QGIS User Conference 2023 took place in Netherlands on 18-19 April, 2023. This conference was organized by the Dutch QGIS User Group in the small town of ’s -Hertogenbosch.

A long awaited community event that happened after a break of 3 years. The conference was attended by over 200 people from across the world. I got a chance to participate and meet many of QGIS community members in-person.

Conference Group Photo

In this post, I hope to share some of my insights and resources from the conference.

The Location

The conference was hosted in the city of ’s -Hertogenbosch (pronounced serto-hen-bos) -or Den Bosch for short - which is also the name of the latest release of QGIS version 3.30. I was able to reach a few days early and explore the city with some geo-friends and try out local delicacies.

Old city boat tour with Kurt Menke
Old city boat tour with Kurt Menke
Bossche bol - a cream filled chocolate pastry that originated in Den Bosch
Bossche bol - a cream filled chocolate pastry that originated in Den Bosch
Exploring the city with Shravan Shah
Exploring the city with Shravan Shah

The Venue

One of the unique aspects of the conference was the venue. The conference was hosted at Grasso - which is a refurbished factory now being used as an office building. It has large open spaces that was perfect for meeting people and informal discussions.

Opening remarks by Raymond
Opening remarks by Raymond
Keynote by Angelina Savchuk
Keynote by Angelina Savchuk

My Talk and Workshop

I delivered a talk on QGIS Applications for Urban and Regional Planning that showcase QGIS’s capabilities to solve problems in 6 different thematic areasLand Use Planning and Management, Crime Mapping and Analysis, Solid Waste Management, Urban Infrastructure and Utilities, Urban Transportation and Spatial Planning. As part of this project, I also released over 500 pages of open learning materials covering step-by-step instructions. [Presentation with links to resources].

I also launched a new workshop on QGIS Automation using Actions. This workshop covered Python Actions that allow you to customize and automate tasks in QGIS with a little bit of PyQGIS code. It is a good stepping stone for people who know Python and want to get into QGIS development. The workshop is now available publicly and is ideal for self-study. [Workshop Materials]

My talk on "QGIS Applications for Urban and Regional Planning"
My talk on “QGIS Applications for Urban and Regional Planning”
My workshop on "QGIS Automation using Actions"
My workshop on “QGIS Automation using Actions”

Resources

There isn’t a single place where all the conference talks and workshop resources were shared. I have a collected links to materials from the conference Telegram group and from the speakers themselves. I’ll keep adding links below as they become available.

Note: If you gave a talk at the conference and want to add a link here, please add a comment to the post. Some presentations are also available on Zenodo.
  • Keynote: QGIS.org - The Importance of Seeding [slides1][slides2]
  • Keynote: How QGIS assists the humanitarian work of Red Cross [slides]
  • Talk: Publishing Maps with QGIS Server [slides]
  • Talk: Spatially filtering your project’s layers for more efficient workflows [slides]
  • Talk: QFieldCloud - efficient collaboration in the field [slides]
  • Talk: News from QField - audio, video, map rotation and so much more [slides]
  • Talk: Testing Spatial Data using QGIS and PyTest [slides]
  • Talk: Mergin Maps platform for data collection [slides]
  • Talk: From fieldwork to NDFF using Mergin Maps [slides]
  • Talk: Advanced workflows with Mergin Maps [slides]
  • Talk: Point clouds in QGIS: Now with Processing integration! [slides]
  • Talk: Latest and future improvements in handling of 3D data in QGIS [slides]
  • Talk: Association QGIS Peru promoting GIS networks in Latin America and Europe [slides]
  • Talk: Monitoring-Crop-Water-Productivity-in-the-Mitidja-Plain,-Algeria-using-FAO-WaPOR-Data and-QGIS [slides]
  • Talk: 2022 Brings Two New QGIS Books [slides]
  • Talk: Equity Assessment for Transboundary Water Resources Management Using Remote Sensing Data and QGIS [slides]
  • Talk: Presentation, instructions and data Making a promotion film using QGIS [slides]
  • Talk: State of the PCRaster Tools plugin [slides]
  • Talk: Imaging spectroscopy data in QGIS: Challenges and Opportunities [slides]
  • Talk: Writing QGIS official documentation [slides]
  • Talk: Finding small-scale sport spots in suburban areas using QGIS [slides]
  • Workshop: QGIS Server With Python Superpowers [slides]
  • Workshop: QGIS 3D, LiDAR Point Clouds and the Profile Tool [workshop materials]
  • Workshop: Field Data Collection with QGIS and Mergin Maps [workshop materials]
  • Workshop: QField and QFieldCloud - collaborate efficiently in the field [slides]
  • Workshop: QGIS for Hydrological Applications [workshop materials]

Traveling to Europe from India is hard - both due to the logistics of the travel and the paperwork required to obtain a Visa. In the end, it was totally worth it as I was able to form numerous new connections and reinforce existing ones. Big congratulations to the organizing team for hosting a successful event!