Paul was invited to the first ever GeoDesign Summit last week at ESRI's headquarters in Redlands, CA.  The summit was attended by a broad audience representing private sector, academic/education, research and government.  Everyone seemed to walk away with a positive experience, although many still struggling to understand what GeoDesign actually is?  Is it something truely new or simply a rebranding of tasks we already perform?  Architecture+GIS+Engineering?  In any case, you can bet on hearing the term 'GeoDesign' a lot more in the coming year.

"GeoDesign brings geographic analysis into the design process, where initial design sketches are instantly vetted for suitability against a myriad of database layers describing a variety of physical and social factors for the spatial extent of the project. This on-the-fly suitability analysis provides a framework for design, giving land-use planners, engineers, transportation planners, and others involved with design, the tools to leverage geographic information within their design workflows."  - Wikipedia