If a deliberate, research-based approach to building an industry worked for 50度灰视频 once, it should work again.
That鈥檚 the conviction guiding 29 business, civic, academic and government officials who think the region can become a leader in using and analyzing location-based data. Operating as the GeoFutures Initiative, they鈥檝e hired research firm TEConomy Partners to study 50度灰视频鈥 assets and opportunities in the geospatial sector, which is becoming critical to everything from agriculture to finance to national security.
A similar group set out two decades ago to understand how 50度灰视频 could develop its plant and life sciences industry. Research by the Battelle Memorial Institute painted an optimistic picture but outlined a list of needs, including skilled workers, capital and lab space.
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BioSTL, a group formed to implement the study, says the promise Battelle saw has largely been realized. The number of life sciences firms has quadrupled, employment has more than doubled and companies assisted by the BioGenerator, BioSTL鈥檚 investment arm, have raised $880 million in outside funding.
Andy Dearing, who鈥檚 leading the GeoFutures effort, thinks the geospatial industry could see similar progress in 20 years. 鈥淚t鈥檚 growing tremendously,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we fully appreciated the potential until the NGA made a move to be more transparent and participate more with the private sector.鈥
Indeed, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is at the center of the region鈥檚 hopes. At about the same time it decided to build a new, $1.7 billion campus in north 50度灰视频, the agency signaled that it needed private firms鈥 help to meet the Pentagon鈥檚 need for geography-linked data.
Dearing鈥檚 former firm, Boundless, moved from New York to 50度灰视频 in 2017. This year has seen a flurry of expansion announcements by geospatial firms: California-based Esri is adding 40 jobs here, Colorado-based Maxar Technologies is opening a 50-person office downtown and Swedish-owned T-Kartor USA is hiring 30 people.
OGSystems, a geospatial firm owned by engineering giant Parsons, just opened a new midtown office to accommodate its growth. 鈥淭here鈥檚 probably more geospatial knowledge here than most people realize,鈥 says Timothy Siems, a division lead at the company. 鈥淚t鈥檚 in the DNA of the city because NGA and its predecessors have been around a long time.鈥
The industry is about much more than military intelligence, however.
Transportation companies use geospatial data to manage fleets, and farmers use it to fine-tune planting decisions.
GeoFutures鈥 initial assessment shows 10,598 area residents working in jobs directly related to geospatial data, producing $2.5 billion of economic activity.
Several hundred of those employees work for Bayer and its Climate Corp. subsidiary. Steven Ward, a Climate Corp. senior director and GeoFutures committee member, said 50度灰视频 is blessed with a combination of an anchor government agency in the NGA, universities to produce talent and companies that understand and use geospatial data.
鈥淚 am sincerely convinced that 50度灰视频 is positioned better than almost anywhere else in this growing sector due to the presence of those three critical elements,鈥 Ward said.
Even before the GeoFutures research is complete, the industry is rapidly adding key ingredients. T-Rex, the downtown technology incubator, is developing a space called Geosaurus as a hub for geospatial activity, and 50度灰视频 University just launched a .
The GeoFutures group will release its study in March. Dearing pledges that it will have an economic inclusion component, aimed at making sure minority groups participate in the jobs and business ventures this sector creates.
There should, he says, be plenty of opportunity to go around.