My Week At The #esriuc – Highlights, 10 key moments, and the closing Q and A

My week at the esriuc – You really can’t blame me for being a little tired still – I’m sure a few of you are as well! There was simply sooo much to see, hear, and do at UC 20212! My choice when at the conference is to soak up as much as I can, typically being in the convention center from 7:30 till about 6-ish or longer (a couple of nights lasted till 9).

I didn’t manage to catch nearly enough presentations, however, Esri will be making much of the material available online in the near future (oh, just noticed the proceedings are up!) and there are a number of ways to catch up, such as via slideshare, the #esriuc hashtag (very valuable), and through other social channels and sharing vehicles. I did get a chance to visit with a few Esri staffers on the hall floor to get hands on demos at some of the latest solutions and offerings (like ArcGIS online within Microsoft Office) and I caught an excellent session on ArcGIS online allowing me to catch up on the hot functionality provided in this service.

I have to say kudos and congrats to all the Esri staffers for putting on another fabulous event – FYI, reports have it that there were actually over 16,000 folks registered this year! When I wasn’t in session hearing about ArcGIS 10.1, ArcGIS Online, Mobile technology and the Cloud, I was on the hall floor attempting to meet up with everyone that was exhibiting – no small task given the size of the massive hall floor! I did shoot a number of on-site videos and still have plenty of notes and updates to share. For example, I’ll be sharing Q&A’s and cool technology like the Zeno 5 mobile collection unit from Leica; a wicked UAS data collection unit from gatewing (Trimble); a detailed look at GeoJot mobile data collection on iOS and Android; the MobileMapper 10 device; and some really cool hardware from HP. I think I have about 35 videos to edit in total!

Wednesday was a particularly good/long day as the evening provided us with ESRIUC DevMeetUp a couple of hours with the EDN team and some kick-ass developers sharing their tips and tricks. EDN also put together a lightning talks session as well – kudos to the hardworking team, they really stepped it up this year! Finally, for the first time in 14 years I got the FULL conference experience and stayed through Friday, allowing me time to catch the closing session with Jack and crew. It was awesome hearing from all the execs and getting details of why they decided on a career in geography with Esri. I did find the Q&A was a little too planned, most questions being pre-screened and filmed and only several being taken from the floor – not nearly enough, although time was a consideration so I guess it couldn’t be helped. I had planned on asking a question and I swear, Jack was looking right at me when he commented, "sorry, but we’re carefull about who we give the mic too in this session" ;0) Otherwise, a truly invigorating week!

So, what things were "drilled" into me during the week? The following are 10 take-aways that have stuck with me:

1. ArcGIS Online, according to Esri, is THE mapping "platform" for your organization
2. At release 10.1 ArcGIS brings together all the pieces and paints a much clearer picture for the user
3. 10.1 provides pervasive access along with a whole new world of pervasive apps and services
4. Analytics is the fastest growing sector of cloud computing (opportunity)
5. ArcGIS online provides geography as a platform
6. The cloud allows us to integrate any kind of geospatially referenced data within apps
7. Maps are a story, telling a story about geography
8. ArcGIS is rapidly becoming delivered as a service
9. ArcGIS Online amplifies geography
10. ArcGIS 10.1 empowers developers with an environment that is easy to deploy, easily configurable, and fully supported.

Awesome stuff seen and heard:

• The inflatable Mars landing, Curiosity Rover – great timing for this display and the guy on the floor describing the mission was really interesting!
• UAVs on the floor – several companies had unmanned aerial data capture vehicles (planes) lot’s of wow factor here!
• ArcGIS inside Microsoft Office – lots of WOW here too but overall this really is a cool, new offering.
• The cool paper in the HP plotters that can’t be torn!
• Metalachi band at the Thursday night party… think KISS meets mariachi band
• The plenary session – Jack always leaves you pumped up and asking for more!

Note, I was busy Tweeting on the #esriuc all week long and you can catch my entire UC hashtag history stream HERE

• See our esriuc videos here
• See our esriuc photo galleries
• esriuc news and articles archive here

News announcements from ESRIUC

• Esri and DigitalGlobe Sign Multi-Year Agreement
• Esri Joins World Ocean Council
• City of Huber Heights and GTG Receives Special Achievement Award
• B.C Receives Special Achievement Award for Exceptional Application of Geospatial Technology
• Europa Technologies takes flight with new release of global data product suite
• SAG Awards at Esri UC Honor Outstanding Applications of Geospatial Technology
• Esri Presents Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle with Making a Difference Award
• Esri and Microsoft to Provide Online Maps and Applications during Disasters
• Esri Maps for Office Extends Location Analytics throughout Organizations
• New Advancements in Location Intelligence for Businesses and Communities as Esri Chooses NAVTEQ Maps
• Esri Bolsters Mobile Offerings with Addition of Maptel
• Expert Feature – Change the World: The Esri GIS Education Conference (by @josephkerski)
• Blue Marble User Group Meeting at ESRI User Conference in San Diego, CA
• 2012 San Diego Gaslamp Map – Best Places to Eat and Drink in the Gaslamp for #esriuc
• Trimble Expands its Positions Software to Streamline Esri Workflows for Mapping and GIS Applications
• Exelis to showcase image analysis solutions for desktop, cloud and mobile GIS at 2012 ESRIUC
• DeLorme Introduces ArcSync