MAGIC represents a community of GIS professionals, students, and end-users who, through our knowledge and work, provide the maps, analysis, data, and applications to make much of this possible. It is our mission to share this technology and experience through pertinent training, scholarship opportunities, and general GIS advocacy.
Upcoming Events
We are pleased to partner with Bad Elf and ESRI to offer a free half-day workshop the day before the conference! This workshop is designed for individuals eager to harness the potential of GPS technology for field data collection. No prior mapping experience is required. Whether you're a beginner or looking to enhance your skills, this session provides practical insights and hands-on experience.
We are thrilled to once again celebrate GIS Day by sharing the latest in GIS and geospatial applications and solutions with all of you! The MAGIC Conference is your opportunity to engage with like-minded GIS professionals in the Mid-South and capitalize on the vast knowledge-sharing potential that this event has offered for more than two decades. As always, the conference will feature a captivating lineup of speakers, insightful panel discussions, and networking opportunities that will undoubtedly expand your horizons and inspire new ideas. We look forward to seeing you there!
The Memphis Area Geographic Information Council hosts bi-monthly informational meetings and workshops for MAGIC members and non-members interested in GIS related topics. Learn about what is happening in our community, new GIS technology, and best practices while networking with your GIS peers from diverse agencies and companies.
News
As Waldo Tobler stated, "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things", but what if we could use this wisdom and apply it to realms beyond the physical world? What if we could have a visual representation of the relationship between our datasets. This is to say, what if we could synthesize virtual space for phenomena which do not even exist in real space? How would they appear? What relationships would we discover? In this keynote, we dive into the future of visualization of our data using knowledge graphs, complex three dimensional symbologies, and virtual reality. Are you ready to see the future?
It was our great pleasure to award $2,500 in scholarships and awards at the inaugural Memphis Area Collegiate Geospatial Showcase, which took place last Friday, April 15, at University of Memphis Johnson Hall. Nearly a dozen Memphis area students had submitted presentation abstracts on GIS-related school projects to compete for the awards, and four finalists gave 15-minute presentations at the Showcase event. The first place finishers in each category (undergrad and graduate) won $1,000, and the runners-up each won $250.
First Place:
Parth Sinojia (Undergraduate, Rhodes College) - Equitable Access Mapping: Bridging Resource Gaps in Memphis Through GIS Analysis
Heather Clendenin (Graduate, University of Memphis) - Assessing landscape factors in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley affecting geneflow of Ursus americanus
Runners-Up:
Jacob Ackerman (Undergraduate, Rhodes College) - Finding Breaches: Gaps in Data and the Memphis Aquifer
Leta Rowan (Graduate, University of Memphis) - Green Infrastructure and Urban Heat Islands: A Nature-Based Solution for Memphis
The event also featured a panel discussion focused on GIS skills and careers. A panel of GIS professionals from both the public and private sectors fielded questions and shared their advice and experiences with the student audience.
Panelists:
Arnisa Davis, PMP, GISP - Manager of Enterprise Resource Planning, Memphis Light, Gas, & Water (MLGW)
Megan Farrell - Planner, Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development
Terek Gatewood - GIS Analyst/Assistant Project Manager, Allworld Project Management
JT Malasri, PE - Founder and Principal EngineerFounder and Principal Engineer, Malasri Engineering, PLLC
Dr. Kate Shields - Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Rhodes College
Scott Trapolino, GISP - Project Manager, Canopy Spatial
We are grateful to our panelists for generously donating their time, and to University of Memphis for hosting the event. We look forward to the Memphis Area Collegiate Geospatial Showcase becoming an annual event as we fulfill our mission of promoting the profession and education of GIS in the Memphis Area.
We are pleased to welcome all geospatially-inclined students and faculty in the greater Memphis area to participate in the inaugural Memphis Area Collegiate Geospatial Showcase!
