2006 Washington GIS Conference Program

The 2006 Washington State GIS Conference, "Putting GIS to Work for Washington State," will be held May 8th - 10th at the new Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center. WAURISA (the Washington State Chapter of the Urban & Regional Information Systems Association) has arranged speakers from all corners of the State to share their experiences and ideas on how we can all get more out of GIS. Visit the main Conference page for registration and other conference details.

On Monday, WAURISA will host a series of pre-conference workshops which will be presented by ESRI, Integral GIS, Safe Software, and other regional GIS companies. These workshops will focus on GIS Development, Data Interoperability, Geoprocessing and Scripting, and Open Source GIS and provide you an opportunity to gain an in-depth knowledge of cutting edge technology. See the draft Monday program for full details.

On Tuesday, the conference kicks into full swing with a keynote address by S.J. Camarata, who currently serves as a Director of ESRI and focuses on worldwide global corporate strategies and directions. S.J. will speak about exciting new trends in GIS and the implications, challenges and opportunities from putting Geospatial technology to work. Following the keynote, the "GIS Person of the Year" will be announced and speaker sessions will begin. See the draft program for Tuesday and Wednesday for full details.

We are excited to have speakers covering a variety of session this year including:

LiDAR
Small Government
Crime Analysis
GIS Management
Utilities
Transportation
Web Solutions
GIS Management
County & City GIS Panel Discussions
Tribal Government
Student Topics

In addition to speaker sessions, we will also have poster displays and a map competition to showcase some of the great work being accomplished around the State. Vendors will be on hand to demonstrate their products and answer any questions about services they offer. Your registration also includes lunch each day.

The Tuesday night Social will be a "Night at the Ballpark" at Cheney Stadium where we will enjoy a BBQ, hold a raffle, and watch the Tacoma Rainiers! With your ticket to the ball game, you will receive a baseball shirt with your raffle number on the back, a classic BBQ feast — hot dogs, hamburgers, salad, baked beans, chips and ice cream — and you’ll get to watch the Tacoma Rainiers battle Round Rock Express from Texas, while socializing with your peers in a relaxed environment. Everyone who attends the game will be entered into a raffle for a chance to walk away with a 4GB iPod Nano. You and up to 4 guests are invited to attend — and it’s a steal at only $25/ticket.