Tuesday 9:00am-11:00am Franklin A

Workshop - ArcGIS Insights: Unlock the Potential of Your Data

In this session, we will get started with ArcGIS Insights. Learn techniques to visualize your data, and use the power of interactions to see find patterns and answers to real-world questions. We will further dive deeper into some of the analysis techniques that you can use with insights.

Akshay Harshe - Esri
Akshay Harshe is a Senior Product Engineer at Esri with extensive experience working in software development and customer support. Working with Esri's ArcGIS Insights for the last six years and he has a well-rounded conceptual grasp of the product. He specializes in gathering customer feedback and turning them into product features; taking them from concept to software offering. He is passionate about helping others and loves talking to people. When Akshay is not doing product development you will find him with a camera taking photographs or traveling. He is inspired by the great outdoors and finds peace in watching light and weather unfold.

Tuesday 9:00am-11:00am Franklin B

Workshop - ArcGIS Enterprise: Administration Essentials

Administer and optimize your ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. Configure and maintain an ArcGIS Enterprise solution that meets your organization's business needs. You will learn about ArcGIS Enterprise architecture, server licensing roles and extensions, and the capabilities that support common GIS patterns of use.

Ryan Sellman - Esri
Ryan Sellman is a Local Government Team Lead with Esri, where he focuses on developing GIS solutions that support the business requirements of local government customers. Ryan specializes in ArcGIS platform design and Web GIS implementations within the local government space. Prior to his role with Esri, Ryan worked for Summit County, OH's Planning & GIS Division as a GIS Technical Application Administrator for 4 years. Ryan earned a B.A. from Youngstown State University in 2009 and a Master’s Degree in Planning & GIS from the University of Akron in 2012.

Tuesday 9:00am-11:00am Franklin C

Workshop - ArcGIS Online: Choosing the Right App

Learn how to choose the right app building tool for your goals. View a real-world example that uses ArcGIS Dashboards, ArcGIS Instant Apps, ArcGIS Experience Builder, and ArcGIS StoryMaps.

Jarod Fox - Esri

Tuesday 9:00am-11:00am Olentangy

Workshop - URISA Workshop: Cybersecurity Awareness for GIS Professionals Part 1

This ½ day workshop will focus on cybersecurity business drivers, and provide background for understanding how managing cybersecurity risks can be made part of the GIS organization’s management process. You will learn key concepts and components necessary for protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of geospatial information assets. You will gain an understanding of the importance and key techniques for managing security of information assets including access control, disaster recovery and business continuity that can be made part of the GIS organization’s management process.
Learning Outcomes
(1) Gain an understanding of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threats
(2) Learn how cybersecurity risks are identified, classified, prioritized and matched to control strategies
(3) Develop an understanding of how cybersecurity risks are managed, mitigated and controlled
(4) Gain familiarity with a number of cybersecurity frameworks, standards and guidelines


Matt Gerike - Virginia's 9-1-1 & Geospatial Services Bureau
Matt Gerike is a Geospatial Program Manager with Virginia's 9-1-1 & Geospatial Services Bureau focusing on GIS in Next Generation 9-1-1 and supporting local governments and PSAPs across the Commonwealth. He has managed GIS offices and projects in local government, worked with state level GIS clearinghouses and data development projects, and has taught geospatial technology, and geography courses at several colleges and universities. Matt works with URISA's Professional Education Committee and Next Generation 9-1-1 Task Force and contributes to National Emergency Number Association (NENA) work groups relating to GIS.

Tuesday 12:30pm-2:00pm Franklin

Keynote: Professionalism is People-Centric

Many of the challenging and stressful moments we encounter in our professional careers do not have technology at the root, they have people and relationships. This is true in the classroom, local government, state government, and working with the private sector. Over time, I've found guidance in three mantras for professionally working with and leading others: no dead rabbits, stay centered when challenged, and meet you where you are at and help you get to where you want to go. Let's explore these ideas and other quips that remind us of the importance of people in our professions.

Matt Gerike - Virginia's 9-1-1 & Geospatial Services Bureau
Matt Gerike is a Geospatial Program Manager with Virginia's 9-1-1 & Geospatial Services Bureau focusing on GIS in Next Generation 9-1-1 and supporting local governments and PSAPs across the Commonwealth. He has managed GIS offices and projects in local government, worked with state level GIS clearinghouses and data development projects, and has taught geospatial technology, and geography courses at several colleges and universities. Matt works with URISA's Professional Education Committee and Next Generation 9-1-1 Task Force and contributes to National Emergency Number Association (NENA) work groups relating to GIS.

Tuesday 2:30pm-4:30pm Franklin A

Workshop - Watershed Delineation with ArcGIS Pro Spatial Analyst and Python

A change in federal reporting requirements spurred the need to identify the location along a stream where drainage area becomes greater than 5 square miles. ESRI’s Spatial Analyst extension and the Hydrology toolset were implemented to create a flow accumulation raster and calculate watersheds. With a state-wide stream inventory to analyze, the process was automated with Python. ODOT's Office of Environmental Services and Office of Data Governance will share project details and lessons learned along the way.
Technical Requirements
- ArcGIS Pro (version 2.9 recommended)
- Spatial Analyst License


Katy Robertson - ODOT
Katy Robertson works for the Ohio Department of Transportation in the Office of Data Governance as a GIS Database Administrator. She has earned a B.S. in Geography from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and an M.S. in GIS from the University of Leicester in Leicester, England. With over 20 years’ experience as a GIS professional, she still geeks out about fun projects like this one.

Tuesday 2:30pm-4:30pm Franklin B

Workshop - ArcGIS Arcade Fundamentals

ArcGIS Arcade is a way to write expressions in ArcGIS. With Arcade, you can manipulate the information in your map and create new attributes on the fly. These new attributes can be used to create custom labels, symbolizations, and pop-up windows. Arcade is used throughout ArcGIS, with expressions used interchangeably in different applications and different devices.

