Getting the Most out of Conferences, ESRI Updates, and Latest Thoughts on the Infrastructure Bill with Sunny Fleming

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Sunny Fleming, ESRI's Environment and Conservation Industry Specialist at ESRI, about Getting the Most out of Conferences, ESRI Updates, and get her Latest Thoughts on the Infrastructure Bill.  Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Showtimes: 
2:15 Nic & Laura talk about getting the most out of conferences
13:03  Interview with Sunny Fleming Starts
15:15  Benefits of attending conferences
23:31  ESRI updates
40:08  Sunny's thoughts on the Infrastructure Bill after reading it word for word

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Sunny Fleming at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunny-esri

Guest Bio:
As the National Solution Engineer for state environmental agencies, Sunny is responsible for supporting some of Esri’s longest-standing customers: fish and wildlife agencies, environmental regulation, agriculture, state parks, historical preservation, and natural heritage programs. She loves helping our customers shape their vision and innovate to meet their business challenges.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Chapters

• 2:15 Nic & Laura discuss getting the most out of conferences
• 13:03 Interview with Sunny Fleming Starts
• 15:15 Conferences
• 23:31 Esri updates
• 40:08 Infrastructure Bill

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Laura 
Hello and welcome to NPR with your favorite environmental nerds Nick and Laura. On today's episode, Nick and I discussed getting the most out of your first conference. We talked to sunny Fleming about conferences, updates from Esri and her latest thoughts on the infrastructure bill. And finally, capybaras are the largest rodents on the planet and it can weigh up to 200 pounds. Pair of fantastic swimmers and even fall asleep in the water like you do. Yeah happens can run as fast as a slow horse in their closest relatives are guinea pigs. How about that? That music?

[NAEP Event News]

Nic 
Registration is now open for PAEP's, next workshop on offshore wind which will happen on Wednesday, November 16. At noon Eastern join the one hour session to learn about offshore wind farm basics the current status of the offshore wind industry and the role of environmental professional plays in helping to achieve ambitious renewable energy goals. Check it out at www.paep.org.

Laura 
Okay, so we keep asking for sponsors every week and it's not really happening. So we decided that you were just going to make them up and maybe that would encourage people to give us real sponsors so you won't have to hear next make made up stuff. The 123 go

Nic 
Are you tired of being told that you'll have to lie down in a room that you are no longer in? Are you sad that your air conditioner seems to be running with the doors open and no one cares? Well, guess what? I have that thing for you. It's dad's for hire. That's right. You can have a dad at any moment call you about anything that is bothering him specifically. Even though he may be the person that did the thing that he's upset about. This is great dad facts. Facts. You want those? You got them. You know dad jokes. Oh my goodness. Do we have those in spades? Does anyone here know why gorillas have big nostrils? No, we'll tell you you know Dad's for hire is here for you.

Laura  
Oh your god people Someone please sponsor this episode.

[Nic & Laura discuss getting the most out of your next conference]

Nic 
Yeah, let's get there. So there's I mean, this is almost a prime example of what I'm talking about what I want to talk about, right. So Sam's at a point in her career where she's, you know, right in the beginning, doesn't know exactly what she wants to do. But that was the conferences are important and finding the right one for you is really for my career. It's helped the time finding an AP, connecting with people that are doing similar things to me, that are in similar situations that I am is really, really helpful, which can be a little daunting. When you're starting out. You're young, you're a new, emerging professional, so to speak, right? And I remember when I went to my first conference, just having no idea what I was doing. Absolutely nervous. I didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing. Is there a protocol for what I'm supposed to be listening in on? Is there any what is the guidance for me? I feel like I'm just supposed to be a fly on the wall. Right. And a lot of conference and working with organizations was really that's where it starts, I think is locally, organizations nearby. A lot of that the payoffs are long term, right? They're not immediate. So my first conference was not a waste at all by any means, but I had more efficient ones. Subsequently, because I knew what I was supposed to be doing. You should just be honestly just meeting people practice meeting people. That's basically it. But yeah, that was strange. It was a strange experience to start. So I don't know. You have any thoughts or ideas on identifying organization? And then my first conference?

Laura 
Yeah, I mean, I think that's good advice, starting local because obviously, like, conferences can get very expensive, right? Just the registration plus, having to get there if you're going somewhere far away. But also, you know, being a member has discounts along with that. So if you are still a student, it's a great time to go because usually the student discounts are massive, most organizations and so you can at least get there are more affordable costs. But at the same time, like you said, I think if you go and you are just the fly on the wall, yeah, there's some value in that but you do want to try to bust out those networking skills and make some connections, or at least figure out like, no, always look at the agenda and figure out what you want to go to what sessions you want to be at and you're definitely wasting your time. If you go when you don't end up sitting in on something or you're too shy or you just haven't prepared or something. Also, it's a great opportunity to go around and talk to the people who were at the sponsor tables. Grab some free stuff, that's always a bonus.

