My first UGIC Conference
In preparation for the upcoming UGIC Conference, I've been thinking about how awesome of a conference this is. It is a conference for GIS professionals in the state of Utah. UGIC stands for Utah Geographic Information Council.
The first UGIC Conference I attended was held in Cedar City. I was a year and a half into my career. I was instantly welcomed by the members of the UGIC Council at the time, and ran around with them for the week, attending classes and social events.
I remember a bunch of us went out in the desert to Lions Head, to look at hieroglyphics. They were amazing. We studied them, wondering what the people that put them there wanted us to know. One of my colleagues did the entire hike on crutches with a broken leg. Now that's a trooper. I remember watching the sun set into the red and green hills. On another day, my coworker and I ditched the late afternoon classes to go to Grafton, a ghost town where we had discovered we had a common ancestor buried in the cemetery there (good ol' polygamy).
GIS conferences (like UGIC) are great for many reasons. The first being, meeting people in the same field as you and building relationships to work together through the upcoming years. A very close second, is the non-existent lines to the women's bathrooms. I still love walking past a very long men's line, and jet right in and out of the women's side with no delays. The third greatest thing about GIS Conferences, is learning from my peers. I love to see how everyone utilizes GIS in their agency, and why it is important to them. I have always believed that GIS is limited by our own imaginations, and I love seeing other people's imagination in their work.
Happy GIS-ing!
Lindsy Hales Bentley
The first UGIC Conference I attended was held in Cedar City. I was a year and a half into my career. I was instantly welcomed by the members of the UGIC Council at the time, and ran around with them for the week, attending classes and social events.
I remember a bunch of us went out in the desert to Lions Head, to look at hieroglyphics. They were amazing. We studied them, wondering what the people that put them there wanted us to know. One of my colleagues did the entire hike on crutches with a broken leg. Now that's a trooper. I remember watching the sun set into the red and green hills. On another day, my coworker and I ditched the late afternoon classes to go to Grafton, a ghost town where we had discovered we had a common ancestor buried in the cemetery there (good ol' polygamy).
GIS conferences (like UGIC) are great for many reasons. The first being, meeting people in the same field as you and building relationships to work together through the upcoming years. A very close second, is the non-existent lines to the women's bathrooms. I still love walking past a very long men's line, and jet right in and out of the women's side with no delays. The third greatest thing about GIS Conferences, is learning from my peers. I love to see how everyone utilizes GIS in their agency, and why it is important to them. I have always believed that GIS is limited by our own imaginations, and I love seeing other people's imagination in their work.
Happy GIS-ing!
Lindsy Hales Bentley
