It was great to have a chance to take in a local GIS event this week, thanks to the GIS Alley team and the local GIS user community here in Fort Collins and the NOCO Front Range. Last night in FT CO the first annual (we hope) GIS Day event organized by GIS Alley took place at the Drake Center and I’m guessing there was close to 100 local GIS professionals & enthusiasts in attendance. We enjoyed some great finger food (my son killed the meatball plate!) a couple of drinks and some good conversation in a room filled with local GIS companies exhibiting their technologies (Red Hen Systems, Cartopac Field Solutions, TechniGraphics, cci, ESC Engineering) and a few brave map makers who shared some of their latest works via a poster display.The highlight of the night was a welcome address from the Mayor of Fort Collins (who also has a history in Geospatial technologies), some fun GIS trivia, and a fine presentation by Carl Reed, CTO of the OGC… a Fort Collins “old timer” and GIS pioneer in this area. READ FULL REPORT HERE