Celebrate World GIS Day 2020

Next month’s international GIS Day is an opportunity for every organisation in New Zealand to demonstrate the power of location to everyone! It’s the time to join hundreds of other organisations to celebrate the impactful work of using location technology to solve problems large and small.  You can participate and help ignite the imagination of future innovators by registering an official GIS Day 2020 event. 

Since its inception in 1999, GIS Day has been celebrated around the world with our community sharing the passion of geography and location technology.  Initiated by Esri, GIS Day now stretches well beyond corporate lines with everyone welcome, regardless of the technology used.  

Over 20 years ago, Esri’s founder Jack Dangermond envisioned people collaborating and sharing how GIS affects everyone.  Since then, the explosion of location technology has seen the event evolve globally to showcase how geography and the real world applications of location technology are making a difference in business, government and society.

“GIS Day is a wonderful opportunity for professionals from around the world to get together to share the amazing things they are doing,” says Jack.

“This year, more than ever before, the work of location technology has helped the world better understand and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. Organizations across the globe are taking part in grassroots events that help celebrate geospatial science and how it impacts the real world for good.  Our users should be proud of the work they do, which GIS Day is meant to showcase,” he says.

GIS Day 2020 is the time to celebrate your work, enlighten your community, highlight the benefits of location technology and share meaningful stories.  Gathering, analysing and visualising geographic data can help us make better decisions that are good for the world.  It’s a chance to share your accomplishments and inspire others to discover location technology.  

At its heart, GIS Day is about inspiring others or learning more about how location technology can support your business.   For this reason, a simple presentation to colleagues who don’t usually use location technology can be as powerful as the person who goes into a school and talks with geography students. 

If you prefer not to give a presentation, consider  creating a Esri StoryMap or use a Mapbox Interactive Storytelling template to share your story.  Email it to the Chief Executive and the entire management team, or share it publicly and tell the world. 

Have you been thinking of volunteering your skills to a local charity like GIS in Conservation or another non profit?  Use GIS Day 2020 as an incentive to do more than just think about it and pick up the phone, or send an email.  If you are short of time, simply write a post on LinkedIn and engage with your followers.

If you are looking for more ideas then check out 101 Ways to Participate and explore https://www.gisday.com/ for  additional resources including posters to put up around your office, templates and logos, ebooks to give away and best of all interactive activities, sorted by age range.

Please let us know your plans to celebrate the power of location technology, so we can share and we will promote it via our various media channels.  Don’t forget to register your event with GIS Day 2020.

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