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GIS Day 2023: MGI Celebrates Geospatial Technologies at UWI Mona Campus

On November 15, 2023. International Geographic Information Systems Day or GIS Day was celebrated globally. In Jamaica, GIS Day 2023 was recognized by the annual celebration at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. The theme for GIS Day 2023 was ‘Geospatial Technologies; Enabling the Digital Economy’. The annual GIS Day celebrations are hosted by the National Spatial Data Management Branch (NSDMB) in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation (MEGJC) and 2023 marks the 21st year of its celebration in Jamaica.

Each year, hundreds of secondary school students, university students, researchers, business people, government agencies, media, and other professionals participate in the GIS Day National Exposition at UWI Mona Campus. GIS Day is an opportunity for students to interact with industry and educational institution stakeholders while participating in several competitions guided by geographical concepts, principles, and applicability. GIS Day also provides an opportunity for students and professionals to explore career paths and other potential opportunities in geospatial technologies.

We at Mona GeoInformatics Institute (MGI) have participated in GIS Day activities for almost two decades, previously winning awards for Best Booth and GIS Best Practice while playing an active role in all activities that are executed on the day. In keeping with the theme for GIS Day 2023, MGI displayed GIS-related materials such as: 

  1. MGI’s Addressor that is used to geocode and process addresses. 
  2. Field and Desktop Asset Mapping services by MGI.
  3. Social Survey Services offered by MGI.
  4. CORE-EIS for geospatial data management.
  5. MGI’s Online shop that uses first-world online payment services for access to geospatial products and services.
  6. Software Development and Web Map Development Services at MGI.
  7. Udemy Online Course by MGI that covers GIS skills among other things.

The displays at MGI’s booth presented a unique opportunity for students and other stakeholders to get acquainted with different applications of GIS in Jamaica and learn about how GIS is used in various disciplines, in decision-making, product development, and in the field of research.

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