Distinguished Speakers and Informative Sessions Will Address Issues Important to Surveying and Engineering Professionals

Redlands, California—April 29, 2009—Surveyors, engineers, and geographic information system (GIS) users are invited to enhance current practices, expand opportunities, and stay up-to-date with the latest GIS technology and the new markets it creates, by attending the 2009 ESRI Survey & Engineering GIS Summit to be held July 11–14 at the San Diego Convention Center in California.

The summit is the ideal venue for anyone in the surveying and engineering industries interested in or currently working with GIS. "[It's] the best survey conference in the country—hands down," said Rich Vannozzi, PLS, doctoral candidate, University of Connecticut, in talking about his 2008 summit experience.

The event will begin with a thought-provoking Plenary Session covering today's hottest topics in GIS and tools for surveyors and engineers. ESRI representatives from a variety of departments will share the most recent advances in ESRI technology, and a panel of thought leaders from surveying, engineering, and GIS organizations will discuss important issues and trends as well as answer attendees' questions.

Juliana Blackwell, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Geodetic Survey, will share her story during the Keynote Address. During her career with NOAA, Blackwell has managed hydrographic survey operations, collaborated among organizations to accurately and cost-effectively collect and use height information, and maintained the nation's spatial reference positioning system.

Attendees will also hear from Joseph W. Betit, PLS, survey manager for Dulles Transit Partners in Virginia. Betit has been working on the large-scale civil infrastructure Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, which has included scanning and feature extraction, data-intensive work, and digital imagery for the 6,600 foot long Virginia Route 7 portion of the 23-mile extension of the existing Washington Metrorail.

During the summit, attendees will be able to select from a number of user-led sessions and ESRI-led technical workshops on topics such as GIS in the field, as a business tool, for accuracy, and with GPS. The summit EXPO will offer the opportunity to engage with ESRI staff and colleagues and take a look at GIS products and services provided by a wide range of organizations. Participants can also drop by the Hands-on Learning Center to try out ESRI software and various GIS courses for free.

"Attendees will come away with new techniques to help expand their business capabilities in today's economy," said Brent Jones, ESRI’s surveying and engineering industry solutions manager. "Adopting GIS into workflows has allowed surveyors and engineers to extend relationships and develop new clients in the GIS market."

Summit registration also includes the first two days of the 2009 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC). To find out more and register, visit www.esri.com/segsummit.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

Contact:

Caitlyn Mitchell,
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-2186
E-mail: Email Contact

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