January 20, 2010 (Des Plaines, IL) - Since 1963, URISA members and friends have convened annually to learn about, share and discuss all things geospatial. And now the name of URISA’s annual conference has been updated to better reflect that focus. URISA is pleased to announce GIS-Pro 2010: URISA’s 48th Annual Conference for GIS Professionals.  The first conference under the new banner will take place September 28-October 1, 2010 in Orlando, Florida.  

Along with the new conference name, GIS-Pro will reflect what GIS Professionals are looking for in a modern conference. Gone are restrictive conference tracks - what's in are coordinated themes, designed to move the conversation forward and interactively share information among conference participants. The Conference Committee invites your participation. Proposals for presentations, interactive discussions, roundtables, and other content is invited and should fit in to one or more of these conference themes:  

Value of GIS – The value of GIS can theoretically be quantified in terms of Return on Investment (ROI), but the methodology for determining ROI for GIS has not been standardized.  Proposals on this topic could include information on measured return on investment (as opposed to estimated cost/benefit analysis performed prior to implementation); various methods for funding and justifying funding for GIS implementation; and ways to articulate the financial/liability, economic, social or environmental impact of GIS for a jurisdiction, region or organization. 

One Government – This concept is about multiple jurisdictions and overlapping levels of government (federal, state/provincial, regional, local) acting collaboratively.  Proposals could include data sharing challenges and approaches; standardization and integration of data, applications and services; collaboration and communication that leads to a "one government" approach, and activities that promote government transparency and accountability. 

Stewardship – The notion of stewardship is one of service and support to a community of data users.  Often, the steward has a vested interest in maintaining particular data set(s) for his/her organization, but no mandate (or funding) to maintain it for the rest of the community.  Proposals could include data management, maintenance and integration topics, metadata issues and processes, data governance approaches, and methods for treating data as an infrastructure, or other, asset. 

Data-based Decisions – This is a hot topic in 2010 at every level. U.S. Congressional Hearings are even focusing on ways to drive decisions based on data and "place".  At last year’s Annual Conference, Dr. Wellar’s keynote focused on the need to manage various interrelated information infrastructures to make well-informed, accurate decisions, and the categorical need for GIS technology and geospatial sciences in that endeavor.  Proposals could include Web 2.0 and social networking tools as a means of bringing information together and presenting it appropriately to everyone; promoting GIS use to decision makers; better ways to visualize change spatially and temporally; and managing interdependent information infrastructures with geospatial tools and techniques. 

Training & Education – With geospatial technology changing more and more rapidly, the need for high quality training and education continues to grow.  And with the economic downturn, training budgets have taken a significant hit.  Proposals could include ideas and tactics for promoting K-12 geographic/geospatial education; use of social networking tools for training; and information on technology updates and issues. 

Abstracts are due on or before February 23, 2010. 

For further details, visit www.urisa.org