CZ07 wrap up.

Well it's all over now. It was a really great conference and I'm glad that I attended, even if it was a little stressful getting out here, and slightly expensive to say the least. I think I made some pretty good connections and made some new friends that were very encouraging about Coastopolis. The challenge now will be to keep in contact with them all, hopefully they'll be swinging around the site of their own accord and checking up on me . . . I'm going to mash the last couple of days together, and then include some pictures of the thing. More than giving some sort of play by play of the events, I think this'll just be genereal impressions and mention of certain sessions that really stood out.

I'll start with David Hart @ the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant. His work with the Great Lakes Circle Tour Coastal Access Guide is really well done. And for my former classmates, a mapping geeks dream come true. In fact his work brings up some interesting points that I won't get into right now, but I was definitely pleased to see someone @ CZ07 exploiting some of today's technologies to enable resource users. Another individual presentation that had something of that component was the Coastal Transects Analysis Model. Ratana Chuenpagdee
used to be at VIMS (before I ever got to Virginia) but is now @ Memorial University, where apparently, they're doing some really cool work. I spoke to her briefly after her presentation and, like Hart, seemed to "get it" when it came to using the web as something that, not only might provide information, but be harnessed as a tool for a whole host of coastal management & planning applications. I look forward to being in touch with both of these two and might even have to hit them up for advice or "advisory" for Coastopolis.

. . . someone else I think I have to give a shout out to is Thorne Abbott over at the County of Maui planning department. They too seem to be up to some interesting things over there, and though Thorne didn't present anything at the conference we none-the-less had some very interesting discussion about the state of land-use planning along coastlines. A quick search of the APA & ULI websites and its easy to see that the coasts aren't their foremost priority . . . although APA does have a link to Tim's book, which is nice to see I guess.

Anyway, its a beautiful day in Portland OR. And even though I've got tons of work to do, its not like I'm out here all that often so I'm going to go rent a bicycle and do some exploring. I'm including some pictures of the conference. Hope you like 'em.

hmm. they seem a little boring . . . well, trust me, it was fun.