Esri User Conference Now Underway: ‘Creating Our Future’

The 2014 Esri User Conference opened on Monday in San Diego, California, USA, with Jack Dangermond emphasising the fact that GIS has reached critical mass. In its maturity lies a foundation underneath almost every part of daily life, he said, so it is creating the future in that sense. Keynotes during Monday’s Plenary Session included a Skype session with hiphop artist, ‘geogeek’ and last year’s speaker will.i.am, who talked to Jack Dangermond about his GIS watch live from Australia.

Penny Pritzker, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, underlined the importance of open data giving entrepreneurs possibilities to make better decisions and hence to be more successful. This ultimately supports and boosts the economy to the tune of a staggering USD3 trillion according to an investigative report on open data by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce (for more info, click here). Other speakers on the first day included Kathryn Sullivan, administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Dr Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organizaion and Dr Vincent Seaman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on eradicating polio, who showed the audience that GIS is not merely creating the future, but it is also creating a better future.

In line with tradition, the Esri User Conference is once again being held at the San Diego Convention Center, this year from 14-18 July. The conference comprises hundreds of technical sessions, workshops, demonstrations, side conferences and a large exhibitions showing Esri’s and its partners’ GIS solutions. The conference attracts close to 16,000 participants from 132 countries worldwide.

Image courtesy: Esri.