2026 WA GIS Conference: Full Schedule

8:30am PDT

Applied Drone Mapping Workshop - From Collection to GIS Integration

Tuesday May 19, 2026 8:30am - 5:00pm PDT

Full day workshop is divided into three main parts. Part one will focus on the essential knowledge to establish and manage a successful drone program within your organization. This section covers the fundamentals of drone technology, including hardware, software, regulatory requirements, and staff training. Part 1 will also cover typical workflows and various use cases.

Speakers

TJ Abbenhaus

Senior Solution Engineer, Esri, Inc

TJ Abbenhaus, Esri Solution Engineer: He is a Senior Solution Engineer specializing in imagery, remote sensing, and geospatial workflows across the ArcGIS platform. With deep experience helping government agencies modernize legacy imagery systems, TJ focuses on guiding organizations... Read More →

Ryan Richardson

Solution Engineer, Esri

Ryan Richardson is a GIS professional with a passion for using technology to solve complex problems. He currently works as a Solution Engineer at Esri, supporting the State and Local Government team out of Esri's regional office in Olympia, WA. Additionally, he is a FAA Part 107 UAV... Read More →

Gerry Gabrisch

GIS Manager, Lummi Nation

Gerry Gabrisch, Lummi Nation GIS Manager: Gerry holds an M.Sc. in Geography from Western Washington University, with a focus on geoprocessing and Python programming. Gerry has held an FAA Part 107 license since 2017, when Lummi (with the help and advice of Peter) started its drone... Read More →

Peter Keum

Drone Program Lead/GIS Analyst, King County

Peter Keum, M.S., GISP, King County Wastewater Treatment Drone Program Lead/GIS Analyst:. Peter is a Drone Program Lead and GIS Analyst for the King County Wastewater Treatment Division, where he merges his passion for maps with advanced drone technology. With over 28 years of GIS... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 8:30am - 5:00pm PDT
407-408

Workshop

10:30am PDT

Teaching GIS After April 24, 2026: A University Perspective on Title II WGAC 2.1 Accessibility Standards

Wednesday May 20, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am PDT

407-408

This presentation is co-authored by four Eastern Washington University faculty, Brian Buchanan, Robert Sauders, Lauren Stachowiak, and the speaker. In this presentation, we share our experiences with efforts to comply with current federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations in a university setting. The university offers a range of GIS-related courses within the curriculum and a stand-alone GIS certificate, reaching both in-person and online audiences. Much course content is digital, including online lecture, virtual labs, and more. In addition, we host a variety of public-facing GIS products via ESRI apps such as Story Maps and Experience Builder. Federal WGAC 2.1 Accessibility Standards impact both curriculum delivery and our mapping products. A work in progress, we offer insight into our approaches -- and some dead ends -- tackling adaptations for GIS curriculum and end products in the university setting. You’ll hear about our struggles to improve map readability (color contrast, font legibility), navigation, keyboard control, focus order, and more while meeting student and client needs. We conclude with thoughts about the broader negotiations underway as both the university and GIS communities try to figure out how the new regulations should be interpreted in a GIS context.

Speakers

Stacy Warren

Professor, Eastern Washington University

Stacy Warren is a professor of Geosciences at Eastern Washington University. She teaches a range of GIS classes at EWU, supervises student work, and adds to her gallery of GIS creations as time allows including maps for the Ice Age Floods Institute, the Palos Verdes Library District... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am PDT
407-408

Accessibility, Teaching

11:00am PDT

GIS Digital Accessibility at the City of Seattle

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

407-408

The GIS team in Seattle IT has partnered with a citywide digital accessibility effort to advance digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities.

This presentation describes the organizational and technical strategies and tools that the City of Seattle has launched to support departmental communications teams and technical owners of GIS applications. A brief description of the City’s centralized approach to the Department of Justice ruling on digital accessibility offers context for the technical resources that Seattle IT is providing to City department owners of GIS content, to inventory, assess, remediate, and track progress towards compliance with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

The Seattle IT GIS team works closely with the Citywide Digital Accessibility Compliance (CDAC) project to establish methods for managing inventories of items, methods and tools for assessing accessibility compliance, and resources for remediation. In addition, the team developed time-saving guides that note the level of maturity of commonly used GIS vendor products, which helps direct attention to areas where GIS content creators can have an impact on accessibility.

