GIS/LIS Consortium and Conference Series

In mid-1986, a now defunct organization called the National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA) identified geographic information systems (GIS) as a potential growth market. As arguably the nation's premiere association for the nexus of computing technology and computer-generated graphics, NCGA was well positioned to leverage its extensive conference and exhibition experience to capture the burgeoning GIS applications and solutions marketplace. Rick Dorman, then executive director of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), and a group of farsighted volunteer leaders recognized the implications of ceding their educational niche to a computer industry group and took bold action. ACSM approached other “sister” associations with a proposal for a unique educational collaboration: a multidisciplinary educational conference that would galvanize the emerging GIS community.

These associations—ACSM, the Association of American Geographers (AAG), the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), and the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA)—agreed to pool resources and develop an educational conference that spanned the broad array of professions, technology, applications, and vendor products and services represented by their collective memberships. As a result, the first GIS/LIS (Geographic Information Systems/Land Information Systems) Conference was held in San Francisco, California, in the fall of 1987.

The initial conference captured the excitement and enthusiasm of a collection of disparate but related scholarly and commercial interests seeking a center of gravity. Based upon highly favorable attendee feedback, the second GIS/LIS Conference was scheduled for the following year in San Antonio, Texas. By 1989, the GIS/LIS consortium was well entrenched, and the conference began to appear on the calendars of a wide variety of people with interests in the application of geographic information technology. The GIS vendor and supplier community realized the value of a broader marketplace, and support for additional exhibition space grew. The GIS/LIS Conference was becoming a major industry event.

In planning the 1989 conference, the GIS/LIS executive directors realized that the significant use of GIS in other disciplines represented an opportunity for expansion. Automated Mapping/Facilities Management (AM/FM) International was invited to join the consortium in 1989. AM/FM International, the precursor to Geospatial Information and Technologies Association (GITA; the name was changed in 1998), brought to the [Page 214]professional mix the infrastructure management community—the engineers and managers in local governments and utilities. The distinctions in technology and applications between governments' GIS and utilities' AM/FM systems had begun to blur, and the GIS/LIS conferences facilitated that convergence.

The growth in the conference in the 1990s dictated a more structured approach to managing the conference, and the associations assumed specific operational responsibilities. The executive directors ensured that the conference's educational content reflected the diversity of the audience. Eventually, the GIS/LIS Consortium sought and received nonprofit status.

...