McLean County Regional Planning Commisssion
Normal, IL
Industry: GIS Services
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 This year's GIS Day event was another success. The McLean County Regional Planning Commission, McLean County, Town of Normal, City of Bloomington, McLean County Emergency Telephone Systems Board (ETSB), City of Bloomington Township Assessor, Illinois State University, and GEOMAP decided to combine their efforts for GIS Day 2008, and their hard work paid off. This year's event was held on November 19th and included exhibitors from the ISU Geography Club, GEOMAP, McLean County, the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, ETSB, the Nature Conservancy Growmark precision agriculture, and the U.S. Geological Survey. The morning events featured demonstrations and displays by each of the exhibitors. The event was attended by assessors, planners, students, government officials, professionals in information technology, and many others.
The morning concluded with a proclamation of November 19, 2008 as GIS Day signed by McLean County Board Chairman Matt Sorensen, Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton, Normal Mayor Christopher Koos, Illinois Wesleyan University President Richard Wilson, and Illinois State University President Alvin Bowman. This was followed by a GIS Day cake cutting by Alvin Bowman. Also in attendance were Normal Town Councilman Adam Nielsen and Carl Teichman, Director of Government and Community Relations for Illinois Wesleyan University, and McLean County Board members William Caisley and Bette Rackauskas.
The McLean County Sheriff's Department offered a squad car as their exhibit for GIS Day. A Sheriff's deputy was on hand to show attendees the technology that officer's have available in their vehicles, as well as how they use such technology to fight crime.
The afternoon session moved to the student center at ISU and featured presentations from ISU, The City of Bloomington, City of Bloomington Assessor, McLean County Regional Planning, and the Bloomington Police Department.
The day concluded with a reception followed by the keynote address given by David Bennett, Ph.D. of the Department of Geography at the University of Iowa. Bennett spoke of "Geoinformatics in Complex Adaptive Systems," specifically in relation to its use in his study of elk migration in Yellowstone National Park. The lecture was very well attended as were all the events of GIS Day 2008. See photos.
—Khalid Hasan, Director of Regional GIS
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