Texas GIS Forum

NOVEMBER 3 – 7, 2025

Thank you for joining us at the 2025 Texas GIS Forum! This year's event brought together hundreds of geospatial professionals from across Texas to explore new technologies, share innovative ideas, and strengthen connections across our community.

Your participation—whether as a presenter, exhibitor, sponsor, or attendee—helped make the 2025 Forum an outstanding success. Together, we continue to advance the future of GIS in Texas.

We look forward to seeing you again next year at the 2026 Texas GIS Forum, October 19-23.

People gathered at the 2025 Texas GIS Forum

Keynote Speaker

Ariel Waldman

National Geographic Explorer; Filmmaker; Author; Former NASA Advisor.

Ariel Waldman is an explorer and filmmaker whose imaginative projects explore the world below our feet and beyond our atmosphere. Her expeditions to Antarctica focus on filming life under the ice, which became the subject of her TED Talk. Ariel is a National Geographic Explorer and often collaborates with research teams around the world. An art school graduate who pivoted to science, Ariel was recognized by the Obama White House as a Champion of Change in Citizen Science.

Previously, Ariel served as the chair to NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts advisory council. In 2014, she co-authored a congressionally-requested National Academy of Sciences’ report on the future of human spaceflight.

As the global director of Science Hack Day, Ariel grew the event to span 30 countries; the success of Science Hack Day became the prime inspiration for the creation of NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge, the world’s largest hackathon.

Ariel is the author of two books: Out There: The Science Behind Sci-Fi Film and TV and What’s It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who’ve Been There. She is also the producer and host of a YouTube channel documenting her science adventures

J.B. Sauceda

Host and Executive Producer of Texas Country Reporter

J.B. Sauceda is the host and executive producer of Texas Country Reporter the longest-running independently produced TV show in the country. As a lifelong Texan and seasoned storyteller, he leads a team of filmmakers across the state to document the lives of everyday Texans doing extraordinary things.

Before stepping into the role at TCR, J.B. built a name for himself as a commercial photographer with a deep affinity for Texas landscapes and culture. In 2015, he combined his skills as a pilot and photographer to create A Mile Above Texas a bold project in which he flew a single-engine airplane around the entire perimeter of the state, capturing over 3,800 miles of Texas border from the sky. The project became a solo exhibition at the Bullock Texas State History Museum and remains part of its permanent Core History Gallery.

Since taking the reins at Texas Country Reporter in Season 53, J.B. has ushered in a new chapter for the show; growing its audience by over one million viewers in his first year, while continuing its legacy of celebrating the heart, hustle, and humanity of the Lone Star State.