The Society for Location Analysis

'The Future of Network Planning #2'

Date: Thursday 15th July 2010

Venue: GVA Grimley, 10 Stratton Street W1J 8JR

Time: 18:00 for a 18:30 start

Firstly, thanks to GVA Grimley for generously hosting such a successful event. Approximately 30 attendees enjoyed a prediction packed, thought provoking and insightful evening, led by our two speakers for this event: Stephen Feldman of Know Where and Blair Freebairn of Pitney Bowes Business Insight. After a very healthy debate and question and answer session afterwards, the usual nibbles, refreshments and networking finished off a very pleasant evening.

The cloud, the crowd and the iPhone

Steven Feldman, a leading light in the Geographic Information industry, gave us his views:

Technology, mobility, social networks and open data are colliding and combining to provide new opportunities for Location Analysis. Will the analyst of 2015 still be using the same tools and data sources to advise his clients? Steven Feldman, a former Managing Director of MapInfo UK suggests that there could be seismic changes ahead and offers a few insights and possible scenarios.

To view Steven's slides visit his blog here.

What is the future of Network planning? some Blue sky thinking...

Blair Freebairn, Principal Architect : Predictive Analytics - EMEA at PB Business Insight, gave us his unique brand of blue sky thinking. If you have seen Blair in action, you'll know what we mean!

About Steven Feldman

Trained as an economist, I spent the first 20 years of my working life in building materials before stumbling upon GIS. A chance conversation led to me becoming General Manager of GDC and Head of Professional Services at whereonearth.com during the wackiest part of the dot com boom and bust.

In 2002 some colleagues and I bought out GDC with investment support from nearly all of the employees. 4 years later GDC had grown to be one of the leading suppliers of e-Government solutions and corporate GI to Local Government with a strong reputation for innovation and customer service. MapInfo bought the business in 2007.

After working for MapInfo for 18 months as UK MD and Director of Product and Industry Strategy, EMEA I branched out to look for the next big thing. I have recently joined geo.me Solutions as their chairman and I am relishing being “back in the geo game".

Through my consultancy KnowWhere, I now work as a non-executive director, a strategic consultant and an investor, advisor and mentor to technology startups.

I founded and chaired the first three AGI GeoCommunity conferences and am a member of the Council and Executive of the Association.

I am also a Special Lecturer at the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham. When not working, I blog, twitter, talk about geography, technology and politics and follow the Arsenal. You can follow me at www.knowwhereconsulting.co.uk or twitter.com/StevenFeldman

About Blair Freebairn

Over ten years' experience building and deploying retail site and network optimisation models both client and agency side.
Working across retail, telecommunications, public Sector, restaurants, and the property verticals.
Analysed stores, customers and products for leading UK retailers including The Co-operative Group, Waitrose, B&Q, Tesco, DSG International, Thresher, J Sainsbury’s, Boots, CBRE, TJ Maxx, Vodafone, Nationwide, John Lewis, Odeon Cinemas and the Post Office.
Worked with local European colleagues to deliver retail analytical projects in Spain, France, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Responsible for designing and building suite of Predictive analytics data and software products; Retail DESTINATIONS, Gravity Modelling Toolkit, Retail PTICHPOINT, Retail REACH grocery, Retail Expenditure.
Thought leadership within the Global Predictive Analytics practice.
Physics degree followed by operational management in the leisure industry.

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