Esri’s Developer & Technology Summit is fast approaching, and the Native Maps SDKs team is looking forward to connecting with you, learning more about your projects, and sharing our latest innovations. From Tuesday, March 10, through Friday, March 13, join us in Palm Springs, California, for a week of technical sessions, demo theaters, user presentation, and hands-on learning opportunities.
To help you get the most out of your DevSummit 2026 experience, we’ve created a comprehensive guide highlighting ways to explore the Native Maps SDKs, engage directly with our development team, ask questions, and share your feedback. For easy access to all sessions and demo theaters mentioned in this post, and to add them directly to your schedule, be sure to use the Native Maps SDKs – Blog Post Sessions agenda.
Development Strategies
Right after Tuesday’s plenary, we’ll kick off the event with a session highlighting development strategies for building focused applications across mobile and desktop devices. If the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps spark your interest as a potential path forward, a wide range of additional sessions later in the day and over the rest of the week will help you dive deeper and get up to speed.
Strategies for Mobile and Desktop App Development
Tuesday, Mar 10 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT | Mesquite C
Attend this technical session if you are interested in developing specialized mobile and desktop GIS applications for your organization and need assistance in selecting the right technology. Speakers cover ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps for building custom 2D and 3D mapping applications; ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Game Engines, which leverage game engines for enhanced rendering capabilities; and ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET, which provides the framework for extending the functionality of ArcGIS Pro.
Foundational Sessions
We’ve prepared two foundational sessions designed to provide a deeper understanding of the Native Maps SDKs. The first session offers an introduction and overview of the SDKs, along with highlights of the latest updates. Whether you’re new to the Native Maps SDKs or evaluating them for your next project, this session will help you quickly get up to speed. The second session provides a preview of upcoming capabilities, offering insight into the future direction of the Native Maps SDKs and an opportunity for you to share feedback with our team.
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: An Overview and What’s New
Tuesday, Mar 10 | 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT | Smoketree C
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps let you build powerful mapping applications with .NET, Flutter, Kotlin, Qt, and Swift that integrate with the ArcGIS system and run directly on desktop or mobile devices, online or offline. Over the past year, several enhancements have been introduced, such as more flexible editing capabilities, improved handling of real-time data, and support for new data sources such as geospatial PDFs. This technical session introduces the SDKs and showcases the latest improvements.
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: The Road Ahead
Thursday, Mar 12 | 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | Cataline
Join the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps team to discover new capabilities that are planned to be included in upcoming releases and get a sneak peek on research efforts to advance SDK functionality going forward.
The SDKs
We design each Native Maps SDK to seamlessly integrate with developers’ preferred tools while maintaining consistent capabilities across .NET, Kotlin, Qt, Swift, and Flutter. The ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: Overview and What’s New session mentioned above explores how we achieve this consistency, while additional sessions listed below introduce fundamental capabilities for building apps and provide in-depth discussions on advanced topics for each SDK.
ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET: Building Apps
Tuesday, Mar 10 | 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | Mesquite C
ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET: Advanced Workflows
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT | Mojave Learning Center
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Flutter: Building Apps
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT | San Jacinto
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Flutter: Advanced Workflows
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT | San Jacinto
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Kotlin: Building Apps
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT | Santa Rosa
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Kotlin: Advanced Workflows
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 3:15 PM – 3:45 PM PDT | Demo Theater 2: Oasis 1-2
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt: Building Apps
Tuesday, Mar 10 | 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM PDT | Demo Theater 3: Mesquite DE
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt: Advanced Workflows
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM PDT | Demo Theater 1: Oasis 1-2
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Swift: Building Apps
Tuesday, Mar 10 | 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | Mesquite B
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Swift: Advanced Workflows
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 11:45 AM – 12:15 PM PDT | Demo Theater 1: Oasis 1-2
Capability Sessions
We have a series of sessions to help you implement key ArcGIS capabilities in your apps using the Native Maps SDKs. These sessions cover common workflows centered on Web GIS, device location, advanced symbology, customizable feature editing, taking data and operations offline, using utility networks in the field, enabling indoor mapping, use of real-time data, exploring open data sources, enabling mobile AR experiences, designing for accessibility, and last but not least, migrating from legacy Esri developer technology to modern Esri developer products and platforms.
Maps
Leveraging Web Maps to Build User-Focused Custom Apps
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | Smoketree C
Move away from hard-coding maps in your apps and learn how you can take full advantage of web maps in the ArcGIS Maps SDKs to build map-driven, user-focused apps. Web maps provide a framework for building common, rich experiences, whether you are building a web app for a decision maker or a mobile app for a fieldworker. Apps that use web maps enable you to more easily update or reuse your application by deploying new maps, instead of new apps. Attend this technical session to gain insights into maximizing the potential of web maps, including visualization, editing, and alerts.