When: Friday, April 12 from 2:30 - 5:00 PM
Where: University of Memphis - Johnson Hall
This showcase event offers an opportunity for college undergraduate and graduate students to demonstrate their GIS proficiency to an audience of GIS professionals in order to earn financial assistance towards their education and/or research, thanks to our generous members and sponsors. In this year’s event, MAGIC will grant $2,000 in scholarships and/or awards (depending on the student’s eligibility) in a competition open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Students from any college or university in the greater Memphis area will be welcome to participate, and participants will give a 15-minute presentation on a GIS-related project they’re working on.
We are delighted to announce the election of our officers for 2024 as well as the election of four new members and two student ambassadors to the board.
MAGIC officers for this year will be:
President: Lee Owens
Vice President/President-Elect: David Branson
Secretary: Mary Dubose
Treasurer: Shawn Anderson
Newly elected to the MAGIC Board of Directors for a three-year term are:
Carrie Baker
Haley Feather
Jessica Wallace
Lesley Rakestraw
Rounding out the MAGIC Board of Directors will be veteran board members:
Lauren Patterson
Rob Winkler
Scott Trapolino
Uday Bhanu Burrey
Finally, we've added two Student Ambassadors to the board:
Alyssa Huffman (University of Memphis)
Andrew Humphreys (Delta State University)
Best wishes to everyone for the year ahead!
- The MAGIC Board of Directors
Go ahead and mark your calendars for the 22nd Annual MAGIC Conference on November 16 and 17, 2023. We will be back at the Reign Event Venue where we had our 2022 Conference a few months ago, and registration will be available shortly. We are currently in the process of planning our workshops, webinars, and trainings for the year, so we will have more announcements about those in the near future.
The MAGIC Board of Directors is gearing up for another great year of GIS professional development and training in the Memphis area. In January, we elected our officers for 2023 and also elected three new members to the board.
MAGIC officers for this year will be:
President: Michelle Field, GISP
Vice President/President-Elect: Lee Owens
Secretary: Robert Winkler
Treasurer: Lauren Patterson
Newly elected to the MAGIC Board of Directors are:
David Branson
Mary Dubose
Uday Bhanu Burrey
Rounding out the MAGIC Board of Directors will be veteran board members:
AJ Robinson
Andrew McColgan
Scott Trapolino
Shawn Anderson.
Best wishes to y'all for the year ahead!
- The MAGIC Board of Directors
The 21st Annual MAGIC Geospatial Conference is just around the corner, and we are looking for a few good maps.
If you have a good map idea in mind, we’d love for you to enter it into our Map Gallery competition! We know you’ve been busy, so we’re extending the deadline to Wednesday, November 9 - a week before the Conference.
The competition is open to all, with separate categories for students and professionals. We will display all map entries on easels at the Conference, and attendees will vote for their favorites. The top finisher in each category will win a cash prize of $150.
“Maps are like campfires – everyone gathers around them, because they allow people to understand complex issues at a glance, and find agreement about how to help the land.”
—Sonoma Ecology Center, GIS/IS Program Web Site
Let’s build a Map Gallery!
Please save your edits and have a look at what’s coming to the 21st Annual MAGIC Geospatial Conference! We are excited and honored to announce a tremendous lineup of speakers and presentations for y’all this year. Here are just a few highlights:
Disaster response (Esri)
Augmented Reality solutions (Bad Elf)
Advances in aerial imagery (Nearmap)
Cartography tips & tricks (Esri)
Mobile information management (MLGW)
GIS Integration (Allworld)
UAS/Drone Applications (University of Memphis)
Streamlining GIS workflows (True North)
Search & Rescue mapping (DeSoto County Emergency Services)
GISP Certification (GISCI)
All this is in addition to the Scholarship and Map Gallery Competitions, "Where In the Midsouth?" contest, door prizes, lunch, professional networking, and camaraderie that are staples of the MAGIC Conference.
Thank you all for your awesome submissions for the 2022 Memphis Area Geographic Information Council Conference! Call for Presentations is now closed. We will send out the preliminary agenda to our presenters soon to confirm their speaking times. Thank you again!
