What a fun, fascinating and inspiring experience it's been at UC 2016! Whether I was getting inspired about the future of Esri during the plenary, discovering new trends in the expo or learning more about the power and possibilities of GIS in a technical session, I enjoyed my first UC and I hope you learned a lot this week too.

We wrap up our daily UC updates with this final post about the closing session which includes highlights of the overall UC awards, the GeoNet MVP awards and the open Q&A discussion. (In case you missed them, a full recap of the plenary live blogging and daily UC updates is listed below.)

The closing session started as Jack took time to introduce the team of Esri directors and thank attendees for making this year another valuable time of listening, learning and collaboration. Here's a recap of the numbers and hot topics that were highlighted.

UC by the numbers:

• 16,000+ attendees
• 1,950 Esri Staff
• 556 students
• 138 countries
• 365 exhibitors
• 547 Young Professionals
• 42 Planery speakers
• 324 technical workshops
• 109 Special Interest Groups
• 268 Paper Sessions
• 354 Demo Theaters
• 1,262 Maps (Map Gallery)
• 568 Runners (Esri 5K)
• 4,000 Puzzle Pieces
• 51,600 Buttons

Hot Topics: What was the buzz about this year?

• ArcGIS Pro
• Web GIS
• Apps
• Big Data and GeoAnalytics
• Real-time
• Insights
• Python API
• Content - (DigitalGlobe, Green Infrastructure, Vector Basemaps)
• Drone2Map
• Community GIS

Have you read the UC Q&A?

Jack spoke about the importance of the pre-conference Q&A and how critical it is to getting feedback and customer questions answered. He then handed the floor to Mark Harrower to announce the winners of the UC and GeoNet awards.

Award winners (Maps and Application Fair)

Here are pictures of some of the UC award winners. What a superb collection of map and application work that I'm looking forward to exploring more after UC.

GeoNet Community MVP Awards

It was a pleasure to see our top contributors Robert Scheitlin, GISP, Dan Patterson and Rebecca Strauch, GISP recognized for their contributions. Thanks so much to everyone in the GeoNet Community. We appreciate your contributions and commitment to making the community a valuable place to connect and collaborate.

To see the other stories and stats from the GeoNet Community UC meet-ups this week, you can download a copy of our meet-up presentation deck here.

Open Q&A

The closing session wrapped with a lively open discussion between customer and Esri staff as Jack and the directors fielded live questions and feedback about everything from the user conference experience and newly released products to improving license agreements and enhancing marketing initiatives.

Addressing a hot topic, Jack did a live in the moment "raise your hand" vote about whether or not there should be a paper pocket agenda made available next year and not only a mobile app or online version. More people voted to keep the mobile app versus only offering paper, but Jack offered an option to print the agenda if attendees wanted to, and Jack's suggestion received a loud applause of approval. Jack highlighted that the agenda and mobile app experience will continue to be improved and he appreciated the honest feedback. (We also invite you to share your thoughts in the comments on this thread: UC 2016 Agenda -- Working Much Better (6/22/2016) In my opinion.)

It was moments like this during the closing session where you could see and feel how this final UC 2016 conversation between Esri staff and customers personified the entire spirit of user conference; which is to listen and connect with customers so we can work towards real solutions together to make the world a better place.

Growing the community strategy. Let us know what you think of our UC experiment.

It's been an amazing week and whether you were at UC or following along remotely, we hope you enjoyed the live blogging during the plenary and the daily updates here on GeoNet. As I mentioned during the meet-ups and in my welcome post, I'm focused on developing the GeoNet Community strategy with the goal of making the community more valuable and integrated into the business, so the UC live blogging and updates was something new that we wanted to experiment with this year as part of the growth of the community strategy, so let's us know what you think so we can improve it for next year.

In case you missed it, here's a collection of the live blogging and daily updates we did during the conference. Timothy Hales and I couldn't cover it all, so we invite you to continue the collaborative conversation and post your experiences in the comments on each daily update post.

Live Blog: 2016 Esri UC Plenary (Morning Session)

Live Blog: 2016 Esri UC Plenary (Afternoon Session)

UC Daily Discussion Monday 6/27: Map Gallery Highlights

UC Updates Day 2: GIS Managers' Open Summit, GeoNet Meet-up, Education Sessions, Platform Enablement

UC Updates Day 3: Esri 5K, Drones, GeoMentor, GeoNet Meet-up, Startups and more

UC Updates Day 4: GeoNet Meet-up Recap, Regression Analysis and Nicholas Cage, UC Party

Let's continue the UC 2016 conversation...

What were your favorite moments? What did you learn and discover? What questions do you have? We look forward to hearing your thoughts, ideas and UC experiences in the comments below. Thanks for sharing and we hope you had a great UC!

