...or you will be if you join the JAGIS-L members who show up for drinks and
dinner at the ESRI Users Conference in San Diego in July.

Colleagues:

I think there are two conferences vital for journalists: one is the
meetings of the Special Libraries Association and its sub-division essential
to our craft, the News Researchers (http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/nln/).
The other conference is the ESRI User
Conference<http://www.esri.com/events/uc/>in San Diego. This brings
together the full range of GIS users and
demonstrates that GIS is one of the truly transdisciplinary tools for
analysis and presentation.

The ESRI conference this year is July 13-17 in San Diego's Convention
Center. Normally, registration fees for non-licensees are rather expensive,
but if your organization has a license for ESRI software, then you are
covered. Ah, but if you have a reporter's credentials, or are a professor
of journalism, you can get press credentials. That means you can attend all
aspects of the conference without writing a check.

Should you want to get those credentials, email Clem Henriksen (
chenriksen@...) by April 30 with your request. Clem is the new media
industries manager (whose wife is a member of the Society of Environmental
Journalists).

From my experience, I encourage you to consider attending at least three of
the many events in San Diego:

1) The Map Gallery and Opening Reception, Monday, July 13, 3:30-8:30p.m.
http://www.esri.com/events/uc/exhibits/map_gallery.html
2) Meeting: News Media SIG, Date: 7/14/2009, Time: 12-1:00 p.m., *Room:
Room 26 B
3) The JAGIS Board Meeting and dinner, Tuesday evening, place and time yet
to be determined (assuming there is sufficient attendance. Send an e-mail
regarding your interest and participation to tom@...) This is
really a social occasion, not a true business meeting. Unless, of course,
someone thinks there is business to be conducted in the name of this VERY
informal outfit.

Hope to see all of you in San Diego.

Cheers,
Tom Johnson
*
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com tom@...

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
-- Buckminster Fuller
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