Esri User Conference Experience 2023

I was fortunate enough to win this year’s New Zealand Esri Young Scholar Award for my work title “What were the impacts on human mobility during the New Zealand International Convention Centre Fire?”” completed during the Bachelor of Science Honours in Geography postgraduate studies at the University of Auckland. I set out to identify disruptions to movement corridors, exposure to smoke/air pollution, and emergency and citizen response in Auckland, New Zealand using GIS datasets and social media images. I heard about the award through my master’s supervisors, Dr Katarzyna Sila-Nowicka (Sila) and Associate Professor Daniel Exeter who recommended I put my work forward. I’d heard how amazing the conference was from previous winners and was surprised to win. I had not travelled long haul before and all my scheduled travel during my Masters and BSc(Hons) postgraduates degrees was cancelled or converted to virtual due to the pandemic, so the award and trip was especially exciting for my professional and personal development.

During the conference I meet with other young scholars from around the world including Spain, India, Colombia, France, Sweden, and other European countries. We explored not only the user conference but also attended the education summit for two days prior to the UC, which included hands-on learning labs and workshops, presentations, and networking. As a group we also travelled to Coronado Island and other tourists’ attractions during the shorts breaks between events.

My favourite presentation during the conference was a panel session by John Nelson, Ken Field, and Nathan Shepard titled Map Wizardry. During the presentation raw datasets were converted in exciting and visually appealing cartographic designs using basic tools in ArcGIS. It has inspired me to add more design flare to my outputs, without needing to spend too much additional time in the process. I also enjoyed the expo, and meeting/complaining to product designers, hopefully some of my suggestions influence upcoming modifications. And I’m particularly excited by upcoming changes to ArcGIS for Microsoft 365, which should increase my day-to-day productivity and enable teammates to collaborative view our projects on teams.

During the conference I was able to attend many social events including Kiwi Night, Young Professionals Pool Party, a Baseball Game with Eagle Staff and more. In each event I was able to build new connections internationally and within New Zealand which will continue to help my work in science research now at GNS, a crown research institute.  I also enjoyed weekend break after the conference exploring the sunny San Diego Coast including a trip to the USS Midway Museum, SeaWorld theme park, San Diego Zoo, outlet shopping at the Tijuana border and a sailboat trip before returning to New Zealand winter and work.

I owe a massive thank you to Esri, and Eagle Technology for funding my travel and award, along with the support during the travel. I thoroughly recommend any students or recent graduates take the time to share their work and apply for this award in the future.