Every year around this time we get excited to connect with our users at the Esri User Conference. The Open Platform team can’t wait to see you July 14-18, 2025, in San Diego, California.
The Open Platform team
ArcGIS is an open, interoperable system that drives efficiency and innovation. Sharing, collaboration, and interoperability are crucial to addressing today’s challenges with urgency.
At Esri, the Open Platform team is dedicated to an open and secure design architecture that allows users to seamlessly integrate within their specific environments.
Our open vision enables users worldwide to effectively work with geospatial data, empowering organizations of every industry with location intelligence.
Whether you are attending in-person or virtually, this quick-reference guide will help you find all the Open Platform focused sessions and activities at UC so you can make the most out of your time at the event.
The Open Platform area within the Esri Showcase at the Expo will include four kiosks and a dedicated Spotlight Theater:
- Geospatial Standards and Specifications
- Data Interoperability and Integration
- Security, Privacy & Compliance
- Metadata Management
- Spotlight Theater
Come find us!
The Open Platform team will be in the Expo area. We are excited to hear and discuss workflows, best practices, and receive any feedback and/or questions you may have. Please come talk to us about your work at any point during the available Expo hours.
Expo Hours
- Tuesday, July 15, 9:00 am–5:00 pm PT
- Wednesday, July 16, 9:00 am–5:00 pm PT
- Thursday, July 17, 9:00 am–4:00 pm PT
Explore the 2025 Esri UC Events Map via web and mobile (iOS or Android) to locate us at the Esri Showcase within the Expo area and to navigate to our booth and sessions. You can also consult on-site interactive kiosks in the Expo area to get directions at the event venue.
There will be many sessions and activities discussing Esri’s Open Platform at UC this year. To see a list of all related sessions and activities, take a look at the Open Platform Custom Agenda.
If you are interested in downloading a pdf flier for our Open Platform related sessions, it can be found attached here.
Geospatial Standards and Specifications
Esri has been an active participant in the development of many geospatial standards. We have been active in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), ISO TC-211, IHO, FGDC and many other standards bodies, and standards have proven to be a highly effective mechanism for achieving interoperability.
While the world of IT and geospatial standards is vast, feel free to bring your questions, ideas, and feedback on this valuable topic to us at the Geospatial standard kiosk at the Open Platform showcase.
Whether you are interested in knowing more about the traditional standards for data, metadata and webservices or are interested in newer community standards or the emerging areas of cloud native standards; we are here to help.
Talk to us about…
- Standards related to Simple features, Coordinate reference systems and other foundational GIS standards
- Different standards bodies – OGC, ISO, IHO etc. and Esri’s active involvement in the development of standards
- Emerging Cloud Native standards
- New OGC APIs – RESTful and JSON based
- New community Standards and Esri’s support for I3S and 3D Tiles
- Open-Source GIS
- Supporting open initiatives – Open Science and Open Data
- Types of interoperability – Foundational, Structural, Semantic, and Organizational
Resources
- OGC Web Services-ArcGIS
- OGC API Features-ArcGIS
- OGC Geopackage-ArcGIS
- OGC Compliancy certificates
- New Options for Decentralized Collaboration That Protects Data Sovereignty
- What’s new for ArcGIS Maritime in ArcGIS Pro 3.3
- Introduction to the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC)—ArcGIS Pro
Click this Geospatial Standards and Specifications Custom Agenda link to find your way to the Geospatial Standards and Specifications focused sessions.
Data Interoperability and Integration
Many tools ingest different data types into the ArcGIS system, and there are also many ways to transform that data while it is loading. Visit this kiosk to discuss overall principles and specific examples using the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension, the new ArcGIS Data Pipelines app, and Python notebooks (in both ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online) for those who are comfortable with coding options.
Talk to us about..
- Local Well-Known files. For example using ModelBuilder to convert CSV files to features with complete schema control.
- Cloud Well-Known files. For example, extraction of features from GeoParquet files stored in an S3 object store, without downloading the data.
- Complex data models For example, converting GeoJSON with array properties into a base feature class with related tables.
- APIs that require pagination and parsing. For example, retrieving a large dataset from an Open Data site in multiple parts.
- APIs that are secured. For example, using API keys or tokens to access datasets without coding.
- Cloud warehouses. For example, reading Snowflake by using a SQL statement to preprocess data before retrieval.
- On-premises databases. For example, an OLE DB connection to a user ODBC data source in ArcGIS Pro.
- Well-known services. For example, accessing a WFS server as both GML and GeoJSON in Pro and Data Pipelines apps.
Resources
- ETL Patterns & Data Interoperability Esri Community
- ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension
- ArcGIS Data Interoperability server extension
Click this Data Interoperability and Integration link to find your way to the Data Interoperability and Integration focused sessions.
Security, Privacy & Compliance
Security means exposing the right content to the right customers while protecting your enterprise. Esri complies with US government and international GIS standards as well as industry best practices for IT security and privacy. Visit the Security & Privacy kiosk to get your questions answered about security capabilities and privacy policies in ArcGIS.
