Meet the First Registrant of the 2015 Esri UC!

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02-17-2015 01:31 PM
KarenRichardson
Occasional Contributor III
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Learning about ArcGIS for Collector at last year’s User Conference led Arizona State Lands to implement a major program. Find out more about the value of the Esri UC to this senior executive who he doesn’t even log on to ArcGIS every day.

Meet Evan Brom, the first person to register for the Esri UC 2015. Mr. Brom is the Chief Information Officer for the Arizona State Land Department.  Brom directs the GIS and IT departments and oversees the State Cartographer’s office.

headshop2014 brom.jpg

Originally from Tempe, Arizona, he has both a B.S. in the technology industry and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Arizona State University. He is also a Project Management Professional (PMP). 

Do you want to know a secret? Brom doesn’t use Esri software himself that often, but he finds the UC so valuable, that not only was he first in line when registration opened, this will be his fourth conference.

I sat down with Brom to talk a little bit about his experiences at the conference and learn what he finds valuable about this event.

So you confessed that you are not a regular user of GIS, but you work with those that do?

To be honest, I personally do not frequently touch ESRI’s products, but with my direction, my talented GIS team uses Esri software to accomplish great things including: tracking of land ownership and rights of ways and leases; performing complex analysis of the impacts of proposed actions; and - with Collector for ArcGIS - my users are now able to take Esri on the road with them to collect data at its source.

How long have you been involved with GIS?

Personally I have been involved with GIS related projects in some capacity for the past eight years. The Arizona State Land Department has a single digit user number and has made use of Esri since the early days.  Some employees attend the UC as far back as 1982.

How many UCs have you been to?

This will be my fourth UC.

What is the most rewarding part of the UC?

Seeing the different ways people can and are using the vast suite of products.  Also networking with other senior executives is another great benefit of the conference.

Do you have a big take away from the conference that you can share with me?

Last year learning about Collector for ArcGIS and its offline capability led to a major deployment for our people that work in the field.

What do you look forward to the most from the UC?

Learning about the new products, services and techniques that will help me bring better, faster more cost-effective solutions to the business.

Have you always liked maps?

From when I was a small child I liked globes, maps and any visual representation of data.

Why is location important to what you do?

Not that this needs much explanation, but land is not a commodity. Each square foot we manage has its own unique features such as waterways, minerals, slope, habitat and more. Location is the only true way to organize this data.

How will you use what you learn from this year’s conference?

That is hard to say as I do not know specifically what I will learn, however I think learning about the roadmaps for ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS for Desktop will help with some of our future plans.

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