Archive for the ‘Events: Travel’ Category

2009 ESRI International User Conference Recap

July 21st, 2009 by Darin Herle

Our team just got back from the 2009 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego – what a week! The sheer size of the conference (rivalling that of any major software vendor) always surprises me, but, given the crowds, its never been hard to find a friendly client, partner or conference goer eager to talk about mapping.

Our booth was well positioned this year, and we had some steady traffic. Its interesting to note that fewer people each year seem to wonder what Geocortex is – our multi-million dollar marketing campaign must be working. :) All kidding aside, I think the steady delivery of compelling software and services to organizations worldwide continues to propel our brand.

picnic2009The Geocortex Picnic set a high water mark of around 300 people – between the shaded location bayside and the ongoing struggle to find lunch in the Gaslamp district, many clients chose to join us for our annual hosted BBQ lunch. And our caterer, with mobile smokehouse and slow cooked BBQ in tow, makes for a good draw too.

Our latest work with the ArcGIS Server REST, Javascript, Flex and Silverlight APIs, showcased in the Geocortex Resource Center, seemed well received. The buzz on the exhibit hall floor seemed to suggest many organizations see significant value leveraging REST based development paradigms. I also noticed a number of demonstrations of Geocortex Optimizer happening, and early peeks at our mobile asset tracking solution for ArcGIS Server, Geocortex Fleet Tracker.

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2009 Geocortex Picnic at the ESRI International User Conference

July 2nd, 2009 by Darin Herle

We’re coming up on another ESRI International User Conference in San Diego (but a week away!), which means its time to talk about our BBQ Picnic again…

picnic07Join us for sun, games and southwest BBQ at the 4th Annual Geocortex Picnic, Wedenesday July 15 from 12 – 2PM. Prior years have brought us a great seaside gastro-experience with Latitude staff, clients, partners and select prospective clients. Throw in some lunchtime relaxation and games (a welcome respite after two busy days of sessions) amongst the tree dotted enclave that is Embarcadero Marina Park South, and you’ve got the makings for a great lunch!

Registration is open and we’re looking forward to seeing you there.

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Ursus americansus as Elephant in the Room

January 12th, 2009 by Darin Herle

More on the 2009 Geocortex User Conference… we had a planning meeting back in December, and the topic of mascots/motif came up (2006 was the Blue Heron, 2007 was the Orca, 2008 was the Glaucous Winged Gull ).

Someone joked about selecting Vancouver Island’s iconic Black Bear, and everyone quickly agreed that given the current state of the economy, it was probably about the worst motif for a conference happening in 2009. But then we all decided that to address the ‘elephant in the room’ head-on and in a humorous way would be very Geocortex.

So we picked it. Because no matter what happens in life, we don’t want to lose our sense of humor. Besides, we’re designing a 2009 Geocortex User Conference that’ll represent an even smarter investment given the prevailing economic winds.

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ESRI EMEA Conference

November 8th, 2008 by Steven Myhill-Jones

London_EMEALast week we attended and exhibited at the ESRI EMEA Conference in London (organized by ESRI UK). The weather was great, everything went smoothly, and I even found some time to catch a few presentations. For the Wednesday night party attendees had the run of the impressive Science Museum, which proved to be a memorable event. I found that the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre had an unexpectedly fragmented feel (everything was spread over several floors), though I think ESRI UK did the best they could with the venue. The location made up for this; right by the Houses of Parliament and across the street from Westminster Abbey.

The teams had both the Geocortex Optimizer 1.0 Beta and the Geocortex Essentials 1.5 Beta 1 (Beta 2 is out today) ready for the conference, and Steve Maddison and I got to be the first to kick the tires while previewing these new versions for business partners and attendees.

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The 2008 ESRI Southwest Users Group Conference

November 3rd, 2008 by Rob Lenarcic

Laramie, WY October 22-24, 2008

For the last six years, Latitude Geographics has attended every Southwest Users Group (SWUG) conference. From Jackson Hole in 2003 through to Laramie in 2008, the SWUG conference brings together GIS users from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. This year’s high plains geospatial roundup offered up blowing snow and chilly temperatures – a big departure for a guy like me accustomed to Victoria’s moderate climate. But the warmth of the SWUG organizers (kudos to the entire organizing committee for an awesome job!) allowed the attendees to quickly forget about the cold temperatures, and settle into a dose (actually, many, many doses) of Wyoming hospitality!

geo_cortex_Rodeo_v1The SWUG event is not your regular, regional GIS conference. John Calkins, ESRI’s “Corporate Technical Evangelist” kicked things off with an interactive keynote session that engaged the group in a geographic approach to problem solving. Plenty of great user and vendor presentations followed, topped off with an evening keynote by Wyoming historian Bruce Blevins. Aside from all the interesting work-related stuff, I’d have to say that the highlight of the conference was the BBQ, Bluegrass, and Broncs event (disclosure: we were also a sponsor). This was not my first rodeo – but it was undoubtedly one of the most unique I’ve seen. The University of Wyoming Rodeo Team put on a presentation just for us, and we got to enjoy steer wrestling, calf roping, barrel racing and bull-riding. Yee-Haw! Later in the evening, we two-stepped to music served up by the Zarks, a local country-western band. I reckon the user sessions were a little subdued the next morning, but attendees (AKA SWUG-uhs) seemed to be wearing a collective grin.

It’s events like these that make me appreciate the industry we work in, given its great mix of knowledge sharing, professionalism, and appreciation for local cultural activities!

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Introducing Geocortex to Latin America

October 6th, 2008 by Steven Myhill-Jones

valparaisoI just returned from the 2008 Latin American User Conference in Santiago, Chile. It was a great trip and an excellent event. ESRI Chile hosted a well-organized conference, the attendees were very focused and interested, and everyone was very welcoming. Most of the ESRI Distributors I met seemed very progressive, and there appears to be lots of good work going on in the region with ESRI technology.

My Spanish proved even less effective than anticipated. I quickly realized the most pragmatic way to manage expectations around my language abilities was to simply claim to have no knowledge whatsoever. This meant that having Fernando of ESIMEX there with me was of immense additional value, and aside from translating my presentation on Friday to a standing room only audience (which wouldn’t have happened if I’d presented in English), he delivered numerous demos and was able to answer questions about who we are and what we do.

esri chile 2There seemed to be considerable interest in our technology. Unfortunately, for the first time ever at a conference, we ran out of both Spanish and English marketing materials on day three (despite having, as always, 50% more than we thought we’d require based on the number of attendees). We had a hard time getting more printed locally on short notice.

Prior to the conference, I took a few days to tour the region. This included a long, steep hike in a national park that left me limping and wincing through the first two days of the conference.

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Hello from Beijing

July 4th, 2008 by Steven Myhill-Jones

Yongzhi and I are just wrapping up a week in Beijing as part of the Canadian Geomatics Science & Technology Partnering Mission to China 2008 delegation.

It has been an interesting week full of meetings and site visits. Being part of the delegation seems to have really opened doors for us at a number of agencies.

Yongzhi is heading to Chengdu (his hometown) for some R&R tomorrow, and I’ve now got a few days to explore before I fly back to Canada. I travel to Xi’an tomorrow to see the Terracotta Army, after which I return to Beijing. I still can’t get over the size of Beijing–I feel like it would take weeks to do justice to the city.

Between the giant new architecture projects I’ve seen in Dubai and Beijing the last few months, Victoria is starting to feel like a tiny fishing village.

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