The theme is "Treasure on the Plains - Sharing a Wealth of Knowledge." This conference is for people using GIS or those who want to learn more about spatial technologies.  Persons from the private sector, education, and from local, state, tribal, and federal government organizations are all invited to attend this conference and to exchange ideas and knowledge.

 Please consider participating in the Users Conference by providing a presentation, workshop, vendor booth, or some combination of all three. Please contact me at your earliest convenience if you would like to be involved.  If you are interested in providing a presentation and/or workshop, please submit your title(s) and abstract(s) by July 13.  If you are interested in providing an exhibit, please let us know by that same date.

 Though all GIS presentations will be considered, we invite presentations and workshops that fall into one or more of the following tracts:

Using GIS with Survey/CAD/GPS/Mobile

Open Source GIS
Weather GIS
GIS in Homeland Security/Emergency Management
GIS Data Collection Activities (e.g., centerlines, parcels, elevation)
Starting a GIS from Scratch (e.g., needs assessment, basic building blocks)
Local Government & Tribal Collaboration (e.g., partnerships and success stories)
New Innovations & Technology (e.g., ESRI server products, applications used by your organization for internal users and/or the public)
Several people let us know last year of their interest for this year's event.  Please contact me if even if you've previously expressed interest during the past year.  We will try to accommodate as many presenters, workshops, and exhibitors as we can, but due to time and space restrictions we will generally select participants based on a first-come, first-served approach and the nature of the topic.
 
The presentation time slots are currently planned for 30 and 45 minutes.  They will consist of a PowerPoint-based lecture and will offer a technical or general overview of a particular topic.  The workshop time slots are currently 1.5 hours and a few 4 hour periods.  The workshops will be lecture-based utilizing PowerPoint and handouts and are typically more focused and have a practical application.  Exhibit space will be provided at no charge to the exhibitor, though we will be asking for a voluntary sponsorship to help cover some of the conference expense.  This year we will be offering two levels of sponsorship, Silver at $250 and Gold at $500 with each level providing different benefits to the sponsor. 
 
More information, including hotel information, can be found on the North Dakota GIS Users Conference 2007 page, located at http://www.nd.gov/gis/news/2007-conference.html.