Ryan Sellman - Esri
Ryan Sellman is a Local Government Team Lead with Esri, where he focuses on developing GIS solutions that support the business requirements of local government customers. Ryan specializes in ArcGIS platform design and Web GIS implementations within the local government space. Prior to his role with Esri, Ryan worked for Summit County, OH's Planning & GIS Division as a GIS Technical Application Administrator for 4 years. Ryan earned a B.A. from Youngstown State University in 2009 and a Master’s Degree in Planning & GIS from the University of Akron in 2012.

Tuesday 2:30pm-4:30pm Franklin C

Workshop - Field Data Collection and Management Using ArcGIS

Learn how ArcGIS supports a complete field data management workflow—from the office to the field, in the field, and back to the office. You will learn best practices to configure and deploy ArcGIS field-productivity apps to meet your data-collection needs. You will have the opportunity to use your own iOS or Android device to complete some course exercises.

Jarod Fox - Esri

Tuesday 2:30pm-4:30pm Olentangy

Workshop - URISA Workshop: Cybersecurity Awareness for GIS Professionals Part 2

This ½ day workshop will focus on cybersecurity business drivers, and provide background for understanding how managing cybersecurity risks can be made part of the GIS organization’s management process. You will learn key concepts and components necessary for protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of geospatial information assets. You will gain an understanding of the importance and key techniques for managing security of information assets including access control, disaster recovery and business continuity that can be made part of the GIS organization’s management process.
Learning Outcomes
(1) Gain an understanding of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threats
(2) Learn how cybersecurity risks are identified, classified, prioritized and matched to control strategies
(3) Develop an understanding of how cybersecurity risks are managed, mitigated and controlled
(4) Gain familiarity with a number of cybersecurity frameworks, standards and guidelines


Matt Gerike - Virginia's 9-1-1 & Geospatial Services Bureau
Matt Gerike is a Geospatial Program Manager with Virginia's 9-1-1 & Geospatial Services Bureau focusing on GIS in Next Generation 9-1-1 and supporting local governments and PSAPs across the Commonwealth. He has managed GIS offices and projects in local government, worked with state level GIS clearinghouses and data development projects, and has taught geospatial technology, and geography courses at several colleges and universities. Matt works with URISA's Professional Education Committee and Next Generation 9-1-1 Task Force and contributes to National Emergency Number Association (NENA) work groups relating to GIS.

Wednesday 8:30am-9:00am Franklin A

Using ArcGIS Hub to Create a One-Stop GIS Resource

The PennDOT Bureau of Planning and Research’s Geographic Information Division (GID) identified a need for a geospatial hub to act as the core communication, support, and resource center for PennDOT GIS data. Previously, PennDOT used several platforms to provide information and share data with internal and external users.
Using Esri’s ArcGIS Hub cloud-based platform, JMT Technology Group designed the PennDOT Geospatial Hub as a modern engagement platform that organizes GIS users, data, applications, and support through a single experience. It contains both publicly accessible content along with content that is available only to internal PennDOT staff.

By centralizing resources to PennDOT's GIS assets, the Hub enables better use of data for planning, advanced analytics, and complex application development. This presentation will cover the motivation and reasons behind implementing a GIS Hub, stakeholder involvement, development process, and marketing/outreach efforts.


Bob Pliszka, PMP, GISP - JMT Technology Group

Wednesday 8:30am-9:00am Franklin B

Clinton County GIS: The Journey from Paper to Cloud

My presentation will be on the evolution of our GIS Program, from the days of photocopying hand drawn maps and editing with paper and pen, to uploading terabytes of data to a cloud environment and writing maps and apps that access it. We will illustrate the use of a few of our most popular apps, and finish up the presentation by discussing how we track the access of our data and applications, and use that information to continually make updates and edits.

Joseph Merritt - Clinton County Engineers Office
Mr. Merritt's background includes degrees in both Elementary Education and Business Administration. After having taught for two years at a private school and working on a Master’s in Education, Mr. Merritt switched career paths and began working for a contractor doing consulting work for Indiana Bell Telephone. After a brief stint as a contractor for the Federal Government he began work for the city of Indianapolis on the IMAGIS project, one of the largest GIS Consortiums in the country. After 5 years Mr. Merritt’s interest in serving as a consultant was renewed. He then worked as the Regional Manager for Hansen Information Technologies, and then as Senior Technician for Convergent Group. After learning that Clinton County, Ohio was planning to start a GIS Department, he applied, and began working as the GIS Department Manager in the Spring of 1999.

Wednesday 8:30am-9:00am Franklin C

GIS/SAP Integration for Stormwater Management

Woolpert was contracted by the City of Toledo to help update the linkages between their SAP stormwater billing system and land parcel data from Lucas County. Prior to the project, Toledo had been maintaining these relationships on an ad hoc basis primarily driven by new water customers and complaints from stormwater rate payers. At the completion of the project the City will have (in addition to an updated impervious surface GIS layer already completed) an updated linkage between water and stormwater accounts in SAP and associated land parcels in GIS along with a semi-automated monthly update process that will reduce the time required to maintain that linkage going forward. The project includes the following tasks: initial stormwater account and parcel data updates and linkages, development of data maintenance and update tools to maintain that linkage over time, internal and public-facing web mapping applications and StoryMaps for customer support and outreach, and a comprehensive stormwater rate analysis document based on the updated data inputs. We will discuss progress thus far on the project and demonstrate the data update process, data maintenance tools, web mapping applications and StoryMaps.

Frank Orr - Woolpert

Wednesday 8:30am-9:00am Olentangy

PCR with 3D Mobile Mapping and AI without Breaking the Bank

PCR with 3D Mobile Mapping and AI without Breaking the Bank

Nick Hickman - MasterMind, LLC
MasterMind, LLC is a traffic safety software & services company encompassing: 360° Mobile Mapping with LiDAR, No-Passing Zone, Pavement Marking Inventory, Horizontal Curve "Ball Bank", Sign Inventory, Guardrail Inventory, Right-of-Way "Roadside Hazard" Inventory, Speed Zone and Traffic Count Studies. MasterMind was founded in 2013 by Nicholas & Amber Hickman. MasterMind’s central office is located in Delaware, Ohio. MasterMind dove into the world of mobile mapping from its founding and created its own field based mobile mapping system. MasterMind has performed mobile mapping and traffic safety studies on over 30 thousand miles of roadway. MasterMind also has hundreds of software clients all around the United States ranging from the great state of Ohio to Florida, New York and California.

