PDX GIS Day 2023 - a recap

The Portland geospatial community came together for the 11th annual PDX GIS Day event held at Ecotrust's beautiful and spacious Irving Street Studio on Wednesday, November 15th. The event was packed with hundreds of geospatial professionals, students, and enthusiasts who were all happy to celebrate the field with fellow geo-geeks. 

While there are many highlights of the event, renowned cartographer Dan Coe stole the show with his keynote presentation, Mapping Inspirations and Influences. It’s safe to say we all left the event full of inspiration and looking at the world just a little bit differently after watching Dan transform everyday sights of the natural world into cartographic works of art. 

Before the keynote presentation, attendees had opportunities to engage with our sponsors - OR-URISA, Gartrell Group, Portland Community College GIS Club, ASPRS, NV5, Ecotrust, GeoSolutions, 3j Consulting, OS-GEO, Greentop Consulting, and Portland State University Geography Department - many of whom not only supported the event with funds for pizza and beverages, but also came to the event with engaging activities for the participants. Attendees had their geographic knowledge tested, contributed to a mental map of Portland, and hung string to create a map showing where participants were originally from. Community groups such as the Data Visualization Society of Portland, Emerging Professionals, and the Society for Conservation GIS were also present and shared information about their groups with attendees.   
 
The energy in the room was high throughout the evening, with people reuniting with friends, colleagues, and classmates; engaging with new members of the community; and creating networks with people from all over the Portland metro area and beyond. The Irving Street Studio space contributed to the warm and welcoming environment, with its spacious layout, hardwood floors, natural light, original wood beams, and brick archways. 

After Dan’s presentation the space continued to be filled with smiles and laughter as people were awarded raffle prizes: five Esri One-Year Subscription to ArcGIS for Personal Use licenses, two copies of Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas and three copies of Upper Left Cities, both atlases generously donated by David Banis and Hunter Shobe.

We ceremoniously cut into the PDX GIS Day cakes, and all attendees had an opportunity to take home a wide variety of Geological maps, provided by the Washington Geological Survey. 

This was the largest PDX GIS Day event yet! We are so grateful to Ecotrust’s Knowledge Systems team for supporting the event with the use of the Irving Street Studio, to all the sponsors who made the event possible, to all the volunteers who made the evening run so smoothly, and especially to the all volunteer planning team who worked to make it happen in the first place. We would also like to give a huge shout out to Hot Lips Pizza for catering the event and supporting the needs of our group by ensuring that all aspects of the food and drink were handled without issue. It’s truly a community event and we cannot wait to continue bringing the community together to celebrate the Geospatial world for years to come. ​