A citywide emphasis has been established to ensure that any new content is built to be digitally accessible. Recommendations, best practices, documentation and tools are delivered to staff in many modes, from newsletter tips about built-in tools for making slide decks more accessible, to content-rich SharePoint sites with guidance for GIS content creators.

Strategies (keep it simple!), resources, outreach, self-help channels, training, and cohorts are important pieces of the formula to help content creators learn digital accessibility skills and gain confidence.

Speakers

Zinta Smidchens

Manager, GIS CADD Programs and Initiatives, City of Seattle IT GIS

Working in private and public sectors, large and small organizations, the field and the office has offered so many opportunities to see geography’s role in solving problems.

After earning a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto, Zinta Smidchens began at the Indiana Geological Survey, mapping Lake Michigan’s post-glacial shoreline history and much older deposits exposed on the rock faces in Indiana’s limestone quarries. On the west coast, Zinta joined... Read More →

Catherine Wendland

GIS Analyst, City of Seattle

As a GIS Analyst for the City of Seattle, Catherine Wendland is on a mission to elevate how GIS serves both City staff and the public. She specializes in training, guidance, and refining centralized GIS standards, ensuring Seattle’s hundreds of GIS users are equipped to navigate... Read More →

Suzy Brunzell

WebGIS Program Manager, City of Seattle

Suzy Brunzell serves as the City of Seattle WebGIS Program Manager. Her professional goals involve maintaining a highly functional Web GIS environment where users can operate effectively with confidence in the data and content available to them. At work, nothing makes Suzy happier... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
407-408

Accessibility, Seattle

1:30pm PDT

GIS Career: How to Map it?

Wednesday May 20, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT

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This panel discussion brings together experienced GIS professionals and hiring managers to explore practical strategies for launching and advancing a career in Geographic Information Systems. Designed for recent graduates and early-career GIS analysts, the session will address the evolving landscape of the geospatial industry, including in-demand technical skills, emerging tools and technologies, and the growing intersection of GIS with fields such as data science, urban planning, environmental management, and public utilities. Panelists will offer firsthand perspectives on navigating the job market, building a compelling professional portfolio, and understanding what hiring managers are actively seeking in today's competitive geospatial workforce.

Speakers

Shaun O'Neil

GIS Supervisor, King County Wastewater Treatment – WTD

Shaun O’Neil supervises the GIS group for the King County Wastewater Treatment Division. In his 28 years at King County, Shaun has supported planning and asset management issues with a particular focus on sewer conveyance assets, Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI), and climate... Read More →

David Kreinheder

GIS Data Architect & Interim GIS Manager, King County IT GIS Center

David is an architect at King County and is the interim leader of the King County GIS Center. David focuses on data modernization and cloud migration for King County. His work on King County's AI-GIS SEPA response system earned the 2025 ESIG Award from the Geospatial Professional... Read More →

Nat Henry

Director of Henry Spatial Analysis, Henry Spatial Analysis

Nat's work focuses on applied spatial statistics and spatial software development to address health, mobility, and urban sustainability issues for primarily nonprofit clients. He maintains Close, a nationwide multimodal travel time database; and OpenPOIs, a unified open dataset for... Read More →

Catherine Crook

Director of Spatial Analytics, Quanta Services

Catherine is a Director of Spatial Analytics at Quanta Services with over 20 years of experience in GIS across the government and commercial sectors. My work focuses on geospatial analytics for telecom and infrastructure planning, including the development of the QuantiFi market analysis... Read More →

Katie Heim

Enterprise Data and Technology Manager, City of Arlington

Katie’s responsibilities cover the City’s GIS and asset management programs, which inventory and track maintenance on all Public Works assets, including utilities and transportation. In addition, her group provides a variety of services to all City departments, including data... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT
407-408

Career & Leadership, Career

3:00pm PDT

GIS vs. IT—or GIS with IT? Defining the Future of Enterprise GIS

Wednesday May 20, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

407-408

As GIS evolves into a core enterprise capability, its alignment with IT is critical to organizational success. This panel brings together leaders from government and the private sector to explore how high-performing GIS programs are structured, governed, and sustained. Panelists will examine the tension between supporting line-of-business needs and advancing enterprise platforms, and how emerging technologies are reshaping that balance. Attendees will gain practical insights on positioning GIS strategically, strengthening GIS–IT partnerships, and making the organizational and technology decisions that enable long-term success.

