November 20, 2013
For many in the worldwide GIS community, the start of summer means sunny days, vacations, and—of course—ramping up for GIS Day!
Many event hosts are well into planning for the Wednesday, November 20, 2013, celebration of GIS technology. Others are looking forward to attending a GIS Day event in their community, school, or workplace or serving as volunteers. Last year alone, more than 950 hosts and thousands of participants across the world made GIS Day 2012 one of the largest ever.
As in previous years, GIS Day festivities can take many forms: demonstrations; corporate or civic open houses; public library, high school, and university events; map gallery tours; hands-on GIS technology training and workshops; and expos on educational and career opportunities. We encourage you to consider any one of these venues and approaches as you plan your event.
To help you put together a fun and successful GIS Day, we’ve provided several resources—plus new ones added this year—on the gisday.com website. These will assist you in planning and publicizing your celebration to create maximum excitement leading up to November 20. These include logos, flyers, posters, postcards, desktop backgrounds, a PowerPoint template, and certificates of participation.
There is also a new web template that allows event hosts to create a GIS Day page on their website to provide specific information about their local event. The template has the same design as gisday.com to keep the same look and feel of GIS Day but leaves you with the ability to customize, including adding your own pictures and event information.
Register your GIS Day event by September 20, 2013, on gisday.com to receive a custom package of branded GIS Day items. The package will be customized for the specific age group attending your celebration. The items are a fun way to get your audience excited about November 20.
If you are attending the 2013 Esri International User Conference, a quick visit to the GIS Day interactive booth is a must. Meet the GIS Day team and discuss your event plans. We would love to hear about what you have in store and are happy to offer suggestions on event promotion and activities during your celebration.
You also can learn about new activities from National Geographic that you can replicate at your own venue. National Geographic will be on hand Tuesday–Thursday, July 9–11, during the Esri International User Conference to demonstrate fun activities that show geography in action.
By hosting an event, you’ll be giving people in your community a behind-the-scenes look into a powerful technology that has the capacity to revolutionize the world around us.