Talk to us about..
- Using the ArcGIS Trust Center to demonstrate security & privacy compliance
- ArcGIS Enterprise Top 10 Hardening Guide Recommendations
- Protecting our kids from cookies
- Sneak peek of ArcGIS Trustworthy AI framework
- Implementing Zero Trust Architecture Basics
Resources
- Esri Software Security & Privacy Esri Community
- ArcGIS Trust Center
- ArcGIS Enterprise Hardening Guide
Click this Security, Privacy & Compliance Custom Agenda link to find your way to the Security and Privacy focused sessions.
Metadata Management
Metadata is like the glue that holds everything together as we conduct our work throughout the ArcGIS platform and beyond. It helps us make informed decisions, share data effectively, and ensure the integrity and credibility of our datasets. At this kiosk, we are excited to talk to you about the unified metadata editor, that helps make managing and maintaining metadata more delightful than ever before! Additionally, come talk to us about how metadata flows throughout the ArcGIS platform, standards, and of course, your metadata workflows.
Talk to us about..
- The metadata editor
- Creating metadata to provide essential information about your GIS data that adheres to your organization’s required standards
- How metadata flows throughout the ArcGIS platform, during publishing, sharing, and collaboration
- Sharing open data, making data resources publicly available for others to access and use
- How ArcGIS Hub and Esri Geoportal Server serve the purpose of managing metadata catalogs
Resources
- Metadata, Catalogs and Search Esri Community
- What is (are?) Metadata?
- Overwrite Your Metadata with Ease
- Sync Attribute Fields Using the Metadata Editor
- What’s new in ArcGIS Online (June 2025)
- The New Metadata Editor is Out of Beta
- Moving forward with metadata: Metadata Editor Classic is retiring
- Metadata Editor is now available in ArcGIS Pro 3.5
- View and edit metadata
Click this Metadata Management Custom Agenda link to find your way to the Metadata, Catalog, & Search focused sessions.
Also, check out the NSDI & Geospatial Ecosystems kiosk (at the Mapping & Statistics Showcase) and the Integrated Geospatial Infrastructure /SDI Kiosk (at the ArcGIS Geospatial Platform area)
Climate, disasters, people, nature, and more cross borders; our data and technology must cross borders, too. Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) are evolving to address common goals and shared challenges, audiences are expanding, and complex geospatial ecosystems are emerging. Join us to engage with experts and explore advancements in integrated geospatial infrastructure that support your multi-organizational initiatives. Learn about community implementation patterns, capabilities, best practices, tools, and resources to help you meet modern demands.
Talk to us about
- Evolving Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs)
- Emerging ecosystems
- Pillars of modern SDI
- Strategies to maximize your impact
- Best practices for successful implementation
- Implementation resources
Resources
Click this SDI/NSDI Custom Agenda link to find your way to the SDI, NSDI, and integrated geospatial infrastructure focused sessions.
And check out these two Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings:
Tues. July 15, 11:30 am -12:30 pm Geospatial Ecosystems SIG: Improving ROI for Modern SDI
Wed. July 16, 11:30 am -12:30 pm Community Engagement SIG: Using Hubs to Foster Deeper Collaboration
Open Platform Spotlight Theater
We’ll be presenting twenty minute Expo Spotlight Talks all week. The theater will have lots more seating this year, so we are excited to see you and welcome you to attend our presentations.
See the schedule below or click here to open the Open Platform Spotlight Theater Custom Agenda in your browser.
Tuesday, July 15
10:00 am Esri and Open-Source Libraries
10:40 am ArcGIS: OGC Coverage Services
11:30 am ArcGIS: Support for Open-Science Data Formats
12:10 pm Imagery Standards: An Overview
1:00 pm ArcGIS: Analyzing Multidimensional Features
2:30 pm Esri Services: Integrating with Open-Source Libraries
3:10 pm ArcGIS: Metadata and Catalog Standards
Wednesday, July 16
10:00 am Geospatial Standards
10:40 am OGC’s New Open API Standards: An Overview
11:30 am ArcGIS: GIS-BIM Integrations and Supporting IFC
12:10 pm ArcGIS: Coordinate Reference Systems Standards Support
1:00 pm ArcGIS: Support for OGC Map and Tile Services
1:40 pm ArcGIS: GeoPackage Support
2:30 pm Understanding the OGC Simple Features Specification
3:10 pm ArcGIS: Extract, Transform, and Load Techniques
Thursday, July 17
10:00 am Esri Geoportal Server
10:40 am ArcGIS: OGC Feature Services
11:30 am Using Esri’s ArcGIS REST JS
12:10 pm R-ArcGIS Bridge: Bringing ArcGIS to R Users
1:00 pm ArcGIS: Supporting Maritime SDI and IHO S-100
1:40 pm Finding the Needle in the STAC
See you soon in sunny San Diego! 
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