Location
The Science of Where I Am: Getting the Most Out of Your Device’s GPS
Thursday, Mar 12 | 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM PDT | Demo Theater 3: Mesquite DE
Showing accurate device location is critical to many geospatial applications. Join us in this demo theater presentation to talk through the history, use cases, trade-offs, algorithms, and code to help get the most accurate location using your device’s GPS and more.
Symbology
Using the Dictionary Renderer to Visualize Complex Information in Your Apps
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 4:45 PM – 5:15 PM PDT | Demo Theater 2: Oasis 1-2
Do you have a lot of attribute information in your data that you would like to display as easy-to-understand symbols on your maps, such as military or public safety symbology, public infographics, and utilities data? Dictionary Symbology might be the solution for you! The speaker shares top tips and best practices when creating your own Dictionary Style and demonstrate how the Dictionary Renderer can be configured in a map and leveraged in web and native applications.
Feature Editing
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: Feature Editing Workflows
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT | San Jacinto
Editing feature data is a common requirement for many organizations. This technical session presents editing workflows that take advantage of the latest improvements in the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps. Some of these editing workflows include using feature forms to capture attributes, using a geometry editor to create and edit geometries, and using toolkit components to kick-start your app development.
Offline
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: Offline Data Workflows
Thursday, Mar 12 | 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM PDT | Santa Rosa
This technical session showcases offline workflows and real-world examples that highlight the nuances of deploying effective and scalable offline solutions. It also explores desktop, preplanned, and on-demand approaches for generating, editing, and updating map and data packages, leveraging the capabilities of ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, and ArcGIS Online. This session is designed for new users preparing to launch their first field GIS workflow, as well as those seeking to optimize existing deployments.
Real-time
From dynamic entities to support for stream services and custom feeds to geotriggers and geofences, Native Maps SDK enable building sophisticated applications that visualize, interrogate, and interact with fast-changing real-time data.
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: Real-Time Situational Awareness
Thursday, Mar 12 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT | San Jacinto
Integrating real-time feeds, analyzing and visualizing data, and alerting are key to real-time situational awareness apps. The Dynamic Entities API provides a framework for visualizing, processing, and analyzing real-time data feeds. The Geotriggers API allows you to set up notifications for geofence-based incident detection, and the new raster analytics API performs fast visibility calculations. This technical session provides an overview of these APIs and shows examples of how to ingest feeds, work with Dynamic Entities, visualize and interact with them as tracks, and build custom automated behaviors.
ArcGIS: Building Real-Time Situational Awareness Solutions
Tuesday, Mar 10 | 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | Madera
Real-time situational awareness is a critical business need for organizations that require timely and accurate information to make informed decisions. ArcGIS includes configurable off-the-shelf technology and SDKs that allow you to build solutions to integrate data from multiple sources, analyze and visualize data to interpret the situation, and automate behaviors to detect events and send alerts. Join us to learn how to unlock the power of ArcGIS to create cutting-edge, real-time situational awareness solutions that transform data into actionable insights.
Utility Network
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: Utility Network
Thursday, Mar 12 | 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM PDT | Santa Rosa
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps enable developers to integrate map visualization and geospatial capabilities into mobile apps. This technical session explores how these SDKs can be used to build solutions for the utility industry, including electric, gas, water, and telecommunications. Learn how SDKs support the creation of location-aware applications for data discovery, collection, and analysis, both online and offline. This session also demonstrates current support for utility networks and utility-focused capabilities and workflows.
Indoors
Native Maps SDKs have excellent support for indoor maps, from floor awareness APIs to indoor location data sources and integration with ArcGIS Indoors. We have a couple sessions that cover working with indoor maps and IPS with the Native Maps SDKs:
Indoor GIS: Developer Options for Building Indoor Mapping Apps
Thursday, Mar 12 | 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM PDT | Primrose C
In this technical session, speakers demonstrate building indoor mapping apps by covering the floor-aware ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript and ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps, as well as how to use ArcGIS Experience Builder to build an indoor mapping experience. Speakers also touch on the benefits and drawbacks of each approach to help you determine which is the most appropriate for your use case.
Indoor GIS: Developing Indoor Positioning in Native Mobile Applications
Friday, Mar 13 | 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PDT | Primrose C
Learn how to add indoor positioning to your custom-developed native mobile (iOS and Android) applications using ArcGIS Maps SDK for Kotlin and ArcGIS Maps SDK for Swift. This technical session also includes an overview on Esri’s indoor positioning technology, ArcGIS IPS.
3D
ArcGIS: Explore Data Interactively with Extended Reality
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | Santa Rosa
Curious about Esri’s vision for extended reality (XR) in GIS? Join us to see how ArcGIS integrates with Native and Game Engine Maps SDKs to power immersive experiences across industries. Learn how to design compelling augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) solutions for mobile and XR headsets like Meta Quest, and explore end-user apps such as 360 VR and the new XR Viewer. Discover how these tools transform GIS data into interactive narratives that engage audiences, enhance decision-making, and open new possibilities for geospatial storytelling.