Grabbing some gifts at the Esri store

I started Day 4 with a need for some UC swag and I wanted to pick up some gifts the family back home so I explored the Esri store and grabbed a few of the slick "The Amazing Map Man," and The Flash-inspired "Powered by Esri" t-shirts. It was an added bonus to meet and quickly chat with Esri UC student assistant Jessica Leonard who helped to ring up my items as she shared her love for maps and walked me through her impressive UC button collection. Big thanks to all the Esri store staff and student assistants for helping out at UC this year. We appreciate your hard work and support!

What swag, books and other UC gear did you pick up in the store? What were some of your favorite store items this year?

GeoNet Thursday Meet-up: Inspired and building towards the future

The final day of the GeoNet UC meet-ups were all about making new relationships, storytelling and meaningful real-time collaboration. The exploratory Esri rebranding feedback sessions with Christina Sullivan were insightful as community members shared their thoughts with Christina on what they thought of the branding statements. I was excited to watch these discussions unfold because the is exactly the type of collaboration and co-creation we're aiming to have in the community in the future.

We were honored to have Joseph Kersti share his success stories from the Education team. "The GeoNet Community provides not only technical assistance, but gives them confidence in their ability to teach effectively with GIS," Joseph said. "It also gives them encouragement to go farther with GIS instruction to foster critical thinking and spatial thinking skills."

I walked away from the meet-up feeling, yet again, inspired from what I heard and excited about the opportunity we have to build on the GeoNet Community experience. Did you attend the meet-ups? What did you think? How would you like to see us evolve meet-ups in the future?

To see the other stories and stats from the meet-up, you can download a copy of our meet-up presentation deck here.

Asking important questions through Regression Analysis

I learned a lot during the latest Ten Questions for Esri video, so one of my highlights of the afternoon sessions was building on my understanding of spatial analysis and going deeper into exploring regression analysis via Lauren Bennett. She set the stage explaining what regression analysis is, it's approach and key characteristics:

• It's a method and model to help us examine and explore spatial relationships
• It helps us better understand factors behind observed spatial patterns
• It helps us predict outcomes based on understanding

She further explained that, "You should use regression analysis in your work because you can explore correlations, predict unknown values and understand key factors to the data you're collecting and mapping."

To make the point of truly understanding your data and making sure that your data is meaningful, useful, accurate and actionable, Bennet used humor to prove her point and shared a couple entertaining slides highlighting data about the misdirected correlation between "Number of people who drowned by Falling into a Swimming Pool vs Number of Nicholas Cage films."

Bennet walked us through the equation and variables that support regression analysis. Deep stuff, for sure. And I didn't "get" all of it completely. But I did walk away with a deeper appreciation for the complexity that goes into creating a map that will not only lay out data but will help a customer, audience or organization make a critical decision.

Here are my big takeaways:

• Before you sit down to gather and then map your data you should make sure to ask the right questions and have a good understanding of context.
• Be open to exploration. What you think you are going to find out and what you discover along the way might be very different. So use analysis to check in and see if you're on track.
• Have a solid framework or idea of the story you want to tell before you tell it.
• Always be thinking about the context of your data and what it means in the broader story you're aiming to tell.
• Big decisions require big thought. Critical decisions require critical thought.

Esri UC Party Time

After a busy day of drinking from the glorious and beautiful firehose of GIS and doing lots of big thinking, a big celebration sounded like a perfect end to the day.  I jumped on the bus and headed to Balboa park and embarked on my first UC Party.  It was a remarkable experience, to say the least, so I grabbed a few pics as the festivities unfolded around me. I cruised the park and museum grounds munching on tasty treats and taking in live music, opera singers, dazzling aerialists, life-sized Jenga games, art galleries, illuminate foosball matches, and munching on tasty treats.

How was your UC Party? Share your experience in the comments below.

Esri 5K Run/Walk

By Chris Catania

Welcome to Day 3 of UC!  We kick off today's coverage with a shout out to the runners of the Esri 5K run/walk. The festivities got going early at 6:30am as more than 500 conference attendees ran, jogged and walked their way around the marina. It was a perfectly cool morning and a great start to the day as everyone celebrated the 3.2 mile journey with high fives and post-race selfies as they triumphantly crossed the finish line then headed to the showers to gear up for another exciting day at the User Conference. Nice work, everyone!

Special thanks to the Esri Startup Program for the race photo!

Stay tuned for more updates today as we continue to explore User Conference. What are you looking forward today? What have been your favorite experiences and moments so far?

