A highly successful ESRI Middle East and North Africa User Conference closed on October 31 with the viewing of a video reflecting the many and varied aspects of the conference at the picturesque Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa, Muscat Sultanate of Oman. The conference was hosted by Khatib & Alami and Partners and ESRI Muscat, under the patronage of H.E. Ahmed Abdulnabi Macki, Minister of National Economy, Deputy Chairman of Financial Affairs and Energy Council, Sultanate of Oman.

Officially opened by H.E. Ahmed Abdulnabi Macki on October 29, Jack Dangermond President of ESRI Inc., presented a overview of the various GIS activities being conducted by users in the region as well as what is being planned for in upcoming releases of the ESRI software.

Practical demonstrations of the latest improvements to the ESRI software followed Prominent persons from around the region were also invited to present keynote talks, including H.E. Sheikh Nawaf Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, Assistant Under Secretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs, Ministry of Electricity and Water in Bahrain; H.E. Sheikh Ahmad Alabdallah Ahmad Jaber Al Sobah, President of Kuwait GIS User Group in Kuwait; Dr. Abdulrahman Al Shaikh, Deputy Minister for Town Planning, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Dr. Mounir Yehia, Chairman of Needs, and advisor to Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority; and Dr. Sulaiman A. Al Araini, ERP GIS & System Integration Consultant Al Ebdaa Technology Corp. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The second and third days of the event saw a series of technical workshops as well as user case study presentations. In total 10 technical workshops were conducted covering various aspects of the ESRI software product range, 6 workshops on various GIS solutions; and over 40 user case studies.

Of the 450 attendees, Oman was very well represented with 191 participants, UAE with 50, KSA 48, Qatar 35, Lebanon 24, Jordan 21, Bahrain 20, USA 18, Kuwait 12, Egypt 11, as well as representatives from Australia, Denmark, Germany, Libya, Singapore, UK and the West Bank. Fifteen exhibitors including hardware, software, imagery, solution vendors, and several government agencies displayed their wares and exchanged information and ideas with the conference delegates.

During the closing session, awards were presented for:

Early Bird Registration:

Awarded to Khalil Al Shukeili (Marjan Oman) received a Juno GPS unit plus editing software, provided by the event’s Silver Sponsor - Trimble.

Best User Paper:

Abdullah Al Balushi (NSA Oman) for The use of Geospatial Information System by the National Survey Authority won a copy of ArcView

Runner Up:

Lubna H Al Kharusi (Marine Sciences and Fisheries Oman) for Predicting the distribution of Emperor fish in the Arabian Sea using two-stage GAM modeling won the signed book – Thinking About GIS by Dr. Roger Tomlinson.

Second Runner Up:

Dr. Fred Ernst (DCOMMM – KSA) for Building a GIS for the Development Commission of Makkah, Madinah and the Holy Sites won the book A – Z of GIS, signed by Jack Dangermond.

Best Map:

Crime Scene Geographical Analysis won by Yasser Abdullah Al Burshaid from the Ministry of Interior Bahrain. His prize was the signed book Thinking About GIS by Dr. Roger Tomlinson. Runner Up was Duqm Town Master Plan by Qasim Moh’s Al Nabhani, Supreme Committee of Town Planning Oman. He received the book A – Z of GIS, signed by Jack Dangermond. Second Runner Up was Planning Decision Making and GIS for Location of Industrial Area in Sharjah. Youssef Khalifa Santay Patil of Khatib and Alami also received the book A – Z of GIS, signed by Jack Dangermond.

Best Booth:

An award was presented to the best exhibitor voted for by the delegates as being Bahrain’s – Ministry of Interior booth.

Lucky Draw prizes:

The book A – Z of GIS and signed by Jack Dangermond. And was awarded to Habib Kudabaksh Al Balushi of Muscat Municipality Oman and to Ashraf Al Toobi of Muscat Municipality Oman. The third Lucky Draw prize of an Acer Notebook was awarded to Qais Abdullahibrhim, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Oman. The award presentations were followed up by a presentation by Richard Weiss of ESRI UK on the 2008 user conference to be held in London, UK. Delegates were presented with a brief insight to next year’s event, the activities and the venue. Further details can be found on the conference website at http://www.esriuk.com/emea2008. Following several questions fielded from the floor and answered by the panel, comprising of Jim Henderson (ESRI), Peter Becker (ESRI), Dean Angelides (ESRI), Faisal Alami (K&A) and Philip Burden (ESRI Muscat & Conference Convener), the MEAUC 2007 conference was officially closed by Faisal Alami who commented “I am sure you will all agree that this has been an excellent conference. Many thanks to you the delegates for participating, to the guests and invited speakers, the staff from ESRI and lastly the organizing committee (Philip Burden, Pradeep Shriyan, Sujeet Shetty, Winnico Verano, M Thirunavakarasu (Rasu), Hanaa Al Rawahi) whose tireless efforts went into preparing for this wonderful event for all of us. We look forward to seeing you in London in 2008, please visit www.esriuk.com/emea2008.