Join us at URISA's Seventh Caribbean GIS Conference, taking place later this month at the Santa Barbara Resort in Curacao.

• Preconference Workshops & Training: October 26-27
• Conference: October 28-30

Steve Kemp, Executive Director of OpenPlan in the UK,  recently led a multi-disciplinary team to help the Government of Trinidad & Tobago prepare a new National Spatial Development Strategy. GIS played a key role in preparing sound, relevant, evidence-based and effective plans, and GIS specialists were instrumental in bringing different professions out of their silos to work as integrated teams with a common purpose and understanding.

Closing Keynote:  The Role of Standards in Geospatial Information Management for the Caribbean and Beyond
Trevor Taylor, representing the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), will speak of a recent United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Secretariat request for a guide that outlines the importance of open standards supporting the development of Spatial Data Infrastructure.  This talk will  provides attendees with insight into the different tiers of geospatial capabilities desired by organizations, the essential standards associated with each tier, and includes real world operational implementations.

Take some time to review the conference details here. Nearly 50 speakers are preparing their materials on topics ranging from disaster preparedness and climate change to economic development and public health. Registrations received after this Friday, October 17 will incur an additional $50 fee.

URISA is pleased to announce the presentation of two of its most popular Certified Workshops via instructor-led web-based training. The cost to attend each virtual workshop is $195 for URISA members and $245 for non-members. Consider reserving your office conference room for a group learning experience with your department/team.
This 8-hour workshop will be presented over three days:
Tuesday, October 21 - 1:00- 4:00 pm EDT
Wednesday, October 22 - 1:00- 4:00 pm EDT
Thursday, October 23 - 1:00- 3:00 pm EDT

Free and open source software (FOSS) has been offering choices to computer users for a number of years. Over the past few years the open source choices in GIS have been broader and more capable than ever before. This workshop will focus on GIS open source software. It will give an overview of current developments from technical and management perspectives. Selected packages and their applications in various projects will be demonstrated and discussed. Register today.

  

This 8-hour workshop will be presented over three days:
Tuesday, November 18 - 1:00- 4:00 pm EDT
Wednesday, November 19 - 1:00- 4:00 pm EDT
Thursday, November 20 - 1:00- 3:00 pm EDT

Public and private agencies face continuous challenges to accomplish more with less as increases in demand, regulatory requirements, infrastructure deterioration, and political and economic forces have significantly outpaced increases in capital and operating budgets.  Many of these agencies are turning to Asset Management to cope with these challenges and improve business performance and effectiveness.  This workshop will focus on several aspects of developing an asset management system that could help improve performance, reduce long-term costs, and maximize return on investment in infrastructure assets.  Register today.

The conference planning committee met in Oklahoma City a few weeks ago. OKC is very welcoming, walkable and full of things to do. Plan to join URISA and IAAO next March! The conference program details are nearly finalized and registration is open.

Exhibitor & Sponsor Opportunities will be detailed very soon!

Best regards,
Wendy Nelson
URISA Executive Director