Growing, growing: new members for the team

September 2008: With client demand for spatial insight and online GI tools at an all-time high, Geofutures is delighted to strengthen the team with the arrival of Chris Emberson as GI Analyst and Dave Liddament as Applications Developer.

Chris joins the company from Hamilton Research Ltd, where he used his GIS skills to model telecommunications networks across Africa, and he also has strong marketing experience. He is completing his MSc in GIS part-time at Cranfield University.

Accomplished programmer Dave spent several years with IT provider IPL, and brings key skills in the development, testing and web delivery fields to his role at Geofutures.

Developer Brendan Fosberry, meanwhile, has gone Stateside and is supporting the in-house team remotely from Houston, Texas on a contract basis. More about the Geofutures team

Mapping satisfaction

Geofutures is delighted to be working with leading market research and polling provider Ipsos MORI to develop a new interactive online geo-spatial tool.

The prototype National Indicators Analysis Application maps perceptions data, such as Best Value Performance Indicators and the new National Indicators.

Local authorities regularly survey residents to find out their levels of satisfaction with the environment and council, but the challenge is in interpreting and acting upon the results. This is where Ipsos MORI already supports its local authority clients and their partners, and where the new tool will allow them to add even greater value.

Eye-catching and easy to use via a normal web browser, the Application reveals patterns at ward, borough, regional and national scales, and also allows users to see and compare trends which overlap these boundaries, often undetected via analysis within traditional geographies.

Specific user-defined areas can be analysed, and perceptions data can be overlaid with other key information to help us understand them, such as the Index of Multiple Deprivation, demographics or neighbourhood classifications. The tool is designed to be readily customised to meet individual information needs.

Like to know more about this product or our other work? Please contact us.

In for a dig: the Geofutures summer social

July 2008: We all prefer to work for a company with a bit of social buzz, but it’s a constant challenge thinking up interesting new team social events.

This summer we benefited from a personal introduction to the Bath & Camerton Archaeological Society and took the team, tooled up with trowels, refreshments and waterproofs, to their excavation site at Laverton, near Frome, Somerset.

This intriguing Romano-British villa site is being excavated by the Society, who have found evidence of unusually early Roman villa-style occupation, perhaps as early as 70AD, alongside a pre-existing Iron Age site.

Time Team fans may have seen the TV show’s visit to the site first screened in 2007, and a bit of ’geophys’ surveying was a key attraction for the Geofutures team – more glamorous than some other tasks, like cleaning animal teeth with toothbrushes, but it’s all in a day’s work for a digger.

Seconds out: Geofutures analyst goes client-side

June 2008: Geofutures is delighted to support its client Grosvenor Estates with the secondment of Senior GI Analyst Karah Slowley to their Mayfair offices.

Karah is taking a role with the Grosvenor UK research team, monitoring, analysing and reporting the performance of the major landowner’s property portfolio. Much as she’s missed, her Geofutures colleagues are pleased she has this opportunity to apply her skills in new areas and broaden her experience.

Having studied at Bath University, Karah has mixed feelings leaving the historic and beautiful city for the big smoke. “I’m sure I’ll return to this part of the world at some point,“ she says, “though I’m excited about my new working environment, and the Grosvenor team are great.“

Expansion at Geofutures means Karah’s position has been filled with a new permanent recruit, Chris Emberson.

A key strategic step: Geofutures welcomes highly experienced chairman

April 2008: Geofutures is taking a key step in its journey to expansion with the recruitment of a highly experienced entrepreneur and business investor as Chairman.

Matthew Byrne has built two multi-million pound businesses from scratch, and his wealth of hands-on experience enables him to offer invaluable advice on the strategic direction of Geofutures, as well as mentoring senior management and seeking the right investor opportunities for this ambitious company.

An intelligent partnership : Geofutures and LDC collaborate on new town centres tool

February 2008: Geofutures’ long pedigree in the town centres field is being enriched via a new collaboration with leading information provider The Local Data Company (LDC). The two enterprises are completing the development of Town Centre Intelligence, a ground-breaking information tool for managers of urban centres.

TCI offers data including changing churn rates over time, with details of individual retailers and points of interest including up to date photographs

LDC specialise in the ground-level collection of data and images of retail, entertainment and point of interest locations, supplying them to blue-chip information providers including Yell!, Google, Tele Atlas and the AA. These data, together with government datasets, are now available to town centre managers in an interactive online tool created by Geofutures, allowing users to view, analyse and promote the economic vitality of their towns. More about Town Centre Intelligence.

The Association of Town Centre Managers is providing input into the design of Town Centre Intelligence, from which their membership will benefit most directly. “Earlier in 2007 I attended a stimulating Summer School event hosted by ATCM, and I left more convinced than ever about the appetite for this information among their members, and for a simple, cost-effective way of accessing it,” comments Geofutures MD Mark Thurstain-Goodwin. “This is an increasingly mature profession, and having worked with town centres for so long, I know how important they are to the health of our economy.”

Barnaby Oswald, one of the directors of LDC, is also excited about the longer-term opportunities created by the integration of their data and Geofutures’ technology. “Constantly updated, accurate urban information is valuable, and we want to make it even more so with these tools,” he explains. “Every profession involved in planning, developing and operating in our town centres needs reliable data, at scales from the region down to the individual building. Together, we can tailor information tools to meet all these needs.”