Nic 
They literally have to talk to you, right? They want to talk to you. They need

Laura 
something to do you know, so find someone who's at a table not talking to anybody and just start talking and practice those skills. I mean, that in itself would be great, you know, takeaway is just practicing talking to strangers, trying to think what my first conference was my first I went to a trade show in 19. Comdex was at the time, one of the largest trade shows in the country. So no idea what that is. It was it was an industry trade show. They changed the name of it, I think, in Las Vegas, so enormous and it was all like the new latest technologies and stuff. But I know it was working the booth so I ended up my first experience was me being one of those people that has to talk to people so but other than that, I know I'd gone to like in Tampa. restore America's estuaries conference comes through there sometimes and you know there's also the posters, the posters is a good session to be on and with the environmental ones. You can also meet a lot of other students and younger emerging professionals. And also if you have something to submit, that's even a better way to get into the conference. We know from like Tim cansia, and Aubrey Gan like other younger people who've been involved with NAB, participating and submitting to the conference automatically opened doors for them to talk to the people who put the conference on. And that gives you a lot of proximity to people who can introduce you to other people.

Nic 
100% I mean, honestly, that was my second conference, I decided to submit on something they got selected, you know, and it was a poster session first, and then the following year, I was able to actually present on it, which was really cool. I mean, I had I had a really cool project. It was, you know, basically disaster disaster recovery in Alabama. And what that was, what that experience was like and what we ended up doing, which was really, really cool. So I had I had the project, but I also had to take the initiative to submit and it is cool. I

Laura 
submitted my prop scar monitoring program to the restore America's estuaries conference when it was in the Tampa area. And it's just fine. It's like you have it gives you a purpose to you're not wandering around with nothing to do you can always go stand by your poster. Talk to people as they come by.

Nic  
Yeah. As you can see here, right. I mean, have a window and ironically, when I was younger, you know I have a lot of social anxiety which I know this may surprise some people but I really struggled with it. Especially early on I just didn't I just didn't I was so uncomfortable. Like in social situations. I didn't know what to do. But learning like several tricks kind of helped me out like I would much prefer people to approach me and the opposite, which means I need to be someone approachable, right? Okay, so I have to do if I give a cog in a conference, people who are wanting to talk to me about what I talked about, right? That is easy for me. I like that that was great. And then learning small things. Like if there's a group of people that you want to be involved with, and they're having a conversation you just say hey, do you mind if I join you? Right? Super simple, super easy. If they say no, they're jerks. You don't want to talk to them. Anyway.

Laura  
That's a really good point. And I always say to look for groups of three people or five because there's usually that one extra person who's not really part of the conversation or you have the opportunity to kind of have a sidebar.

Nic 
Yeah. And I mean, like, you have to think to like everybody's they're just trying to enjoy the conference trying to meet people themselves. And they're all a little bit nervous about how they do that. They're all a little bit nervous about what are they going to get out of the conference, you know, will they make connections that are meaningful? So we're all on the same boat. We're all trying to do the same things. And as you as you progress in your career, it's actually something that I have had to do now. Whereas like, oh, there's people I go to conferences or people I love and want to hang out with them, and catch up with them. And you have to I have to look forcibly be like, Okay, now go meet someone new. You have to do both things. Yeah. And just hang out with your best friends. You know, it can get very clicky because that's exactly how it feels. And if you haven't, then then you because you're not approachable anymore, right? The one thing that that I want to be as approachable, you better go meet other people engage and when someone starts to talk to you just just have the conversation. You don't have to stay in a very long. If it's not something that's, you know, interesting or relevant to you, you can always, you know, bounce out and they, we could talk about how to do that in a second. But just, you know, just have the conversation is practice, right. It's all practice. So it doesn't have to be like the conversation like this isn't, you know, but every single one leads to a better understanding of how to have those interactions, you know, and and yeah, but get leaving a conversation is always harder, right? It's like, you get in there and you feel safe, like, Ah, I made it and now I don't have to leave ever again. You know, and I still this still happens to me, it still happens to me, you know, and I, again, I love connecting and engaging with people, but I still like feeling safe and I have to remind myself Okay, I gotta go and there's there's simple ways where you're just like, Okay, if you have a drink, you know, and you want to go get another one and it can be alcoholic, non alcoholic, whatever it is. That Hey, I just gotta go get another drink, you know, and then just leave in. That's it right? You can always do that.

Laura 
Any number of things that you want to have pretended to get a phone call or even a text. I'll look at my phone. I'm like, Oh, I gotta go. People make the assumption like, Oh, she got a message that someone's looking for her. I'm calling myself out here but you know

Nic 
what now we know or I looked at her phone.

