Good Afternoon Geographers, Sustainers, and GIST Folks – I want to encourage all of you interested in geospatial technology to explore the different ways that students can be involved with the TNGIC 2024 conference in Montgomery Bell State Park in April. Below are some reasons why I think it’s a good fit for students, what to expect, and details on the specific ways to get involved.

 

Why Should You Attend TNGIC

• Many, many department alum attend these events, give presentations at these events, sponsor these events, etc. You likely won’t find a larger concentration of our alum at any other event in Tennessee.
• TNGIC wants students to be involved and they provide ample student opportunities, student funding, etc. See below.
• Not sure what you want to do with your GIS experience after you graduate? Meet people who work in every industry imaginable (utilities, local government, state government, federal agencies, research labs, non-profits, private sector, etc).
• Want to see examples of how people are using what you’re learning? Attend any of the sessions and see GPS, UAV, Python, remote sensing, geocoding, Survey123, storymaps, etc in action.
• Montgomery Bell State Park, the conference location this year, is where they filmed Ernest Goes to Camp. You just might see me in a Jim Varney costume.

 

What Can I Expect From a TNGIC Conference

• TNGIC is a volunteer-led organization for GIS professionals. The conference attendees are people that use GIS in their job every day. What you learn about will likely be very practical, applied GIS.
• The conference will last a total of three days (Tuesday April 9 is reserved for optional workshops, Wednesday and Thursday are the actual conference).
• There are usually somewhere between 150-175 attendees at these conferences from across the state. Some of the vendors and sponsors will be from across the US and Canada.
• The main days of the conference, Wednesday and Thursday, will consist of keynote presentations from distinguished speakers, a series of concurrent presentations covering a wide variety of topics, and opportunities to explore the map gallery and meet the vendors… and a boring business meeting.
• As part of registration TNGIC provides meals, snacks, coffee, etc starting Wednesday morning and running through the end of the conference.
• There is a large social event on Wednesday evening.
• There will be students attending from universities across Tennessee along with representatives there from other universities.
• Dress code is business casual and behavior is business professional.

 

Specific Ways to Get Involved for Students

• Student Presentations: Submit a presentation (solo, with a partner, maybe as a team) about a project you’ve worked on (GIS in the Community, class project, independent research project, etc). Presentations are usually about 15-20 minutes long with about 10 minutes for Q and A.
• Student Map Gallery: Submit a physical map or research poster for one of your projects or a digital “map” like a dashboard, storymap, etc.
• Student Assistantship: TNGIC offers a limited number of scholarships each year for students to cover the cost of registration in exchange for a few hours of volunteer work.
• Student Pricing: No more assistantships available? No problem, the student rate is $100 (to cover the cost of food).
• TNView Competition: If you’re working on a remote sensing project, be sure to check the box for the TNView competition (presentation and map/poster gallery).
• TNView Travel Award: There are a very limited number of travel grants available if you are participating in the TNView competition.

 

I’ve convinced you, now what?

• Sign up for the student assistantship ASAP!
• You can wait to register until after you know if you received an assistantship. You must have an account with TNGIC to register, but setting up that account is free.
• Book a room at the MBSP lodge before March 8. After that date the price for rooms goes up. Most people arrive Tuesday night and check out on Thursday.
• Talk to your professors, research supervisors, etc about presenting at the conference. Check those deadlines and get your presentation/map/poster submitted.
• If you’re presenting a map/poster/giving a presentation, check out the Office of Undergraduate Research travel funding.
• Students usually carpool to this event, so coordinate with your classmates.
• Let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

Michael Camponovo

GIS Outreach Coordinator and GIST Program Director

Department of Geography and Sustainability, University of Tennessee Knoxville

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https://gislab.utk.edu/