Wednesday 9:10am-9:40am Franklin A

Understanding Tax Incentives: Utilizing GIS to Collect and Share Information

Tax incentives are widely used both in Franklin County and across the United States to encourage economic development and improve communities. Under Ohio law, Tax Incentive Review Council (TIRC) meetings are required annually for certain types of incentives to see if they are performing as well as agreed. In 2021, Tax Incentives staff utilized Survey123 to collect data from municipalities and generate reports. IT staff developed a database view that enables ArcGIS Enterprise to display data about each incentive from Franklin County’s tax accounting system. Finally, GIS staff developed an ArcGIS Hub initiative to display all the data collected. Using ArcGIS Hub, residents can find information about each type of tax incentive with maps showing where incentives are in use and data about each incentive. Residents can also find the effects each incentive has on government agencies that depend on tax revenue, and link to specific information about each incentive at an individual municipality’s economic development website.

Matt Shade - Franklin County
Matt Shade is the GIS Manager for the Franklin County, Ohio Auditor's office. The Auditor's GIS Department has an nine person staff and serves as the GIS administrator for Franklin County, which has over 430,000 parcels. Matt has more than 15 years of experience in GIS working both as a consultant and directly for government agencies at all levels. He has used the Esri platform to apply technical and analytical methods to streamline GIS production projects and data quality. Matt served on the Board of the Ohio Chapter of URISA 2010-2019. He is a 2004 graduate of The Ohio State University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography.

Wednesday 9:10am-9:40am Franklin B

PLAN4Health - Miami Valley

Healthy communities do not happen by accident. Careful planning and implementation are key to creating and sustaining healthy communities. Clinical care only constitutes about 20% of an individual’s health outcomes. The other 80% are dependent on behavioral, social, economic, and physical environment factors (County Health Rankings model – University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, 2016). As GIS and community planning professionals, we must strive to build healthy communities.
This has led MVRPC to launch the PLAN4Health – Miami Valley (“P4H”) initiative. Using a data driven and multi-modal GIS framework, P4H aims to shed light on community health gaps in the Miami Valley region, as well as facilitate conversation between public health and community planning professionals. Although public health and planning professionals are the target audience for this initiative, it would not be possible without the use of GIS technology. Utilizing advanced geo-statistical analysis, spatial index creation, kernel density surface mapping, ArcGIS online maps & applications, and more, P4H was designed to utilize GIS from the start. P4H is an ongoing initiative, with multiple component projects comprising it. As each project commences, the GIS framework will be applied to ensure best practices and innovation in GIS are a top priority in conjunction with initiative goals and objectives.

Tom Harner - MVRPC


Milo Simpson - MVRPC


Kathryn Youra Polk - MVRPC

Wednesday 9:10am-9:40am Franklin C

Update – Ohio Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1)

This session will provide a follow-up from the previous GIS Conference with an update on legislative efforts on NG9-1-1 and the GIS requirements expected as the new system eventually rolls out across the State of Ohio.

Rob Jackson - State of Ohio
Rob Jackson is the Ohio 9-1-1 Administrator and leads the Ohio 9-1-1 Program Office. Rob became the Ohio 9-1-1 Administrator in 2015. He is a retired Captain from the Ohio State Highway Patrol where he was commander of the Technology and Communication Services section which coordinated all computer, radio, electronic and technology needs and also administered Ohio LEADS, serving as LEADS Steering Committee Chair. Rob also served as Chair of the Ohio Amber Alert Advisory Committee and as a member of the OHLEG Steering Committee and Ohio Child Abduction Response Team Steering Committee. Rob also had 20 years experience as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. He holds a Bachelor of a Specialized Studies from Ohio University, Master of Public Administration from Marist College and is currently a doctoral student at Liberty University.

AJ Walter - DDTI


Dave Tenney - DDTI

Wednesday 9:10am-9:40am Olentangy

Migrating to Enterprise and Implementing ESRI's Utility Network

The City of Xenia recently migrated their GIS data from ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online to ArcGIS Enterprise using AWS. This presentation will explain the steps it took to migrate data, applications, and system architecture to create a GIS that is accessible to Xenia staff and eventually the public. The presentation will also show the creation of a utility geodatabase (water, sewer, storm) for the Public Service Department that included using Esri’s ArcGIS Utility Network to create a water model for valve shut off and isolation. Xenia is one of the first communities to implement this new model by Esri and will share the steps it took to utilize the network in field applications.

Darlene Magold - ETCH
Darlene Magold is the CEO of Etch, LTD, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), SBA Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) Women Business Enterprise (WBE). She has a BS in Environmental Geology from the University of Dayton and a MA in Geography (GIS) from The Ohio State University. She is also a Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional. Darlene has over 20 years of professional GIS experience, including managing projects of all scales and helping with the design of sophisticated applications. Her firm specializes in program development, GIS planning and design, asset management and data conversion and delivery, all with a unique focus on Open Source and GIS technology.

Zoie Zalewski - City of Xenia
Zoie Zalewski is a GIS analyst for the City of Xenia. She graduated from Ball State University in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in GIS, and has worked in local government ever since.

Wednesday 10:20am-11:20am Franklin A & B

LBRS Road Centerlines: One Source for NG-911 and ODOT

Road centerlines are used by various government agencies and industries to represent streets and roads as line geometry in a GIS data set. Can one set of road centerlines satisfy the needs of all? In Ohio we have LBRS (Location Based Response System), and that's just what it was envisioned to do. Now that NG911 is here, can LBRS be used for it too? Datasets that follow this Ohio standard can (and are currently) converted by DDTI to meet NG911 core requirements.

AJ Walter - DDTI


Dave Tenney - DDTI

Wednesday 10:20am-11:20am Franklin C

I got the GIS Manager job! Now what? Navigating mid-career changes without a map.

