Last week, I had a fantastic few days in London for the tenth anniversary of Geo Business 2024. As usual, there was much to see and hear at Geo Business, and it's always great to wander around Digital Construction Week and see where geospatial data is being used in other, but connected, industries.

Listening to some of the speakers explain how they use geospatial technology and data within their sector, was a reminder of just how vast the use cases are and the importance of the geospatial industry. I’ve summarised a few of the talks I attended which I found really interesting. 

 'Fusing street with sky: Mapping Nottingham with the Supermesh' 

This talk was by Ralph Coleman (CCO) from Bluesky and Duncan Guthrie (VP Europe) from Cyclomedia. It was fascinating to see the city of Nottingham come to life in 3D using Supermesh, a combination of aerial and street-level capture. The Supermesh is a technology that gives an immersive experience and an accurate world view of a location, packed full of information and detail for the user that can be used for various uses including analytics, urban planning, public safety, street-level assessments, and making general engagements with stakeholders much simpler. I look forward to seeing the other European cities, who have also signed up to be partners with Cyclomedia and Bluesky, coming to life using Supermesh. The joint capabilities of Cyclomedia and BlueSky are a force to be reckoned with!

 'How Vienna leveraged mobile mapping data and Detekt for urban road infrastructure assessment’

I listened to Mario Sabatino Riontino (Head of Sales and Marketing) from Detekt discuss the infrastructure challenges the city of Vienna faced and the challenges many cities face in detecting map features for accurate assessment. Using Detekt’s AI road inspection solution, Vienna enhanced its efficiency and sustainability, saving money and making the city safer for residents and tourists. The user-friendly web viewer by Detekt has AI-powered models that fuse localisation 3D world coordinates with unified detections for high accuracy. It was great to hear from Riontino who was honest about how many municipalities often deal with road damage without solutions such as Detekt, and to learn more about Detekt’s solutions to easily resolve these challenges.

'3D geospatial for policing' 

Robert Goldsmith (GIS and Mapping Manager) Devon and Cornwall Police, took us on the journey surrounding the planning involved in organising the high-level security required for events such as the G7 summit. In this example, Goldsmith explained how they used drones and planes for 3D mapping of the proposed event location. Mapping the event location and the surrounding area gives the required teams and departments the ability to get to know the area, plan specific routes, and locate and agree on firearm officer watch points without repeatedly visiting the location. They can also create certain scenarios, seeing how this could impact the surrounding area and actions of particular people and crowds. They can create contingency plans that could be executed within seconds as officers have been pre-trained and familiarised with the area they will be working in using the 3D mapping imagery. It was eye opening to see the amount of planning that goes into events of all levels and how the use of geospatial data and technology in this instance could save lives. 

'AI will make the role of geospatial professionals virtually redundant inside a generation - a debate,'  

Panellists; Simon Navin (Geomatics Business Development Director) and Nick Ruddell (Graduate Surveyor) from Dalcour Maclaren, Ed Parsons (Geospatial Technologist) from Google, Denise McKenzie (Managing Partner) from Place Trust, and Barry Gleeson (Technical Director) from WSP. 

The panellists discussed the growing concern for AI making roles across many industries redundant, explaining how AI is being used more in everyday life now and is taking away the tedious, mundane, day-to-day tasks - a welcomed benefit for many. It gives the ability to process high volumes of data at any one time, which humans cannot achieve alone. AI can do things on a scale that humans simply cannot and that is why it is so important. 

While the general message was that AI could not be ignored due to its benefits to the geospatial industry and therefore to the world, the message and general consensus from both the panel and the audience was that AI is not a human geographer and that continued investment in people is extremely important. One panellist explained that 'AI doesn't look at data the way a human does'; therefore, it does not have the 'human wonder' that creates new ideas and solutions, whilst another said 'AI is not going to destroy your role, but it is going to change it'. With AI being a hot topic at Geo Business again this year, and the progress we’ve seen in the last few years alone, it is clear that AI is not going anywhere and that we must embrace it whilst using it responsibly.

New Inertial Labs INS integration with Meridian by Mosaic

We also had the pleasure of meeting with our partners, Mosaic, who were showcasing the Meridian Mobile Mapping System - a Mosaic X camera with INS/Lidar device from Inertial Labs for highly accurate and precise mobile mapping projects. ‘Meridian’s comprehensive solution is offered at a fraction of the price of competing systems’. Check out the full article by Geo Week News and head to Mosaic’s website for more information regarding the Meridian where they currently are offering a 20% discount to the first 20 customers.

To summarise

Overall there was a real united feeling that the future is bright for the geospatial industry. Professionals are forever pushing boundaries and creating new systems and solutions and to make everyday life better for us. Hearing from all of the businesses requiring geospatial technologies and data for many different end uses was a reminder that what the geospatial community does is so important and valuable for our past, current and our future. 

Thank you to the event organisers of Geo Business for smashing it yet again! 

Thank you to NavVis for inviting us to their infamous Geo Business networking boat party!

Roll on Geo Business 2025! 

About Terra Visus

Terra Visus is a leading provider of street-level imagery and LiDAR data supplying some of the world's largest technology companies and organisations.

The Terra Visus street-level data platform is a conduit for global street level image data, facilitating a professional marketplace for data collectors and buyers looking for specific data sets. 

Founded in 2021, Terra Visus is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. For more information visit www.terravisus.com.

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