August 4, 2011  (Des Plaines, IL) -  The California Chapters of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) and the California Geographic Information Association (CGIA) are pleased to announce the 18th Annual California GIS Conference, to be held April 11-13, 2012 at the Sheraton Sacramento. The theme of CalGIS 2012 is Capitalizing on Spatial Technology. Abstracts will be accepted and significant early registration discounts are available through October 3, 2011.

The educational program is developed through a review of submissions received through the Call for Abstracts. The committee welcomes the submission of individual papers, posters, complete sessions, and lightning talks and has proposed a list of suggested categories for consideration:

• Education, Health, and Community - The focus of this track is on serving geospatial information needs and the application of GIS within the community, and the areas of education and health.  

• Natural Resources, Water, and Agriculture Technical Applications - This track covers the application of geospatial technologies in the broad areas of natural resources, water, and agriculture.

• Risk and Emergency Management - This track covers the application of geospatial technologies in the broad areas of risk management, mitigation, and planning or responding to emergency situations.

• Technical Applications - This track includes presentations on specific applications of geospatial technology. This track includes the use of emerging technologies, web applications, and open source applications.

• Government and Policy - This track is focused on laws, regulations, policies, and standards which affect the geospatial community. It is intended to include presentations or discussions on how the geospatial community can effectively respond to requirements that affect our work.

• General Geospatial - This is an open track for presentations and discussions on geospatial topics of interest to the geospatial community.

Abstracts will be accepted and significant early registration discounts are available through October 3, 2011. Visit http://www.calgis.org for conference details.