You’ve just landed the role you’ve been working toward—managing a GIS system in a small to medium municipality. You’ve been assured that Yes, there is a GIS system already in place! It should be easy to fall into the new role and since you are the subject matter expert you have free rein to re/design/improve/innovate. You arrive at the new place only to discover the Enterprise GIS you were promised is actually hundreds of shapefiles of unknown origin or date, a literal pile (or entire room) of old smelly construction plans, and duplicate or triplicate datasets, each with its own projection, datum and reason for being. Perhaps you’re managing utilities that you hadn’t before; or perhaps you come from a Planning background rather than Engineering or IT. Now you’re tasked with coordinating IT, GIS, multiple enterprise users with varying end-user needs (that often conflict), and also developing interactive, engaging web applications to “sell” GIS to other departments. Where do you even start? This presentation details some of the frustrating, funny and fortuitous anecdotes of our first foray into managing an Enterprise GIS—not just “without a map,” but in essence making the map as we go.

Andrew Wilson - City of Hilliard, Ohio


Kelly Wright - City of Monroe, Ohio

Wednesday 10:20am-11:20am Olentangy

Beyond the 98

NG9-1-1 is evolving quicker than ever before, the timeline to ensure your PSAP and GIS is ready for NG9-1-1 is decreasing at an alarming rate. While portions of the NG9-1-1 world has yet to be developed, GIS has been identified as a mission-critical component. GIS is used in many 9-1-1 centers and public safety responder agencies, as well as in local, state and federal government processes in the United States. In an NG9-1-1 environment, GIS will be used in a much different manner. Unlike use in post-call processes, GIS will take on a critical role in pre-call delivery through NG9-1-1 call routing. This course will introduce standard, best practices and introductory workflows required to ensure NG9-1-1 data readiness to get your data Beyond the 98%™ required by NENA.

Jeff Ledbetter, GISP, ENP - DATAMARK
Jeff Ledbetter is a GIS, public safety, addressing and GIS technology subject matter expert with nearly two decades in GIS. Since 2009 Mr. Ledbetter has been supporting GIS technology in PSAPs and Emergency Operations Centers. Mr. Ledbetter is a Public Safety GIS Expert with DATAMARK Team of Michael Baker International and holds GIS Professional (GISP), Emergency Number Professional (ENP) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications.

Greg Brooks - DATAMARK

Wednesday 1:00pm-1:30pm Franklin A

Fighting Blight: Utilizing ArcGIS Applications for Collective Community Impact

With more than 8 million dollars in uncollected delinquent property taxes and hundreds of dilapidated dwellings and buildings, government and non-profit organizations have been working to build a comprehensive strategy to address blight in Marion County. To facilitate this effort, the Marion County Auditor's GIS department has created applications and websites through the ArcGIS platform to allow for improved collaboration and data sharing. The presentation will show how Hub, Experience Builder, Survey123 and other ArcGIS applications have been used to create a data driven, collaborative approach to reducing blight in Marion County.

Elizabeth Burns - Marion County Auditor
Elizabeth Burns has worked as the GIS Manager for the Marion County Auditor's Office since 2007. She attended Ball State University and earned a B.A. in Urban and Economic Geography from Northern Illinois University.

Wednesday 1:00pm-1:30pm Franklin B

What’s Inside? Indoor Mapping Applications and Best Practices

Indoor mapping is gaining attention and has a wide range of applications for emergency response, indoor navigation, space utilization, facility management, engineering and construction. Michael Baker International will discuss the current and future applications of indoor mapping, considerations and best practices for data collection, and lessons learned on our journey to create a robust product for our customers to interact, view and analyze indoor spaces for a variety of purposes.

Kevin Baker - Michael Baker International
Kevin Baker is a lead GIS Associate with Michael Baker International. He focuses on military projects related to data quality, real property, and space utilization. He holds a M.A. in Geography from Miami University of Ohio and has an interest in studying local economies and manufacturing.

Bethaney Krzys - Michael Baker International
Bethaney Krzys is a GIS Project Manager with Michael Baker International. She has 15 years of experience using GIS to support government initiatives from the local to federal level. Focus areas include regional planning, transportation planning, military data standards, and program management. Bethaney and her company prioritize the use of emerging technology and innovative solutions.

Wednesday 1:00pm-1:30pm Franklin C

Ohio DNR GIS: How We Got Here

The state of Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources GIS team has gone through many changes over the past few years. We will re-introduce ourselves, tell you what changes have taken place and highlight a couple of the smaller applications we accomplished this past year to assist our Divisions in data collection (Chronic Waste Disease in deer population application/dashboard) and real-time data monitoring (Dam Monitoring).

Jeff Swan - ODNR
As Chief Information Officer, Jeff Swan oversees ODNR’s information technology (IT) systems and security measures. Jeff has more than 20 years of experience in the field with previous positions including IT manager at the Ohio Department of Administrative Services and Network Services Supervisor at the Ohio Department of Health. A native of Mount Sterling, Ohio Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Franklin University.

Joe Wells - ODNR
Joseph Wells is GIS Administrator for DNR/OIT. He has a BA in Geography from West Virginia University (1994) with over 25 years of GIS experience working for Department of Natural Resources. Responsibilities include: database administration, ArcGIS Server administration, application planning and implementation, and oversees the operations of GIS for the Department.

Greg Geise - ODNR
Greg Geise is the newest GIS Specialist 2 for DNR/OIT. He has a BA in Geology from Miami University and an MA in Earth Sciences with a GIS focus from Wright State University. He has previously worked as a GIS Specialist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN and the National Park Service in Washington, DC. At ODNR, he is responsible for data maintenance, map production, and app development.

Wednesday 1:00pm-1:30pm Olentangy

The Nuts & Bolts of GIS: Cloud based GIS in MS Azure!

John Woodard (Woody) will discuss the potential and challenges that one encounters when attempting to leverage Microsoft (MS) Azure’s cloud services to support an organization’s information systems. MS Azure is much like EGIS, meaning it can be used, applied, the application’s potential is unlimited. The real trick is finding the best solution to fit your organization’s needs at a reasonable cost. Join Woody as he takes you on a trip of discovery through the land of Azure.

