Great Lakes Observing System plans ‘Glosapalooza’ event for the observing community 

Glosapalooza will take place around Navy Pier in Chicago, IL. Learn more and register at glos.org/glosapalooza

 

Press release published March 1, 2022

The Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) and partners are hosting the first-ever Glosapalooza event in downtown Chicago, April 25-28.

A celebration of smart solutions for better understanding the Great Lakes, Glosapalooza will feature a diverse group of stakeholders from across the region, including government, research, industry, and nonprofit organizations that are applying the latest technology to today’s lake challenges. Attendees can hear the latest from GLOS, build software solutions to put more water data into peoples’ hands, and discuss what’s possible in lake monitoring, data sharing, and smart technology in the near future.

Glosapalooza is made up of four events:

  • The GLOS Annual Meeting.
  • A launch party for GLOS’ new Seagull platform.
  • A lakebed mapping summit and showcase called Building the Great Map—A Part of Lakebed 2030.
  • An open source, hackathon-style event called the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Code Sprint.

Event organizers at GLOS say they put all the events together in one week to allow the community to network and learn from others doing complementary work.

“GLOS has been working with partners on major programming efforts since launching our Strategic Plan in 2019,” said Kelli Paige, GLOS CEO. “And we’re excited to finally get an opportunity to organize this event with everyone, celebrate our progress, and look forward to more collaborations in the future.”

Participants are encouraged to attend multiple events in person in downtown Chicago or virtually.

Sponsors of the event include organizations working at the forefront of Great Lakes and ocean monitoring and technology: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, SpinDance, DIG, RPS Group, Saildrone, Orange Force Marine, Bedrock Ocean Exploration, Mazarine Ventures, and M2Ocean.

“The Glosapalooza event will be a great opportunity to showcase the work GLOS is involved in and connect with Great Lakes observers,” said Nate Smith, DIG’s COO. “DIG is especially looking forward to the Seagull launch celebration as it is the culmination of several months of intense product development and design efforts and we are excited to see it come to life.”

“We are thrilled to be a part of this event to launch Seagull and continue to support the GLOS team,” said Kim Burmeister, VP of Customer Experience at SpinDance, a software development partner for GLOS. “The collaboration on this project has been a pleasure and we look forward to seeing the vision for this new cloud-based platform come to life. We congratulate GLOS for meeting this exciting milestone.”

With some apprehension over returning to in-person events still lingering, Glosapalooza organizers are working to ensure a safe in-person experience and following local and CDC guidelines.

“We are doing everything we can to make sure that we pull this off safely and that people feel comfortable when they walk through the doors of each event,” said Katie Rousseau, Smart Great Lakes Liaison.

More info and registration is available at glos.org/glosapalooza.

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