**********Conference Summary**********

I just reviewed my newsletter article from April of 2007 asking for conference committee volunteers and realized what a great group of individuals I had to work with! All through the conference planning, each team  of individuals worked diligently to put together workshops, networking events, poster competition, session submittals, exhibitor prospectus and the program as a whole. The result - we had a great event! 

I want to thank each and every one of you for participating in our conference.  It’s through your efforts that WLIA is what it is.

A couple of months ago, I received a call from a former WLIA member who was pleasantly surprised to see the word “enterprise” in our logo.  There was a time when the word would raise hair on the back of necks much like during a scary movie.  While we often have our own vision of what enterprise GIS is, the idea is the same.

While not a record attendance, there were 506 participants for the 2008 conference which includes 42 exhibiting companies, 46 first time conference attendees, and 23 student volunteers.  We also had 203 workshops sold.  The Yerkes tour was enjoyed by 34 people and 69 people participated in the sports event.  There were 46 LIO’s in attendance and 7 past presidents.

Our keynote speakers, Ron Langhelm and Molly Mangan, both provided insight as to how to make enterprise GIS work in catastrophic situations as well as marketing the idea to county board supervisors, city councils and village boards.

Next year our conference returns to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells on February 18-20, 2009.  If you are interested in serving on the conference committee, you can contact the conference chair, Cristina Pearson.

Jodi Helgeson

President – Wisconsin Land Information Association