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2014 WV GIS Conference Survey Results Prepared on July 7, 2014 by the WVGIS Technical Center

Total responses: 56

Q1. Registration Type

Response Options Response Count Response Percentage

Federal Government 1 1.76%

State Government 11 19.64% Regional/Local Government

15 26.79%

Academic/Research 6 10.71%

Private/Corporate 15 26.79%

Student 4 7.14%

Other (please specify) 4 7.14%

Other Responses:

Contractor to Co. Government

Oil and Gas

Here.com

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Exhibitor

Q2. Main reason for attending conference

Reason for Attendance Response Count Response Percentage

Technical knowledge 36 64.29%

Networking 38 67.86% Professional growth & development (GISP Certification) 14 25.00%

Marketing 12 21.43%

Other (please specify) 5 8.93%

Other Responses:

See what is going on with county and state agencies.

Assist in facilitating various conference activities

Student Worker

Exhibitor

Presenting

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Q3. What was the most beneficial aspect of the conference? Answered: 46 Skipped: 10

The diversity of presentations and their relevance to work applications. Also enjoyed the Arc Lab.

Hands on Workshop, numerous presentations

Well attended with a lot of engaged attendees.

ESRI hands on lab

Meeting several government representatives from various sectors of govt including local, state, and federal.

Seeing colleagues

paper presentations and the ESRI lab

Networking

Cadastral Workshop and the ESRI HOLL

Catching up with what other state agencies are doing in the field of GIS

networking

ESRI LAB

networking

Overviews of what was happening in the region with government GIS initiatives.

Ability to network in an informal environment. Giving paper presentations. Ability to learn what GIS users throughout the state are doing. Appreciated the status reports given by State and Federal agencies.

It was all very interesting.

Learning Lab

HOLL was great!!!!!

Networking opportunities and insight into upcoming technological developments and trands.

The hands-on ESRI lab was most beneficial to me for evaluation purposes, as that is one of the products to which we may upgrade.

Learning about upcoming programs and projects

Being able to network and talk with other GIS Professionals about what they're doing in our field and talk with them on how to improve things within our state.

Hearing how the state and the counties collect their geospatial data - the highs and the lows - and maintain it.

As usual, being able to bring the GIS minds across the state together and discuss issues with other professionals dealing with common problems is extremely helpful. Opportunities for learning are always very beneficial as well.

ESRI hands on learning lab

Being able to present my work - poster - and get feedback on my research Chance to meet and network with other geospatial professionals Being able to take ESRI HOLL classes

The hands on classes with ESRI were great

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Networking

The workshop lab.

The presentations on Wednesday.

Paper presentations relative to those items that most of us are dealing with simultaneously, to possibly combine thought processes and workflows to the end goal.

Presentations to see what others are doing in the state.

LiDAR discussion

Gaining knowledge and resources.

Getting to network with potential employers.

It was local.

CADASTRAL WORKSHOPS, AERIAL & LIDAR, FIELD APPLICATIONS

Networking

Breakout sessions/ESRI Lab

This was my first trip to West Virginia, and it was a great chance to meet the user community. Everyone was very interesting and engaging, and I an excited to be doing some more work here!

Free times for visiting vendors, social events

Meaningful engagement with attendees and exhibitors

The side conversations helped the most. More time for that would be beneficial.

ESRI HOLL. Training was super. Kevin Mumford was excellent.

The chance to see the work that other people are doing and to speak to vendors and attendees

Q4. What was the least beneficial aspect of the conference? Answered: 46 Skipped: 10

Cadastral Workshop, it could have been really good but no one wanted to listen to others suggestions. They just wanted everyone else to listen to them. Kurt did a great job with it but we dwelled on topics that we couldn’t accomplish anything.

Booth placement

The WV Jeopardy

consultant presentations using the opportunity for advertising

the GIS in movies presentation

Most of the presentations seemed geared towards the public sector

Caucus breakout...never figured that one out

Some of the networking events were sparsely attended (i.e. Wednesday's dinner)

no bottled water, lunches ended earlier than advertised

There was not much in terms of technical learning workshops.

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Exhibit booth. The committee may want to consider offering non-exhibit sponsor opportunities. We will continue to support WVAGP through exhibit sponsorship, however, if no other opportunities are available.

I was disappointed in the state/federal updates on what is going on. I have used this in the past to see what is new and most of the speakers did not give much concrete actual work that is going on.

