The 9th quarterly Salt Lake GIS Users Group (SLUG) meeting was held on August 10, 2010, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm in the Multi-Purpose Room in Sandy City Hall. There were about 125 in attendance. Food and drinks were sponsored by ESRI and Stantec.
Business
Tom Dolan, Sandy City Mayor:
Mayor Dolan welcomed SLUG to Sandy City, and thanked us for our work in GIS. Sandy uses GIS technology a lot and appreciates the work GIS people do.
Tom Toronto, SLUG Board Chair
Tom presented a $25 gift certificate to Scott Davis from the SLUG Board for his exceptional work in founding SLUG and being the SLUG Chair for the past 2 years.
Neal Fraser, SLUG Board
The next SLUG meeting will be held November 9, 2011. Location and details to follow. Please mark this on your calendars now.
We are always in need of Presenters, Sponsors, and Venues. Please contact a SLUG Board member to volunteer.
David Henrie, UGIC
David announced the 2012 UGIC Conference. It will be held May 7-11 at Ruby's Inn in Bryce Canyon. This is a great spot for many kinds of recreation. Mark your calendars now!
Sponsor
Paul Bailey of ESRI spoke about how GIS influences our lives. He told a neat story about publishing a GIS map using social media that strangers then used to find and return a special anniversary ring that had been lost on a vacation. ESRI is always available for support.
Deidre Beck of Stantec introduced Stantec and the services they provide to the GIS industry.
Presentations
Deidre Beck, Stantec, Holding a Successful GIS day
Deidre spoke about how the goal and purpose of GIS Day is to educate children and adults about how geography and geographic information systems (GIS) technology make a difference in their lives. Deidre discussed how to host a GIS Day event at your local elementary or secondary school. This included a review of resources available online to assist us in having a GIS Day event. See Deidre's presentation materials.
Buck Ehler, UGS
Buck talked about how the State of Utah hosts GIS day events, and encouraged us all to participate. He talked about events being hosted in a few different places already, and that the AGRC can help reimburse schools for bus fees incurred when students are brought to a registered GIS Day event.
Ben Teran, GIS Coordinator, Unified Fire Authority, The UFA Map book iPad/ iPhone app
The Unified Fire Authority GIS department has released the new Salt Lake County Map Book (2011 Edition). Ben passed around copies of the large printed version. This Map Book was created as a GIS/Mapping tool using ArcGIS 10 and Data Driven Pages to help emergency responders navigate the County. It breaks down the County into a grid of 287 maps at a scale of 1:10,000. The Map Book is currently being used by: UFA and many other agencies. Ben then discussed how they took this document to the next level and created an iPhone/iPad application that is available on the App Store. This included a discussion about development language and strategy. It is not a "live" app linking to live data, rather all the mapping data is installed with it, about 240 Mb. This way, it still works if a Fire vehicle is out of range of a web connection.
Matt Sheehan, Web Map Solutions, Web Application History and development
Matt talked initially about the history of the Web and growth of the geospatial industry. He then focused on Web 2.0 development with a particular focus on Adobe Flex. Both ESRI and open source API’s for building GIS and location based services were discussed, and links given to many resources. He talked about the Flex development environment and how it's superior to others in some areas. He then spoke about the future of GIS and more GIS integration with mobile devices. See Matt's presentation materials.
GIS Humor
Ray Montgomery, SLUG Board
Ray showed a short video clip from "Yahoo Odd News" about people driving into a lake while following GPS directions. View it here.
To our presenters and our sponsor, “Thank you!” And thank you for your interest and support!