Redlands, California — April 14, 2010 — ESRI will demonstrate the capabilities of geographic information system (GIS) services in a distributed environment for those attending this year's annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), to be held April 14–18 in Washington, D.C. The company will also stage a number of topical events and workshops.

ESRI staff will present Collaborative GIS for Addressing Global Challenges: The ArcGIS Platform on Friday, April 16. The session will demonstrate the latest in ESRI technology for geodata sharing and collaboration as well as online GIS in support of a wide range of research and teaching missions in Geography. ESRI workshops will include Advanced Analysis with GIS and Modeling Trade Areas for Business Optimization.

Analyzing Volunteered Geographic Information, a social media challenge sponsored by ESRI, will be open to all college and university students at the meeting. The contest will challenge students' use of social media and VGI technology to critically analyze socially derived spatial data. Prizes total $20,000 and range from $5,000 for first place to $500 for each of the 20 participants receiving honorable mentions. Those wishing to participate can register in person at ESRI booth #702 at the meeting or by visiting www.esri.com/aagchallenge.

"ESRI and AAG have a long history of working together to advance the study of geography and geographic science," says Michael Gould, ESRI's education program director.

"With the ongoing developments in collaborative GIS technology, I believe we will contribute even more to support the research efforts of geographers."

AAG meeting attendees are encouraged to stop by ESRI's booth in the exhibition hall to see demonstrations of the latest technology and receive complimentary copies of selected ESRI Press books.

For more information about ESRI's higher education program, visit www.esri.com/university.

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/news.



Contact:

Jim Baumann,
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-1807
E-mail: Email Contact