Laura 
Clear separation it's not all the time. But you know, sometimes people just don't shut up. That is the truth. Sometimes you get caught in a conversation that you have no interest in. It has nothing to do from you and you're like, but if you just walk away in the middle of someone's story, it's rude. But if you're just like, you guys can't see me. I'm looking at my phone and go I'm gonna go you know, I can silently walk away. No harm, no foul.

Nic 
You don't feel like Vaughn like I use a watch to like I will say somebody else. You don't know who it is, but I don't know who it is either. Truthfully.

Laura 
Part of the walk away.

Nic  
It's harder. It's honestly harder coming and let me tell you late at night,

Laura 
the Irish goodbye at the conference when everyone else is drinking is 100% Okay, yeah, of course. Yeah, no offense to Irish. I love Irish. I live there. That's just the term for like when you don't say goodbye and you just leave.

Nic 
Yeah. And it's okay. Because it's like, you know, the end of the conference and no one's gonna be super offended. Laura didn't say goodbye to every single person here. No, no, I know. But

Laura 
I've been there. I've been there. I've been like, I'm tired. I know. I gotta get up early. And then I'm just like, oh, I can't leave especially when I was younger. It's okay to just go. It really is. You're being honest right now. So

Nic 
I mean, yeah, but it's, I don't know I stressed so much I stressed so like, how I would present myself to people what I would say and all this other stuff. And a lot of times it's just remembering that everyone else feels that way. Everyone else has a little bit of anxiety about this stuff.

Laura 
And I find the first person to leave people go oh, yeah, I'm going to gotta go. Someone's waiting for the first person to leave.

Nic  
A lot of times. A lot of times, yeah. And it's okay. And it's like, you know, you know, was it FOMO Fear Of Missing Out right maybe we there's some of that but there's so many opportunities in a conference to engage with people. So you have great nights, you know, and you don't have to be there every time. And I always say I also tell people that are introverts out there are people who say they're introverts, I should say, walk away when you need to. You can take that phone call quote unquote, or you know, the time and just go back to your room for five minutes. Don't sit down, don't lay down. Just go back. Go good was quiet part of the conference. Don't even go upstairs. If you're worried that you're not going to come back down. Just go to a different part of the conference where there aren't people, right, walk around the building. Give yourself five minutes to recharge, and then go back. You know, because sometimes that's all you need. And you give yourself five minutes you feel like you've completely disconnected from the conversations you were having. And now you're fresher to come up with something new. New people are stuck. You don't have to be there 24/7 You should be aware anybody out. Yeah. So when is NA peas next conference May seventh through the 10th in Phoenix, Arizona.

Laura 
Oh, that'd be a nice time to go there.

Nic  
Yeah, that should be pretty cool. I'm really looking forward to it. There's a chapter is really intuitive. They're really they're all in on the conference. And that's really cool. Love that.

Laura  
Yeah, very cool. So I think that's no fun conferences. Let's get to sunny. All right,

Nic 
sounds great.

[Interview with Sunny Fleming Starts]

Nic
Hello, and welcome back to EPR. Today we have sunny Fleming. Our resident Yeah, Azeri GIS correspondent on the show. Welcome back. Yeah,

Sunny Fleming 
thank you so much. This is always my favorite thing to do. Especially on a Friday afternoon. What's up?

Nic 
Yeah. Oh man. It really is. It's so awesome to have you back. And I know you've been doing a ton of traveling this season. And I think honestly, all three of us have. So yeah. Where have you been going? What are you been doing?

Sunny Fleming 
Oh my gosh. So I'll start by saying that when we were all in a virtual environment, we were so much more productive at least as far as now it's of meetings that occurred and then all of a sudden people start traveling again yet we still have all the like, same volume of commitments. Oh my gosh. So I feel like this year has been a whirlwind and maybe that's compounded by the fact that I like forgot how to travel. Right. Like getting back into that groove was a whole other thing. But yes, my season of travel for the year just ended and it ended on a bang. I just got back from the California Native Plant Society. And I was blown away by this organization. And that was incredible. I can definitely go down a rabbit hole on what my experience was there. My other favorite conference this year was with the natural areas Association they held there's this year in Duluth and oh my gosh, it was just so much fun. Like being up at 1am Trying to see the Northern Lights did not happen. But the experience itself with great people is just incredible. It's those kinds of things that I love about conferences, but yeah, man, so tons of travel. So anyway, so that was California Duluth. We're also by then North Georgia. One of my favorite parts of America is the southern Appalachians and that area of North Georgia. Absolutely beautiful. So yeah, I've been I've been all sorts of places this year.

