Mappers and Modelers converge on Google Zurich

What do you get when you put 90 Map Maker, Building Maker, and SketchUp users into one big room? A truly incredible experience and a lot of great ideas.

Summit attendees and staff at Google Zurich.

Last month some of our most talented Mappers and Geo-Modelers came together in Zurich to celebrate their work and talk about how to make mapping and modeling better. Attendees came from all over the world (Peru, Mongolia, Germany, Ukraine, Taiwan and Tanzania to name a few places) and had lots of opinions on how to improve our programs.

This summit was unique in that it was an unconference -- lots of smaller sessions proposed and run by the participants. We talked about everything from mapping historical data to user moderation in Google Earth (and you can read all about our discussions in the session notes). This format was amazing from a staff standpoint because we got to talk individually with a lot of different users. It was great from the attendees' perspective too, as they got to talk about the subjects that mattered most to them.

In addition to all the brainstorming, we had a lot of fun, too. Office tours, evening social events, and a fondue dinner overlooking all of Zurich made for a very entertaining (and filling!) few days. Check out this highlight video to get a feel for how things went:



Want to experience the conference for yourself? Check out our abundant photos and prolific session notes. Thanks to everyone who made this event such a success!

Posted by Vicky Tait, SketchUp Support Operative