John Woodard MS, GISP, EA is also known as "Woody," has been working in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) since 2001. John holds the following professional certifications GISP & EA (Enterprise Architecture). He has a Masters in Geography/GIS from the University of Akron, Ohio, and a master’s in digital science concentrated in Enterprise Architecture from Kent State University. His book Enterprise GIS: Concepts and Applications, (CRC Press ISBN: 9781138478299 - CAT# K348528) was published in 2020. He is the GIS/IT Program Developer for The Davey Resource Group. John is an avid scuba diver and beekeeper.


John Woodard - Davey Resource Group

Wednesday 1:40pm-2:10pm Franklin A

Advances in GIS Integration at Ohio Emergency Management Agency

The Ohio Emergency Management Agency (Ohio EMA) Watch Office is a 24/7/365 operation responsible for establishing and maintaining the State Emergency Operations Center Common Operating Picture so that stakeholders and leadership can make informed and response-driven decisions. The Watch Office assists the Ohio EMA and stakeholders in evaluating and disseminating the status of critical events by providing situational awareness and communication using ESRI products. By using ESRI technology to modernize our platforms and product tools we have improved the dissemination of critical information and data integration to many end users.

Our initiatives include:
•A revised situational awareness application using ArcGIS Experience Builder containing a collection of real-time monitoring tools that enable the Ohio EMA Watch Office and its partners to keep abreast of forecast hazards and impacts to FEMA Community Lifelines.

•Using ArcGIS Story Maps to generate Steady State Advisories and SPOT Reports for critical information dissemination of imminent hazards or ongoing impacts to Ohioans.

•The development and integration of an ArcGIS use case policy with existing agency standards.


Dustin Davis - Ohio Emergency Management Agency
Dustin is a Public Safety Intelligence Analyst with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (OEMA). He has been developing ArcGIS products for the OEMA Watch Office that assist with critical information gathering & dissemination. He believes GIS products can improve any agencies operations and strives to find those areas.

Natalie Janney - Ohio Emergency Management Agency
Natalie Janney is a Public Safety Intelligence Analyst with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, concerned with collecting situational awareness on hazards, events, and disasters affecting Ohioans. She has a B.A. in Geography and Environmental Studies from Ohio Wesleyan University (2009).

Wednesday 1:40pm-2:10pm Franklin B

Elevation Derived Hydrography – Up the Creek, with Many Paddles

Consider these 30 minutes an “on-ramp” to the 3DHP highway. As the practice of EDH evolves, the body of information available about it is often too technical or too high-level for organizations to plan for its use. This presentation offers a “just right” collection of insights useful to those using surface waters data, and to those making decisions that facilitate its use.

We’ll highlight what organizations should consider, plan for, and seek to mitigate. Real-world examples will bring clarity to topics that include:

Why the buzz about EDH?

Nuts and bolts of how EDH data is developed

The role of ancillary data like Geomorphic Indicators

Common bottlenecks and pitfalls

What to expect from deliverables

Join us for a judgement-free zone of surface waters learning, and leave equipped with practical steps for improving your hydrography data assets.

Brian Stevens - Woolpert, Inc.

Wednesday 1:40pm-2:10pm Franklin C

A Sense of Place: Quick and Dirty Accessibility Analysis Using Open Source Network Analysis Tools

How many residents live within cycling distance of the planned community center? What are the economic characteristics of the neighbors within walking distance of this library? How many more jobs can a person reach in 30 minutes if we put a bikeshare station at this bus stop? It used to be that answering location intelligence questions like these was expensive and time consuming, but thanks to a suite of open source software and open data, you can answer these and countless other questions that require analysis of complex geospatial networks for free in minutes. In this presentation we'll demonstrate how to use the r5r package for the popular R programming language to build a multi-modal transportation network for Central Ohio from scratch and use it to model some impacts of a large hypothetical industrial development in Licking County.

Adam Porr - Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission
Adam is the Research & Data Officer at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and an urban planner (MCRP, Ohio State University, 2019). After spending a decade as an electrical engineer (B.S. 2006 and M.S. 2013, both from OSU) in the defense industry, Adam discovered a passion for sustainability and began pursuing a career more closely aligned with this. Adam and his family reside in Clintonville (Columbus). He is a tireless advocate of Free Software and transportation cycling, and enjoys backpacking, gardening, and fermenting all sorts of things.

Wednesday 1:40pm-2:10pm Olentangy

The Nuts & Bolts of GIS: How GIS has made me a better beekeeper!

The Nuts & Bolts of GIS: How GIS has made me a better beekeeper! Last year, John (Woody) presentation touched upon how GIS and drones could support agriculture (specifically beekeeping). Since last year, John has concentrated on integrating these new technologies into his own beekeeping operations. Join Woody as he describes the fun (A pole barn bee dance!) yet, serious effort to improve his beekeeping skills and help the honeybees!

John Woodard (Woody) MS, GISP, EA is best known for being a GIS Professional, but did you know that he is also a beekeeper? This presentation discusses how his career as a GIS/Information professional intersects with his career as a small farmer/beekeeper. Each intersect point between the two professions has provided Woody with a new lesson for professional and personal growth. It is amazing to witness how one’s professional career can carry over into a personal life.

John Woodard - Davey Resource Group

Wednesday 2:40pm-3:40pm Franklin A

Mapping Myaamia Landholdings Over Time: Using GIS to Help Tell a Story

In 2019 the Myaamia Center at Miami University (a tribally directed interdisciplinary research center that is central to a relationship with the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma) was awarded a National Endowment of the Humanities grant for the project ‘aacimwahkionkonci: Land of Stories’. One aspect of this project is the creation of a web-based historical education resource that will include geospatial maps and data showing the transfer of land ownership on Tribal reserves over time. The Geography Department and the Center have been working together to build GIS datasets that represent this land change over time, with the primary goal of letting the GIS data help tell the story of this land change. We have been through several iterations of data structure and webmap creation. This presentation will take you on that journey of discovery and introduce you to the concept of parcel genealogy along the way!

Robbyn Abbitt - Miami University
Robbyn Abbitt is the GIS Coordinator for Miami University. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science & Public Administration from Indiana University and a M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Idaho. Robbyn has worked in the field of GIS for over 20 years focusing on natural resource management, food accessibility, and resource use and allocation. She has worked for universities, non-profits, and government cooperatives. Robbyn has been at Miami since 2005 where she develops and teaches GIS courses, advises undergraduate and graduate students, serves as the Associate Director of Miami’s Geospatial Analysis Center, and manages the GISci Certificate programs.

