups including Industry Solutions, Professional Services, and Adoption Strategy, as well as experts Allen Williams and Matt Lewin from Esri Canada, and Nathan Heazlewood from Eagle Technology (New Zealand).

The focus of the Summit was on your peers – there was an amazing collection of GIS SMEs from various industries and locations:

Pictured above left to right: Megan Compton – GIO, State of Indiana, Carl Zimmerman – GIS Manager, Connecticut Office of Policy & Management, Justin Koppa – General Investigator & Geospatial Program Coordinator, US Dept. of Health & Human Services, Nathan Heazlewood – Principal Consultant, Eagle Technology, Scott Oppmann – ArcGIS Solutions Director, Esri, Anika-Aduesa Smart – Director, Geospatial Business Intelligence, LA Metro, Deepti Kochhar – Practice Lead Global Development and Humanitarian, Esri, John Steed – Director of Geospatial Services, Tesla Government, Inc., Christie Pleiss – Director, Professional Services - Programs & Mission Alignment, Esri, Christina Kellum – GIS Manager, Washington Dept. of Ecology, Allen Williams – Practice Manager, Esri Canada, Greg Jameson – GIS Architect & Enterprise Lead, Grimes, IA, Brandi Rank – Senior Product Engineer, Esri, Izabela Miller – Director of IT and Leadership Development, Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District, Daniel Wickens – Senior Product Engineer, Esri, Tim Haynes – GIO/CDO, Philadelphia, PA, Dena Cross – Principal Consultant, Esri, Andrew Sandifer - Principal Training Consultant, Esri, James Pardue – Principal Consultant, Esri, Matt Lewin – Director, Strategic Advisory Services, Esri Canada, Adam Carnow – Public Works Industry Specialist, Esri, Witt Mathot – Senior Principal Technical Consultant, Esri. Not pictured: Brian Cross – Executive Director Professional Services, Esri, Paul Giroux – Innovation Officer, Greater Sudbury Utilities, Michael Green – Adoption Strategy Consultant, Esri, Seth Kerr – GIS Director, Jefferson Co., PA, Alina Shemetova – Senior GIS Platform Owner, bpx Energy.

The theme of GISMS echoed the best practices framework presented in The Path to Geospatial Excellence resource website, which consists of the five key components for geospatial success:

Business
Governance
Systems
Engagement
Capacity

We kicked off the day with a welcome video from Jack Dangermond. To get the groups at each table acquainted with each other, there was a networking exercise, followed by group discussions on the characteristics of a successful GIS program, then an update on The Path to Geospatial Excellence from Jim Pardue from Esri.

The rest of the GISMS agenda was split into three segments – Business/Strategy & Governance, Capacity & Focused Topics, and Systems & Engagement.

The first segment on Business/Strategy & Governance included panel discussions on Building a Data-Driven Strategy and on Implementing Geospatial Governance, followed by a presentation of Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Success.

The Capacity & Focused Topics segment started with the transition from GIS Technician to GIS Leader, followed by a panel discussion on how to do more with less – resource constrained GIS support, then the segment concluded with a demo of the newly released GIS Request Management Solution.

The Systems & Engagement segment began with a session on the ArcGIS Well-Architected Framework and Architecture Center website, then a presentation on how to change your image, raise your visibility and importance, affect real organizational change, and deliver significant business value with GIS. This final segment closed with a panel discussion on how to obtain executive sponsorship.

Brian Cross, Esri’s Executive Director of Professional Services, wrapped up the day with a formal acknowledgement of the hard work and commitment from the GIS/IT manager/leadership community and their contributions to their organizations’ success. The Summit was then celebrated with a social at the pool area of the Marriott hotel.

I’ve been to most of the twelve summits and am amazed at the continued improvement in this event. Each year, we hear from multiple attendees that this is the highlight of their UC week. As I mentioned at the summit, an Assistant City Manager once told me, “Whether or not our enterprise GIS is successful is not a technology problem, it’s a people problem.”

If you are to be successful with maximizing the impact of your GIS program, you must build skills in the five key components, dedicate time to them, and follow best practices. This will make your career more rewarding and fulfilled.

This is the end of the FOMO, hopefully it was enough to convince you to attend GISMS next year. Whether you attended or not, stay tuned to the GIS Manager Group on the Esri Community for a continued conversation with SMEs on the topics discussed at the summit, and please chime in so we can get your feedback on how to improve this important initiative. Also, please join the Managers in GIS group on LinkedIn.

Here are links to the slides: