2023 Esri Community Contest Winners Announced!
Image: 2023 Esri Community Contest banner
Arm in arm with the start of 2024, our Esri Community Contest has officially concluded for the preceding year. This is an exciting time for us as we take stock of what happened—stepping back to take in the ‘big picture’ as well as leaning in close to inspect the finer details behind everything that’s taken place.
A beloved piece of this review includes recognizing our platform’s most engaged members from the previous year: the winners of the annual Esri Community Contest.
Please join us in celebrating these nine individuals highlighted below. They led their peers by the exceptional degree of their involvement in Esri Community and their subsequent impact on other members. As is tradition, we’ve arranged recognition across three categories of involvement to capture prominent stages of members’ journeys. See Announcing the 2023 Esri Community Contest for rules and additional details.
Elite Level
This level encompasses our true community superstars, otherwise known as our Esri Community MVPs. Though a fraction of all Esri Community membership (just 0.01%), MVPs collectively provided 17% of all confirmed answers to posted questions in 2023.
@JohannesLindner (200 Solutions) - For the last three years, Johannes has earned a spot in our Esri Community Contest. We consider it a remarkable story of achievement to have watched him go from placing in the Rising Star category in 2021, to becoming an MVP and landing the second-highest spot of the Elite category in 2022, to having earned this place at the very top by contributing the most confirmed answers to others questions in Esri Community during 2023!
@jcarlson (166 Solutions) - Josh is well known here in Esri Community for the abundance of expertise he's offered to his GIS peers. In fact, Josh's outsized engagement led us to feature him in our very first Esri Community Member Spotlight. Such an exceptional degree of involvement has additionally resulted in Josh winning a spot in our Esri Community Contest several years in a row, including being recognized as the topmost Accepted Solutions contributor in both 2021 and 2022.
@DanPatterson (144 Solutions) - Dan maintains the unique distinction of being the Esri Community member to have earned a top spot in our Esri Community Contest more years than anyone else. In addition to this, he was recently recognized as the only Esri Community member to-date who has earned this platform's Hidden Badge — an accomplishment of no small challenge. Dan's mark on the GIS community here in our platform is indelible and widespread to a degree that's virtually impossible to adequately describe.
Rising Star
At this level, we recognize our up-and-coming members who have gone above and beyond this year. Their numerous replies to others account for the bulk of the contribution evaluated for this contest; the quality of which is often framed by their Accepted Solutions and kudos received from others.
@ChristopherCounsell - When Christopher first posted to Esri Community in April of 2022, we wonder if they had an inkling for just how involved they'd quickly become here in this platform? With posts, replies, and received kudos each respectively reaching well into the hundreds, plus numerous Accepted Solutions authored, Christopher's presence has grown large and their impact significant.
@abureaux - abureax has become something of a staple voice in Esri Community's ArcGIS Survey123 Boards. From proposing new ideas for product enhancements, to helping others find answers to their questions, and expanding the larger GIS conversation by posing their own questions, their frequent, constructive engagement has gone a long way in enriching this shared space for everyone.
@JoelBennett - Per Joel's public profile, they've amassed two decades worth of GIS career experience. Some people might never stop to consider the value that type of knowledge can be to others and simply go about their business. Not so in Joel's case. With the better part of 100 kudos received, hundreds of replies, and more than four dozen confirmed Accepted Solutions authored, Joel stands out as an example of what it means to think and act as a member of their community.
Newcomer of the Year
These members joined Esri Community in 2023 and jumped right into collaborating and engaging with others in standout ways, including a prolific degree of posting across Boards. Welcome!
@JeffreyThompson2 - If there's someone in Esri Community who made us do a double-take during 2023, that person might just be Jeffrey. More than half the year had already concluded before Jeffrey had posted for the first time. Since then, they've unleashed what can only be described as a deluge of contributions that range from hundreds of respective posts, replies, and kudos, ideas for product enhancements, far more Accepted Solutions authored than is typical for someone in their first year as a member, and over a dozen articles authored in the Experience Builder Tips and Tricks Blog. It's entirely atypical for someone so new to this platform to break the mold to the degree Jeffrey has, and they've more than earned a spot on this list.
@CodyPatterson - Cody is the newest contributor you'll find among all our Esri Community Contest winners. Would you believe that their first post was little more than two months before the end of the year? In that briefest of timespans, Cody's footprints in this platform have traveled broadly, contributing to numerous conversations across ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Survey123, ArcGIS Workflow Manager, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS REST APIs and Services, and more. They've even taken the time to help others by contributing a handful of confirmed Accepted Solutions.
@SarahRijneke - Sarah keeps the tradition set by our preceding Newcomer of the Year winners by having only begun participating during the second half of 2023. They maintained the high degree of involvement required to not only keep pace with but exceed levels of engagement set by nearly all of their first-year peers. Sarah's voice can be found throughout nearly a dozen different Esri Community boards, standing out for the pace and quality of their contributions, including helping answer others questions like that in this post from a member who asked for help with a map being used in their dissertation.
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An additional big THANK YOU goes out to everyone who participated in Esri Community during 2023. Whether in big or in small ways, your presence, voice, and experience played an important role in something bigger than any single person as we advanced the every more important future of GIS together!