Sunday 25 September 2011

Manitoba GIS Conference Update

It seems to be GIS conference season in Manitoba, with three events in about a one month period.

The first was IHEEP 2011 which ran the week of September 11 to 15, 2011.  The focus of IHEEP (International Highway Engineering and Exchange Program) is the application of technology to the transportation industry and they held their annual conference in Winnipeg at the Fairmont.  This conference had a broader appeal to the Geomatics professional with a full day of sessions devoted to LiDAR.  Feedback is that it was an excellent conference and that the LiDAR sessions were worth attending.

The second conference of the season is the MGUG event scheduled for September 30, 2011.  The conference is an all day event with an ice breaker on September 29, 2011.    With more than 250 people already signed up, this conference is sure to be a success.  Microsoft and John Sauder are headlining so it should be an excellent program that is well worth the time and small entrance fee.  It will be great to see Microsoft’s vision of the future.  We are looking forward to this event.  For more information go to the MGUG web site http://www.mgug.ca/

The third conference of the season is the Intergraph Regional Users’ Conference on October 19, 2011 at the Delta. This is a great opportunity to see Intergraph’s latest technology and their vision for the future.   You can’t beat the cost – it’s free.  Intergraph is one of the big GIS players in Manitoba and internationally, yet somehow they seem to fly under the radar, with many in the GIS community unaware of their presence. Intergraph users include MTS, the City of Winnipeg, DND, Winnipeg Police, the RCMP, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation and Manitoba Conservation.  For more information check out: http://www.intergraph.com/global/ca/events/ICAN2011/winnipeg/default.aspx

Monday 5 September 2011

In Praise of Students

It is now early September and we recently said good-bye to a student that worked with us this summer.

We were a little worried that when we hired Adam, a University of Winnipeg student going into his second year, that he might be too immature.  After all, he had only completed one year of University so he was still darn near a high school student.

Nevertheless we threw Adam into one of our most complicated business units to analyze some of their most complicated work.  An ambitious set of written goals and tasks was compiled for Adam to complete this summer.   The amount and complexity of the work that Adam was to later tackle was daunting even for long time professionals.   I personally did not have a lot of hope … maybe I remembered my own student days too well.

What happened this summer surprised us all.  Our student showed a knack for analysis and was articulate, mature and hard working.   In addition to what he was supposed to do, Adam identified flaws, inconsistencies and issues within our business unit.  What Adam achieved this summer will be useful to us long after he is gone.

I have reconsidered my opinion of students and look forward to hiring more in the future.

Good luck Adam.