We’re big believers in the power of maps to communicate to people. After all a picture is worth a thousand words and probably worth ten thousand business reports. We think Google Earth and the technology it’s built on (Geographic Information Systems) are game changers for business. The problem to date has been that these great tools have been hard to use. Worse the pros in the field seem to want to make things too complex. We believe using maps for decision making in business (and government & non-profit, too) can be simple. To demonstrate we put together this tutorial on how maps can be used in an organization for free in a couple of hours.

With the right maps we can answer important business questions such as:

• Do you know where your customers are?
• How much money do they make?
• How old are they?
• Do they have kids?
• Do they own a home or rent?

How much do you really know?

Have you ever done a customer profile? What’s keeping you from doing one? Time…money…don’t know how?

Today, we’re going to put our customers on the map, get to know them a bit better and look at our market area. We’re going to cover the tools you need and where to get them, the map and demographic data that’s available to you and some ideas for how you can use Google Earth in your business. All of the tools and data we’ll talk about today are free so you can do this with your own customer list when you get back to the office.

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GlobalMind was featured in the February edition of the Wakulla County Chamber of Commerce newsletter. Read it here.

Our very own Kim Albritton will give a talk on using Google Earth for Small Businesses at the St. Lucie County Business Development Board on February 14.

I was an invited speaker at the Palm Beach County Legislative Forum hosted jointly by the American Planning Association-Florida, Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Florida Engineering Society and the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society.

As the current chairman of the Legislative Committee for the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society, I had the opportunity to update the 300 attendees on FSMS’s legislative activities including:

• The privatization of the Florida Board of Professional Surveyors and Mappers.
• The expansion of the UF Geomatics program.
• The strengthening of the Consultants Competitive Negotiation Act (Ch. 287.055 F.S.).
• The danger of the Hometown Democracy ballot initiative.

It was fun and I got to connect with a lot of old friends.