Philadelphia was an awesome experience!

Philadelphia was a blast! Last week I attended FORUM 2014. It was a conference on cultural preservation on buildings, landmarks, structures, and other various properties which are under historic preservation within Pennsylvania. This year was different than most because there were many attendees who work all over the country. My job along with the other interns was to be the conference staff. This involved setting up computers and projectors, greeting guests, directing where everyone is to go, and put items and other registration materials together such as badges and bags with directories. Since I have been to various conventions before I already had a very good idea of what to expect. While setting up the equipment in one of the rooms, there was a problem getting the signal from the computer over to the projector. I had to ask a couple of my fellow interns for help but they couldn't find out the problem. Finally, my coworker in the PHMC figured out the laptop wasn't working right. After switching to a few different laptops, we found one which transferred the signal. During the conference, I attended numerous meetings. One of meetings I found very interesting about archaeology and other historical artifacts found in the ground. There was a lady speaker who looked upon artifacts as unique treasures and used them as visuals to tell the story of various historical people's lives back in the day. Other than sitting in the meetings I had the opportunity to talk to other various attendees about what they did and what I am currently working on with the PHMC. Many work in archaeology and architecture. The company WJE (Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.) had a booth there which I looked into quite a bit. They specialize in architectural repair and one of their most notable projects was repairing the Washington Monument after the 2011 Virginia earthquake. A video showed the internal and external damage to the structure. Many cracks and small pieces of debris were found throughout it. One of the best places I visited during the conference was the Reading Terminal Market. The FORUM rented it out one night to hold a reception. The food was very good there. After the conference, the interns and I took a day-long field trip to Lancaster. In the morning we stopped at the Ephrata Cloister. It was an awesome experience learning the backgrounds about the founder and the people who lived there. It was a religious village primarily used by pilgrims who escaped the Holy Roman Empire in Europe for religious freedom. They had nowhere else to go and they were given food, shelter, and the freedom to practice their faith. In the afternoon, our tour led us to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. It was awesome seeing the many old steam engines which used to define our state's economy. In addition to the tour all the interns were given a special privilege to see a steam engine getting fixed up to be displayed. Seeing it up close was spectacular! So much effort and research goes into making these things look finished and historically accurate for its time. I can understand why the PHMC doesn't only want me to learn about the GIS aspect of my internship, they want me to learn about everything the commission does and about Pennsylvania's history. It helped me understand what GIS is for the state of Pennsylvania. I am almost done with plotting the oil fields and historical wells. Pretty soon I will have a project manageable for future GIS interns to pick up the pieces and work on.