Speakers

Fernando Llamas Jr

Administrative Services Director, City of Burien

Fernando Llamas Jr. is the Administrative Services Director for the City of Burien, Washington, where he leads four divisions: City Clerk, Communications, Human Resources, and Information Systems. He has served the City since 2007, rising through every level of its technology and... Read More →

Tamara Davis

Chief Technology Officer, King County

As CTO at King County, I’ve spent my career serving the county across multiple agencies, leading teams through complex application migrations, building enterprise GIS capabilities, and keeping mission-critical infrastructure running while modernizing it at the same time. I care... Read More →

Zinta Smidchens

Manager, GIS CADD Programs and Initiatives, City of Seattle IT GIS

Sabra Schneider

Chief Information Officer, City of Bellevue

Sabra Schneider, named one of the top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers in 2024 from Government Technology Magazine, currently serves as the Chief Information Officer for the City of Bellevue, Washington. Bellevue consistently ranks in the top five digital cities in the country.
... Read More →

Jill Oliver

Geospatial Science Leader, Anchor QEA

Jill Oliver is the Geospatial Science Lead at Anchor QEA an environmental and engineering consulting firm. She has over 25 years of experience specializing in GIS and GIS systems architecture from Esri’s ArcIMS platform to ArcGIS Enterprise and designed what Anchor QEA works with... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
407-408

Career & Leadership, Leadership

4:10pm PDT

OSM Efforts to Support Safe Routes to School

Wednesday May 20, 2026 4:10pm - 4:25pm PDT

407-408

Safe Routes to School is a nationwide program that supports families in helping children travel to school safely and actively—whether by walking, biking, or rolling. Within OpenStreetMap, we’re exploring how mapping can play a meaningful role in that effort.
This presentation will highlight ways contributors can map pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure around local schools, including key features that improve safety and accessibility. It will also introduce tools and approaches aimed at making this data more useful for parents and communities.

Speakers

Clifford Snow

Volunteer Contributor to OpenStreetMap, OpenStreetMap US

I am a volunteer contributor to OpenStreetMap and a member of the OSM US Pedestrian Working Group and Governance Committee. I also serve on the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s Data Working Group, where I help address mapping issues worldwide.

Wednesday May 20, 2026 4:10pm - 4:25pm PDT
407-408

Explorations in GIS, Open Data

8:30am PDT

The Notebook: [Python] has always been enough

Thursday May 21, 2026 8:30am - 9:00am PDT

407-408

A love letter, or rather, 365 love letters to the Python Notebook. This presentation will cover the when, where, and how to use Python Notebooks; gotchas to watch out for and quality of life tweaks to make; lastly, preserving your romance for your future self through effective version control.

Speakers

Jordan Carmona, GISP

GIS Solutions Supervisor, County of Pierce

Jordan Carmona is a GIS Supervisor, whose team is responsible for GIS application development and infrastructure within the Spatial Services unit at Pierce County, Washington. He began working professionally in 2014 and has worked in a variety of sectors: private consulting, municipal... Read More →

Thursday May 21, 2026 8:30am - 9:00am PDT
407-408

Technology, Python

9:00am PDT

Using Native SQL Geometry for Cloud-Ready, Lightning-Fast Overlays

Thursday May 21, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am PDT

407-408

Serving high volume, complex reports that require querying dozens of GIS layers for a single parcel is a major performance hurdle. Our Districts and Development Conditions Report simultaneously queries nearly 60 layers, which has the potential to severely impact application performance. This session details the architectural overhaul we implemented to overcome this challenge without changing the core query structure. Our key improvements were optimizing the underlying data storage by moving to the native SQL Server geometry type and using spatial SQL queries.

