OK SCAUG 2008 Annual Conference Report 

The annual conference of the Oklahoma Chapter of SCAUG is always an event to look forward to. The one-day conference is the largest gathering of GIS professionals in Oklahoma, and this year ESRI and OK SCAUG combined their two largest events by adding ESRI’s ArcGIS 9.3 roll-out to the conference agenda. 

This year’s conference was a huge success. There were 283 people in attendance from 12 states and many counties across Oklahoma. This included 28 vendors as well as attendees representing all levels of government, tribal groups, educational institutions and private industry. 

The conference this year featured one day full of GIS related presentations as well as associated trainings including 3 half-day workshops and 4 multi-day trainings. Workshop topics included GISP Applications, Open Source GIS Options, and Floodplain GIS. The Open Source workshop was overwhelmingly popular and is sure to make another appearance at a future OK SCAUG conference! The training classes included 2 ESRI classes, Introduction to ArcGIS Server and Building Geo-databases, and 2 additional classes, Introduction to ArcGIS 9.3 and Introduction to GPS. The classes were well attended. 

During the conference day, the keynote featured the McClain County 4-H Geo-clovers presenting about “Youth as GIS Partners”. After that, there were 9 user presentations and later 3 panel discussions. Panel discussion topics included GIS and IT, Planning GIS, and Hot Topics in GIS Education. All were well attended with many rooms “standing room only." 

Aside from the formal presentations, there was a poster competition, time to visit with the vendors and plenty of networking time. The 2009 conference date will be announced in early 2009, so plan to join us then!