Ignite Spatial NoCo 2.0 was a great success last night. There were over 200 people there and good food and drink. The fact that the event is free (sponsorships make it possible) is amazing.

I managed to take some fantastically awful pictures…here’s the best of the lot (Brian Timony speaking)…

The event was streamed live. Word was that a total of 8 people were watching the live stream. Maybe we’ll get more people watching the live stream at the next event as I’m not sure a lot of people even knew there was one. I’ll post links to the YouTube presentations when they become available. There were two extremely good presentations: Brian Timoney: The Timoney Group – Life Lessons from History’s Great Cartographers and Peter Batty: Ubisense – Don’t Make Me Think.

Tonight is the second round of Ignite Spatial Northern Colorado! I went all the way back through my tweets to February 25, when I first mentioned the idea of getting together for a round of very short and informative geo-related talks. I wish I could have culled the other tweets – the replies – but unfortunately I don’t see a way to get those at the moment. But at least you can see my side of the discussion.

You’ll see how I begin by proposing a vague idea about getting together to teach each other about GIS while not boring everyone to death. A bunch of other geoprofessionals jumped on the idea, and we decided to roll with it. I very quickly roped @wyojeff and @Taliesn in to organize the thing.

Here’s how it all started, back on February 25, 2010 at 11:50 AM, on twitter, naturally:

PetersonGIS: I want to see a bunch of 5 minute GIS talks. Learn a little bit about everything new. Once a year. #geoprofessionaldevelopment 11:50 AM Feb. 25th

PetersonGIS: @wyojeff Alright – now that you’ve named it will you organize it?

PetersonGIS: @gis_Todd Wow – flying out for it would be a big deal. Perhaps there’s something in this idea. 1:01 PM Feb. 25, 2010

PetersonGIS: #geoignitefrontrange or #geoignitefr 1:03 PM Feb. 25, 2010

PetersonGIS: @mcmoots 5 minute talk followed by 5 minute break, repeat…or 5 minute talk followed by 5 minutes of heckling I mean constructive commentary 1:07 PM Feb. 25, 2010

PetersonGIS: Sounds like plenty of people interested in a #geoignitefr. We’d need a free venue and a Friday afternoon perhaps.

PetersonGIS: @wyojeff Definitely. What have we got ourselves in to? 5:43 PM Feb. 25, 2010

PetersonGIS: @Taliesn That’s definitely something to keep in mind. Thanks. #geoignitefr 9:56 AM Feb 26, 2010

So I am very much looking forward to Ignite Spatial 2.0, tonight, which promises to be every bit as good as the first one. I won’t be speaking this time but I am a sponsor. If you want to catch my presentation from Ignite Spatial NoCo 1.0, you can see it here: Mapping, Please Don’t Do This.

A very big THANK YOU to @Taliesn (Brian Sullivan, City of Greeley) who made a small idea into an extraordinary event.
The Ignite Sptaial NoCo blog

I’m currently working on a booklet that will be purchasable through this site very soon. It’ll be very useful for mappers, cheap, and in electronic format. The overall design took a bit of time to get just right and now it is just a matter of filling in the content. With four pages done including the cover page, and 2-3 hours per page, I’m hoping it’ll be done in another 60 hours or so of work. The big drive behind this booklet is to be a useful reference piece for everyday mapping. And – get this – it’ll have almost no words! The topic will be announced when it is complete.