UMN and GeoDI Lab serve as the local hosts in ACM SIGSPATIAL 2025 at Minneapolis

The 2025 ACM SIGSPATIAL (the 33rd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems) was successfully held in Minneapolis, Minnesota during Nov. 3-6, 2025, with record-breaking participation — both in paper submissions and attendees. As the local chairs, Dr. Di Zhu and the University of Minnesota team began planning for this major event as early as January, supporting every stage of the execution: from hotel and venue contracting to exhibit logistics, audio/visual setups, reception, banquet, and on-site coordination.

Hosting SIGSPATIAL locally provided a rare opportunity to contribute behind the scenes and witness firsthand just how much effort goes into organizing a conference of this scale. Over 2,000 emails, dozens of planning meetings, and countless operational decisions made this experience both humbling and rewarding — and a reminder to always thank the local chair at every future conference!

To celebrate the University of Minnesota's unique riverside campus, Dr. Zhu also organized two additional side events: the West Bank GIS Tour and East Bank Research Tour, which drew over 100 registrants and highlighted local strengths across the Department of Geography, the MGIS program, U-Spatial, Minnesota Population Center, and the John Borchert Map Library. These community-facing events helped connect the broader SIGSPATIAL audience with UMN’s geospatial research ecosystem.

GeoDI Lab actively contributed to the research program, with three accepted papers this year — including one in the SRC (Student Research Competition) and two at the GeoAI Workshop. Lab members also served as volunteers throughout the event while participating in academic sessions, poster presentations, and community building. Their energy and commitment were evident throughout a very full (and admittedly exhausting) week.

It was a joy to reconnect with longtime collaborators, meet new friends across academia and industry, and gain a fresh perspective on the evolving GeoAI and spatial computing community. Minneapolis offered crisp skies and unusually snow-free November weather — as if to leave a warm impression on everyone, just as the organizers hoped.

Learn more about the ACM SIGSPATIAL community.