GIS HOLL

The initial meetings targeted state-county mapping data exchange. Very informative for state-county folks, but not other industries.

The exhibiting space and layout was very poor; did not get anything out of having booth

None that I can think of.

Honestly, I can't determine which was the least beneficial. Great conference!

I like to think that most everything was beneficial in one way or another.

I would have to say the paper presentations

Nothing really. Everything was helpful

Presentations need to be organized different. Less overlapping

Cadastral workshop

GISP

None.

The hand sanitizer. I wash my hands regularly.

Presentations were too short and rushed on Thursday.

Last day

None.

It was all good.

It was all good.

Everything was great!

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Q5. What was the least beneficial aspect of the conference?

Provision of new skills or Information Response Count Response Percentage

None 1 1.79%

A Little 6 10.71%

Some 36 64.29%

A Lot 11 19.64%

A whole lot 2 3.57%

Comments:

Appreciated the interactions with and questions from the audience during paper presentations.

Loved the labs

I learned a lot of new information about LiDAR and the North American Datum talk was very informative.

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Q6. Did you benefit from your interactions with the sponsors/exhibitors?

Benefit of Interactions Response Count Response Percentage

None 1 1.82%

A Little 10 18.18%

Some 25 45.45%

A Lot 16 29.09%

A whole lot 3 5.45%

Favorite sponsors/exhibitors

ESRI

ESRI

The WV DNR gave some very interesting presentations about new tools available to the public. That was interesting.

Thrasher

ESRI, Thrasher, Allegheny Surveys

ESRI

Quantum Spatial, Atlas Geographic

Allegheny Surveys, Woolpert

Booth traffic was very light, but this is true of most conferences now, and is not a bad reflection on WVAGP.

ESRI, Transcend

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ESRI

Atlas

Allegheny Surveys, Inc.

ESRI

Thrasher and ESRI

ESRI

Thrasher.

WVGISTC, Road Analyzer, Thrasher, ESRI

Q7. Which posters/presentations, seminars, or workshops did you find

more useful? Answered: 35 Skipped: 21

City of Charleston, metro 911 and addressing really stood out to me.

GIS sessions, and the GIS lab

What I personally found the most beneficial was the lightning round of county GIS officials because it gave me a glimpse of how far along some of the counties are with E911 re addressing and how up to date each of their databases are with these changes. I also was able to make a few new contacts in the process. Highly beneficial.

Anything from WVU was very good.

web apps, and USGS update

The ESRI HOLL was great!!!

Esri Hands on Learning Lab

Cadastral workshop

City of Charleston, metro 911

ESRI

I did not attend any

ESRI hands on learning lab was a very nice addition.

Aerial Imagery & LiDAR panel discussion was very informative. Enjoyed the keynote address by Dan Widner.

Statewide LIDAR mapping discussion and Datums presentation

Mobile Mapping

Cadastral workshop

Addressing & FEMA presentations, Addressing workshop were the most useful for me.

Addressing session on Thursday, especially hearing from individual counties.

I like the Cadastral Workshop, though I believe that, based on some of the issues discussed, we may need to have another venue just for folks dealing with cadastral data to meet and discuss some of the issues that need to be addressed.

cadastral mapping workshop

ESRI HOLL classes

The cadastral workshop was very enlightening and very helpful.

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Presentations on web applications.

Mobile, and government agency current projects and goals help give an idea of where things are going and how can we best help support that effort.

DNR Web Application

LiDAR discussion, ESRI HOLL, North American Datums, Google & Woolpert partnership talk

Addressing workshop, GIS for tourism presentation

CADASTRAL

3D Planning poster

LiDAR

Esri Learning Lab. Assessor/land records sessions.

I didn't get to see all the ones I wanted due to the smell in two of the track rooms.

I liked them all. Again, Kevin Mumford from ESRI was super.

The lunch presentation was wonderful.

Q8. Which GIS topics should we consider for a training event or

conference? Answered: 25 Skipped: 31

Using Arc and its applications.

Assessors, land records, parcel mapping

Whatever concepts that most benefit the masses who attend each conference.

More modeling and research by graduate students.

Geodatabase and data management

Implementing street network routing

Best practices for cadastral mapping

Anything would be good, but please bring back the ESRI Hands-On Learning Lab as that was very popular.

more sharing of information from the individual counties concerning their collection/assignment of addressing data

Continue with training opportunities.

