This
year we hosted KAM’s first ever all virtual conference October 27-30th. While
we missed seeing each other in person, the virtual conference offered a great
opportunity to come together in safe way to hear informative presentations,
meet new members and network with each other. Attendees had the opportunity
to take pre-conference workshops including Moving from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro
taught by Ken Wilkerson, GISEDGE; Kansas NG911 GIS Data Maintainer Class
taught by Sherry Massey, Dickinson County GIS Coordinator and Eileen Battles
and Kristen Jordan from DASC. Another class, Editing Parcels in ArcGIS Pro,
was offered after the conference by Frank Conkling of Panda Consulting.
Our
opening session kicked off on Tuesday October 28th with a very thought
provoking and entertaining keynote given by John Nelson who works in the
Content Team at ESRI. John showed some of his mapping wizardry using such
things as pivot tables to transform simple tabular data into spatial
representations and creating a cross-stitch style map of the State of Kansas.
Check out more of John’s work on his website or his Instagram.
We
had a great variety of sessions this year, with concurrent sessions being
held live on GoToMeeting or pre-recorded on YouTube. Some of the topics
included Real Estate Title; ArcGIS Pro Parcel Fabric; ArcGIS Hub; The
National Map Products and Services; Siting Optimization; Arcade; Esri
Experience Builder. We had several sessions on the COVID-19 response at the
state and local levels. It was really impressive to see how our members were
using data and tools to help in this important endeavor.
It
was a fun time getting to know our new members at the past-president and new
members’ reception. Quite a few people were able to join because it was
virtual that might not have been able to travel otherwise. That seemed to be
one of the perks of a virtual conference.
The
new
board was elected and includes the following members:
President
| Pam Dunham - Butler County
President
Elect | Amy Roust – KDHE
Past
President | Erika Stanley – Wood Environment and Infrastructure
George
Donatello Lifetime Achievement Award: Linda Sibert, Kansas Department of
Agriculture
Most
Valuable Member: Lee Allen, Shawnee County
Prestigious
Cartographer/GIS Professional: Pam Cannon, Linn County
Outstanding
Mapping Project: Bryce Hirschman, Douglas County 1933 Road Map Linear
Referencing
KAM
Conference Map Gallery's Best Map: Lisa Olson, Seward County with the Arkalon
Assault Race
I
would like to thank our Program Committee, especially the chair Lee Allen,
Jamie Scheiber of Custom Meeting Planners and all of our sponsors for making
this conference happen. Hopefully, we will be back together again in person
for the 36th Annual KAM Conference in Topeka, KS October 25-29,
2021!