Around 100 users of Esri's GIS software met at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences. Decision-makers from district offices, cities & municipalities and regional associations, employees from the Ministry of Transport and the State Office for Geo-Information and Rural Development, as well as from engineering firms, took the opportunity to attend specialist presentations and exchange ideas with colleagues.
The Esri user meeting was moderated by Prof Dr Dietrich Schröder, Prof Zhihang Yao and Prof Dr Angela Blanco-Vogt. In her welcoming address, HFT Rector Katja Rade emphasised the success of applied research at universities of applied sciences - despite comparatively low third-party funding. After the welcome address, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Schröder presented the project "Urban planning analyses with open data - experiences from a student project at HFT Stuttgart". In Bad Cannstatt, students of urban development at the HFT used ESRI tools to develop a possible structural concept including a framework plan for the further development of the district.
Jasmin Seifried (Esri Deutschland GmbH) presented news from Esri: AI assistants offer new evaluation options. More important, however, is the changeover to the new version, because the fact is: "Arc MAP will retire on 1 March 2026". This entails changes in user administration (with personalised licences and new user types), but offers the advantage of cross-platform work and better use of resources. Attractive 'early migration' offers facilitate the changeover.
In addition to Esri, numerous solution providers also exhibited in the atrium of the HFT Stuttgart: alta 4 (Harald Höhn), BARAL (Wolfgang Hanle), Frox (Erik Güllenstern), GI Geoinformatik (Klaus Brand), VertiGIS (Norbert Helmle) and con.terra (Mischa Giese) provided information about their services and tools for the Esri community in Baden-Württemberg.
Simone Kubiak and Sören Wahl (both from Verband Region Stuttgart) explained the new statistics portal for the Stuttgart region. This provides decision-makers and planners in the region with an excellent and - especially compared to the previous (printed) study 'Regionalmonitor' - significantly more up-to-date database for their work. The statistics portal is an ArcGIS dashboard based on ArcGIS Enterprise.
Anna Weinbender (City of Nagold) explained the use of the Nagold 3D city model in planning. This was realised with the support of alta4. Among other things, the building information created in Sketchup was enriched and transferred to the ArcGIS Pro world.
Matthias Stängel (Esri Deutschland GmbH) then presented the numerous highlights of the new ArcGIS Pro 3.5 version.
The lunch break provided an opportunity to exchange ideas, network and visit the accompanying trade exhibition.
The second round of presentations began with Svetlana Mamanova and Dr Uwe Ruß-Obajtek (both from the Baden-Württemberg State Statistical Office). They gave an insight into the interactive Baden-Württemberg university dashboard they have developed.
Dr Klaus Brand (GI-Geoinformatik) presented the 'Landmanager'. The lease and land management tool already supports numerous farmers in their decisions based on geodata. The apps from GI Geoinformatik help with applications for agricultural subsidies.
The presentation by Thomas Hauenstein (City of Karlsruhe) focussed on the further development of the existing 3D city model and the geo-base twin into 'digital twins', which form the basis for simulations and planning.
Finally, Matthias Stängel (Esri Deutschland GmbH) used the example of a corridor analysis to demonstrate how easily information from point clouds can be analysed with the help of Esri GeoAI.