The Astun User Group continues to go from strength to strength. Originally conceived as a means to disseminate information to clients, it’s since evolved to enable GIS teams to share information with their peers during round table discussions.
All hands on deck
This year’s User Group was held in Birmingham in early November. Fresh from the Astun Meet-up the day before, every Astuner had a part to play in readying the conference room for visitors.
Peter, Jonathan and Gowthami took a break from technical work to put out personalised giveaways which combined wood (for sustainability) and chocolate (for happiness). Jill and Ali set out the prize table to match.
Matt, David and Elena set up the A/V. Meanwhile, Mike, our MD, had his annual battle with our ‘special occasion’ exhibition stand which has a mind of its own.
Eventually, we were ready for business. Ali and Simon stationed themselves in the downstairs lobby to meet and greet whilst Andy Bailey manned the sign-in table as a stand-in for Moira. Sad as she was to miss this year’s event, the prospect of going on holiday was more attractive.
It’s always wonderful when the room is filled with friendly faces and there’s a buzz caused by GIS chatter. This year was no exception. Fuelled by pastries and the prospect of Lindor chocolates, delegates prised themselves away from the hot drinks station to take their seats.
Session 1. A morning to remember at the Astun User Group
The event began with a welcome by our event host, Andrew Smart, and a talk by Mike. He gave delegates a glimpse into life behind the scenes and a look ahead to 2025. His big news was the announcement that we’ll be able to provide services under the G-Cloud 14 framework. This means that local government clients can continue to benefit from fixed pricing and easier procurement. Our thanks go to Mike Smith, our Renewals Manager, for spearheading our G-Cloud 14 submission. Look out for a blog on the topic soon.
David took to the stage next to talk about iShare in the Cloud V6. This was his second User Group on the ‘Astun’ side of the table, after a life in local government GIS. Renowned for his sense of humour, David somehow managed to pepper his talk on the benefits, architecture and migration process with references to The Professionals. We still don’t know quite how he pulled it off.
Finally, with the break in sight, Matt delivered a talk on ADS with OS APIs. Matt and his colleague Domna, in particular, have done a great job of ensuring clients receive the best possible data service during the transition period.
Time for a break – or was it?
Delayed refreshments caused some consternation to those in need of a caffeine fix but the misbehaving aircon kept us all awake until the clink of crockery was heard. Thanks to Tom for doing his best to resolve the situation before we entered the realm of cryotherapy.
Session 2. More Astuners take to the stage
After the break, Andy Bailey demonstrated iShare Mobile with QField, a field data capture tool. Delegates were able to install it on their phones and start adding features and photos to our User Group project.
With the prospect of a giant Lindor ball for the winner of our favourite photo, we soon had lots of new photos to look at in QField.
All delegates received a ‘flat pack’ Christmas tree (shown in some of the photos above) which will help them test iShare Mobile’s ability to capture tree data without having to go out in the cold.
You can’t keep a good MD down so Mike took to the stage again to talk about integrating cloud systems and our new Managed Information Service. This provides a stress free way to connect planning systems to your Spatial Data Warehouse (SDW).
The morning ended with Simon’s overview of Publisher. Often overlooked by clients, this add-on to iShare is a great way to make back office data public. Simon demonstrated how it can be used to share a wide range of information from piercings and food hygiene ratings to planning. If you’re interested in adding Publisher to iShare, please ask your Account Manager for more info.
A quick rejig of the agenda brought the majority of us to the restaurant on time for a two-course lunch.
Session 3. An afternoon of opinions and laughter
After lunch, the delegates took over the show. Firstly, we had a competitive game to wake everyone back up. Ali then presented a Customer Showcase featuring iShare in action across many local authorities. We owe a big shoutout to our Welsh clients who contributed much of the content. Examples include saving money by using MyAlerts to send planning comms, improving websites by adding Spotlight (single-topic) web maps and combining aerial photography with OS MasterMap to provide additional context.
We plan to share content from the Customer Showcase over the coming months, so watch this space!
Tracy Lister and Matt Banks from Walsall Council then took to the stage. After several years on her own in the GIS wilderness, self-confessed geek Tracy was joined in 2019 by Matt. Their talk was packed with Star Wars references. Topics ranged from the “menaces of data standards” to the importance of GIS to Walsall’s Contact Centre, Planning Team and other internal customers.
Over the last 12 months, Walsall’s GIS team has doubled in size to four with the addition of Matt “Rookie Wookie” Burrell and their “Rey” of GIS sunshine, Briony Fletcher. Having heard their summary of the work they are doing, we suspect they’ll all be busy for the foreseeable future!
Great news! So many delegates have asked to see this talk again that we’ve persuaded Tracy and Matt to deliver the talk as a webinar in January. Look out for your invite soon!
“Walsall’s presentation brilliantly showcased our status as ‘The Professionals’ and experts in the use of data, yet also acted as a reminder that we still do have to convince others that we’re not just dots on a map but so much more; from configuring all the wires in the background through to the interpretation of the data afterwards.
Amy, Monmouthshire County Council
The key takeaway for me from the talk was a reminder of our worth as it showcased the amazing value and outcomes that can be achieved when there is a geospatial professional with a voice at the table.”
After a caffeine and cookie break, we broke into four round tables according to delegates’ areas of interest and expertise. Topics included data ownership, potential new datasets, collaboration and GIS in the age of austerity. We’re still working out how best to share the information gathered during the round tables so keep an eye on our newsletters.
Lively discussions were had until it was time to summarise our group findings and award the prizes which had been tempting us at the back of the room all day.
Winning with Astun
Bruno from Vale of Glamorgan Council won the competition to decide who would receive Astun’s donation in lieu of Christmas cards. The lucky recipient was a Glamorgan-based charity, the Vale Foodbank. Bruno also won our highest/lowest competition which bagged him a second giant chocolate.
The Walsall GIS team’s competitiveness shone through in the photo competition with Tracy taking first prize and Briony taking second place.
With a spare chocolate ball to hand, we thought we’d pull another raffle ticket. After several abortive attempts, we finally had a winner in the room. Congratulations to Massimo from Erewash Borough Council.
During the day, delegates could ask questions via boards at the back of the room. Another lucky delegate, Trina from Denbighshire County Council, found asking questions to be particularly worthwhile as she won a chocolate for her trouble:
We’ll answer all of the User Group questions in a special blog in December. We’ll also reveal the winners of our post-event competitions too!
Giving thanks where it’s due
We’re grateful to all clients who attended but particular thanks go to the following:
Tracy (Walsall Council): for co-presenting and hosting a round table on data ownership. We also gave Tracy a special ‘Golden Globe’ for working alongside us to promote local authority GIS this year.
Matt (Walsall Council): for co-presenting with Tracy and co-hosting a round table with Elena on data.
Amy (Monmouthshire County Council): for co-hosting a round table and collating entries from Welsh organisations for the Customer Showcase.
The Astun team for all their hard work, especially our presenters. We hope you enjoyed your Colin cakes!
Astun User Group: what our delegates say
We’re always keen to know if we’ve hit the mark by providing presentations which are informative but “not salesy”. At the time of writing, all delegates who’ve provided feedback say they’d recommend the User Group to their peers. You can’t really get better than that, but delegates’ comments are the icing on the cake. Here’s a small sample:
“Astun continue to be passionate about their product and I enjoy their no-sales-pitch approach.”
“I particularly liked QField and the games that got us uploading photos to show us the process of using it. I think the value of it is evident and who doesn’t love the opportunity to upload a silly photo at a work event!!”
“The venue was perfect, the sessions were insightful, and the overall experience was incredibly valuable for all attendees.”