By: Mark Muenzer

The ESRI User Conference was held in San Diego from July 10-14 and in attendance were staff from the City’s Community Development and Public Works Departments to better learn how geographic information systems (GIS) can use emerging technologies to best communicate information to the City’s residents, often through easy to understand maps and graphs. The conference offered an opportunity to collaborate with GIS industry experts and learn best practices from other public sector agencies. Staff was able to attend several workshops that addressed topics such as emerging trends in community planning, using GIS in mobile phone applications, how to develop 3D models, tools to analyze the placement of future housing developments and planning for multimodal transportation options. The conference ended with a closing event at beautiful Balboa Park with a last opportunity to network with colleagues from across the U.S. and world.