Wednesday 2:40pm-3:40pm Franklin B

ArcGIS Experience Builder: An Introduction

ArcGIS Experience Builder empowers you to quickly transform your data to interactive, mobile optimized web apps and web pages. Flexibility, integration, mobile optimization, and interconnection are keys that set it apart from alternatives. Through the lens of Esri’s new Land Records public solution (built with Experience Builder) learn the building blocks of Experience Builder including pages, windows, widgets, data sources, layouts, and themes, as well as how they work together seamlessly, then adapt the content on different screen sizes, integrate with ArcGIS Survey123 and ArcGIS Dashboards apps to streamline processes, and interact with your 2D and 3D data for immersive experience.

Ryan Sellman - Esri
Ryan Sellman is a Local Government Team Lead with Esri, where he focuses on developing GIS solutions that support the business requirements of local government customers. Ryan specializes in ArcGIS platform design and Web GIS implementations within the local government space. Prior to his role with Esri, Ryan worked for Summit County, OH's Planning & GIS Division as a GIS Technical Application Administrator for 4 years. Ryan earned a B.A. from Youngstown State University in 2009 and a Master’s Degree in Planning & GIS from the University of Akron in 2012.

Wednesday 2:40pm-3:40pm Franklin C

Urban Modeling for Supportive Development: Testing Development Scenarios with esri Urban

What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do we plan redevelopment around the existing infrastructure, or can we plan redevelopment to support infrastructure improvements? Really, it can be either, but the smart practice is planning redevelopment to make sure your infrastructure improvements are used efficiently – especially transit.

Esri Urban incorporates community indicators into land-use scenarios based on factors that are needed to support transit improvements: population change, additional households, and new jobs created. These metrics can help planners determine what kinds of development, how much development, and the which designs of a development plan might be needed to make sure a transit stop is feasible in any location.

This session will cover the process of creating an esri Urban basemap; including importing 3D buildings, setting the base layers, and creating the zones. We’ll also cover working within Urban itself, and how to use the scenario and indicator capabilities to model development scenarios.

Whether you need to model development to meet housing goals, job goals, support transit, or just visualize what a zoning code change might make, Urban can be an extremely useful tool for any crossover between GIS and Planning Departments.

Jonathan Miller - Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission


Jason Kaper - Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission

Wednesday 2:40pm-3:40pm Olentangy

Watershed Delineation with Spatial Analyst and Python

A change in federal reporting requirements spurred the need to identify where a stream’s drainage area becomes greater than 5 square miles. ESRI’s Spatial Analyst extension and the Hydrology toolset were implemented to create flow accumulation rasters and calculate watersheds. With a state-wide stream inventory to analyze, the process was automated with Python. ODOT's Office of Environmental Services and Office of Data Governance will share project details and lessons learned along the way.

Katy Robertson - ODOT
Katy Robertson works for the Ohio Department of Transportation in the Office of Data Governance as a GIS Database Administrator. She has earned a B.S. in Geography from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and an M.S. in GIS from the University of Leicester in Leicester, England. With over 20 years’ experience as a GIS professional, she still geeks out about fun projects like this one.

Wednesday 3:50pm-4:20pm Franklin A

System Maintenance with ArcGIS Online Reports

Overtime ArcGIS Online can experience rapid growth and become unmanageable without proper maintenance. Managing that growth while maintaining ArcGIS Online can become a challenge. Join us as we explore a way to maintain your ArcGIS Online Organization with ArcGIS Online Reports… No Python Required.

Joe Guzi - Stark County GIS
Joe Guzi has worked for the Stark County GIS Department for over 10 years. During his time there, he has been working on moving GIS Solutions to the next level, by providing application development, automated solutions to daily tasks using ArcGIS, and general GIS system maintenance. He spends a lot of his free-time doing GIS Side Projects just for fun. He has also been a part time Adjunct GIS Instructor and Learning Support Specialist at Columbus State Community College since 2018.

Wednesday 3:50pm-4:20pm Franklin B

Utilizing Survey123 and Python Script to Standardize the Production of Project Deliverables

Initial work on a CEC project normally is subject to multiple layers of standardization, either through CEC quality policies and standards, or by government regulators. Even though each project is different and presents its own set of challenges, the workflow to create an initial deliverable is generally consistent.

Python scripts can work in conjunction with accessible online interfaces to automate the production of project deliverables, completing a task in a fraction of the time with no variation in formatting and with no chance for error. This presentation will explore two situations where this process of utilizing a Survey123 frontend survey paired with a Python script can be applied to the production of various GIS deliverables across the CEC footprint.

Matthew Kramer - Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc

Wednesday 3:50pm-4:20pm Franklin C

LEVERAGING OSIP FOR ORGANIZATIONAL SYNERGIES

As changing economic conditions impact financial resources, identifying cost-effective and efficient means of managing and maintaining government assets is more important than ever. In addition, the need for improved planning, assessment and response activities has been the subject of heightened concern for federal, state and local agencies across the country. The Ohio Statewide Imagery Program (OSIP) provides a current, accurate and seamless solution for all agencies by eliminating duplicate collection and maintenance efforts while improving communication between organizations.

This presentation reviews the benefits of a statewide imagery program, primarily focusing on value-added products. These derivative data products, which can be gleaned from initial investments through feature extraction techniques, include data layers such as hydro drainage mapping, building outlines, impervious surfaces, land cover, change detection and cropland CAUV delineation.

Jennifer Davis - Woolpert

Thursday 9:00am-9:30am Franklin A

ArcGIS Solutions: Address Data Management

This session will provide an overview of a set of data management solutions that help local and state governments manage authoritative address repositories.

Chris Fox - Esri

Thursday 9:00am-9:30am Franklin B

Getting Started with Python Development in QGIS

Interested in extending QGIS for data processing, data capture, and map automation? This presentation will cover the basics of how to create custom plugins, actions, and geoprocessing scripts using python. Jump in and learn how to create your first automation task! In addition, we’ll cover some basic GIS operations using the pyqgis module including data editing, querying, selecting, exporting, and pdf map generation.