Drone Zone!!!

by Timothy Hales

The drone zone was a popular spot during the Esri UC Expo. Every time someone fired up a drone people gathered around to catch a glimpse of the action. Partners presented various applications that used drone technology to inspect structures, compile imagery, and collect LiDAR. As mentioned in the Plenary, Esri recently released Drone2Map (Drone2Map for ArcGIS)   which turns raw still imagery from drones into professional 2D and 3D imagery products. The desktop app will mean that affordable imagery is available on demand for land analysis, infrastructure inspection, and monitoring events such as natural disasters and environmental changes.

AAG GeoMentor

by Timothy Hales

It was great to meet up with Candice Luebbering who works with the AAG Geomentors. They are working to connect GIS professionals and educators across the world to help teach students GIS technology. Esri has partnered with them to provide resources and support. One of Esri's initiatives is ConnectEd which provides free online mapping for schools. Connect with them on GeoNet - GeoMentors.

Inspired by students in the map gallery

by Chris Catania

I enjoyed touring around the map gallery on Monday and through the conference! This being my first UC it was great to explore all the different maps and talk with the map authors and learn what inspired them.  During the plenary I was impressed by the student presentations so decided to talk with the students from UC Berkley (top left), National 4-H GIS leadership team (top right) and the San Andreas High School (bottom) about their work in GIS.  Reflecting on their work and understanding more about the focus of their maps encouraged me think deeper about the world around me. The future of GIS is bright, indeed. And I'm looking forward to continuing the student conversation in the GeoMentors group.

What were your favorite map discoveries and discussions? What did you learn as you cruised through the map gallery?

Exploring "what's next" in the Esri Startup area

By Timothy Hales

The Esri Startup Program (Esri Startup Program) area in the expo was buzzing with excitement and innovation. We spent a few minutes with Jeff Lafrenz from VizworX – Visibly Better Solutions . They offer a product that focuses on in-person collaboration. They provide the capability for multiple people to engage within a single map displayed on a touch screen. Each person has their own viewer to interact with the map. They even have a way for a remote user to interact with the map. I was very impress with use of the APIs and look forward to seeing how their product develops over time.

GeoNet Community Meet-up

by Chris Catania

It was good times and great conversations at our second GeoNet Community UC meet-up! We celebrated the growth of the GeoNet by sharing community metrics and success stories and we talked about the future strategy of the community.

Best of all, we had an excellent conversation with our members and it was a pleasure to hear from top contributor and MVP, Rebecca Strauch, GISP about the value of the community to her daily GIS work and what she's learning:

“I’m amazed at how much I learn when I browse thru the various posts. It’s incredible how many times I see something that could help me improve the project I’m working on right now, or something I want to look into later.”

“I am a GIS analyst, developer and ArcGIS Server administrator and also manage the licenses, provide user support and troubleshoot in our department. When it comes to issues I come across, I typically don’t have anyone in the office that I can talk to. GeoNet is like a very large, extended peer group. There is almost always someone that has come across the same issue, and even if not, there are many other users that are willing to help or giving things I can try out myself. Even if I end up calling tech support, I’ve typically already done research so I can expedite the conversation by letting them know what I’ve already ruled out.”

To see the other stories and stats from the meet-up, you can download a copy of our meet-up presentation deck here.

We're looking forward to the last meet-up tomorrow at 12pm in 33A. See you there!

Traveling, Mapping the world at the GIS Kids Fair

By Chris Catania

Later in the afternoon we made our way to the GIS Kids Fair. During the conference more than 200 kids and parents had attended the fair and it was a joy to see families having so much fun working together and virtually traveling around the world and using GIS to make memories as they mapped out their journey with story maps. Kudos to the Esri training and certification staff for putting together an excellent learning and collaborative experience.

Social learning and listening at its best

by Chris Catania

The day wrapped up as we took in the evening's social poolside festivities at the YPN social and the GeoDev Meet-up. Since I'm only 82 days into my role at Esri, one of my favorite parts of the UC has been to meet and talk with Esri customers and I had many opportunities to ask questions, listen and learn at both events. I've had so many valuable discussions this week and I've appreciated getting a better understanding of how they use GIS in their work and how they currently use (or don't use) the GeoNet Community and how would like to see the GeoNet experience evolve.

Each conversation has helped me understand where we should and shouldn't take the community. Best of all, these informal social chats have revealed many valuable nuances of how the Esri platform is utilized across the various industries.

And what I've discovered this week has really inspired me to think differently and find ways to connect customers and Esri employees in the community and enable us to work better and collaborate more. And I look forward to sharing more of what I'm learning as our journey continues.

What did you enjoy the most about Day 3? What are you learning so far at UC?

Today is full of exciting user sessions and workshops. We have picked a variety of topics to provide a live update on. Check back often as we add updates from the events we attend.

