A Holiday WLIA President's Message

December 18, 2024

Posted By: Colter Sikora in Board, Annual Conference,

^{Irvine Park Christmas Village, Chippewa Falls}

Register (Early) for the Conference: Now is a great time to Register for the 2025 WLIA Annual Conference before the calendar year draws to a close! We are putting the finishing touches on the presentation lineup and hope to share it with you soon. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t give shout-outs to a few great conference highlights already!

Collaboration: A New Way of Seeing Things – We want you to keep an eye open to the many examples of effective partnerships that make land information and geospatial projects “click!” This year, 20 presentation tracks will give you a plethora of content to engage with for your own work.

Workshops – On Wednesday, February 26, WLIA is offering 10 workshops to pre-registrants. With topics like AI, Experience Builder, Parcel Mapping, Python, Emerging Technologies, and Using GIS for Community Change there will be many opportunities to learn! Check out the abstracts!

Join the Band! – After our excellent Opening Event on Wednesday, WLIA is collaborating with the Chris Haise Band to play a show at the nearby Gibson Community Music Hall at 8:15 p.m. WLIA board member Chris Dickerson holds down their chill, yet rockin’, rhythm section as their bassist!

Mittens in the Middle! – We didn’t have it in mind originally, but we’ve recruited two great keynote speakers from the State of Michigan! Learn a little about Frank Romo and John Nelson and give some mappers a call (yes, even from Michigan or somewhere else) and tell them to come to our conference!

^{The Sikora Family Homestead Woodshed, source of many false legends, Chippewa County}

Get ‘Yer Work Done and Go Home! Love it or dread it, the holidays are here! As we wind down 2024, I hope you make time to be grounded in what makes you your best and most joyful self. This year, a recent family loss and health scares are driving me to spend more time with family and close friends. If I’m lucky, we’ll have loping conversations, enjoy each other’s company, and catch some fish. I hope you get to spend time with the people, activities, and places that give you the most comfort and joy these next few weeks. If we are all lucky, we can recenter a bit from this mad (but beautiful) world we live in and be a gift to those we spend time with.

The emails can (probably) wait. I hope you can stop reading this article soon, get off the clock, and enjoy what’s in front of you!