Kevin Surbella - TRC
Kevin is a Senior Technology Manager at TRC and a GIS Adjunct Professor at Columbus State Community College (CSCC) and has been working within the geospatial discipline since 2004. He has extensive knowledge using various suites of proprietary and open source applications and has a strong background in the following areas of GIS; application development, database management, server administration, and data analysis. He enjoys helping others strengthen their skills in GIS by mentoring through GISCI and answering many questions on the GIS Stack Exchange website. Kevin received his M.A. in Geography and B.S. in Conservation from Kent State University and has been GISP certified since 2009.

Bryan Wofter - TRC
Bryan is a Developer III at TRC and has been doing development with geospatial software since 2019. He has experience with various programming and scripting languages, including: C#, Python, Java, C, Groovy, and SQL, and experience in software and web development. He spends most of his free time brushing up on programming languages and learning as much as he can about different software.

Thursday 9:00am-9:30am Franklin C

Aerial Lidar for Improving Roadway Safety Through Grade, Curve and Width Determination

Accurate road curve, grade and width measurements are critical for improving safety along our state’s transportation network. Transportation agencies go to great lengths to acquire the current data they need to address specific safety concerns, budget for maintenance, or accelerate technological advancements like autonomous vehicles. There is a method for obtaining the necessary data for these endeavors more quickly and comprehensively -- aerial lidar.

Aerial lidar data can be used to determine the prevailing grade and curve of roadways. It can also be used to clearly define pavement edges, making it possible to accurately measure the width of any road, shoulder, or median —from interstates down to county and township roads.

The benefits of using lidar data to measure road grade, curve and width are many. Previously collected data can be analyzed quickly for baseline results, newly collected data can be transformed into measurement data with simplicity and speed. Road, shoulder, and median widths are more accurate because they are based on larger, more accurate data sets. Overall, it’s more efficient, in terms of cost, resources and time, than traditional manual methods of data collection.



David Blackstone - Woolpert

Thursday 9:00am-9:30am Olentangy

Ohio’s Total Solar Eclipse: April 8, 2024

On April 8, 2024, people within a 124-mile-wide band in the state of Ohio will experience a total solar eclipse, the first time since 1806. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Earth, the moon and the sun align such that the sun passes behind the moon. Ohio is within a one-day drive of 70% of the U.S. population, so there is the potential for the local population within the zone of totality to triple or even quadruple. For anyone that drove south to experience the 2017 eclipse, you will know that this translates to extreme traffic jams and stresses on emergency services. This presentation will focus on how Ohio is preparing for this once in a lifetime event, and how we are utilizing GIS to get us there. The next total solar eclipse in Ohio will be in the year 2444, so don’t miss this one!

Linda Slattery - Ohio Emergency Management Agency
Linda is the GIS Administrator for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. She is responsible for GIS development, training, and data analyses for all branches of the Ohio EMA. Prior to joining Ohio EMA in March 2020, Linda spent 25 years at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, serving as a GIS developer in the Information Technologies division, and as a hydrogeologist in the Division of Drinking and Ground Waters.

Colin Campbell - Ohio Emergency Management Agency
Colin is a Planner with Ohio Emergency Management Agency, and has been with the Agency since 2019. Colin is responsible for oversight in the ongoing development and review of state Emergency Operation Plans and state incident response plans. Prior to his time with Ohio EMA, Colin served as a Law Enforcement Officer for the City of Saraland, Alabama. Colin is also a soldier with the US Army Reserves, and serves as a senior Civil Affairs Specialist with over 19 years of experience in Civil-Military operations including Humanitarian Aid mission and Foreign Disaster Assistance.

Thursday 9:40am-10:10am Franklin A

Manage the Fluctuating Skills Needed to Keep Your GIS Up to Date

Many offices are faced with the ongoing struggle to recruit, train, and retain the right GIS skill sets for ever changing needs or how to overcome staff turnover. Learn how to keep up with the advanced, fast-changing GIS environment and expand your team’s abilities. See how other Ohio Counties got the right resources when they needed them with staff augmentation. Adding to your GIS department, staff augmentation can complement and get other agencies on the same page or help seamlessly integrate GIS data from a basic user and enterprise database environment. Schneider Geospatial’s GIS Insourcing Manager Jeff Lewis will be here for this special presentation. Levering his experience from working within county government for over a decade, Jeff takes that knowledge and helps troubleshoot many challenges all over the country from data maintenance with parcel fabric; NG911; districting; or utility data; to managing your ArcGIS online organizational account or your enterprise server environment; and more. Here many user cases and learn what other counties like yours have done to manage and keep their GIS up to date.

Kelly Robinson - Schneider Geospatial


Jeff Lewis - Schneider Geospatial

Thursday 9:40am-10:10am Franklin B

Enhancing Traffic Management Center Effectiveness Using GIS

JMT was awarded a multi-year contract with the City of Syracuse, NY to manage their Traffic Management Center (TMC), supporting the Department of Public Works. Traffic management centers allow for decision-making and control for a region’s street and highway network with TMC operator decisions affecting a region’s traffic signals, intersections, roads, congestion, reliability, as well as incident response during special events, emergencies, and crashes. The Syracuse TMC identified the need for a tool that could incorporate multiple data sources into one interface to improve situational awareness and make better data-informed decisions. To meet this need, JMT Technology Group developed a web-based transportation dashboard for the TMC inside of the city's ArcGIS Online environment. A significant part of the effort involved identifying and evaluating the various data sources for inclusion in the pilot dashboard including near real-time data. The Syracuse TMC Dashboard is intended to supplement the center's other systems like their Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS). This presentation will cover the history of the project, evaluation process for the data sources, a tour of the dashboard, and planned future enhancements.

Bob Pliszka, PMP, GISP - JMT Technology Group

Thursday 9:40am-10:10am Franklin C

Asset Management - Begin with the End

Are you thinking of implementing an asset management system within your organization but not sure where to start? Perhaps you have an asset management system in place but you aren’t getting everything you need out of the system. When designing or redesigning GIS data and architecture for asset management, it’s crucial to begin thinking of the end goals you want to get out of the system and work backward. This presentation will walk you through the steps of planning for asset management, starting with your end goals.

