This year's annual European User Conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was the second time Informi GIS A/S, Esri's distributor in Denmark, organized this excellent conference of sharing and learning.

The opening day featured keynote speeches by Chris Steenmans of the European Environmental Agency; Lars Lorenson of Denmark's largest electricity company NESA; and Jean Poulit, president of EUROGI. During the afternoon, Esri presented the latest technology using many demos of new features and applications.

This year's conference saw presentations from many users who had moved into enterprise GIS implementation, underpinning the overall work flows of organizations. Examples shared included defense, utilities, cadastral, and environmental protection.

The opening reception of the exhibition and poster session took place in the spacious exhibition hall where users shared their work and Esri Business Partners showcased a multitude of extensions and focused applications that extend and complement Esri's technology. These included Hewlett-Packard, NAVTEQ, and Trimble, which were the gold sponsors, and AED Sicad, BAE SYSTEMS, European Space Imaging, and MESA Solutions.

Overlapping the main conference was the EurEdCon'04, a conference for educators. Approximately 60 teachers, researchers, and students from more than 15 countries attended this event, which featured lively presentations and discussions about how to get GIS in classrooms.

During the opening reception, Mike Bedford signed his Esri Press book GIS for Water Management in Europe, featuring 11 user stories on various aspects of water management.

For the rest of the conference, dozens of papers were presented and technical workshops were held in the modern and comfortable surroundings of the Radisson SAS Falconer Hotel.

The gala dinner had a spectacular setting between the old building and the modern addition to the National Danish Gallery. The museum, featuring many European art treasures of the 17th and 18th centuries, was open to guests preceding the dinner.

Next year's European conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland, October 26-28, 2005. For more information, contact Lech Nowogrodzki, Esri Polska (lnowogrodzki@esripolska.com.pl).