Kentucky GIS Conference 2026: Full Schedule

arrow_back View All Dates

9:00am EDT

Workshop 001 - Best Practices for GIS Project Planning and Management

Tuesday September 29, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT

You must register for this workshop at https://kamp.wildapricot.org/Conference

This half-day workshop cuts through the theory and fluff to present, in practical terms, the essential practices for successful GIS project planning and management. Its intended to provide project managers, teams, and stakeholders with the key action methods,
and tools to launch and execute successful projects -- delivering results on time and on
budget, providing valuable deliverables to the customers and the user community. It is
applicable to all types of GIS projects and covers the following topics:

Business Needs and Strategic Foundation for Projects
Choosing and prioritizing projects
Defining scope, purpose, context
Workplan preparation
Estimating/assigning resources
Project tracking, status reporting, and communications
Procurement for GIS projects
Project quality management
Project closure.

Speakers

Pete Croswell

Croswell-Schulte IT Consultants

Tuesday September 29, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT
The Carriage Room 1375 South Broadway, Lexington, KY, USA

Workshop

9:00am EDT

Workshop 002 - Relax… It’s Just Lidar!

Tuesday September 29, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT

The Bluegrass Ballroom - A

You must register for this workshop at https://kamp.wildapricot.org/Conference

This workshop offers an opportunity to help participants understand and utilize lidar data and secondary data creation using the ArcGIS platform. The objectives of the workshop are to familiarize the participants with the structure and properties of the lidar point cloud and the workflows for deriving secondary products. Emphasis will be given to how lidar data originate, what format and standards the different sources adhere to, and their degree of usefulness for analysis and cartographic product derivation. The intended audience is GIS practitioners who are familiar and relatively proficient in the use of ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online software. Data and exercises will be provided ahead of the workshop for installation in the participants’ own devices. The workshop format will be part lecture, part demonstration, and exercises to follow along.

Speakers

Demetrio Zourarakis

GIS Specialist, Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals

Demetrio has three decades of GIS experience, which include working for different agencies in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He has been a GISP since 2007, and re-certified multiple times. He is a Certified Mapping Scientist (GIS/LIS, Lidar, and Remote Sensing), re-certified multiple... Read More →

Tuesday September 29, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT
The Bluegrass Ballroom - A 1375 South Broadway, Lexington, KY, USA

Workshop

9:00am EDT

Workshop 003 - Next-Gen Cloud Caching for ArcGIS: Scaling, Serving, and Scheduling

Tuesday September 29, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT

The Rockbridge Reserve

You must register for this workshop at https://kamp.wildapricot.org/Conference

As GIS datasets grow to terabytes, traditional caching consumes massive CPU/RAM, slowing down environments and increasing costs. This presentation, "Next-Gen Cloud Caching for ArcGIS: Scaling, Serving, and Scheduling" explores a scalable solution. By shifting cached layers to object storage (Amazon S3/Azure Blob), organizations can decouple storage from compute and offload rendering workloads from ArcGIS Server. We will demonstrate the "Cloud Caching Kitchen" workflow using cloud object storage as the "fridge", ArcGIS Pro as the "oven", and Portal for ArcGIS as the "dining table". Attendees will learn to publish and optimize Web Tile Layers (Raster, Vector, Scene) and Web Services (Map Image, Imagery). Additionally, I will demonstrate how to schedule caching jobs to automate updates. Join me to learn how to build faster maps, reduce server load, and leverage limitless cloud storage.

Speakers

Matt Plummer

Data Services Administrator, ROK Technologies

Matt Plummer, Data Services AdministratorMatt brings a strong background in GIS, geography, and big data science with hands-on experience in imagery, navigation, and geospatial analytics. He previously worked at Esri as a Senior Support Analyst, where he founded a Python-focused efficiency... Read More →

Tuesday September 29, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT
The Rockbridge Reserve 1375 South Broadway, Lexington, KY, USA

Workshop

1:30pm EDT

Workshop 004 - Using Esri ArcGIS Pro Notebooks and AI to create Python scripts

Tuesday September 29, 2026 1:30pm - 4:00pm EDT

The Bluegrass Ballroom - A

You must register for this workshop at https://kamp.wildapricot.org/Conference

This workshop will explore writing AI prompts that create Python scripts and completing geospatial tasks within ArcGIS Pro. The writing of an AI prompt will be explored, which requires the use of keywords. The workshop will also look at modifications that must be made to scripts to run properly. Basic Python scripting will also be explored. The instructor will demonstrate the processes, and participants are welcome to follow along on their own laptops. Basic geospatial knowledge is required for this workshop.