Education (Education) - Self Organized Sessions (Un-Conference)

The session began by opening the floor to topics from attendees. Discussion tables were formed based upon the topics.

I am sitting in on a citizen science discussion. What is citizen science you say? It ok I had a general idea but looked it up on Google.

Citizen science (CS) (also known as crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, volunteer monitoring or networked science) is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists.  - Wikipedia

At the end of the time allotment, we shared a few take aways from each group:

ArcGIS Online with LMS/CMS Integration

Learn with story maps

Workflow for sharing maps beyond the project

Process for evaluating student work

Next Step: Surveying Educators

Helping Students Learn Resources

GeoMentors - Bridging the gap between educators and mentors. Setting the expectations to help get the GIS knowledge on the student's level.

GeoMentor/Teacher Workshops

Next Step: Sharing Resource

Resources for Citizen Science

Connecting with agencies/organization to identify real-world problems

Individual project vs mass participant projects

Problem Solving vs Project Based

Making an action from results of the project.

Identifying problem templates to create reusable lessons

Next Step - Collaborating with others. Possibly using GeoNet for collaboration and as a repository of information.

GIS Managers' Open Summit

by Christopher Catania

I'm excited to kick off day two of User Conference 2016 with updates from the morning session of the GIS Managers Open Summit. It was fun to be a "fly on the wall" to see what hot topics and trends are top of mind for GIS managers.

I walked into Ballroom 20A to the welcomed buzz of conversations as the event started with an engaging speed-networking session. GIS managers formed a big circle around the room and rotated every 5 minutes. What a great start to the day attendees made new connections, share stories and expanded their professional GIS network.

Keith Cooke took the stage first as he dove right in to share the vision and purpose for the day.

Keith encouraged GIS managers to rethink their role and how they approach sharing GIS within their organizations. "A lot of time I don’t bring up GIS directly. I encourage you to talk differently about GIS too; incorporate and share GIS workflows that make sense to your audience and explain how GIS fits into the natural flow of business."

Keith wrapped up by encouraging managers to set aside time for ongoing education and to keep growing their practical GIS knowledge and challenge themselves to create to new creative ways to explain how to use the platform. "You need to use your GIS knowledge and continue to understand how it fits into the broader picture. Your job is not to be the gatekeeper. Your job is to empower your business partners. You should be like a doctor and know how to assess, diagnose and apply a GIS solution into the mix to solve the problem."

Keith handed the floor to Adam Carnow who took the stage to give a preview of the summit's case studies.

Adam shared how Walgreens is using GIS to power the Flu Index Indicator and identify competitor locations. Adam was excited about the impact of the GIS platform in the Walgreens case study but he also stressed underlying message, which was the evolution of the GIS manager title. He pointed out that Jillian's title doesn't even mention "GIS" and her title is more aligned with the trends of business intelligence (BI) within organizations.

Adam explained that Jillian's title represents an important shift that is happening in the industry and needs to happen on larger scale for other GIS Managers. He explained that the Walgreens business can't run with GIS and that one of the reasons GIS has begun to be adopted into Walgreens so successfully is because of how GIS has been reframed more as "location intelligence" instead of just a geographicly-based technology.

Adam closed by asking key questions and sharing these thoughts:

• Do we need to rebrand GIS to "location intelligence?"
• How do we embrace new business trends and evolve the role of the GIS manager?

Big thanks to Adam and Keith for letting me experience the meeting. It was a pleasure to soak up the GIS info and I had a chance to better understand how the GIS manager role is evolving and where the industry is going. I look forward to seeing how the rest of the GIS Summit discussions develop during the day.

If you attended the GIS Managers Open Summit, we invite you to share your thoughts and experiences in the comment below!

GeoNet Community Meet-up

by Chris Catania

We hosted our first of three GeoNet Community meet-ups today. It was great to see and meet with community member Adrian Welsh as he shared what he enjoys the most about GeoNet and contributed to the collaborative discussion we had about the Esri rebranding project.

During the meet-up we shared stats and GeoNet community success stories such as this one from Robert Scheitlin, GISP:

"For me it has been a way to get feedback/input on widget design and functionality for the widgets I have made. Speaking for other members it allows them a centralized place to ask questions and provide input/suggestions on widgets and the WAB product in general."

"We as a community have seen changes in the software based on threads in the Web AppBuilder Custom Widgets group and the development staff participation in this group. I have seen and been involved in several collaborations for widget development that would probably not have occurred if it not had been for the connections to other members in the group."

To see the other stories and stats from the meet-up, you can download a copy of our meet-up presentation deck here.

We're looking forward to the next meet-ups tomorrow and Thursday.