Speakers

Fred Lott

GIS Developer, King County

Fred is with the Geo Engineering team of the King County GIS Center and focuses on application development and data analysis.

Harkeerat Kang

GIS Engineer, King County

Harkeerat Kang is a GIS professional with over 25+ years of experience working in public sector. Her focus mostly has been on designing, implementing, integration of systems, application development and solution architecting.

Thursday May 21, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am PDT
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Technology, SQL

9:30am PDT

Covington Water District Chat Bot

Thursday May 21, 2026 9:30am - 10:00am PDT

407-408

This presentation describes an AI application developed for Covington Water District that combines conversational AI with GIS-based utility analysis. The application includes dedicated GIS routes for parcel water availability and meter lookup, allowing users to ask natural-language questions about whether water service is available to a property, whether nearby infrastructure exists, and what existing meter information is associated with a parcel or address. It can also combine GIS findings with district documents such as administrative code, standards, rate tables, and forms to provide a single, grounded answer. The talk focuses on the GIS side of the application: how location-based questions are routed into parcel and meter workflows, how spatial data is connected to policy and service requirements, and how conversational AI can improve access to GIS-driven utility information for local government and water district operations.

Speakers

Shawn Buck

GIS Engineering Analyst, Covington Water District

Shawn Buck, GISP
GIS Engineering Analyst at Covington Water District
Shawn is a GIS Analyst with over 15 years of experience in local government. He holds a Master's degree in Geospatial Technologies from the University of Washington. Throughout his career, Shawn has demonstrated a profound passion for data and technology, leveraging GIS technology... Read More →

Dan Dulan

Covington Water

Thursday May 21, 2026 9:30am - 10:00am PDT
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Technology, AI

10:30am PDT

A Journey of GIS Data Integration into an Asset Management System

Thursday May 21, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am PDT

407-408

A Journey of GIS Data Integration into an Asset Management System – Eliud Flores Saenz – City of Pullman

This presentation details the path the City of Pullman took in preparing its GIS data into a third-party asset management system.

It will discuss the challenges, insights, and lessons learned during that process, as well as the strategies that were implemented and devised to centralize data into a single authoritative GIS-focused source. Among such challenges that will be discussed are: lack of geospatial data for tracked assets, incomplete legacy data from authoritative sources, differing definitions of what constitutes an asset across departments and workflows that were implemented to solve said challenges. I will also expand upon some Cartegraph-specific troubleshooting and creative solutions we are trying to implement to get the most use out of this system in conjunction with our Esri ArcGIS Portal.

While this presentation focuses on Pullman and Open Gov’s (formerly Cartegraph) Asset Management system, its principles and strategies detailed here are broad enough in scope to be universally useful across the spectrum of asset management systems. Such as creating a standard for asset IDs and managing data structures.

Speakers

Eliud Flores Saenz

GIS Analyst, City of Pullman

Eliud Flores Saenz is a GIS Analyst with the City of Pullman, where he serves as one of the organization’s GIS data stewards. With three years of municipal GIS experience, he works on a variety of projects spanning data management, asset tracking, and operational support for city... Read More →

Thursday May 21, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
407-408

Government, EAM

11:30am PDT

Rebuilding King County’s Open Data Platform for the Cloud Era

Thursday May 21, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm PDT

407-408

King County has undertaken a major modernization of its King County GIS Open Data portal to improve reliability, enhance user experience, and transition away from aging on premise infrastructure. The previous Open Data site was built on an older Esri Configurable App and depended on datasets stored on a server scheduled for retirement in June 2026—along with several datasets that will also be decommissioned at that time. To meet these challenges, King County redesigned the site using Esri’s Hub Initiative and migrated all content to new, hosted layer views in ArcGIS Online.
This presentation will walk through the technical and organizational steps involved in rebuilding the King County GIS Open Data site, including content redesign, data retirement and redirect strategies, and approaches for ensuring continuity of service during system and dataset retirement. The session will highlight the communication and outreach efforts used to keep internal and external users informed throughout the transition. Additionally, challenges to sharing hosted feature layer views through a hub site will be discussed. Attendees will gain practical insights into modernizing an enterprise Open Data environment while minimizing disruption to their stakeholders.