Speakers

Vince DiNoto

Director and Principal Investigator, National Geospatial Center of Excellence

Vincent A. DiNoto, Jr. is Dean of College and Systemic Initiatives and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Jefferson Community and Technical College. He is the Director/PI of the National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence. Vince has been PI, co-PI and senior team member... Read More →

Chris Wright

Tuesday September 29, 2026 1:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
The Bluegrass Ballroom - A 1375 South Broadway, Lexington, KY, USA

Workshop

1:30pm EDT

Workshop 005 - GeoAI in Action: Agentic AI for Geospatial and Remote Sensing Workflows

Tuesday September 29, 2026 1:30pm - 4:00pm EDT

The Carriage Room

You must register for this workshop at https://kamp.wildapricot.org/Conference

This workshop offers an introduction to agentic artificial intelligence within the geospatial and remote sensing industry, presented by the NV5 Geospatial team. Attendees will gain a working understanding of how AI agents are built and applied to real-world GIS and remote sensing workflows, spanning both vector and raster data. Through live demonstrations of NV5's GeoAI product suite, presenters will show how organizations can move from raw geospatial data to actionable decisions using agentic, AI-driven tools. The session will close with a look ahead at where agentic AI is headed across the GIS and remote sensing industry, and what organizations should prepare for as the technology matures. Attendees will have the opportunity to log in and interact directly with the platforms being demonstrated. This will be a hands-on demonstration and discussion session rather than a lab exercise since we'll be in the hotel meeting space. We'd like attendees to bring their own laptops so they can log in and follow along. We'll be demonstrating NV5's GeoAI agentic solutions live.

Speakers

Rick Wallace

Southeast Region Manager, NV5 Geospatial

Feel free to contact me on my Cell - 910-899-7837

Austin Coates

Director of Product Management, NV5 Geospatial

Austin Coates is a product leader specializing in geospatial technology, remote sensing, and Earth observation, with extensive experience leading product strategy and cross-functional teams across the imagery ecosystem. He currently serves as Director of Product Management at NV5... Read More →

Tuesday September 29, 2026 1:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
The Carriage Room 1375 South Broadway, Lexington, KY, USA

Workshop

1:30pm EDT

Workshop 006 - New Annual USGS Land Cover Database (NLCD) Data and Services for Kentucky

Tuesday September 29, 2026 1:30pm - 4:00pm EDT

The Rockbridge Reserve

You must register for this workshop at https://kamp.wildapricot.org/Conference

In 2024, USGS released the first Annual National Land Cover Database for the contiguous United States. This database provides a consistent and comparable view of land cover across four decades. The Division of Geographic Information (DGI) has published the annual land cover data as web services and applications to help communities across the Commonwealth access and analyze it. This workshop will provide an overview of the data, how to access it, and how to apply visualization and spatial analysis techniques in ArcGIS Pro. Finally, we will explore how to use Jupyter Notebooks and Map Algebra to discover and measure landscape change. This is a hands-on workshop with demonstrations and exercises. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops with ArcGIS Pro installed if they prefer.

Speakers

Boyd Shearer

Assistant Director, Kentucky Division of Geographic Information

Mapping and analyzing the hills and hollers of Kentucky

Tuesday September 29, 2026 1:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
The Rockbridge Reserve 1375 South Broadway, Lexington, KY, USA

Workshop

6:00pm EDT

Denim Night - Evening Social

Tuesday September 29, 2026 6:00pm - 9:00pm EDT

The Barn

Join us for Denim Night, this year's Tuesday evening social event celebrating Kentucky pride and inspired by former University of Kentucky basketball standout Josh "Jorts" Harrellson. Whether you come in your favorite denim or simply ready to have fun, this is a great opportunity to connect with fellow conference attendees in a relaxed and entertaining atmosphere.

The evening begins at 6:00 p.m. with a welcome and a few stories about Josh Harrellson's time at the University of Kentucky. Guests are then encouraged to mingle with exhibitors, network with colleagues, and visit sponsor booths while dropping off business cards for prize drawings.

At 7:00 p.m., sponsors will share brief introductions before the excitement shifts to a series of door prize drawings. Winners will have the chance to test their basketball skills in a timed hoop challenge, with the highest-scoring participant taking home the evening's grand prize, generously sponsored by the University of Kentucky Department of Geography—a handcrafted, Lexington-made computer keyboard.

Bring your business cards, your competitive spirit, and your best shot for an evening of networking, prizes, and Kentucky basketball-inspired fun!

Sponsors