A Select Group of Organizations around the World Are Recognized by Esri President Jack Dangermond for Their Exceptional Applications of Geographic Technology

San Diego, California—July 14, 2010—More than 150 organizations were selected from approximately 300,000 to receive a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award in a special ceremony today at the 30th Annual Esri International User Conference (Esri UC). The winning organizations received this honor for their vision, leadership, hard work, and innovative use of Esri's geographic information system (GIS) technology.

"We created the Special Achievement in GIS Award to recognize our users' extraordinary contributions to global society," says Esri president Jack Dangermond. "Each year, I look forward to being part of this ceremony; it's a tradition that has gained great meaning and importance for professionals in the GIS industry."

GIS combines computer hardware; software; data; and, most importantly, people to collect, manage, and analyze geographic information. Virtually any information can be linked to a geographic location, helping people see that information as part of a complete picture. With GIS, users can view relationships, processes, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Whether they are responding to a natural disaster, growing a business, or sharing information with the public, GIS helps them solve problems and make smart decisions. More than one million people worldwide rely on GIS to learn and plan geographically.

The SAG Award ceremony was held at the San Diego Convention Center and presided over by Dangermond. Thousands of SAG Award nominations are submitted by Esri staff every year, then personally reviewed and selected by Dangermond.

Organizations being honored at the Esri UC, the world's largest GIS event, span countries and industries including agriculture, cartography, climate change, defense and intelligence, economic development, education, government, health and human services, telecommunications, and utilities. More information about the 2010 Special Achievement in GIS Award winners, including project information and photos, are available at www.esri.com/sag.

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.


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