Highlights from the 2025 Esri Canada User Conference

The 2025 Esri Canada User Conference, held at the Toronto Congress Centre on November 3rd and 4th, 2025, was a massive success for the Canadian geographic information systems (GIS) community. Look back on the event with Esri Canada marketing specialist Carlos Petersen, who in this blog post takes you through key highlights and insights from the event and shares the proceedings.

Esri Canada User Conference attendees celebrating the return of our user conference.

Now that the 2025 Esri Canada User Conference (Esri Canada UC) has wrapped up, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the experience and share some resources and highlights.

It had been more than six years since our last UC, so we were thrilled to once again host an event that brings together our users and the GIS community from across Canada.

This year’s conference was a true success, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the entire community of GIS professionals and the dedicated Esri Canada team who made it happen.

Highlights

From the start of day 1, we welcomed nearly 1,400 guests from every Canadian province and territory at the Toronto Congress Centre. Check-in moved quickly as attendees settled in and enjoyed breakfast before diving into the sessions.

2025 Esri Canada User Conference attendee checking in and receiving their swag bag.

We opened with a land acknowledgement from Kelsey Davis, program manager, Indigenous Communities, who shared the history of Tkaronto, the original place name from which Toronto is derived. He emphasized the importance of learning Indigenous histories across Canada and uncovering the deep connections and meaningful stories they hold.

Next, a friendly challenge was issued:

“We have close to [1,400] of you all in one place, and we challenge you to connect with new people. Ask them what they’re working on, tell them stores about what excites you in GIS and find common ground to get inspired by others.” —Adam Fox, Executive Director, Sales, Esri Canada

Part 1 of the plenary was delivered by the Esri Canada leadership team and led by Esri Canada president Alex Miller, who opened the event by sharing Esri Canada’s journey since its founding in 1984, the same year we hosted our first Canadian user conference, 41 years ago.

Esri Canada president Alex Miller welcoming 2025 Esri Canada User Conference attendees during the plenary presentation.

"If we are going to create a sustainable future for our world, we going to need to connect Canada together. Connect Canadians together in a national GIS network.” —Alex Miller, President, Esri Canada

The plenary showcased how GIS connects everything, everywhere by sharing compelling user stories and highlighting work across industries and organizations in Canada.

“GIS can really help to connect people to accessible, equitable primary care.” – Dr. Sandy Watts, Industry Manager, Health, Esri Canada

We also explored rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) and GeoAI capabilities in our solutions, including a powerful demonstration of how AI supports conservation efforts. Highlights included FLAP Canada’s work to monitor bird collisions with buildings and Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s exploratory proof-of-concept, developed with the support of Esri Canada , which tests the potential of using AI to track whales in the Arctic in an effort to advance ocean conservation efforts.

“This is all advancing quite rapidly and helping ArcGIS become what we call a ‘Geospatial AI platform.’ And yet, it is really just the beginning.” —Matt English, Senior Technical Lead, President's Office, Esri Canada

On day 2, we continued with part 3 of the plenary and welcomed keynote speaker Sean Southey, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Federation. He delivered an inspiring presentation on how the science of where meets the science of conservation in the CWF’s work and explored why these efforts matter. He highlighted the importance of creating a healthy Canada, building a greener economy and advancing conservation initiatives that strengthen our resilience as an economy and as a  community, while reminding us of the responsibilities we all share.

Sean Southey and Alex Miller discuss how GIS supports conservation in Canada.

“I like to think of it as—we do the science of conservation, you do the science of where. And I believe that if we’re smart together, we can bleed even more together that science of conservation with the science of where to create the Canada that we all want.” —Sean Southey, CEO, Canadian Wildlife Federation

We also showcased how K-12 students from David Suzuki Secondary School are making real-world impacts through their innovative use of ArcGIS, with support from Esri Canada’s Education and Research program.

The plenary concluded with our customer awards presentation, celebrating outstanding achievements from our user community. Halifax Regional Municipality received the Esri Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award for its exceptional use of GIS technology to improve operations and municipal services. Pomerleau, one of Canada’s largest construction companies, was also recognized with a SAG Award for its innovative integration of GIS with building information modelling (BIM) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Lastly, Mitchell Eastley, GIS developer and technician at the City of Steinbach, was named the 2025 GIS Professional of the Year for his leadership in applying GIS technology, his advocacy for mapping solutions and his fostering of community engagement to elevate the profession.

Award recipients and members of Esri Canada’s Education team with Alex Miller during the customer awards ceremony.

Throughout the conference, technical presentations showcased new innovations in ArcGIS, and user presentations demonstrated how GIS connects people, data and decisions across industries. These sessions also emphasized the importance of sharing stories, which helps everyone evolve and strengthen their GIS strategies.

Utilities Special Interest Group (SIG) panellists.

“Organizations are using GIS to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Connecting people, data and decisions.” —Guan Yue, Manager, Strategic Initiatives, President’s Office, Esri Canada

Our more than 20 exhibitors played a key role in the event’s success, showcasing innovative solutions and engaging with attendees throughout the conference. These organizations represented a broad range of sectors, including geospatial technology, utilities, construction, environmental analytics, cloud services and wildlife conservation, demonstrating the diversity of GIS applications across Canada. 

The Canadian Wildlife Federation exhibit booth.

The industry-focused Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings for utilities; architecture, engineering and construction (AEC); public safety; public works; and planning and housing were packed, reflecting the GIS community’s strong commitment to learning and sharing innovative applications across sectors. They underscored the value of collaboration and knowledge exchange in advancing GIS strategies and solutions.

Shaun Hildebrand, Esri Canada’s industry manager for law enforcement, taking questions from attendees of the Public Safety Special Interest Group (SIG).

“I’ve done a lot of work very specifically in my field and so it was interesting to see other ideas across other industries and be able to learn a few things.” —Jennifer Redstone, WSP in Canada

Esri Canada UC presentations and resources

Various presentation materials, recordings and resources are available on the Esri Canada User Conference Proceedings page. New content will be added over time, so check back often.

Your feedback

Conversations at our more than 30 Esri Canada kiosks and survey responses from attendees confirmed that the Esri Canada UC was a positive experience for the Canadian GIS  community. Thank you to all who shared insights as they will help us to make future events even better.

The Esri Canada kiosks were busy in the Expo Hall.

“I’ve always wanted to come to one of the User Conferences and once I saw it was coming back to Canada, I had to make my way up here.” —Reginald Lawrence, Dexter Construction

Your feedback motivates us and reinforces that bringing back live events after a long hiatus was the right decision for the Canadian GIS community.

See you at the 2026 Esri Canada User Conference!

See you in 2026!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Esri Canada User Conference this year. We’re excited to return to the Toronto Congress Centre, October 21–22, 2026. Mark your calendars and start planning. We can’t wait to see you there!