Location intelligence is becoming increasingly important as we continue to rely on ICTs to optimise our businesses and improve our decision making. In speaking with Valrie Grant, Founder and Managing Director of GeotechVision Enterprises, she shares her entrepreneurship journey, key trends occurring in the geospatial industry and its scope for growth, and the skills that are in demand in order to be successful in that industry.

 

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We may not necessarily think about it when we looking for street directions on Google Maps, or when we tag our location in a social media post, but there is more to location mapping that meets the eye. In the ICT/tech space, the initial focus would have been the digitisation of maps and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), but the field has developed to the point where it is being seen as source of critical intelligence that organisations and governments can use to inform strategies and to make more robust decisions.

Further, as we consider still developing areas, such as the Internet of things, machine-to-machine communications, and even self-driving cars, the generation, manipulation and analysing of location data is an area that is poised for growth, and for which the requisite skills are likely to be in demand. Moreover, and in the not-too-distant-future, it is likely that businesses may need to have access to – either in house or via a third party – that kid of expertise, in order to better leverage location intelligence and even to develop location strategies.

Valrie Grant

One of the individuals leading the charge in the Caribbean region is Valrie Grant, the Founder and Managing Director of GeoTechVision Enterprises, which specialises in spatial technologies and business ICT solutions. The company was established in 2008, and has offices in Kingston, Jamaica, Florida, USA, and in Georgetown, Guyana

Raised in rural Jamaica, Valrie is a trained geologist and a certified GIS professional, with 20 years’ experience in the field. In addition to leading GeoTechVision, she is an Executive Board Member of World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), and the Vice-Chair of the Private Sector Network of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) for the Americas.

In our conversation with Valrie, we sought to get a better understanding of not only her entrepreneurial journey, but also the geospatial technology industry: current and imminent trends, along with the in-demand skills for that space. Hence some of the questions we posed to Valrie included the following:

  1. What drove you to set up GeoTechVision, and what does GeoTechVision do?
  2. What are some of current trends in the GIS/geospatial space?
  3. What sort of skills are required, and is there a demand for certain skills or expertise?
  4. What was it like being a female business owner, a woman in technology, in the Jamaica in 2008, when GeotechVision was being launched?
  5. How has the business and tech landscape evolved in Jamaica since 2008?
  6. What is the best piece of advice you received with respect to GeoTechVision and/or leading the company?
  7. What might be some of the challenges or issues that people might not appreciate in running a multi-country business?
  8. What has been the biggest lesson you had to learn in running her own business?
  9. What is the best piece of advice you would give to a young tech start-up?
  10. What’s next for GeoTechVision?
  11. What’s next for Valrie Grant?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits:  Wikimedia Commons;  V Grant

Music credit:  Ray Holman

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