UC Expo: Platform Enablement lightning talks

Editor's note: This update comes from the Platform enablement team. Thanks for sharing the update with us on the UC live blog!

The new ArcGIS Platform Enablement area at the UC Expo was greeted by overflow crowds today from the moment the Expo opened, through the first 9 lightning talks.

Topics covered the gamut, everything from writing successful RFPs to building security into your GIS, users took advantage of the venue to get a close-up perspective and some hands-on guidance from Esri professionals.

The Platform Enablement area pulls together experts from Esri services to provide a one-stop venue to help users with their ArcGIS platforms. The area is divided into kiosks, with the lightning talk area adjacent. The six kiosks:

• Strategy & Planning
• Architecture & Security
• Geodata Engineering
• Configuration & Integration
• Training & Certification
• Premium Support

Agile Project Management, presented from Lana Tylka(photo above), was one of today's platform enablement lightning talks. Tomorrow’s talks kick off at 9:30 with a reprise of the popular “Tips for Writing a Successful GIS RFP.”

Did you stop by the Platform Enablement area today? What did you think of the area and lightning talks? Thanks for sharing your experiences and we invite you to stop by tomorrow.

That's it for today! Thanks for following along on the UC updates and stay tuned for tomorrow's updates and Day 3 conversation.

We are back in session at the Esri User Conference Plenary. Check out the morning session: Live Blog: 2016 Esri UC Plenary (Morning Session)

GIS Enabling a Smarter World

2:00 - Andrea Wulf - The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World

Andrea is taking us back 200 years to look at scientist Alexander von Humboldt. Many things were named after Humboldt:

• Humbodlt Current
• Humboldt Penguin
• Humboldt, CA
• Humboldt, Squid
• Humboldt Isotherms (weather maps)

In writing her book, Andrea focused on brining Humboldt back to his rightful place. She studied his notes, passport, and Darwin's copies of Humboldt's Books. She visited locations that were significant to Humboldt's life such as Antisana, Ecuador - Humboldt's Hut, Orinoco, Venezuela, and Chimborazo, Ecuador.

From his exploration he created complex plant information on a map. This is one of the first examples of GIS.

His map of the Orinoco showed techniques of shading map to show detail of mountain ranges. He employed artists to turn his fields sketches into magnificent maps.

The work that you do is a living atlas. Humboldt would have dreamt of this.

Jack - We are moved by the story that you tell, but we are moved by you.

2:48 - Observing & Analyzing America’s Forests – USDA Forest Service

CharlesHobie Perry , Ph.D., Project Manager – Forest Atlas

Christopher Oswalt , Ph.D., Research Forester

How do we see forests?

They are logging forestry data in ArcGIS Online and The Living Atlas so the GIS professional have access.

They are collecting staggering amounts of data and building applications for our use, our partner's user, and your use.

3:00 - Kaitlin Yarnall, National Geographic Society

National Geographic is creating mapping tools for looking at greens spaces in the US. These tools are for everyone. This is the next generation of parks and protecting wildlife. Placing the environment at the heart of planning.

Esri has partnered with National Geographic for Education and Conservation, but now we are not just focused on national parks but green infrastructure everywhere.

3:06 - Designing and Creating a Green Infrastructure

Arancha Muñoz Criado, City and Strategic Planner

Green infrastructure is about transparency; everyone knows, everyone benefits.

This project will be release in ArcGIS Online and shared for everyone.

3:15 - Designing and Creating Green Infrastructure - Hugh Keegan

We took the national land cover dataset from 2000. Get rid of anything developed and agriculture. Looking mainly for intact natural areas.

Tools and Apps to Model and Map Green Infrastructure

This project is all open data.

3:29 - Making a Difference Award

AmazonGISnet - Richard Resl, Domingo Ankuash

Statements from Domingo

• We do not live in the forest, we are part of the forest.
• We do not think in disciplines, we naturally wish to understand the whole.

• We need your attention and concern before be become poor.
• Becoming poor for us means we have to leave our lands.

• We can turn history around now.
• We can learn for the signs in the sky.

• We can start saving our own little forest everywhere.
• We need you to be equally mindful toward us protecting the rainforests.

• We want to keep up recors for the next generations to come.

GIS and Maps have given us a new language for under

Domingo passed the spear to Jack.

3:38 - GIS in Schools

Charlie Fitzpatrick, Joseph Kerski

San Andreas High School - Highland, CA

• Teens and Alcohol Abuse - Story Map
• 2016 Presidential Election - Story Map

• City of Highland Data Collection - Story Map

Charlie and Joseph call for GeoMentors to partner with school to help with GIS instruction and data.

3:52 - Understanding Understanding

Jack Dangermond & Richard Saul Wurman (TED founder)

Richard joins Jack on stage joke around a bit (they are clearly close friends).

