Central PA GIS Day 2020

Greetings from the Central Pennsylvania GIS Day Committee!

The 2020 Central Pennsylvania GIS Day will be held on Wednesday, November 18 and will look a little different this year. The event will be held virtually on a Microsoft Teams Live platform and through our Esri Storymap. Thanks so much to Harrisburg University of Science and Technology and Cumberland County for providing online platforms. No matter the difference from year’s past, we still have an exciting online schedule planned, which includes Keynote Speaker Dr. Claire A. Jantz from Shippensburg University, Presentations, Exhibitor Gallery, a Student Virtual Activity and a Humanitarian Mapping Event. There are many wonderful activities with fun and easy ways that you can participate and share your geospatial knowledge! 

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Claire A. Jantz is a Professor in the Geography-Earth Science Department and Director of the Center for Land Use and Sustainability (CLUS) at Shippensburg University (SU). She has spent nearly 20 years engaged in the interdisciplinary field of land use science, where GIScience and technology are foundational tools, and is recognized as a leader in land use and ecosystem change modeling. You can learn more about all the great projects at CLUS here!

 Presentations

Would you like to present on a project that you have done over the course of the last year? Would you like to share your technical knowledge with your peers? We’ll be holding presentations on projects, initiatives, and new skills. Presentations this year will only be 20 minutes. To sign up to present, please fill out this form.

 Exhibitor Gallery

In year’s past, we had an exhibit hall featuring state agencies, educational institutions, local government, private companies, and more. This year exhibitors can represent your organization by having a virtual exhibit page at the event in our Gallery! The online Gallery will include a listing of all Exhibitors. Clicking on an Exhibitor will lead participants to a unique page for each Exhibitor. In addition to presenting basic information about your organization, you can add optional content to your page, by highlighting projects/services and a web map.

  It's free to showcase your organization by easily filling out this form!

 Student Activities

While our students sessions have focused on a variety of hands-on events in the past, this year our students will have the opportunity to partake in both the many virtual presentations that GIS Day has to offer, as well as GIS-related activity that can be done either before or after event. We think that whether your classes are being held remotely or in-person, this provides an excellent opportunity to introduce your students to GIS!

To sign up for the student activities, please fill out this form.

Humanitarian Mapping Event

A Humanitarian Event will be offered where areas of the world that are stricken by disasters are mapped in order to provide aid. These areas do not have maps that accurately represent the landscape and infrastructure needed to provide this assistance. We will be hosting this in a virtual setting this year. Stay tuned on our Storymap for more information on how to participate and what areas of the world we will be covering!

To learn more about the event and stay current on updates please visit our StoryMap and follow us on Facebook!

Central Pennsylvania GIS Day has been made possible through the efforts of a dedicated committee of volunteers representing state and local government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and private industry. We are all united by our desire to share our enthusiasm for GIS and the importance of a sense of place in our communities with the next generation of GIS users and the community at large. Thanks to everyone for their time and efforts!

We look forward to your participation in the 12th Annual Central PA GIS Day! Please forward this information to others that might be interested in the event.

Your Central Pennsylvania GIS Day Committee

Rachel Ralls -   The Nature Conservancy, 2020 Event Chair, [email protected] (she wrote this as an e-mail; I'm simply sharing on another platform to spread the word.)

Craig Lewis -    Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, 2020 Event Host

Mary Fulton -   PA Office of Administration, 2020 Event Host

Patrick McKinney – Cumberland County, 2020 Exhibitor Gallery Host

Dan Egan -       PA Office of Administration

Bruce Field -     Esri

Noel Strattan - PA Historical Museum Commission

Sarah Gettys -  PA Department of Agriculture

Maurie Kelly -   PASDA

Sarah McDonalds – Harrisburg University of Science and Technology

Samantha Neely - County Commissioners of Pennsylvania

Dan Snyder -     Michael Baker International

Robin Wallace - Public Safety Delivery Center

Daniel Jones -   PA Game Commission

Joel Rogers -   GeoDecisions

Jason Sealy -      CycloMedia Technology, Inc

Jessica Bennett – AECOM

Babu Rangasamy – PA Office of Administration