In 1993, the first of the GIS Research . (GISRUK) conferences was held at the University of Keele. Before that, . GIS conferences had been very broad-based, bringing together the entire spectrum of people who created and used spatial data and the software to process the data. While such conferences were very valuable, it was felt that there was also a need for an academic conference where the focus would be purely on research. It was clear from the very first Keele meeting that the GISRUK conference series was fulfilling a useful function in bringing together researchers from all the different disciplines that contribute to geographic information science (GISc).
