GeoTec Event 2011 is in the history books, as it was help Sept. 29, 2011, at the beautiful Morris J. Woske Center for Dialogue (the best venue I've ever seen for a smaller-sized event) in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The attendees were very motivated, and, by all accounts, the speakers were excellent--the speaker ratings forms were all extremely positive. And I should mention that the weather in Vancouver was once again fantastic (who says it rains there all the time?).

The day started with a spirited morning panel featuring Henry Kucera, principal, Swiftsure Spatial Systems, and Don Murray, president and co-founder, Safe Software. The topic was "The State of Geotechnology in Vancouver/British Columbia," and these local "heavyweights" in the industry provided a great deal of insight into local issues, including Open Data initiatives and the current labor market and where jobs can be found.

The morning sessions featured several talks on Enterprise/Emergency Management and Government Data and Sharing as well as an excellent presentation on Prefurbia, a new and more-efficient way to design neighborhoods.

Then Josh Knauer, CEO, Rhiza Labs, delivered a keynote address before we broke for lunch. Knauer touched on several "Emerging Technologies," including sensors (and the growing impact of unmanned vehicles) and simplified user interfaces, which he believes are the key to further adoption of geotechnology.

The afternoon sessions included presentations on Web GIS, Imagery, First Nations' Issues, Mobile Solutions, Data Analysis/Modeling and Urban Planning/Tranportation. For a complete rundown of all the great papers, see the sorted listings (by Title and Author). We'll also have the complete and final papers available to attendees and paid subscribers in the near future.

After the event was over, we met with several speakers for a Happy Hour celebration and nearby Malone's Bar and Restaurant, which was a real treat for those who made it.

So although this event is over, check back regularly at www.geotecevent.com for details on our upcoming Event. And thanks from all of us at GeoTec Media to the speakers and attendees that made it such a wonderful conference!