Speakers

Thomas Ryan

Principal IT Engineer, King County

Tom is a Principal IT Engineer at King County's GIS Center. His work includes developing custom web application to support GIS data, metadata, and property reporting. Previously he worked at Kitsap County, Apple, and the City of Seattle. He graduated with a Bachelor’s in Geography... Read More →

Mary Ullrich

IT Engineer - Senior, King County

Mary is a Senior IT Engineer at the King County GIS Center with 26 years of experience. She specializes in Web GIS administration, interactive GIS applications, and coaching GIS users through the intricacies of GIS software. Her work has included GIS database design, analysis, mapping... Read More →

Thursday May 21, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm PDT
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Government, Open Data

1:30pm PDT

Drone Panel - We Came, We Flew, We Mapped

Thursday May 21, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT

407-408

Drone pilots and GIS-drone enthusiasts, come together to share real-world experiences across the full drone-to-data workflow. Panelists will cover flight planning, data capture, processing, and GIS integration — with open discussion on best practices and lessons learned.

Speakers

Jim Mudd

GIS Director, Puyallup Tribe of Indians

James Mudd is the GIS Director for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, where he leads enterprise GIS services supporting Tribal programs, planning initiatives, and data-driven decision-making. With over two decades of geospatial experience, he specializes in enterprise GIS architecture... Read More →

Peter Keum

Drone Program Lead/GIS Analyst, King County

Jesse Alton

GIS and Data Project Manager, Environmental Services Office WSDOT

Jesse Alton serves in WSDOT’s Environmental Services Office as the GIS and Data Project Manager, bringing more than 20 years of experience in geospatial technology and environmental data systems. He maintains essential GIS data, GPS equipment, and custom online web applications... Read More →

Keisha Chinn

Environmental Information Program Manager, Environmental Services Office WSDOT

Keisha Chinn is the Environmental Information Program Manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation. She graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and a focus on Environmental Studies and GIS. Keisha has worked... Read More →

Ben Delyea

UAV Coordinator & GIS Analyst, Cowlitz PUD No. 1

Ben Delyea is the UAV Coordinator and GIS Analyst for Cowlitz PUD No. 1 in Southwest Washington. With six years in the public utilities sector, he specializes in integrating spatial analytics, remote sensing, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into utility operations. Ben launched... Read More →

Alex Arams

GIS Analyst, Fish Biologist, South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group

Alex Arams is a GIS Analyst and fisheries field biologist with the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group (SPSSEG) in Olympia, WA. With nine years of experience in salmonid habitat assessment and restoration, he integrates drone mapping, UAV photogrammetry, RTK GNSS surveying... Read More →

Thursday May 21, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT
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Remote Sensing, Drone

2:30pm PDT

Beyond the Map: Immersive 360 Degree Imagery and Drone Mapping for Stream Restoration in the South Puget Sound

Thursday May 21, 2026 2:30pm - 3:00pm PDT

407-408

The success of a stream restoration project often depends on how well stakeholders can “see” the vision. Yet a persistent gap exists between restoration engineers and surveyors, and the grant funders, project partners, and communities they support. Static maps and survey notes rarely convey real-world conditions in a way that is accessible to everyone, making it difficult to fully grasp site conditions and restoration outcomes. While drone-based mapping provides high-resolution spatial coverage and critical context, canopy occlusion, shadowing, and water-surface artifacts can obscure in-channel complexity.

This presentation introduces a workflow that integrates georeferenced 360-degree imagery with drone photogrammetry to bridge that gap. By linking immersive, ground-level perspectives with orthomosaics and elevation models, users move beyond “paper fish” (on a flat map) to “real fish,” providing a tangible, on-the-ground sense of how restoration sites function. Our process combines RTK GNSS surveying, UAV photogrammetry, and oriented imagery datasets, allowing users to seamlessly transition from high-level spatial analysis to “virtual boots-on-the-ground” views while highlighting channel conditions, habitat features, and project performance over time.

Examples from South Puget Sound (WRIAs 10–15) demonstrate how this approach supports restoration monitoring, virtual site visits, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The workflow enhances both technical analysis and communication, making complex spatial data more intuitive and accessible to diverse audiences.

Speakers