Eastern Iowa GIS Day 2008

Eastern Iowa GIS Day 2008 was held on October 6 – 7, 2008 at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center (GBPAC)) on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.

This year’s Conference kicked off on October 6th with a  LiDAR workshop attended by 25 people.  Attendees were treated to a full day of learning the “ins” and “outs” of LiDAR with specific focus directed at the Iowa LiDAR Project.  Also highlighted was the recently developed “GeoLite” ArcGIS extension developed by the GeoTREE Center.  This extension allows the user to process and analyze LiDAR data, for further details on GeoLITE.

Full Eastern Iowa GIS Day festivities kicked off on Tuesday, October 7th at the GBPAC.  Over 175 attended the Conference that placed a spotlight on “Geospatial technologies for natural disaster management.”  Before breaking out for presentations, the attendees were treated to three keynote/invited speakers that spoke to their experiences in dealing with geospatial technologies in hazard response.

A total of 18 breakout presentations were offered to pick and choose from.  The range of topics were primarily focused on usage of GIS technologies in response to flooding, tornado, and natural hazard related issues in keeping with the conference theme.  Presentations and video of many of the presentations will be posted shortly after the conference on the GeoTREE website.

Make your plans for 2009.  Next year’s Eastern Iowa GIS Day does not have a date scheduled as of yet but plans are to shift the conference location to the south in 2009.  Keep an eye on your email inbox for further details as they become available.