Last year after the 2018 Esri Water Conference, I asked, “How can this conference get any better?” For those of you that were in Nashville, you know the answer.
The 2019 Esri Water GIS Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, was a great success! We had a strong start with an amazing lineup of Plenary Session speakers: Keith Kolkebeck and Shannon Decker from SUEZ North America; Robert Peng from East Valley Water District; Tom Tibbitts from St. Johns County Utility Department; and Nick Gregory, Bill Thompson, Carl Alexander, and Ashlyn Freeman from the White House Utility District. The presenters told their digital transformation story from the beginning. They shared their challenges, accomplishments, and goals.
We grew our community . . . with more than 500 water professionals attending the conference. Our partner community also supported the event in record-breaking numbers, growing our GIS Solutions Expo from 15 exhibitors last year to 25 this year! The GIS Solutions Expo social was packed! It was great meeting everyone, talking to Esri partners, and enjoying the chicken and waffles.
The sessions continued the story of digital transformation. We learned from our peers how they have moved from paper to digital, implementing easy-to-use apps for the field and office. Others shared how they have put technology to work in their day-to-day operations. There was a great variety of presenters sharing stories during the conference as well as after the conference. What a great community!
Water team staff stepped it up with sessions covering the newest information on flood impact forecasting, analytics, imagery, the ArcGIS Utility Network Management extension, and more.
We all celebrated the last night of the conference at the Networking Social. Isn’t Nashville a fun place!
It didn’t end there . . . wrapping up the conference were those of us that signed up for a tour or training. A big thank you to the White House Utility District and Metro Water for hosting tours. And thanks also to our Esri trainers and customers that stayed two extra days to continue learning.
Christa Campbell
Industry Specialist, Esri Global Water Practice
In case you missed the conference, below are three topics you should check out.
- Field-to-office workflows are helping many organizations increase efficiency. Learn about the maps and apps you need to optimize your mobile operations.
- The ArcGIS Utility Network Management extension provides advanced functionality and flexibility to manage your network.
- Many water organizations are turning to analytics to help better understand their system. Access Esri’s Put Your Data to Work with Analytics webinar series to learn how analytics can help you.
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