Commissioned v. Personal Mapping David Nuttall, Artimaps, LLC This discussion will look at the differences in data, information, and time related to personal projects versus commissioned maps. What are the considerations, priorities, time management, and decisions that go into each and how can you juggle what you want to do (including intentionally donating your work) with what you might get paid to do! Applicable to freelance cartographers as well as people who want to create some maps on the side or anyone with an interesting mix of work and projects.
Thursday October 22, 2026 10:40am - 12:00pm CDT Commons
Freelance and small business cartography roundtable Nat Case, INCase, LLC Daniel Huffman (they/them), somethingaboutmaps.com A perennial open-ended discussion for those interested in becoming (or growing) a cartography-based business. Daniel Huffman will share the results of his annual survey of freelance cartographers, and Nat Case will share a brief outline of ""13 things I've learned about starting out as a freelance cartographer"" and then we open the floor to questions, answers, discussion, performance art… whatever helps you make sense of the ever-changing world of the business of map-making.
Friday October 23, 2026 9:00am - 10:20am CDT Commons
Critically Engaged Cartographic AI - a panel of enthusiasts, critics, and practitioners Jim Thatcher, Oregon State University Craig Dalton, Hofstra University Anthony Robinson, Penn State University Artificial Intelligence is both the technology and buzzword of the moment. Its impacts are being felt in acts as divergent as package sorting in dimly lit factories to bombing campaigns in active war zones. In each, the role between human and machine, between labor and commodity, continues to be reshaped by an all consuming capital-infused technological push. Cartography is being reshaped by these forces and, like many other areas of society, has seen a rapid and often rabid disjuncture between enthusiastic, wholesale embrace of AI and its integration into every facet of cartographic praxis and the full rejection of Cartographic AI as “slop.” This panel provides a more nuanced outlook on the matter - recognizing the inevitability of the technology, but doing so thoughtfully and with intent. Bringing together a wide spectrum of scholars and practitioners with diverse views and engagements with AI, we explore how cartographic praxis can be reshaped by thinking with AI rather than it thinking for cartographers.
Friday October 23, 2026 10:40am - 12:00pm CDT Commons
