In mid July, Geoffrey Ives, DeLorme’s Director of Professional Sales, flew to San Diego for the 2009 ESRI User Conference along with a number of key DeLorme staff members. DeLorme’s attendance at this event was significant for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that DeLorme had recently become an ESRI Business Partner. The following was written by Geoffrey shortly after his return.
What I Learned at DeLorme’s First ESRI User Conference
A few weeks ago, DeLorme Publishing Company, Inc., a new ESRI Business Partner, exhibited at the 2009 ESRI User Conference in San Diego. For DeLorme, the conference was a great success and provided the DeLorme professional sales group with hundreds of sales leads for the DeLorme World Base Map data and the Earthmate PN-40 handheld GPS receiver. But, clearly, there was more to the conference than just a list of sales opportunities.
We were told that attendance at the conference was down from previous years. That may be or may not be true, but from my perspective (our booth was swamped), the level of attendance— in light of the economic downturn—seemed indicative of the growing acceptance of GIS into mainstream government and business processes. I’m talking low-level, basement of the rural town hall where you register your car, acceptance here.
DeLorme has exhibited at eight national conferences this year and at all of them, with the single exception of the American Wind Energy Association conference in Chicago, attendance was significantly off. And they have all been peppered with job seekers and struggling job holders seeking a better life, which means attendees are less interested in stuff to buy and more interested in jobs and new time-saving processes. The ESRI User Conference was no exception.
In the current economic climate, most of us are stretching our daily job parameters to absorb additional tasks and responsibilities. Across the nation, ten percent of us have lost our jobs. Those of us fortunate enough to retain a job suffer from the need to fill the process vacuums left by the now unemployed or re-employed. It forces us all to rethink our relationship with work; to reassess our futures, our company objectives, our careers, our family’s security, and the trade shows we attend.
The ESRI User Conference plenary session highlighted multiple and critical global crises, in part to emphasize the positive impact of GIS on disaster management and future planning (let’s face it, unless you’ve got your head in the sand, we’re up against nothing less than planet-wide disaster), but also to target an audience of over twelve thousand with a message of “yes we can” in the face of all this darkness. During the afternoon keynote speeches, I emotionally cycled between ‘springing’ all of the apes from the San Diego Zoo and rushing home to build geospatial models that clearly identify the guilty parties. Of course, the quintessential US consumer (i.e., me) is the guilty party in one way or another. I could check Google for the nearest EZ-Rent-A-Van to the convention center. Although I’d likely end up in the hospital; a data point within some public safety GIS showing statistically that a middle-aged US professional dad cannot transport arboreal apes in a rented van without risking serious personal injury; my well-intended personal protest not helping orangutans one bit.
“Where exactly was he going with all those primates?,” the responding trooper would ask my wife.
“I really don’t know officer. You see his Blackberry isn’t fully charged. Know what I mean?” she responds, filing her nails. “You should see how he loads the dish washer.”
“We understand Ma’m.”
Leaving the personal drama behind, I spoke with an estimated three or four hundred GIS users during the week. What I heard, again and again, was that many had suggested to their bosses that, due to the economy, they skip the ESRI UC this year. After all, San Diego is “Junket-Land” where, by itself, eating will obliterate a per diem living allowance. What was interesting to me was how so many small organizations, like budget constrained towns, told their GIS people, “No. We want you to go because you always bring back money-saving tools and new ideas.”
That seemed to be the ultimate evidence that GIS has truly become a critical component of mainstream business processes. For a small Maine town to fund a GIS manager’s trip to San Diego for a week is really quite amazing especially in light of shrinking municipal budgets. And for elected officials to recognize the benefits of GIS clearly speaks to the intrinsic value geospatial technology is now expected to provide.
Sure geospatial technology is cool. GPS navigation, on-line parcel maps, satellite views of Nana’s house—these are all great things—but to generate actionable intelligence out of maps and location data can be life, and hopefully, planet saving. It’s one thing for a federal agency to recognize GIS benefits through a cadre of analysts applying the best tools in the business but something entirely new to find that GIS value is being touted by an elected official from rural America. GIS benefits are now recognized by smaller jurisdictions through both ROI analysis and plain common sense.
In San Diego I learned that ESRI business partners may actually be part of something bigger than creating and selling product. We’re providing tools that empower solutions to global problems. To do so we need to survive and flourish as a business community. That means balancing competition with collaboration, taking risks and pushing innovation, sharing and investing, all while developing value for our customers. As businesses, we’re no good to anyone if we don’t survive. So congratulations to those of you surviving this economy. It is no small achievement and we all need all the help we can get.
So perhaps there is hope. That’s what Jack Dangermond’s message seemed to be at the plenary wrap-up. We’re living through a dark time but there is hope, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” GIS as a “Geo-Design” tool, can help educate and inform those in power, from local towns to national governments, to make the critical decisions necessary to help turn our planet around.
The problem, according to Mr. Dangermond, is nothing short of saving our world for our children. Geospatial technology has come of age just in time to help guide and inform the critical decision makers of the world.
Will GIS save the world? Who knows? I know it won’t happen without intelligent planning, cross cultural collaboration, sacrifice and guts. But I have faith that the GIS community at large is better at saving the world than your average, middle-aged dad is at loading the dish washer.