Nic 
Well, like you know, I think yeah, well, I want to dive into the the California Native Plant Society in a bit, but maybe even taking a step back. So you're doing a lot of conferences. So that begs the question, what do you love about them and what do you dread? Because I know there's there's both

Sunny Fleming 
out there is both Okay, and Wow. All right. I'm like how I got to tread carefully here because it's part of my job. So I'm like, What do I hate about my job? That's not the question you asked. Okay. So when it comes to conferences, a lot of times we're going in and we either partner with professional organizations like in a EP, and as part of that we typically have some kind of booth and we set up and we have materials out there and oftentimes you're kind of sitting behind that table waiting, waiting for folks to come talk to you. That is my least favorite part of a conference. I cannot stand that it makes me so anxious to just sit there and wait and it feels so skeevy so my but my favorite part of conferences are that it's an opportunity. I know everyone says that's an opportunity to network. Okay, but what does that really mean? Like what is networking? Because I think there's good ways to do it, and there's bad ways to do it. And the way that works for me, is that I tend to be kind of a social butterfly anyway. So I'm like, Hi, how are you? What's your name? What do you do? And so there's moments in between sessions where maybe you've been inspired by what the President was talking about. You get to talk to them afterwards. Ask questions, you know, ask questions when there's that q&a and ask a question. Those are my favorite bits, the networking components, the socials, those are the best because at that point, everyone's kind of like relieved. You're over your session. You've done the formal responsibilities. So everyone, lets loose a little bit and then you actually get to talk and that's where I've always had the most opportunity and the most benefit out of conferences is, is when everyone starts drinking.

Nic 
I mean, that's good advice.

Sunny Fleming 
Right? Like, how many times do we chat about, you know, we go to a bar and the best ideas are scribbled down on the back of the napkin. We got to just relax, people got to relax.

Nic 
I mean, it's the most I mean, thinking about the NAEP conference, that was one of them, you know, some of my favorite moments to use the conversation. You know, they were having a station. Exactly. And so like, it's, it's funny that you do a lot of different things. at conferences. You also have done presentations and you have given keynotes which I think what you did your your keynote by practicing once we talked about that, unbelievable still makes me mad, can't believe it. But like how you get the most out of that too, right? So you're not just going there to network and you are going there to network. You're trying to determine what speech you're gonna give for a presentation. How are you going to outline all that stuff for yourself before you go and then how do you make the most of it while you're there?

Sunny Fleming 
That's a fantastic question. And something that I'm learning through my role here at ESRI that I've not necessarily codified in my life before maybe we do it intuitively, but I've never had much of a framework to think about it is what's your messaging? Right? So throughout the year, I already have an idea typically going into any given year, of what I think our industry is going to be challenged with. And this is through conferences, right? I'm having touchpoints with the community, I get to hear what their challenges are. This is through things like policy and kind of staying on top of, you know, what's coming down the policy pipeline and how that's going to influence us and so that allows me to put together a real high level idea of how I can speak to those things. So that's kind of that that can do stuff. But then you take that canned message, whatever it is. And when you go to any given conference, you're going to have a different audience, you're gonna have, you know, maybe a really formal conference, or it may be really casual. So that's going to you got to kind of read a room a little bit, but you're able to take that high level messaging and pivot it to make sure that it's relevant for the audience that you're talking to. So, you know, I do this is kind of my favorite time of year right now, because I'm done traveling and I get to sit down and breathe a little bit. And I just get to think I get to think about what am I going to say next year? What am I going to say to everyone? I also get to solicit so I'm going to be putting out like a survey pretty soon that I want our community to respond to you to tell me pull up the therapy couch, what's up in 2023? Like I want to hear your problems and your challenges and what you're anticipating and all of this information helps me basically develop what is my philosophy going to be in 2023? You know, so, yeah, I don't know. That's kind of how my method for going about doing it.

Nic 
That's very cool. That's a new thing I need to add to my list, Laura. So you're thinking you're planning ahead. Apparently that's the thing people do. Apparently, this neck Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

Laura 
Tell me more about the process.

Sunny Fleming 
Plan my life.

Laura 
Oh, that's great. That's all great. How do you know that? You've been successful? So in hindsight, or even just justifying to the powers that be at ESRI, that you're going to the same conference next year or another one. How do you show that this is working? And it's a method you want to keep doing?

Sunny Fleming  
Well, there's a couple of different ways and, you know, we think about qualitative versus quantitative right? And so the quantitative is always really important. And there's things that we can look at I a little comedic anecdote to this. I started Twitter for ESRI. So my Twitter account is really a work account and one of my goals that my manager gave me was to, you know, double my followers, right? And I was like, Oh, that's easy. I have zero. So I don't think that was the intent of his goal for me. But that is kind of a metric. Right? So even though that's a funny thing, I can make sure that okay, people are responding to this content, it is resonating. That's kind of this really cold virtual way, though, right? My favorite way is when people actually reach out to me, and I get that a lot or when they come up to me at conferences like when I was a California Native Plant Society. I did a presentation. They gave me a 40 minute slot. And after that, I had a line of like 20 people waiting to talk to me, and some of these people said, Oh, I've watched your webinars, things like that like that. First of all, it's a really humbling experience, but I just felt so heartened, it was lovely. So that's kind of that qualitative thing.

