News Release, Kansas Geological Survey, April 5, 2004
LAWRENCE--About 750 geographic information system specialists from across the midwest will gather in Kansas City in mid-April to discuss the latest ways to use computers, mapping, and data in everything from homeland security to emergency management.
The MidAmerica GIS Symposium will be at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center on April 18-22. Staff members from the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas, are helping to organize the event.
Keynote speakers include Barbara J. Ryan, Associate Director for Geography for the U.S. Geological Survey, the nation's largest civilian mapping agency. The program also features 37 short courses related to the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology in areas such as emergency management, law and public information, health and human services, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and infrastructure management.
The meeting is sponsored by the MidAmerica GIS Consortium, a non-profit group of GIS professionals from the midwest, and is being held in conjunction with the 2004 United States Geological Survey central regional state mapping workshop.
Other featured speakers include Shelby Johnson, state geographic information coordinator for Arkansas; Walter Schroeder, professor of geography at the University of Missouri--Columbia; and Jim Harlan, of the University of Missouri--Columbia and co-author of Atlas of Lewis and Clark in Missouri, published in 2003 by the University of Missouri Press.
The meeting will include presentations on homeland security and GIS, wireless technologies , mapping on the web, computer security, and legal issues related to GIS. In addition to mapping specialists, the meeting will attract engineers, city and county planners, surveyors, and utility company employees.
"This symposium will bring together representatives from federal, state, and local government, along with people from academia, non-profits, and the private sector," said Tony Spicci, chair of the symposium and head of the Missouri GIS advisory committee. "This meeting helps strengthen the GIS professional community and lets people share insights and experiences."
Registration for the meeting is $175. Charges for short courses are extra. More information, including the full program, is available at the meeting website (http://magicweb.kgs.ku.edu/).