Maybe I've been asleep at the switch but I just read that ACSM and ESRI have agreed to a three year deal to co-host the "Survey Summitt" starting with San Diego in 2011.
I wonder what happened to the Eastern part of the USA? To my recollection this will be the third year in a row that the annual ACSM conference is held in the west. Last Year in Utah, this year in AZ and next year in CA?
Also, hasn't it been the past policy to include regional associations to co-host with ACSM? I recall years and years ago that it was held in RI.....
Do we know the future locations beyond 2011? I've been hoping to attend one of these but I don't know if it's possible until it gets closer. I was kind of hoping that it would move to the mid-west, the proceed easterly, not westerly!!!
Will NSPS start holding "Survey Summit" national conferences now, too???
Don
Don,
I got the impression from talking with Curt over the last few weeks that, in retrospect, ACSM believes that teaming with state societies has caused the "national" conference to devolve into a larger (or not, depending on the year) version of a state conference; especially as more and more states require CEU's.
I believe the vision for the next few years is to try something along the lines of other national professional organizations; shorter sessions, more social and networking events, etc. and locating it at a vacation destination. Kind of like what ACSE and MAPPS are doing.
For the last few years the ACSM seminars have been the exact same ones you can see the week before at one state convention and the next week in another. There has really been nothing to differentiate it from every other convention (Heck this year I was at New Jersey and ACSM and New Jersey, honestly, was a better show).
Also, without the constraints of worrying about individual state CEU requirements, they can focus the sessions on business and technology (look for my presentation on adapting scientific management techniques -lean and six sigma- to survey operations next year 🙂 )
One unfortunate consequence of the scheduling change is the negative impact it will have on the NSPS Student Competition. The Summit dates are July 9-12, 2011, right in the middle of the virtually all schools’ summer vacations.
The California Land Surveyors Association and the Nevada Association of Land Surveyors are holding a joint conference March 5-10, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have offered to host the NSPS Student Competition and the last correspondence I had on the subject indicates that will be the option of choice. However, I have also heard from one of the schools that has been a major player in past Competitions that they will not be participating under that scenario. I suspect others will feel the same.
I understand the thinking behind ACSM’s decision to partner with ESRI, but I think it’s unfortunate that one of the more successful NSPS projects has to suffer as a result.
There is nothing wrong with partnering up.
The annual NJ conference has nearly as many attendees from NY and PA.
A New England Regional conference, a Mid-Atlantic States Conference, an "SEC" conference, all might not be such bad ideas, given the right location and timing.