DC/MD/VA Area Geo-Event Scene Getting More Active

There was a time only a few years ago when, if you lived in the DC/MD/VA area, planning your geo-conference schedule for the year went something like this: Register for the ESRI FedUC and then start booking plane tickets for everything else. That is no longer the case with more events occurring in the area. Here’s a round-up of a few events that are on my 2012 schedule so far:

You can never have too many of these...

ESRI Federal GIS Conference (formerly known as the Federal User Conference): 22 – 24 February. This is probably one of the longest-running and largest events in the area. This year features another DevGeo session, focusing on developing applications with the various ESRI tools. Last year was the first time it was done at a FedUC and the room was packed all day. This conference is obviously an ESRI show but the last few years have included unofficial, after-hours gatherings of people working with a wide range of geospatial tools. Even if you are not an ESRI user, there may be something going on in the vicinity that would be worthwhile.

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DevGeo Session at the Esri FedUC

We are approximately a month away from the Esri Federal User Conference. It is probably the largest geospatially-themed event in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area each year and has gotten bigger each year. I have documented this conference in the past and have pointed out that, despite its name, there is a lot of information that can be of value for state/local and other non-Federal users of Esri products. Given constrained travel budgets, it’s a good option for people who may not be able to make it to San Diego.

This year, Esri has added something new to the FedUC. It was somewhat innocuously tweeted by Jim Barry last week but is, in my opinion, a significant addition. If you check the agenda, you will now see that Thursday, January 20 now includes an all-day DevGeo session. This is a follow-on event to the inaugural DevGeo session put on in Silicon Valley in November.

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