More than 1,960 attendees enjoyed another successful ASPRS Annual Conference and Exhibition, May 17 – 21, 1999, in Portland, Oregon. Held at the Oregon Convention Center and Doubletree Hotel Lloyd Center, the conference was hosted by ASPRS, the ASPRS Columbia River Region, and the URISA Oregon/SW Washington Chapter, under the leadership of 1999 ASPRS Conference Director Roger Crystal.

The week began on Monday and Tuesday with 10 sold-out workshops, 10 heavily attended User Group meetings, and numerous ASPRS Committee meetings. The workshops covered a wide range of topics and applications including, but not limited to, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geodesy, Photogrammetric Mapping, Softcopy Photogrammetry, Orthophotos, and Change Detection Analysis.

The independently held User Group meetings, hosted and sponsored by individual companies, featured demonstrations and discussions of current and new software functionality and products. Hundreds of additional participants attended these meetings hosted by Autometric, Inc., ERDAS, Inc., ESRI, Erio Technologies, LizardTech, Inc., PCI Geomatics, Space Imaging, SPOT Image Corp., Trimble, and ZI Imaging (currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intergraph Corp.).

On Wednesday, the main portion of the conference began with a general session, presenting a fly-over of the Portland area, a cooperative effort of Terrex Corp., Intergraph Corp. and Spencer B. Gross, Inc. Keynote Speaker Moira Gunn, PhD, of the weekly interview program Tech Nation…Americans and Technology, spoke about "Our Digital Globe, One Person’s View." Gunn discussed the transition from an industrialized society to an integrated information society, giving landmark events and statistics as concrete examples of this progress. She also discussed the technical challenges of tomorrow, such as privacy rights of an individual versus needs of government and desires of business.

More than 250 speakers spoke at 100 educational sessions held Wednesday through Friday. Session topics ranged from Sensors, GIS, and Natural Resources to Image Processing, Photogrammetry and numerous other related areas. The exhibit hall opened on Wednesday afternoon with 90-plus exhibiting companies. Fifty-eight posters were presented on Wednesday afternoon and displayed throughout the week in the exhibit hall.

The well-attended opening reception was held Wednesday evening in the exhibit hall, allowing the attendees to socialize and view the exhibits in a relaxed atmosphere. The main conference social event, appropriately named "Oregon Night," immediately followed with food, beer and wines indigenous to Oregon. Those who attended also enjoyed the local band, Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts, who played music of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

On Thursday, the local "GIS in Action" regional conference, hosted annually by the ASPRS Columbia River Region and URISA Oregon/SW Washington Chapter, was held as part of the conference. Also held Thursday was the ASPRS 10^th Annual Awards Luncheon and 65^th Annual Installation of Officers. Awards were presented for outstanding papers, professional achievements and service. The ASPRS Florida Region, host of the 1998 ASPRS Annual Conference, was awarded the ASPRS Region of the Year. The 1999-2000 ASPRS Installation of Officers was led by retiring ASPRS President Thomas Lillesand, as Mike Renslow was sworn in as the new ASPRS President, and made his inaugural address titled "ASPRS – Direction 2000 ‘You Must Be Present to Win.’" President Elect Alan Mikuni and Vice President George Hepner officially took their respective offices. The Awards ceremony continued on Thursday evening, along with the Memorial Address and Reception, honoring Spencer B. Gross, and Harl V. Pugh.

To obtain a copy of the conference final program, contact ASPRS headquarters at asprs@asprs.org. The conference proceedings, on CD-ROM, may be purchased from the ASPRS Distribution Center ($50; $35 for ASPRS Members) by calling 301-617-7812 or emailing asprspub@pmds.com.

Don’t miss upcoming ASPRS conferences which include the Pecora 14/Land Satellite Information III Conference and Exhibition, focusing on "Demonstrating the Value of Satellite Imagery," to be held December 6-10, 1999, in Denver, Colorado, at the Doubletree Hotel Denver. The 2000 ASPRS Annual Conference and Exhibition will be held May 22-26, 2000, in Washington, DC, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 7,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.