ISPLS 2025 Virtual Conference Series
The 2025 Virtual Conference will be held on four consecutive Friday mornings in March with 12+ hours of continuing education. The Virtual Conference provides education to surveying professionals from around the Midwest. Gain new ideas to take back and implement for your company. Whether this is your first virtual conference or you’re a veteran, there’s something here for everyone.
Connect with a niche industry, and hear from thought leaders. ISPLS is dedicated to supporting Indiana Surveyors. Your investment allows you to find solutions for you and your company to grow and hear industry trends and updates.
March 7, March 14, March 21, and March 28, 2025
Schedule of Events
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. ET
GIS and LiDAR | Ben Grubbs, Jinha Jung, Shaun Scholer, Trohn Enright-Randolph | 2 CEUs (E)
Understanding GIS and LiDAR, as well as the software programs and spatial data resources available in Indiana, is crucial for professionals. In this session, we will provide an overview of these technologies and focus on the local resources provided by the Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC) and the Indiana Geographic Information Office (IGIO). We’ll discuss IGIC’s role in outreach, training, and collaboration, as well as IGIO’s efforts to collect and publish statewide datasets. Additionally, we will introduce IGIO’s latest imagery and elevation programs, detailing the next collection cycle and how these initiatives will enhance GIS resources and standards in Indiana.
Attendees will have the opportunity to access the resources discussed during the presentation on their computers. At the end of the presentation, participants will be encouraged to engage with the material, ask questions about the projects, and explore the online applications.
By the conclusion of this session, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of IGIC, the array of GIS resources available, and the standards in place within Indiana. Updates for 2025 will cover LiDAR, Orthophotography, Elevation Data, the IndianaMap open data platform, and the upcoming IGIO imagery and elevation program collection.
1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET
New Datums and You: How to Prepare for the Upcoming Updates from NGS | Jacob Heck, Matthew Badger | 3 CEUs (E)
During this joint presentation, we will discuss how NGS is updating the National Spatial Reference System, including the update from NAD 83 and NAVD 88 to NATRF2022 and NAPGD2022, fundamentally changing the approach to geodetic control in the very near future. This will include the online tools that are available, updates to survey field practices to work in the new system, and showing the modernized role of passive control and the CORS network. This will be presented from both the NGS perspective and that of the practitioner, so it will cover practical impacts of how to prepare for the change, including maintaining existing data.
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Can They Find You? Promoting Your Business in Today’s Society | Kevin Woeste | 3 CEUs (E)
We will be walking through the basics of creating a website, why it’s important to have SEO, how to post on LinkedIN, why blogs and short form videos are critical. We will be walking through the basics of social media, how they boost your work and post. Lastly, we will cover why it’s important to show the public the work you do every day.
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Boundary Tracer – A Virtual Sandbox for Boundary Surveying Education | Joshua Carpenter | 3 CEUs (E)
Boundary Tracer is a web-based boundary retracement “sandbox” designed to for novices to experience the evidential, historical, and geometric dimensions of boundary retracement. It was initially developed as a table-top exercise for high schoolers to look through records, dig for monuments, and retrace boundaries in a game-like environment. This session will briefly describe the development of the tool and then walk through several exercises to demonstrate its use. Attendees interested in surveying outreach will learn about this new educational strategy that is freely available. Attendees new to the profession will get a refresher on the boundary retracement procedure and strengthen their intuition of its core principles.
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Surveyors in Jeopardy | Gary Kent | 3 CEUs (M)
This program is presented in a jeopardy-like format with the presenter offering answers for which audience members – assembled into teams – must provide the relevant question. The program will have approximately 175 questions/answers in a variety of topic areas including: Indiana Statutes and Rules; Rule 12; Boundaries; ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys; Safety and Health; Expert Witness; Easements and Rights of Way; and Risk Management. This is a very “audience participation”-centric program; it is far more than a simple trivia contest. Answers and questions will be discussed in depth, as appropriate or necessary to ensure that all participants understand the context and correct answers, and why other answers are incorrect.
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET
2025 Update – Surveyor Resources, Section Corner Perpetuation and Finding Lost and Obliterated Corners using the IGIC’s GID Public Land Survey System – Historical PLSS Framework and the GLO surveyor original field notes | Lorraine Wright | 1 CEU (E)
IGIC’s Historical Document Project brings GIS, Surveying, and Historical data together by providing GIS access to historical documents (surveyor field notes). GIS application(s) provide access to the digital PLSS Township/Range/Sections, Grants, Lots, Indian Reserves, Treaties, Cessions boundaries and provide links to documents/maps/and notes.
Original field notes and Federal, State, and some County transcriptions are online and in GIS applications. Surveyors will have access and be able to compare the General Land Office (GLO) original notes and their transcriptions to help resolve transcription errors found in the field notes.
The presentation provides information/resources regarding the General Land Office / PLSS original field notes, plats, their three transcriptions, and their current online availability along with other historical information for use in section corner perpetuation surveys, per 865 IAC 1-12-30, and finding information related to the Restoration of Lost or Obliterated Corners and Subdivision of Sections.
Our GIS resources help in fulling requirements of IC 36-2-12, Sec. 3 (a). This section outlines the procedures and requirements for registered land surveyors when perpetuating the location of original public land survey or grant corners. Sec 30 also references original section corner information and the need to have all evidence related to that corner when needed.
The audience will be able to access the information presented and have a better understanding of its’ importance.