Laura 
Yeah, I totally agree. Networking at conferences is invaluable and I do always recommend when I finished the career portion of any piece workshops for the career seekers, I'm always my recommendation for networking. Is pick up a cup even if you're too young to drink, it doesn't have to have alcohol in it. Yeah, just something about like walking up to a group and having something in your hand and cover your face with it. You know, like it's just a whole like what do I do with my hands thing? Like just hold on to something?

Sunny Fleming  
I'm not even a big drinker. And so I actually do this quite a bit. You know, for your listeners out there who may be feeling pressured to imbibe. Don't, I'm not a big drinker, but I do the cup trick. It's just like, nobody cares. Nobody's like worried well, sometimes they say where are you drinking? And eco seltzer?

Nic 
Or you getting just gin? Doesn't matter.

Sunny Fleming 
Straight up.

Laura 
Cocktails mocktails is my new thing. People are what do you drink, Temple.

Sunny Fleming 
But I've noticed like the really good restaurants are starting to get in on the mocktail game. And I am like, I want this recipe. I want to be able to drink delicious things like in the middle of the day, and this is amazing. So yeah,

Laura 
yeah, totally. So yeah, we get to level up on the mocktail game there. Yeah, and along those lines, not everybody imbibes not everybody can go to a conference. So I know that ESRI has a lot of opportunities for people who actually can't actually come. So what kind of advice do you have for people who maybe know that they're interested in the subjects or wish they could go?

Sunny Fleming 
Oh, man, so yes, we definitely recognize that at ESRI. And so we try and put out a lot of different content to help people understand the industry that they're in, right. It's not just it's not just GIS. It's not just learning a tool, but it's also being able to have a touch point with the industry and the trends that are going on. So I just finished up a series of webinars we had a three part webinar series that we framed around the infrastructure bill and the challenges that our industry is going to face with that and then how do the tools help support us overcoming those challenges? So that's how we put that series together. We have a ton of free learn lessons. These are tutorials. That you can walk through. We have these things called MOOCs, Massive Online Open Courses, they're super fun. The most popular one is the cartography Nook and I've taken it as an Esri employee. I've taken it three times. I love it. And so we have we have all those kinds of things. We also have podcasts that we're putting out. We have Twitter's plural, I think we have like a main EZRI Twitter and then we have multiple product Twitter's so if you happen to be a huge you know, fan of survey 123 Well, we've got a Twitter for you. You know, so there's, we really try and cater to a wide variety of accessibility types of audiences. You know, the conference is one thing, right? That's huge. But yeah, that's, sometimes for some people, that's a once in a lifetime opportunity. So we definitely make sure that through blogs, through webinars through podcasts, and social media that we get those kinds of touch points and generate that community even on LinkedIn. I think we have like an Esri forestry community. I've been curious about gauging interest on you know, having a user driven community on LinkedIn. I can only manage so many things, right.

Laura 
So I just was thinking like one more thing for you. I don't know and

Sunny Fleming 
that's where my role here is. To generate community right and so if it's me always towing the cart. That's not community, right. That's at that point sales and I don't, that's gross. I want our community

Laura 
offense to salespeople.

Sunny Fleming  
Salespeople. I was one for a little while, but I really want to see our community step up this past year has shown me that there are so many people that are really passionate about the use of this technology in the environmental space. And so I want those people to come forward and say yeah, I'll start our LinkedIn community. Yeah, I'll start whatever and collaborate with you, Sonny on what this looks like and help to market it and help to shape it. That's awesome. But man, I need help. And that's going to be that's going to be through our community. So yeah,

Laura 
that's great. Glad you brought up the MOOCs I've actually been to Viserys MOOCs, almost a spatial analysis I can remember what the other one was. I did the spatial analysis one like two or three times I loved it.

Sunny Fleming 
Yeah, me too. That was my other favorite one. And that okay, that product team, I'm just going to give a shout out to them. They're one of my favorite product teams because they really love feedback from all our product teams love feedback from the community but they like will seek it out. I have a really good relationship with them. Because obviously, you know, environmental professionals, we all have some kind of kind of hardcore scientific background, and so they really feed on on what we have to say and I I'm in very close communication with that team. So

Laura  
that's awesome. It's evident to you I think I did maybe one of the first or second ones that they put out. And then when I did it over, I could tell a lot of stuff had been improved. I know, examples changed and stuff so that it is obvious to you that it's not like something that was put out once and then they just keep rehashing it. I know.

