SERUG and Charlotte

Due to what was, actually, an unfortunate series of circumstances, I find myself in Charlotte, NC, as I write this blog post. What am I doing here? Well, SERUG is not a German pronunciation of something you'd find on the living room floor. It's the ESRI Southeast Regional User Group Conference. In the GIS world, it's one step below going to San Diego for the national conference. And while Charlotte isn't quite San Diego, I had never been here before this week. So not only was I anxious to attend the conference and get my learn on, but I was also excited (as a good geographer would be) about seeing some place new.

I actually made the drive over from Chattanooga on Sunday. Let me tell you... a roughly 300 mile drive has never taken so long. Seven hours after I left, I managed to make it to the Queen City. That's what happens when the interstate you planned to take is shut down because our esteemed president decided to visit Asheville (which I was driving through since my GPS told me that would be the fastest route). As if I needed another reason to not like the guy. I just happened to take a detour that wound up down about three mountains. Did I mention that the brakes on my car were already starting to go? Oh well. I did get some nice views, as the weather was beautiful.

Charlotte itself is, from what I've seen, pretty nice. Downtown there are several tree-lined streets. The one thing I keep noticing is, everything seems very clean. Now, I don't mean to make it sound like Chattanooga is filthy, but... spend some time in the heart of downtown 'Nooga, and you'll notice it's not the cleanest town in the world. Charlotte is trash-free and (thankfully) beggar free. Those are good qualities. As far as entertainment, the Panthers' stadium looks nice. The Bobcats are actually playing a playoff basketball game here tonight, but I assume it's sold out. There are a lot of restaurants, as you might expect. My dining choice tonight (Monday) was a place called "Fujo Asian Bistro". I ordered a sumo steak and had a desert of cheesecake. Wasn't the best I've ever had of either one, but they were alright. I'm sure there are some better culinary choices.

Now, on to the conference. After Day 1, I feel there is one central theme of what's happening in GIS. Well, two. First, ESRI is dead-set on beating into our heads that ArcGIS 10 will be the single greatest piece of software in the history of mankind. Maybe, but let's wait and see on that. It sounds like 10 will have tools that we use every day - for instance, the toolbox itself - a lot better integrated into the working environment. It sounds good. But I'm a creature of habit, so part of me fears that the changes they make will be just for change sake and will just serve to frustrate me (and others). The guys that I heard speak from ESRI-Charlotte seemed pretty knowledgeable, however. One even invited all of us to follow him on Twitter: @DaleLoberger. Appeared to be a nice guy. Follow him, I did.

The other theme of today's presentations was the ultimate goal to tie what we GIS professionals do in ArcMap or other applications, to the web itself. We saw several websites where local governments have put a gluttony of data out there for the public to digest if they so desire. I was particularly impressed with the City of Greenville, SC. While they DO offer a lot of data to the public on their (somewhat clunky) public GIS site, it's what they do behind the scenes that was way cooler. Their GIS department put together a program used by emergency management officials that allow them to see weather stations around the region, track the movement of fire trucks, see police incident reports - all in real-time, as they happen, and put into an easy to comprehend map layout. It's something that I can see every local emergency management organization eventually latching onto.

So that sort of wraps up the first day of my GIS odyssey. The conference continues until Wednesday. If anything else of note happens, I'll be sure to blog about it.

Of course, me saying that is ironic, since my previous post was Part 1 of what was supposed to be a two-part series. Obviously, I never wrote Part 2. Let me sum it up here: we had a delightful breakfast with an entertaining Australian couple, we attended an Easter service at a mega-church, we ate some good food, and we drove home. If you need more details, just ask.

And oh yeah, more Charlotte pictures can be found in my Picasa album.