The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) will host a number of educational events in 2006 across North America.

In Orlando, Florida, February 19–22, URISA and the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) celebrated the 10th anniversary of their successful Integrating GIS and Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) Conference focusing on the effective application of information technology within the assessment and land records offices.

In April, URISA and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) will collaborate to present the first annual Geospatial Integration for Public Safety Conference. This new conference will serve to meet the educational needs of 911 professionals, GIS professionals, addressing coordinators, and incident management and emergency response specialists. The location and date for this conference will soon be announced.

"NENA has endorsed URISA's GIS in Addressing Conference for many years, and conference attendees and presenters have typically represented both associations," explains Wendy Francis, executive director of URISA. "This new expanded conference was a logical next step. We'll still meet the needs of those who look forward to our GIS in Addressing Conference while encouraging collaboration between the disciplines and expanding the reach of the event."

URISA returns to Canada for the first time since 1997. URISA's 44th Annual Conference will take place September 26–29, 2006, in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. The conference committee is already working on abstract review and program development. The theme of URISA 2006 will be Challenge the Limits.

The third URISA Caribbean GIS Conference is expected to take place in October in the Bahamas. Much more news will soon be announced about this regional GIS event in the Caribbean.

For more information about all URISA conferences and workshops, visit www.urisa.org.