Richard says that he has made changes in Jack's life, and Jack has made enormous changes in my life.

Richard tells story of bringing Billy Graham to do a TED talk because of his influence on people. Grapham told about how he wished he had come to more of these conferences because he realized that there must be more. The same can be said of GIS technology, there must be more.

4:06 - Jack closes out the plenary and invite us to join him in the map gallery.

Welcome to the 2016 Esri International User Conference Plenary. We (Christopher Catania & Timothy Hales) will be sharing the latest news from the plenary.

Note: You can follow the Plenary afternoon session live blog here.

7:55 - The excitement is building as we wait for the plenary doors to open.

8:30 - Intro video talking about the power of GIS in a variety of industries from business development to environmental studies. The audio was created from previous keynote speaker. GIS Enabling a Smarter World.

8:33 - Jack Dangermond welcomes everyone to the 37th Annual User Conference. The audience has come from 130 different countries. Jack is inviting us to meet those around us. This type of networking is what this conference is all about.

Nice to meet Kenny from Texas during the intros! He uses the Esri platform to support the city of Keller. It's his first UC too. Thanks for coming and hope you enjoy your UC, Kenny!

8:36 - Jack is highlighting your work.

• Environmental Monitoring
• Energy Development and Managing Natural Resources
• Managing Land Information, Urban, Regional and Conservation
• Transportation Planning and Management
• Engineering and Public Works
• Utilities and Telecommunication
• Buildings and Campus Management
• Business Analysis and Management
• Health, Education and Demographics
• Public Safety and Security
• Preparing for and Responding to Disasters
• Citizen Engagement, Open Data and Collaboration
• Cartography
• Story Maps

8:47 - This year there is a Storytelling with Maps Contest and they are sharing several of the entries in a video. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is this year's winner.

8:48 - Recognizing the 2016 Special Achievement in GIS Award winners.

• Enterprise GIS Award - Pinellas County, Florida
• President's Award - Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Craig Fugate telling about the partnership with Esri to use social media to help emergency responders.

8:56 - UC Vision: GIS - Enabling a Smarter World

• GIS Provides the Framework and Process for Enabling a Smarter World
• GIS is Getting Smarter - Integrating and leveraging many mnnovations
• Smart GIS Integrates Real-Time Data - Providing dynamic information and everything
• Smart GIS Connects Everyone - Creating a system of insight; Connecting people, processes, things and data about them
• Smart GIS Applications - Are already changing how we think and act
• Smart GIS Engages Communities - "Community of GIS" is a new pattern

9:08 - Jack introducing Mayor Eric Garcetti from the City of Los Angeles. Video of Mayor Garcetti describing their Esri Partnership and their GeoHub Portal.

Lilian Coral, LA Chief Data Officer - Describing GeoHub and how is provides better access to real-time data. Lilian  introducing Vision Zero which is a citywide effort brings together transportation engineers, police officers, advocates, and policymakers to work together towards creating safer streets.

9:22 - Our Work (Esri technology and supporting our users)

ArcGIS

• A complete web GIS platform
• Enables multiple types of systems

ArcGIS is Evolving - Moving from simply supporting client server to

ArcGIS Capabilities are Advancing

• Data Management and Editing
• Field GIS  - Taking GIS Beyond the Office
• Living Atlas - Ready-to-use Maps and Data
  • Esri has a new partnership with Digital Globe to get their best imagery for the entire planet.
• Mapping and Visualization
• Isights - Transforming understanding with exploratory Analysis

9:32 - Linda Beale showing the all new Insights application. Spatial Analysis plays a big role in this app.

During the analysis, everything is automatically recorded so that processes can be rerun.

Insights is being licenses as premium ArcGIS service.

ELA Users will receive on prem version without cost.

• Spatial Analysis - Introducing new technologies and methods
  • R - ArcGIS (Project R) is being integrated into ArcGIS
• Big Data - GeoAnalytics and visualization of massive data

Suzanne Foss - Demoing GeoAnalytic capabilities with a great example of fraud analysis and processing billions of records.

