AAG Staff participated in and exhibited at the annual Esri Education GIS and User Conferences July 8th-14th in San Diego, California. The conferences are a great opportunity for the AAG to conduct outreach to the GIS community, engaging with current AAG members, signing up new AAG members, advertising the Annual Meeting for both attendees and potential exhibitors, and communicating our program efforts in the areas of geography and GIS education.

The AAG-led GeoMentors program, a partnership with Esri, is particularly featured every year in an effort to grow the program with the audience of 16,000+ GIS users. Program Coordinator Candice Luebbering presented as part of the opening plenary for the Esri Education GIS Conference and GeoMentors program materials were featured throughout the week at both the Education GIS and User Conference AAG spaces.

The GeoMentors program was mentioned in the well-attended opening User Conference plenaries, including promotion of the program by Esri’s Chief Scientist Dawn Wright (6:33 mark of video; followed by 4-H students presenting their work done with the help of GeoMentors) and multiple mentions by Esri President Jack Dangermond. Through the week, 68 new GeoMentors registered to be part of the volunteer community, many signing up on-site. These new participants put the GeoMentor community over the 1,500 mark! The conferences also allow AAG staff to interact in person with current GeoMentor volunteers, improving our engagement and connection with this important community.
                          

 

Esri, Esri ConnectED, GeoMentor