Sunny Fleming 
You're very sensitive to community feedback. I love that team.

Laura  
So yeah, that's really cool. We mentioned earlier, the California Native Plant Society, and you mentioned how awesome that was. So you told us that it should be used as a national model for conferences. So talk about that.

Sunny Fleming  
Well, so every state to my knowledge has some version of a Native Plant Society, and some are more successful than others. And that of course, is a relative term, right? How do we define success? And so some are successful in their own right, they're doing what they they want to do, but they've remained relatively small. And I think one difficulty that a lot of native plants societies have had is garnering the attention and membership and interest of a younger audience. And what happens is that there becomes a kind of a false understanding that Oh, this isn't interesting. To a younger audience, but I don't think that's true. When I look at all sorts of citizen science and crowdsourcing tools for biodiversity. I see young people very interested in this. I see. There's this whole like, native plant foraging trend on tick tock, I mean, there's a lot of fascinating content that my generation and younger are putting out into social media, but I think they're not interested in maybe being members and we have this really classic setup. Of what it looks like to be a member of some kind of organization and pay dues. Well, I don't think that models working anymore. California Native Plant Society, not only is appealing to a much younger audience now. And I saw that in spades. I mean, the way that they conducted their conference, the marketing materials were cool, but you wanted to wear that T shirt. I you know, it was in that I hate to say it, it's really important. They were also very savvy and how they use social media. They had a specific tag for their conference that when people shared photos it was all you know, going to the same repository of the tag. So they're really savvy in that way. But what impressed me the most was how well organized they were and how well they were executing on conservation initiatives in the state of California. The attendees of this conference brought together federal representatives
_________
Sunny Fleming 
servation initiatives in the state of California, the attendees of this conference brought together federal representatives, state representatives. It brought together landscapers, it brought together tons of nonprofit groups that were conservation in the area. And then of course, there were students there was academia there. And it was. I've never seen this really not at that scale at a native plant conference before. But then how they're actually executing on this is that they're really enacting in helping to drive and shape policy in the state of California. So they they are savvy enough and are helping their membership and their audience understand how to respond to an EIS you know, the environmental, you know, impacts they're teaching their organization, how to write thoughtful comments to those. They are looking at what they need in the state of California and helping to write legislation that they then advocate to get passed. I mean, they're, I was really blown away by this organization. I'm so impressed by them and I would love to see this across all 50 states, every state that has a Native Plant Society needs to be looking at what California is doing. They are incredible.

Laura 
That's really awesome. It's good to hear, they will need to also just listen to the last episode with Wesley Knapp and they will all just fall in love with plants because so much fun.

Sunny Fleming 
Like wildlife gets so much attention, but you know, where do you think they live and what they eat? Come on. It's all plants. I am I am so botany first. I'm very biased. That was an amazing episode by the way I listened to

Laura  
Yeah, it was he was so great. So but before we move on any further, let's also talk about the Esri User Conference, the one conference I've always wanted to go to and having gotten to you, I even had a paper accepted one time and my company would still not pay for me to go even though they had a ticket and they still wouldn't pay for my flights and stuff. So tell me what I'm missing something. Okay.

Nic  
Make her feel worse, sonny.

Laura 
Already know what I'm missing, but tell everyone else.

Sunny Fleming 
Okay. I'll give you a little anecdote. The first time I ever went to the Esri user conference, which was in, I don't know, mid 2000s or something. I can't remember I was an employee. With the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation at that time. I was the first person they had ever sent to the conference. So I was very honored by that and I will forever be grateful to the state of Tennessee for giving me this opportunity

Laura 
and flip sides of experience there.

Sunny Fleming  
Yeah, I did. I definitely had a very positive experience with my employers sending me to that. And they sent me to the conference three times, I believe. And the first time I went, I went into the opening plenary and a lot of people have had this experience. I think that it would resonate with a lot of folks that have been and you walk in and it is close to 20,000 people in a room who come from all sorts of different backgrounds, some of them English is not their first language. You know, it's an international conference and they come from different industries. They're working on different things. And it was a very emotional experience for me, I actually cried. It brought me to tears, happy tears, and something that we talk about. A lot of times with GIS is a technology is that is one of the only technologies that allows us to reveal relationships between our environmental our economic and our social systems, and show the interconnectedness and that is revealed through the technology but I also think it's revealed through our user community, and how we come together at a place like that as what you see. And it's a you come away from not just super inspired. The experience is very inspiring, not only in how we use the technology, but just knowing that we have this amazing user group and that we're there to support each other and facilitate ideas and I just, it's incredible, so I highly recommend it in it. The reason that the state of Tennessee sent me there three times in a row is because I would come back and I would take those ideas and apply them to further our work and our mission. And they saw the value in that. So if you're a state agency listening to this right now, make sure that you are you know sending your folks to this because it's going to bring value to your organization. And oftentimes and this is a tip, ask if you have a free registration. If your organization is large enough, you may actually have a couple of pre registrations and that's how I justified going through the state of Tennessee.

