What is GIS? What can you do with GIS? Why is this important? How can GIS benefit me?
These questions are honestly asked by most people when they run into people who work in the GIS field. Upon seeing the puzzling look on people's faces, the person usually says "Map making" and hopes that satisfies the listening person.
Unfortunately, that does the GIS profession a terrible disservice. GIS is much more than map making. It allows us to analyse stiuations and display the results in a visual presentation of data that clearly allows understanding and interpretation by most audiences independently.