On October 28, 2015, I am a motivational speaker for the GeoAlberta conference at the Delta, Edmonton South Hotel. Over 450 GIS professionals will gather to discuss Geo Spatial information.
The GIS audience will consist of two streams:
1) Land Surveyors. These are feild workers who measure property lines and determine boundaries. The work on AutoCAD and create legal survey drawings. These boundaries help determine where roads and buildings can be constructed and lead to the creation of maps.
2) The balance of the audience work with GIS Mapping. Here, they take the data from land surveyors and translate it into maps to be used in GPS systems and by business to see where things are located or to check on zoning. They create data, they analyze it, digitize it and develop maps from the data. They may also develop apps from the data that will help people make decisions.
GPS maps are extremely popular -as paper maps are only as good as the date they were printed. When I think about what GIS professionals do, I think of my 5 year old sons favorite game, Mindcraft. Here, in a visual world, you create structures like homes, cottages, castles and more. Basically, you can build your own city.
In the same way, GIS professionals use technology to help them map out zones that will be used in many different ways to help decision makers and planners make decisions.
This audience is very technical, as they work with a lot of detail at a desk most of the time. In technical work it can be challenging as we tend to take ourselves seriously.
I am looking forward to being the opening motivational speaker for the GeoAlberta conference with the speech, The Nerve to Serve.. Say Hello to Humor & Goodbye to Burnout! I will also present the motivational speech, I Love my Job, it's the People I Can't Stand.