I would like to see more workshops like the cadastral mapping that deals with the day to day struggles of the local assessors offices.

3D GIS - CityEngine and ArcScene

Not sure, there is always a nice variety for the group

With having so many GIS professionals maybe we can use our skills one day to volunteer or a 1/2 day

Programming, spatial and 3d analysis, and a tips and tricks type setup similar to the ESRI UC I think would be beneficial.

More detailed Esri Training

Advanced LiDAR workshop, ArcPy advanced course, Open-source GIS program training

GIS in tourism and rec

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I'd like to see more demos vs. presentations.

ArcGIS Online Hands on Workshop

Assessors use of GIS. Cloud mapping.

Introductory training for ArcGis 10.2 Many more small utilities are venturing into GIS mapping and could use some help getting started. This would be a great way to expand the organization by marketing to members of the WV Rural Water Association and the Water Environment Federation. This could be a big part of the future of your organization.

Nothing comes to mind at this time.

Q9. Would you recommend this conference to others?

Would you recommend Response Count Response Percentage

Strongly discourage 0 0%

Somewhat discourage 1 1.92%

Neutral 5 9.62%

Somewhat recommend 15 28.85%

Strongly recommend 31 56.62%

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Q10. Please indicate your satisfaction with the following:

Satisfaction Very Dissatisfied Somewhat Dissatisfied Neutral

Somewhat Satisfied Very Satisfied

General Impression 0 2 5 18 31

Conference Content 0 3 6 22 25

Registration Process 0 4 0 8 43

Host Site Facilities 0 2 5 13 36

Food & Beverage 3 6 3 12 31

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Q10. Any other comments? We’d Love to hear any input you may have. All around great conference. Great job to everyone that played a part in making it

happen.

This conference should be every year, not every other year.

Poor Exhibitor space. I was placed with inadequate space with a window behind the booth. This inhibited me from using my 10' backdrop and the banners I did put up had poor appearance with the sun light coming from behind.

This was my first venture in attending any GIS conference. Overall I found it quite enjoyable. I met a lot of very interesting people throughout the 2 days that I attended. I look forward to the next one.

Great location and food!

should have a golf outing day before conference

SEE U NEXT YEAR. HAVE IT ON A CRUSE SHIP?

WVAGP has always been a great and gracious host, and I appreciate the helpfulness and all the hard work they put in to make this conference such a positive experience. I appreciated the accessibility and graciousness of so many individuals at all levels of the WV GIS infrastructure. The people here make this one of my favorite conferences.

I would like to see presentations about how GIS was used to deal with issues arising from the Water Crisis in Charleston, WV in January 2014.

Great show! Only flaw was the exhibit set up and locations

None at this time.

Dan Widner was a great lunchtime speaker. The ball game activity was fun and entertaining, and a chance to mingle with the attendees. Also enjoyed the Jeopardy game.

If I had to say anything negative, it would be specifically related to the facilities, and it is a very minute issue. More specifically, I felt like for an event like this, the catering staff would have had coffee out and ready first thing in the morning, when people need/want it. Like I said, it is a very small issue, but something that I noticed.

The baseball social event was fantastic! I had a great time there, even if we got rained out. It would have been nice to have coffee and breakfast/light snacks in the beginning of each day. The 5th Quarter was not a good place to go. The place was dark and musty, our waiter was somewhat rude and service was extremely slow, and I found floaters at the bottom of my glass and so did others at the table....no bueno!

Overall it was a terrific conference. Very professional.

It should move around the state more.

Great Conference! Looking forward to the next and more workshops!

Greatly appreciated the wifi access.

Presenters need to use the microphones, and remember when putting map/flowcharts in Powerpoints that they can't be seen in detail.....makes it hard to follow.

MEETING ROOMS WERE SMALL, AND HAD A BAD ODOR.

Time for presentations was way too short. We could have used another 20 mins.

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n/a

Looking forward to next year!

Excellent conference - hats off to the organizers!

The hotel was HORRIBLE. Please never, ever use it again. The entire back row of rooms were so ladened with mildew smell I couldn't stand to be in there for more than 10 minutes. I avoided several sessions I wanted to attend because I couldn't handle the smell.

Food was awesome. Your group has solid leadership. Impressed with the Conference.