Cheryl Spencer - Woolpert


Ryan Butler - Woolpert

Thursday 9:40am-10:10am Olentangy

DATA! Who’s got it? Who wants it? What are they doing with it?

Everyone gets that request that includes the seemingly normal dataset, you’ve never had before so you don’t have that data!
A look into departmental, local, regional, state and national level data resources and how our city and regional agency are using data.
Are you making the most of available data in order to free yourself up to do more exciting things with your GIS tools?
Are you making your data available so that others can benefit from all your fabulous work?

Cheri Mansperger - MORPC


Rick Frantz - City of Dublin

Thursday 10:20am-10:50am Franklin A

Avoiding the "Garbage Out' GIS Data Dilemma: Using FME To Validate Data at ODOT

Consistent and accurate data is an essential part of publishing data, however collecting, processing, and reporting large amounts of data is a very challenging task. Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) is a software designed to help with this process. FME allows you to connect different data types into one central place and create repeatable workflows.

At the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) our road inventory data is used in a variety of ways. Two such ways are The Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS), a national program run by the Federal Highway Administration and ODOT’s Transportation Information Mapping System (TIMS), ODOT’s public facing GIS site. Both programs open our data up to public scrutiny and require data to be as accurate as possible. Historically, processing our data for these programs was very time consuming and led to months of downtime.

In this presentation, we will discuss the solutions developed by ODOT using FME to improve the accuracy and timeliness of our data as part of on-going effort to publish the most accurate data possible. We will examine the benefits as well as the challenges of this project.


Ethan Pointer - ODOT


Erin Westfall - The Ohio Department of Transportation

Thursday 10:20am-10:50am Franklin B

Planning Engineering Projects using Global Mapper and Geographic Calculator

As many transportation and public utility agencies begin the daunting task of revitalizing or replacing the decaying and outdated infrastructure, the importance of mapping and spatial data analysis in this rejuvenation process cannot be overlooked. Data visualization and analysis in Global Mapper Pro with tools including point cloud processing, terrain painting, and volumetric calculations allow for the careful measurement and modeling of proposed earthworks and engineering projects long before the shovels are sunk into the dirt. Combining Global Mapper Pro’s suite of advanced geospatial tools, with the superior coordinate transformation accuracy of Geographic Calculator and the field data collection capabilities of Global Mapper Mobile, Blue Marble provides a cohesive toolset for data collection though project planning and analysis. Join us to explore the various components of Global Mapper Pro, Global Mapper Mobile, and Geographic Calculator invaluable to the important assessment and planning work for any engineering project.

Myles Labonte - Blue Marble Geographics
LaBonte joined Blue Marble Geographics in 2014, and is currently a Channel Accounts Manager overseeing the company’s international markets. A Maine native and a proud graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington, LaBonte has been working in the Geography and GIS field for eight years. During his time at Blue Marble Geographics, LaBonte has focused on onboarding new resellers into the Blue Marble Geographics Reseller Program and sharpening the sales and technical skills of existing Blue Marble resellers.

Thursday 10:20am-10:50am Franklin C

Differential tax assessment of agricultural land with biweekly satellite imagery mosaics

Woolpert is implementing a geospatial application, named Landcue, that will increase the efficiency of Ohio’s Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) process. Landcue was developed to help local governments to verify applications for the differential tax assessment of agricultural land. The increased efficiency of the tool also enables staff to focus on more urgent and complicated tasks.

According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, farmland devoted exclusively to commercial agriculture may be valued according to its current use rather than at its "highest and best" potential use for property tax purposes. By employing current and defensible imagery through Landcue, permitting values can be set well below true market values and result in a substantially lower tax bill for working farmers.

Landcue uses satellite imagery from Planet (Planet Labs PBC) and the cloud-based raster processing environment Google Earth Engine to accurately determine the crop type within fields. Other spatial data are also used to assist with calculations as part of the CAUV process.

Planet’s proprietary automated mosaicing process enables surface reflectance data that is consistent across seasons, continents, and instruments. Google Earth Engine enables scientists, researchers and developers to detect changes, map trends and quantify differences on the Earth's surface.Landcue then utilizes dashboards, reports and visualizations to provide results to the user.

Matthew Hutchinson - Woolpert

Thursday 10:20am-10:50am Olentangy

Verticals Datums - Past, Present, Future

Join us for a discussion of the various types of vertical datums of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). This talk is designed for anyone who works with elevation data, seeks a better understanding of geoids, and especially floodplain managers. We will review terminology, some technical history of the legacy/superseded vertical datums, geoid models, and the forthcoming vertical datum (NAPGD2022) that will replace NAVD88.

Jeff Jalbrzikowski - NOAA's National Geodetic Survey
Jeff is your Appalachian Regional Geodetic Advisor, and his last name is pronounced like: jobs-uh-kah-ski. He is a licensed Professional Surveyor, a certified GIS Professional, and a Certified Floodplain Surveyor. Jeff has a varied background, with field and office experience in boundary, geodetic, and hydrographic surveying, and has been involved in GIS projects ranging from parcel digitization to LiDAR data processing. His role as Advisor is to assist the public in utilizing the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), and any other products and services that NGS provides. https://geodesy.noaa.gov/ADVISORS/

Thursday 11:00am-1:30pm Franklin

ArcGIS Pro: Tips and Tricks

It doesn't matter if you are brand-new to ArcGIS Pro or a seasoned veteran. This workshop highlights numerous tips, tricks, tools, and capabilities that will enable you to make the most out of your data and workflow. Learn how to more efficiently create great maps, edit your data, and share your results with others.

Ryan Sellman - Esri
Ryan Sellman is a Local Government Team Lead with Esri, where he focuses on developing GIS solutions that support the business requirements of local government customers. Ryan specializes in ArcGIS platform design and Web GIS implementations within the local government space. Prior to his role with Esri, Ryan worked for Summit County, OH's Planning & GIS Division as a GIS Technical Application Administrator for 4 years. Ryan earned a B.A. from Youngstown State University in 2009 and a Master’s Degree in Planning & GIS from the University of Akron in 2012.

Jarod Fox - Esri