• 3D - New and improved capabilities across the platform

9:52 - Smart 3D Cities - Brooks Patrick

• Imagery - Improved capabilities for ortho mapping, image management and analysis
  • Drone2Map for ArcGIS being release this week.
• Apps - Extending ArcGIS capabilities everywhere
• Open-Source Maps and Apps
• App Builder - Easy-to-configure and Create pps
  • Web Apps
  • Web AppBuilder - Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS
  • AppStudio - @App_Studio
• Development and Scripting Tools- For extending, customizing, and embedding
  • ArcGIS Code Sharing - Reincarnated ArcScripts
• ArcGIS is Open and Interoperable
  • Open Standards and Formats
  • Product Integration
  • Open Software

ArcGIS Platform Components

• ArcGIS Desktop - Professional GIS
  • ArcMap - Continues to be supported
  • ArcGIS Pro - Investing in the development of pro to work alongside of ArcMap
• ArcGIS Online - Host Web GIS
  • 3.2 Million Users
  • 94 Billions Map Views
  • 6.2 Million items
  • 15.3 open data downloads

• ArcGIS Server - Web GIS in your own infrastructure
• ArcGIS Portal Replication
• Specialized Products - Providing Focus Applications
  • Geodesign
  • Decision Support
  • Domain-Specific

10:06 - Road Map - Incremental and Groundbreaking Advancements

• Esri - Serving our users
• Advancing GIS and Spatial Science
• Professional Development - Lifelong Learning
• Esri Young Professionals Network
  • Esri Young Professionals Network
  • Self-Paced Learning is now free to all users
• Partner Ecosystem - Committed to Your Success
• Special Relationships - Enriching our user community making a difference
• Education (Education) - Building the Next Generation

10:15 - BREAK

10:30 - Lauren Bennett - Welcomes up back and invites us to take a look at how GIS is enabling a smarter world

The Living Atlas of the Works  - Deane Kensok

• Content
  • Imagery
  • Landscape
  • Earth observations
  • Boundaries and Places
• Vector Basemaps

A Symphony of Apps - Jean Gea

• Apps for the Field
• Apps for the Office
• Apps for the Community
• AppBuilders - No Coding Required
• Open Source Apps for Industries

10:48 - Auckland Council - Creating the worlds most livable city

Ian Smith and Lauren McAarthy

Five Steps to Maximizing Web GIS

• Create Destinations
• Integrate Systems
• Configure First
• Apps for Efficiency
• Maps for Communications

11:00 - ArcGIS Pro  (ArcGIS Pro) - Flora Vale

• Smart mapping help us to visualize and integrate more data at once
• Charting visualizations
• Explore new relationships between data
• Integrates with Living Atlas
• Flora used ArcGIS Pro for finding favorite music venues in downtown and how to find the best place to hold a music festival to demonstrate the new tools.

11:05 - Guy Carpenter

Shannon Peterson & Brian Adam

• Exposure Assessment
• Multiple Exposures
• Seismic Modeling
• Building Accumulations
• Growing the Business

11:15 - Remote Sensing (Imagery and Remote Sensing) - Peter Becker

• ArcGIS Online (ArcGIS Online) imagery analysis
• ArcGIS Pro - Classification Tools that works with data from ArcGIS Online
• Drone2Map for ArcGIS provides a way to collect imagery and LIDAR

11:21 - City of New Orleans

Lamar Gardere, Greg Hymel  & James Raasch

• Where Y'At
• NoticeMe  - Land use changes
• RoadWorks - Communicating road work project information
• 311 Street Flooding
• Adopt a Catch Basin
• Water Management Projects in New Orleans

11:34 - Real-Time GIS - Suzanne Foss & Adam Mollenkopf

• City of Auckland: Real-Time Transit
• Real-Time as a Managed Service

11:39 - 3D and Global Visualization - Jo Fraley

• Taking 2D data and making a 3D map
• Visualizing data analysis in 3D (Water modeling)
  • Can Publish 3D packages to ArcGIS
• ArcGIS Earth
  • Visualize KML data in a simple application
  • Support for 3D meshes

11:46 - Frozen in Time - A History of Life and the Moments of Death at Sandby Borg

Kalmar County Museum - Nicholas Nilsson & Fredrik Gunnarsson

Use of archeology dog and Collector for ArcGIS (Collector for ArcGIS)

11:57 - Runtime Applications -  Adrien Meriaux

Virtual Archeology Android App

12:04 - BREAK for lunch - Return at 2:00pm

Check out 2016 Plenary Part 2: the live blog for the afternoon plenary session.

It didn't take long for the Esri YPN to get the User Conference started. Sunday evening was their first event of the week with the Welcome Social. 160+ YPN members participated in the event which has held out on the Marriott Marque Coronado Terrace. The beautiful San Diego Bay presented a relaxing backdrop for networking with others.   

For a list of other EsrI YPN events at the UC, please see Esri YPN 2016 UC Schedule.

Continue the conversation on GeoNet by visiting that Esri Young Professionals Network group.

We're excited to announce that we'll be hosting GeoNet Community meet-ups, live blogging and starting interactive discussions during User Conference this year! The live blogging and daily discussions will take place in the User Conference space on GeoNet. Check out the details below and let us know if you are able to attend either meet-up or would like to share your UC experience and contribute to the live blogging or daily discussions. We're looking forward to connecting with you at UC! Thanks and let us know if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions.