Laura  
That's awesome. And then don't be cheap and have that free registration. It's still not send anybody she's bitter. I'm not bitter at all. No, no, I'm gonna change the trajectory of my life. You know, but you know, I'm not bitter about it. It's cool. Speaking of which, how did your attendance at that conference affect your getting a job at ESRI?

Sunny Fleming 
Well, a few ways and these are interrelated. So the first three years that I went, I would come back and I would apply this to the work we were conducting for conservation in Tennessee. So there was value there and that value allowed me to gain more confidence and more experience than what I was doing in our industry, right. Whether it was through the use of technology or whether it was just through just starting to build kind of my own reputation and name for myself through the use of these tools and through bringing these innovations to our conservation community here in the region. In turn. The third time I went to New User Conference, I had a lot of opinions. On the technology and as I've mentioned earlier, as we take that feedback very seriously. And so when I had opinions of the conference, they encouraged me to talk to the careers desk and I had never in a million years thought I should talk to the careers desk at ESRI. It just felt like another level. And so I did I just went and the job that the HR representative told me about happened to be with a person that I just gotten out of a meeting with, and I was like, No way so I had my first interview the next day on the patio as your UC and that really, you know, changed my life. I was hired a few months later and I've been at ESRI ever since so yeah. You never know what's gonna happen.

Laura 
Right. But employers that's not the norm. So feel free to send your people thinking they won't come back.

Sunny Fleming 
It's not the norm but you know what good employers really encourage foster the development of their employees and T Dec. To this day, I still have a very tight relationship with the Tennessee Department of Environment conservation. Yeah, I'm very grateful. For both the work they do for our state but also have they've supported my own career and continue to they've done amazing.

Nic 
Exactly. And it's I think it's a great point because when you you leave a job if you leave in great standing then you have an industry network connection for life. Yeah, absolutely. So okay, well, we can't tell you what conferences this whole time we can't do it. Something else. So you say you've done some traveling here. So do you have any other non conference related traveling highlights anything fun that you did?

Sunny Fleming 
While you're okay. Oh, gosh, where have I been this year? Okay, so I said I was in north Georgia and that was actually for a conference but ironically, I had been to North Georgia earlier this year for personal travel and okay, this was insane. I recently got back into cycling. I've always been a cyclist but was out of it for a few years recently got back into it. And I learned about a cycling climbing camp that was taking place in north Georgia and I thought, Oh, this is a good idea. I want to put this in perspective, some of the routes that we were doing this climbing camp, the Tour de France will use to train and here I am maybe three months back into cycling and thinking that this is a good idea. So the second day of this climbing camp was the big day and we did 71 miles and I want to say like 4000 feet of elevation change. Oh my gosh, I about died. And I was so nervous about it. The morning of that I was like on the floor of my room like physically ill trying not to throw up and then knowing that I had to go cycle 71 Miles Oh my god. So um but I loved it and I cannot wait to come back. Oh, that's great. Fine, so there's that I'm going to Asheville next week by the time this airs. I'll have already come back but you know, gotta mix work with pleasure. I was like I'm gonna put together a conservation social and Ashville while I'm on vacation. So I've got that going right now trying to spread the word on that. So next time we do the podcast, I'll see if it was successful. Going to Belize again in December, and then looking at 2023 I have Spain on my mind. I really want to go bike in Spain. So I don't know. We'll see you I'm happy

Nic 
to go with you. Thank you for inviting me.

Sunny Fleming 
Oh, yeah, you know what? Hey, the more the merrier. You want to get on a bicycle and bike 100 Miles

Nic 
nearby. I'm just gonna hang out in Spain while you cheer you on. You know, we all need cheerleaders. Right?

Sunny Fleming 
Yeah, exactly. Oh, it'll be like actually like the tour.

Nic 
I'll have a sign and I'll run out in the middle and then over in front of you so that you get to go forward. Yeah.

Sunny Fleming 
Perfect. Yes, I guess love this idea. Neck where you're gonna follow through on us.

[Latest thoughts on the Infrastructure Bill]

Nic 
Man, so I guess I guess more serious stuff, right. Like, you're still the only person that we know that's read the entire infrastructure bill.

Sunny Fleming 
No one else was inspired.

Laura 
Maybe a couple attorneys.

Nic  
Last Friday. We'll ask Fred next time he's on if he's read the whole thing. I hope he says what? No, are you crazy? But how does that bill because there's so many parts of it. It's so big. How does that tie into as a small nonprofit grant opportunity?

