Twelve Winners Selected from More Than 400 Global Submissions

San Diego, California— July 17, 2014—Esri announced the winners of its Storytelling with Maps Contest last night during the Special Achievement in GIS Awards at the Esri User Conference. Bret Whiteley and Anne Reynolds' Buy Fresh, Buy Local Story Map, which highlighted local farmers, restaurants, and markets, took home the Best Overall award. The pair will receive a one-year ArcGIS Online subscription for winning the grand prize.

"Esri Story Maps harness the unique power of maps to tell exciting and engaging stories about the world," said Allen Carroll, leader of Esri's Story Map team. "The winners of our Storytelling with Maps competition represent the best of a new and rapidly growing community of geo-storytellers. We hope their examples will inspire thousands of storytellers to explore this rich new medium."

People from around the world submitted more than 400 entries that covered the full gamut of Story Map templates. Contest judges selected the following 12 Story Maps as winners across the four contest categories:

Best Conservation, Environment, and Sustainability

·        First Place and Grand Prize: Bret Whiteley and Anne Reynolds, Cape Cod Commission, for Buy Fresh, Buy Local

·        Second Place: Carrie Tropasso, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, for Winter Activities in Pennsylvania's State Parks and Forests

·        Third Place: Nathan Walker, Audubon Alaska, for Pacific Flyway Marine IBAs

Best Travel and Destinations

·        First Place: Adam Kurtipek, North Carolina State University, for Visit Turkey | Love at First Sight

·        Second Place: Joe Cartier, City of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, for Current City of Windsor Construction Detours

·        Third Place: Sameer Bajracharya, ICIMOD, Nepal, for The World's 14 Highest Peaks in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region

Best Science, Technology, and Health

·        First Place: Jennifer Wahle, frox Die IT Fabrik, for Benthaus | Architekten als Baukunst Map

·        Second Place: Annekatrien Debien, KSAT, for Oil Spill Monitoring from Space

·        Third Place: Evan Thoms, US Geological Survey, for 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake Photo Tour of Anchorage

Best Culture, History, and Events

·        First Place: Jeremy Clark, NorthSouth GIS New Zealand, for Christchurch Central Recovery Plan—Anchor Projects

·        Second Place: Ambra Ciarapica, Regione Umbria—Giunta Regionale, for Repertorio dei Paesaggi—Landscapes of Umbria Region

·        Third Place: Darrik Farmer, City of Rexburg, Idaho, for Teton Dam Marathon

All first-prize winners will receive a copy of The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects and a one-year subscription to Smithsonian magazine. Second- and third-place winners will also receive a one-year subscription to Smithsonian magazine. All winners will receive a plaque and a certificate in addition to the prizes listed above.

For more information about Esri Story Maps, visit esri.com/storymaps. To view all 12 winning apps, visit esri.com/storytellingwithmaps, or see the Storytelling with Maps Contest Winners map.

About Esri 
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 350,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

Copyright © 2014 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners.

Press Information
Contact:
Robby Deming
Esri
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-1021
E-mail: Email Contact