ESRI is celebrating its 30th year.This annual User Conference is ESRI's 19th.
Attendees are casually dressed, animated and intense.Men seem to outnumber women 15 or 20 to 1 (beards may outnumber women!) As usual, the conference has a strong international flavor; 15% of the press credentials issued are for overseas media.
There are BusinessMap Pro users and ArcView end-users, but most of this crowd think of themselves as GIS professionals: ArcInfo users, ArcInfo and ArcView developers for whom this conference is the highlight of their professional year.An incredible 650 paper presentations and technical sessions take place here between July 24 and July 30.
At the center of discussion this week will be ArcInfo 8, the latest release of the company's flagship product.Also showing is ESRI's latest internet map software, ArcIMS; and intriguing new offering from BusinessMap Group, TravelMap.We'll have more to say about these offering and other news throughout the week.
We can confirm this morning that ESRI's "goodies bag" remains the best in the business, if only because it includes ESRI's Map Book -- a 124 page perfect-bound collection of the most gorgeous maps you might ever see.
Day 2: Dangermond Opens Conference
Day 3: Vendor Fair Opens; New Products Announced