The annual conference is a key date in the ALERC calendar. As well as providing an interesting and topical programme of speakers it gives all LERC staff the opportunity to meet up with colleagues from across the country to discuss all the latest developments within the LERC sector and beyond.
Conference 2018: Getting the Most from TechnologyThe 2018 ALERC Conference took place at the BVSC in Birmingham on 17th October. Last year's conference provided space for LERCs to learn from each other through a series or workshops facilitated by LERC staff members. Delegates learnt how to get the most from the latest technological developments in data capture, management, analysis and dissemination and how these technologies can increase the efficiency of LERCs.
Speakers included Richard Burkmar from FSC demonstrating the TomBio QGIS plugin, something that many LERCs are already using to great effect, and discussed it's future development as part of the FSC Biolinks project. Clare Blencowe outlined all the work that ALERC has been doing to secure the future of Recorder 6, making sure that LERCs continue to have access to fit for purpose database technology. Pauline Campbell discussed an analysis of NBN Atlas data for Northern Ireland and the effect of its use on data searches. The soapbox session gives anyone the opportunity to talk for 5 minutes on any topic they wish. This year topics included Chris Packham's Bioblitz project, the NatureHack HLF project to promote new technologies to land managers and the multiple uses of XML reports. |
Conference workshops returned to the programme by popular demand this year and covered a variety of technology-themed subjects.
Alex Waecheter (HERC) - Digital Cartography: Make your maps work for you. Cartography design principles, examples and Q&A plus demonstration of some techniques in QGIS.
Andy Foy (Andy Foy Consulting, LERC contractor) - Getting the Most Out of Recorder 6. A demo and discussion of two open source GIS tools (for MapInfo and ArcGIS) to query, extract and map species data within Recorder6.
Dan Carpenter (TVERC) - An Introduction to R studio. A showcase on how TVERC have been using R studio to help with task automation and then introduce some basic code for data manipulation that LERCs may find useful.
Alex Waecheter (HERC) - Digital Cartography: Make your maps work for you. Cartography design principles, examples and Q&A plus demonstration of some techniques in QGIS.
Andy Foy (Andy Foy Consulting, LERC contractor) - Getting the Most Out of Recorder 6. A demo and discussion of two open source GIS tools (for MapInfo and ArcGIS) to query, extract and map species data within Recorder6.
Dan Carpenter (TVERC) - An Introduction to R studio. A showcase on how TVERC have been using R studio to help with task automation and then introduce some basic code for data manipulation that LERCs may find useful.
Presentations
Morning SessionDownload Rich Burkmar - FSC QGIS Tools
Download Clare Blencowe - Recorder 6
SoapboxesDownload Louise Bacon - Packham Bioblitz
Download Simon Pickles - Nature Hack
Download Tom Hunt - The Joy of XML reports
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Afternoon SessionDownload Deb Muscat - Data Searches
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