Accessibility
Empowering All Users: Strategies for Accessible App Development
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM PDT | Demo Theater 2: Oasis 1-2
Creating accessibility-compliant mobile apps goes beyond meeting regulations—it is about expanding reach, enhancing usability, and fostering inclusive digital experiences. This demo theater presentation explores how to leverage the .NET developer platform together with the ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET API to build mapping applications that are accessible to a wide range of users. It covers key Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria and shares practical ideas, recommendations, and tips to help ensure your mapping applications meet essential accessibility standards and deliver a better user experience.
Open Standards
Evolving Geospatial Standards: A Developer’s Perspective
Friday, Mar 13 | 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT | Mesquite C
Whether you are a GIS analyst, developer, or integrator, mastering geospatial standards is key to scalable, interoperable solutions. Attend this technical session to learn foundational standards in data, metadata, and web services. See practical Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) implementations with ArcGIS and third-party tools. Discover how evolving standards with OpenAPI and Swagger modernize APIs, enable cloud-native geoformats, and advance discovery and search in data catalogs.
AI Development
AI-Infused Development: Lessons Learned and Patterns from Esri Engineers
Thursday, Mar 12 | 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM PDT | Primrose C
In this technical session, learn how Esri engineers are using AI to improve code quality, accelerate development and testing, simplify documentation, and explore new ideas. You will learn about common AI-assisted development patterns, trade-offs between free and paid tools, and security considerations. Speakers review prompt-engineering basics and illustrate how AI can enhance your workflow with ArcGIS SDKs and ArcGIS APIs. You will leave with an understanding of how you can use AI effectively in real projects, what works and does not, and how to start applying AI in your own development process.
Modernization
ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps: Migrating from ArcGIS Engine
Thursday, Mar 12 | 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT | Primrose B
Many developers are planning to move their desktop apps built with ArcGIS Engine to an ArcGIS Maps SDK so they can take advantage of the new, modern ArcGIS system capabilities. Attend this technical session to learn about tips and techniques that you will need to move your apps from Engine to one of Esri’s ArcGIS Maps SDKs.
Keynote
On Thursday morning we host a Keynote event for all conference attendees to see, listen, and learn about Esri customers using Esri technology to solve problems, deliver solutions. We’re pleased to welcome two valued customers to the stage to showcase their solutions built using Esri technology and Web GIS, powered by mobile applications developed with ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps.
From Salesforce – a leading cloud-based CRM platform that helps organizations manage customer interactions, operations, and field service workflows – Sharon Adler, Senior Product Manager, and Adar Tzeiri, Senior iOS Developer, will share how and why they’re using the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Swift and Kotlin to bring core mapping, editing and offline support to the Salesforce Field Service mobile app.
From Norwegian Air Ambulance — a nonprofit organization that provides emergency medical and air ambulance services across Norway and the surrounding region — Jørgen Storlie, Manager Mobile Solutions, and Edward Murr, Head of Development, describe their journey using ArcGIS Maps SDK for Flutter to deliver HemsWX, a sophisticated planning and in-flight assistance tool used by air crews and emergency personnel.
Join us!
Developer & Technology Summit Keynote
Thursday, Mar 12 | 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM PDT | Oasis 3-4
User Presentations
DevSummit has always been about you, and alongside the Technical Sessions and Demo Theaters presented by Esri staff we have a number of sessions presented by your peers and colleagues. This year, we have a user presentation from Esri partners RINA and SpatialMax that addresses the transition from developing ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET applications with Visual Studio on macOS to a Windows‑based development environment, highlighting key considerations, configuration issues, and workflow impacts.
Frenemies: Migrating ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET MAUI apps from Mac to Windows
Wednesday, Mar 11 | 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM PDT | Mesquite C
Esri Tech Zone
Maps SDKs team members will be available in the Tech Zone (previously know as the Esri Showcase) from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon, with dedicated areas for each Native Maps SDK. Visit us to ask questions, learn more about the Maps SDKs, and share what you’ve built or are working on. This is a great opportunity to connect with the developers behind the technology and share your experiences—we love hearing how you’re using the Native Maps SDKs!
Strategy & Design Reviews
We’ll also have a group of Esri experts on-site to help you with strategic questions about development projects and solutions involving multiple parts of the ArcGIS system. This includes conversations on AI strategy and implementation, architecture evaluation, and code reviews. With the choice between the Native Maps SDKs in the Tech Zone and scheduling a Strategy & Design Review, you might be wondering which option is right for you…
- Visit the Native Maps SDKs area in the Esri Tech Zone if you need focused guidance on a specific Native Maps SDK from the engineers who develop it.
- Book a Strategy & Design Review to discuss strategic approaches you might adopt. This is ideal for exploring broader platform concepts, choosing the right APIs and SDKs, reviewing your code, defining your security strategy, and planning your architecture.
See you in Palm Springs!
With technical sessions, demo theaters, keynotes, code reviews, and the Esri Tech Zone, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to learn about the Native Maps SDKs directly from the experts who build and work with them. We hope to see you there and look forward to connecting with you at the DevSummit 2026!
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