Live blogging and daily discussion details:

• Live blogging: Throughout the conference Timothy Hales and I will be live blogging various events and presentations on GeoNet in the User Conference space. We invite you to follow and share your experiences in the comments on those blog posts.

• Daily discussions: Each day we will post a discussion thread where you can contribute to the daily questions and share your UC experiences. News updates and a recap of the previous day's live blogging will also be included in the discussions post.

Meet-up Details

Monday, June 27: Informal Meet & Greet Meet-up

• What: Meet & Greet with Chris & Timothy and Esri Community members
• When: 4-5pm
• Where: Map Gallery (specific location TBD)

Tuesday - Thursday, June 28-30: Formal meet-ups with agenda

Note: These meet-ups will happen each day Tuesday through Thursday and have a more detailed agenda than the Monday informal Meet & Greet meet-up. The idea is that the agenda will be the same for these meet-ups, and given your UC schedules for Tuesday through Thursday, you can attend a formal meet-up that fits your schedule. Here are the details and sneak peek at what you can expect.

• What: Meet-up with detailed agenda (below)
• When: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 12-1pm
• Where: SDCC, Room 33A

Meet-up agenda

• Meet and Greet with Chris Catania and Timothy Hales
• Recognize top members for collaboration and contributions
• Member success stories
• Special guest: Christina Sullivan, Head of Marketing Strategy and Planning
  • Christina will join us to share work on an Esri branding refresh initiative. Your feedback on this initiative will help us expand into new markets while preserving our core markets and users. Join us and get in on the ground floor of this exciting work!
• What’s coming next in GeoNet (new features, etc.)

• Wrap-up and Q&A

Take advantage of early registration for the Esri UC. Not only will you save $400 off the regular registration fee, you can reserve the hotel rooms you want and grab a seat at a popular preconference seminar, before any of them sell out.

The Esri UC brings together a global audience of Esri GIS users from across all organization sectors to learn, network and share their
experiences. The conference is held each year in San Diego in the summer to take advantage of this beautiful Southern California city’s balmy weather. Plan to attend each year and learn what’s new in GIS technology and data, network with your peers, and stay connected to the pulse of this exciting, vibrant industry. 

Register now and get the early bird rate!

Here is what is waiting for you:

Make the Esri UC Your UC

Submit a paper, a map or an app and showcase your work at the conference.  Compete in a variety of contests to stretch your skills. Talk with an Esri cartographer about your map designs.  There is no better way to improve your skills and learn new techniques than to take an active role in the experience of the Esri UC. Check EsriUC.com for the latest due dates so you don’t miss a deadline.

One-on-one education at the GIS Expo

More than 300 exhibitors representing companies and organizations at the forefront of geospatial technology are on the show floor and ready to meet you. Esri product islands, demo theaters and Esri staff from training, professional services, data health checks, and UX/UI are also located here, so you can ask specific questions or sit in on a short presentation about a particular area of interest. Don’t miss your opportunity to meet one-on-one at these areas.

A GIS Conference Made for Experts like You

Step one: attend the Esri UC. Step two: apply geography everywhere by learning about:

• focused solutions for your industry from Esri,partners and other users
• The ins and outs of the ArcGIS platform including Online, desktop and Server
• Information on specific extensions from Esri , Esri partners and start-ups
• How to take advantage and integrate new technology into your existing implementation

Sessions, sessions and more sessions

You can choose from more than 900 different user presentations, Esri-led technical workshops, and software demonstrations including:

• Hundreds of paper presentations from users just like you;
• Technical sessions presented by the Esri software product teams;
• Road Ahead sessions that will provide insight into the direction of Esri’s solutions;
• Overview sessions providing a look at Esri technology you might not be using today;
• In-depth sessions about the ArcGIS platform.

Make Lots of Connections

And we aren’t even talking about the topology on your map. Network with people who hold your interest and get the most out of your time at
the conference:

• Special Interest Groups – Get to know users in your industry.
• Regional User Groups – Meet others from your geographic area.
• Partner sponsored events – Talk with the people behind the solutions you use every day.
• Industry-specific events – Learn about solutions and use cases you can implement in your organization.

Experience the UC, Don’t Just Attend

All work and no play isn’t fun for anyone. At the Esri UC you have plenty of time to digest everything you’ve learned by participating in all sorts of activities: run a 5K, do some yoga, bring the family to family night at the GIS Expo, bring the kids to the Kids Fair and let them experience your love of all things geo, and then top it all off by celebrating your accomplisments at the Thursday night party.

What are you waiting for? Register now and get the early bird rate!