Another AAG missed...

For many years now, I've wanted to attend the AAG. It's an annual meeting of Geographers which takes place in early April in an American city. There are hundreds of sessions across 4 or 5 days, and a great variety of opportunities for practical sessions, featuring ESRI and other organisations working in the field of geography. Many UK geographers head over there too, and there is a wealth of social gatherings and networking, and also the chance to explore the city in which the event takes place before, during and after the event.
This year's event is in San Francisco, and a project I'm involved in: GeoCapabilities has a number of sessions. I'd hoped that this might be the year, but it was not to be. I have to contend myself with looking at my colleague Sirpa Tani's excellent pictures on Facebook instead, showing bright blue skies and wonderful urban vistas. I was hoping to meet up with colleagues from around the world, and also have a chance to sit in on a session with the estimable Joseph Kerski once again.

I would particularly like to have seen Rebecca Solnit's session on her atlas project. I have 'Infinite City', her atlas of San Francisco (as it happens) which has over 20 maps. I'm drawing on one of them for inspiration for a writing project at the moment, and looking forward to the forthcoming atlas of New York.

I'll just have to follow the twitter hashtag instead: #AAG2016

I may even start a Kickstarter campaign, to raise funds to attend next year's event, which is in Boston.

This has a connection with the USA, as some years ago, I put in a (sadly unsuccessful) funding proposal with TERC in the USA, one of the outcomes of which was to do a comparison of outdoor learning experiences of students in Boston, USA and Boston, UK.