Redlands, California—The Map Gallery's special displays are historically a not-to-be-missed aspect of the ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC). This year, the 2008 ESRI UC special displays will demonstrate, in museum style, how geographic information systems (GIS) are essential to the work of astronauts, botanists, conservationists, and professionals in many other intriguing fields. Open Monday, August 4, through Thursday, August 7, the displays will include the following highlights:

The American Public Gardens Association and National Medal of Science winner Peter Raven will share the beauty and value of the world's plants and the special role that botanical gardens fill in their communities, helping people develop a sense of place and connect deeply to the natural world. GIS specialists from zoos and botanical gardens will explain how you can help your local garden or zoo by sharing your own expertise with the new Alliance for Public Gardens GIS.

The Nature Conservancy displays will explore how information and experience can be integrated with GIS to advance sustainable development and conservation within an industry or agency. See how GIS is an integral component to the work of this leading conservation organization as its members work to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

The National Academy of Sciences exhibit will feature studies on climate change, energy, the environment, agriculture, disaster preparedness, and national security based on studies by the nation's top experts.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) special display will explain GIS activities in JPL, the leading U.S. center for robotic exploration of our solar system. Delve into the fascinating work of NASA's GIS experts who build space-based datasets that are now freely available to the public.

The Department of Homeland Security will present a mixed-media display of its Integrated Common Analytical Viewer, a geospatial-intelligence analytic tool used to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from natural and man-made disasters.

The QuickBird satellite Where in the World? exhibit will challenge conference goers to decipher which city or place is depicted in 12 different satellite images.

The 2008 ESRI International User Conference is the largest GIS conference in the world and a meeting place for GIS users from more than 120 countries.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit www.esri.com.