The 25th International Conference on Geoinformatics was held August 2-4 in Buffalo, New York, USA. The conference was co-organized by the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis at Buffalo (NCGIA-Buffalo) and the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences (CPGIS). Under the theme of Past and Future 25 Years, 240 participants from 89 universities and corporates around the world, along with 50 family members, gathered at CPGIS’s birthplace to celebrate the 25th anniversary of CPGIS.

The conference featured an unusually large number of world-class keynote speakers whose insights will make profound influences to future GIScience development. The highlights of this conference also included impressively high-quality papers and a strong presence of a young generation of researchers and students. Throughout the parallel papers sessions, cutting-edge panels, and student paper competition sessions, researchers and students exchanged novel ideas and knowledge on geographic information sciences and technologies.

Participants enjoyed activities of the Niagara Falls Night and CPGIS Night, reunited with old friends, met new ones, and networked with each other to plan future collaborations. Among them, 17 CPGIS founders and 19 CPGIS presidents across 25 years united at the historical location to share retrospect and prospect of past success and future development. 22 University at Buffalo alumni emotionally lingered on campus and other places memorable back in their student years. Special recognition went to 15 academic institutions, corporates, and individuals who generously sponsored the conference. The administration of the University at Buffalo provided financial, personnel, news communication, and administrative support to the conference. Also, close to 30 student volunteers donated their time, effort, and talent to the success of the landmark event.