Esri International User Conference

Produced by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri, formerly ESRI), the Esri International User Conference (Esri UC) is the world's largest event dedicated to geographic information system (GIS) technology. It is held annually in the United States, usually for one week in July at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. The Esri UC dates back to 1981. In 2008, conference attendance grew to more than 14,000 attendees.

The conference offers more than 600 GIS user presentation sessions, 300 exhibitors, 275 technical workshops, 100 special interest, regional, and user group meetings, and 600 map posters and special displays from more than 100 countries. Thousands of professionals from different industries attend the Esri UC.

There are more than 40 conference tracks divided into the categories of technology, science and modeling, and industry. The tracks include the topics of business, defense, education, environment, government, health and human services, natural resources, public safety, transportation, and utilities.

There are also preconference seminars, a Plenary Session, a Map Gallery and Virtual Map Gallery, GIS concept and industry sessions, panel sessions, lightning talks, an Esri Showcase, a Conservation Showcase, an Academic GIS Program Fair, a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Awards Ceremony, and special displays of GIS by organizations such as the National Geographic Society, the National Academy of Science, and the Smithsonian. The Exhibit Hall runs for three days during the event – Tuesday through Thursday – and provides access to Esri business partners and alliances, hardware and software vendors, and solution and data providers. There are additional activities to participate in including a 5K, Golf Tournament, and Tennis Tournament.

In 2009, four conferences took place concurrently with the Esri UC (the Esri Business GIS Summit, Esri Education User Conference, Esri Homeland Security GIS Summit, and Esri Survey & Engineering GIS Summit.) The Esri Defense and Intelligence Executive Track, Esri Senior Executive Seminar, Remote Sensing and GIS gathering, and Climate Change GIS Special Program also took place during the event.

A certain amount of complimentary conference registrations are often available with an organization's ArcGIS software maintenance plan.

...
Wikipedia