- What's different from the last AAG event I attended some 10 years ago?
1) The meeting is bigger (sessions spanned the Marriott and Wyndham Hotels at Copley Place. AAG membership has jumped from about 5000 to nearly double that today.
2) Topics are extremely broad - there were multiple sessions, for example, related to bicycles and wine regions.

- Recruiting
Many of the names you'd expect were present: NAVTEQ, Google and NGA to name a few. The only commercial company in attendance in the recruiting area: Walgreens. (Smart!)

- Laptops and Wi-Fi
The AAG provided wi-fi and there were many folks sprawled with laptops on the floor. Unlike most conferences I attend where two people bend over a laptop with one "demoing" to the other, most laptop users at AAG were "on their own."

- Why are we here?
This overheard comment offers one answer: "If I didn't know anyone here, I wouldn't come." Yes, AAG is old home week: within 10 minutes of arriving I ran into a fellow student from my undergrad days, then one from my grad program.

- The Exhibit Hall
Some 90% of the hall I'd guess was full of books for sale. I began to wonder if I were teaching a residence class (I taught at two Massachusetts schools in the 1990s) if I'd use a textbook. I wondered if vendors were offering online access yet, for a fee to the student or the school. If so, it certainly didn't seem to be highly advertised. Of the GIS software providers I saw ESRI and the newly renamed ERDAS and local player Caliper.

- Going green
The AAG offered reusable shopping bag style bags for registration materials that noted just that on their sides. On the downside, the Marriott still offered paper cups for coffee. (I've begun to bring my favorite travel mug to events in part to be green, but also because it help prevent spills from those breakable china-liKe ones!)

The most interesting session I attended was called GIS, Modeling and Mapping Geography and featured 10 five minute papers. A few presenters wondered why they were in the session, since their topics didn't fit. Still it was a fascinating "smorgasbord" of applied geography questions:
Should Davidson Seamount (an underwater mountain) be part of a preserve?
How does climate impact population density?
How might we use ancient practices for water management (like those found on Easter Island?)
How do we make sense of GIS usability?
What's the problem with water quality policies in China?
How did the planned city of Cuidad Guayana in Venezuela impact immigration in the country?
What's the difference between day and night evacuations in Galveston? (takes about 2.5 hours longer at night)
How do personal values play into coastal policy?
How much of Fairfax County was burned by Native Americans?
What explains the lack of Cyprus trees in the U.S.? Are they fire dependent and with limited fires, are they dying out?

I also had a chance to join a panel on New Media, New Tools, New Audiences: the role of social media in geography. The lively group provided quite a lot of insight into how these tools are being used in geography education as well as other disciplines. Our takeaway: this is the future! Most valuable in supporting our conclusion: a soon to be presented study at McMaster University in Canada that measured its effectiveness and impact on students, faculty, attendance and other factors. Another point worth making: instructors can use new media with no cost to them, their schools or their students.