The Future of Location Intelligence

For two days, more than 250 leaders in Location Intelligence gathered at CARTO Locations in Madrid to share and learn new ways businesses are turning location data into outcomes.

CARTO Locations, our first customer-centric conference held last month, showcased Location Intelligence in action. A central message emerged from everyone attending the conference: everyone has location data, but not everyone has located location data’s value.

Team members, partners, and customers gave presentations illustrating location data in action in relation to some of the following tech topics:

• Satellite Imagery
• Remote-sensing
• Geoalgorithms
• Developing Apps with Mobile SDK
• Machine Learning
• Cloud-based Geoservices

If you missed the conferences (or want to refresh your memory), here are just a few takeaways coming out of CARTO Locations.

There’s more to analysis than prediction

Predictive analytics tends to dominate conversations regarding the value of data, and for good reason. But, Stuart Lynn, Head of Research and Data at CARTO, reminded conference participants of two other types of analysis that also help add value:

Optimization: The aim of this analysis is to make system more efficient by studying the geospatial distribution of data.

Inference: The aim of this analysis is to determine whether patterns within existing data are random or meaningfully related.

Optimization, inference, and prediction, Stuart explained, are changing the ways in which businesses can locate opportunities.

Traditional mapping boundaries are being redefined.

This increase in types of analysis has led to new ways of mapping areas based not on static census tracts, but rather on communities determined by smaller data patterns.

Elena Alfaro, Head of Data and Innovation at BBVA, gave a presentation on urban analytics demonstrating how the location data from credit card purchases yielded valuable insights into customer’s banking needs that would not have been discovered using static zip codes.

Telecommunication, social, and transactional data are great resources for businesses looking to expand as site-selection determinations can be made in regards to location of desired customer base.

Data might be a commodity, but it is not oil

As the demand for proprietary and third-party data grows, it should be remembered that this market is based upon an entirely new business model. Neither Uber nor Foursquare could exist without location data, a reality causing many to declare that data is the new oil.

Yes, location data is a commodity. No, location data is not the new oil.

This sentiment was heard in keynotes from both Javier de la Torre, who proclaimed 2017 to be “The Year of The Customer” for CARTO, and Sergio Álvarez, who mentioned upcoming product and design features that will help users work collaboratively with location data. Needless to say, both talks repeated the need to continue democratizing access to data.

The value of location data, as both David González, CTO and founder of Vizzuality, and Luan Jaupi, Head of Information Technology and GIS at HALO Trust reminded us during an inspiring panel, resides in its ability for environmental good. Global Forest Watch (GFW), for instance, is helping close the gap between available and useable location data. More specifically, the project’s intuitively designed interface enables complex information to be more easily conveyed to local communities by situating insights in a contextual location. As such, communities can undertake actions, such as resiliency planning, in order to confront risks in advance.

Next steps

There is much more to say about the state of Location Intelligence after this remarkable conference. Check back soon as we begin uploading the sessions to CARTO Locations.

In the meantime, for all things Location Intelligence follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Happy Data Mapping