After more than two years of contact restrictions and virtual events, the Esri User Conference (Esri UC) finally took place again at the beginning of July as an in-person event in California. Over 14,000 GIS users and Esri partner companies came together in San Diego. The latest GIS trends and challenges of our time were discussed directly.
With the theme "Mapping common Ground", the focus of this year's conference was on one of the central problems of our time. According to Esri founder Jack Dangermond, this includes, above all, protecting our "common home", our shared home, planet Earth. The challenge, according to Dangermond, is to break out of our silos and recognize that we can only tackle this problem together. This means working together and using data-driven decisions to develop solutions for a better common future.
During the plenary session at the opening of the conference, he spoke about the ways in which modern geoinformation systems can be used to help tackle these challenges and used impressive examples to show the positive impact that the global GIS community and the use of these systems are already having.
Challenge: Climate change
The fact that glaciers are melting faster and exceptional droughts are causing irreparable damage in many countries makes the fight against climate change even more urgent.
David J. Hayes, Special Assistant for Climate Policy at the White Building described in his keynote speech that a collaborative, geographic approach is needed to address climate change. The government's goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, accelerating the country's transition to a clean economy and strengthening the resilience of communities and cities to climate change. International cooperation is also key to achieving these goals. In collaboration with Esri, a prototype online portal has been developed to provide climate-related information, data and maps that are accessible to everyone.
Companies such as CERN European Laboratory for Particle Physics, the city of Sioux Falls in South Dakota, National Geographic and Energy Queensland showed how Esri technology can help improve processes, make data-driven decisions and document events such as snowstorms and forest fires through indoor mapping or dashboard solutions as well as digital maps and 3D models in order to guarantee rapid assistance and supply.
Over three days, the innovations of Esri technology were presented in numerous workshops, such as the major release of ArcGIS Pro 3.0 and ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0. Esri partner companies presented their solutions at the Expo and contact persons from Esri Inc. were available to answer questions. Opportunities for exchange and networking with other partners (Nexiga has been an Esri Gold Partner since 2017) and users were also offered at the numerous evening events.
Mapping common ground
In a pre-recorded presentation, conservationist Jane Goodall and the Vice President of Conservation at the Jane Goodall Institute, Lilian Pintea, described how important it is to work together and forge partnerships in order to combat poverty in Africa, for example, and create an ecologically sustainable livelihood with local people. Lilian Pintea reported on the importance of mapping and visualizing spatial information and commonground in order to impart knowledge, develop a common language and a common understanding and thus build trust between the inhabitants and the staff of the Jane Goodall Institute.
Face-to-face instead of virtual
The Esri User Conference was once again a great event to exchange ideas internationally and face-to-face, to get to know each other and to learn how numerous users can solve their daily challenges with Esri technology. Meeting and getting to know so many people, including the encounter with Esri founder Jack Dangermond, left an enriching and impressive event after the long time of video conferences and virtual events.