Presentation to Focus on How GIS Improves Commercial Real Estate Decision Making in Today's Economic Climate

Redlands, California—March 26, 2009—Richard Juge, the 2009 president-elect of CCIM Institute, will keynote at the ESRI Business GIS Summit to be held May 4–6, 2009, at the Westin Tabor Center in Denver, Colorado. Juge will discuss how geographic information system (GIS) technology is an essential component of the financial and suitability analyses that underpin the business community's decision making.

Commercial enterprises that once boasted high revenues and double-digit expansion are now dealing with slumping sales and increased uncertainty. Juge's keynote will describe how companies can convert opportunity into profit by applying the right tools, techniques, and data. Rather than sitting on the sidelines as financing dries up and the global economy slows, Juge believes that companies should invest more in understanding their marketplace and prospects. "For every challenge the market faces, a golden opportunity rises in the face of today's risky economic times," Juge says.

As the owner of two RE/MAX Commercial Brokers, Inc., offices in Louisiana, Juge specializes in office and industrial real estate. With more than 20 years' experience in leasing and sales as well as portfolio investment, Juge is also a real estate educator who has developed and delivered courses on a variety of commercial real estate topics throughout the world.

GIS technology has become one of the most important tools for making more informed real estate investment decisions. Thousands of companies trust it to provide the answers they need to better manage their portfolios, improve their site evaluation process, and develop businesses more profitably.

"Richard brings a depth of understanding to this summit," says Simon Thompson, commercial business industry manager, ESRI. "His insight demonstrates how one of the industries most severely impacted by the economic downturn can apply GIS to maintain profitability and establish strategies that will help them survive this crisis."

Juge joins Henrik Dahlin, senior director of Process Engineering, DHL, who will also give a keynote address discussing how GIS has helped the international company improve its bottom-line results, boost customer service ratings, and reduce its impact on the environment.

The ESRI Business GIS Summit, now in its sixth year, attracts business professionals from more than 30 industries and market sectors. It is recognized as the leading conference for collaboration and networking regarding the application of GIS to retail, real estate, insurance, financial services, manufacturing, media, logistics, and general commercial business processes. The summit combines best practice sessions and roundtable discussions with user presentations, technical workshops, and an education program sponsored by the University of Redlands, California. For more information about the summit and to register, visit www.esri.com/bizsummit.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 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 www.esri.com.



Contact:

Karen Richardson
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-3491
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