Sunny Fleming 
Oh, I love this question. So we are currently running a small nonprofit grant opportunities. So this is for nonprofits that are sized you know, 25 employees or less it's kind of how we're defining small. And the reason we put this together is because you know as we were really well known in the government space, all 50 state governments owner and technology, all the counties on our technology, most of the local governments on our technology like government, government, government, you know, we're everywhere. And this is global, too, right? It's, I have this very domestic lens but globally that's kind of the trend. Now, this bill, and I think the inflation Reduction Act, the climate bill, there are components of that, that if I'm reading the tea leaves on domestic conservation in the US, I think what the federal government is asking us to do is take advantage of volunteer locally led conservation initiatives. So I see a lot of funding to the USDA Farm Bill. I see a lot of funding going into things like the forest legacy program, all of these different kinds of funding mechanisms for conservation, but it's gonna require us to have that locally led lens. And when we start looking at what that means, well, there are 1000s of tiny nonprofits that work across the US to further conservation. And environmental goals. And they may not have the same access to the technology that requires them to collaborate with their government counterparts in that collaboration is going to be fundamental to achieving any of our conservation or environmental goals. That I think these bills are challenging us to achieve. So the nonprofit grant is there to help facilitate that. And I'm very proud to say that the conservation community has shown up really big and applying for this grant. I woke up one morning to a text message from my boss saying, hey, weird bird people are applying for the grant. Can you write a blog and I loved that I was like, Oh, we are good people. Those are my people. So yes, so I encourage our environmental and our conservation community to continue showing up. So search for the Esri small nonprofit grant, and please apply for that. I think. I forget that. It either goes through the end of January, that we have this open or until I think the funding runs out which we have a pool of million dollars on there for it, which is for the small nonprofits, it's going to go go far. So make sure you're on top of it.

Nic  
That's perfect. That's perfect. Now that we're done with all the serious stuff, so it's almost Halloween like while we're recording this will come out after Halloween but you know, we have to have at least one Halloween themed question here and in mind is a serious sosyal topic. You know, like, when is too old to have Halloween plants. The day I die. I was thinking like 95 was what I was thinking, you know, I

Sunny Fleming 
so what is life if you're not having fun and if you're you know if you're taking yourself too seriously, like there is no cut off. There's no cut off. No, I think how we enjoy Halloween changes, right as we age that's the thing. But this time of year is one of my favorite times of year because seasonally the weather everything about it. But also just this idea that we all like okay, when people decide what they're going to wear as a costume. What's typically the thought process and I think this is true for kids and adults. We look at what's going on around us. Trends in media trends in the news, and that tends to influence how we dress up there's the classics, right? Like you're always gonna see the pumpkin or the witch or whatever. But I just there's something about that that I love, like funny, culturally relevant of the moment costumes just for me I just laughed so hard. I love them. And so there's something about just this idea that culturally we're not taking ourselves too seriously. And taking a moment to have a little shared humor. And for me, that's the brilliance of Halloween.

Nic 
Oh man. You couldn't say that better than anyone. I don't think it's that. That's great.

Sunny Fleming  
Ah,

Laura 
well, on that note, we always love talking to you. I actually was thinking about how I was like, was this three times or four times and the reason I couldn't remember it was four times because the last time was live at the conference at the NAB Congress. So like I wasn't counting it, you know? Yeah. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 
does that count? Oh, come on.

Laura  
Nick counts everything. So unless you traveled to a state and don't touch the ground or something that doesn't count but by next rocket that started again. But is there anything else you would like to talk about before you go?

Sunny Fleming 
I'm moving into 2023 and for me that's a fresh slate right? And I'm gonna be putting out a survey to our community just a very casual and it'll be on my LinkedIn or my social media. And what helps me figure out what I'm going to do in 2023. How I'm going to engage with our community is feedback from the community. I can't do this in a vacuum. So for all of our listeners, I really I really want them to be engaged with that content that I'm putting out and, and giving me feedback on it. You know, what's gonna keep you up at night? So

Laura 
awesome. Where can people find you get in touch with you?

Sunny Fleming 
I am on LinkedIn, and I am on Twitter now. My Twitter is at Little Miss Azeri. I was given this nickname by my friend Chris Tracy, who he was this is actually talking about networking. We were at the natural areas conference and I think he was sick of my EZRI Kool Aid and so like I was kind of making fun of me and called me Little Miss ESRI. And I said Chris Tracy, that is brilliant. And so yeah, so LinkedIn, that's kind of my number one, but Twitter and just to let my boss know, I have more than one follower. I now have 180. So I'm very proud of that. Yeah, that's, that's a big deal for me only having it for a few months. So yep. reach me on those.

Laura 
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us again. Yes. Thank you for having me. That's our show. Thank you for Sony for coming back and joining us today. Please be sure to check us out. Each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Bye.

Nic
See you everybody.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai