We had a wonderful trip down to Branson for our first MidAmerica GIS Consortium (MAGIC) Conference! We headed down on Monday through the rain (seeing what has to be the most creative use of traffic barrels at a rest stop on I-44), and got checked in just in time to chat with some old friends at the Welcome Social and walk to dinner in downtown Branson.
Tuesday morning we got caught up on some (mental) work and then got to (physical) work setting up the booth while the attendees were wrapping up their short courses. Lunch was with keynote speaker Keith Masback who schooled us all in geospatial intelligence and recent advances in satellite data collection.
Then it was time for sessions to start: Hunter used his hard-earned knowledge to present on Branch Versioning for Enterprise Geodatabases. The remainder of the day was spent chatting with attendees and vendors about our shared love of all things GIS. Kevin Dicks from Adams County IL won the sock giveaway by guessing it took us 8 hours to get to the conference. He was only over by 30 minutes! The evening brought Lego BATTLEBOTS and a raffle; we unfortunately batted 0 for 2 on the night, but at least we got to sit by the fire on the patio.
Wednesday started with a little more client project work (what can I say, we really love GIS) and then more fun meeting new people. I gave my presentation on Labeling and Symbology in ArcGIS Pro in the middle of severe weather (my 15 year old self would never have believed I’d survive such an event). I was even brave enough to crack a joke about Cubs and Cardinals fans that I’m certain will play better when we head to ITAG in June.
When I asked Hunter to describe his experience in one sentence, he said:
“It was great to spend time with such a magical group of GIS professionals and learn from their experiences. I look forward to another round of MAGIC in 2024!”
I second that statement. Thanks to all of you who stopped by. We look forward to continuing the conversations that we started last week.