1. ESRI is offering a free introductory seminar on Lidar and ArcGIS.
2. The course is for beginners, providing an intro to the technology and its use within ArcGIS.
3. Two follow on courses are being developed.

1. The Summit did not place much emphasis on 3D – maybe we can have a session next year on Digital Cities and CityGML.
2. The most audience reaction came on a comment about coordinate systems.
3. The hybrid scanner/total station is the preferred instrument by Bechtel’s survey crews.

1. The ESRI Summit was well attended and organized.
2. The debate rages on concerning the role of the surveyor in the US – it’s sad.
3. Joe Betit reported that mobile laser scanning was the only way to get the work done on time and predicted that the construction industry will drive the adoption of laser scanning.

Just a quick note to say that I am off to San Diego to attend the ESRI Survey and Engineering GIS Summit. My goal is to spread the gospel of 3D laser scanning to this group and to uncover a number of possible opportunities for working more closely with the GIS world.
I’ll let you know [...]

1. Neo-GIS is the less technical, consumer side of the use of the technology.
2. The GSA 3D-4D-BIM program is perhaps an example of how best to position laser scanning technology.
3. Is it too early for neo-laser scanning, or could we save 20 to 30 years of ramp up?

1. The NEURISA workshop was a great example of the value of local education.
2. Their are still many organizational challenges to the acceptance of 3D and laser scanning.
3. With care automated feature extraction and a significant reduction in the need for breaklines is achievable.

1. The 3D laser scanning industry is still being primarily driven by the technology.
2. The technical orgs such as ASPRS and ASTM, although important, are not broad based enough to represent the much larger “pragmatist” portion of the potential market.
3. The primary conversation has to shift from product features to user benefits.

One of the biggest challenges facing our industry is resistance to change.
Managing socio-technical change in organizations has been well researched and documented.
Mandates and the “team of 2″ are important concepts for breaking through the barriers.

1. Spar 2009 will host 2 industry Boot Camps on March 29, 2009.
2. The 3D laser scanning industry needs a long term education and a short term training strategy.
3. We need to document the demand for training and education in order to move the industry forward.