What’s in store for the Geo Industry in 2012

Another New Year, what will 2012 bring to the Geo Industry

So another New Year is upon us.  Days are getting longer, the prospect of Heathrow getting closed due to snow is receding, the first batch of marmalade is already made and Christmas and New Year seem a distant memory.

But, what will we see this year in our Geo Industry?  Well, I’m afraid I can’t of course give you the details of my predictions as our strategist, but I can give you a flavour of what could be to come this year.

So why not start with the New Year Resolutions;

• Make my first batch of Marmalade (done!!!),
• Enter Edward (my 8yr old) in his first sailing race,
• Get my FIA class C International Race Licence (in progress),
• Get down to 82KGs so I can justify getting that rowing machine (failed already but time to yet succeed),

Sorry, too much information, lets focus on our geo industry!

There are some givens, I expect;

• There to be more ‘traditional’ survey and mapping business this year with the road and rail infrastructure projects being progressed,
• There should also be some work around the Olympics,
• Uses of OpenData will continue to grow,
• Government spending will remain low and public sector organisations will have to make their budgeted cuts,
• We will all need to work a bit harder than we are used to…
• …and probably for less reward,
• We will not be getting the sort of bankers bonus’ that are being speculated in the current press!

Preparations for the Olympics continue

There will be some opportunities, I expect;

• We will see another annual increase in clients wanting more than just data,
• Those of us who can offer more intelligent solutions should have more enquiries and requests,
• A continued increase in your enquiry levels, if you target your sales and marketing.  We have already seen our average annual enquiry levels increase by over 30% during 2011,
• Content will remain to be ‘King’, bearing in mind that pricing is likely to be forced even further down you will need ‘the right sort’ of content,
• Look carefully and you might find some really exciting new opportunities, in particular, the Technology Strategy Board competitions, Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTN) and other tools that the Government have provided to help stimulate business lead innovation and growth,
• Talk about what you are doing enough, but not too much, if you know what I mean…

Oops, speaking of which, time’s up folks…  Have a great 2012 and all the best of business to you whatever you find yourself doing in these exciting times for our industry.

Dan