Gratitude! As I reflect on my first full year as the Executive Director of WGIC, I am filled with gratitude. It has been an exciting year of getting to know each of our member company executives better, professionally and personally. We are a strong community working together and creating an immense impact. As I go through the activity report, I am amazed at the scope and scale of our accomplishments during the year.
Growth of WGIC was stronger than ever in 2024, with membership expanding by over 30%. This growth is a testament to the importance of WGIC in our industry and our three pillars: strengthening geospatial impact, advocating global policy, and co-creating business opportunities. Expanding membership allowed WGIC to allocate additional resources towards our committee work, industry events, and secretariat support for membership. We welcomed Helen Gilmartin as WGIC Associate Director at the beginning of the year. Besides anchoring the Funding and Sustainability Committee (previously called the Public-Private Partnership Committee), Helen intensified our efforts to gain new members.
WGIC started the year with a strategic planning meeting focused on expanding our marketing communications and outreach. The team designed and launched a marcom campaign to spotlight member companies and their capabilities through long-form video interviews. We powered this up with an impactful social media strategy that augmented member visibility to the wider geospatial community, driving about 40% growth in LinkedIn followers. In addition, our signature bi-monthly Horizons Newsletter became a monthly publication and saw an increase of 420% in newsletter engagement. We will continue to build on the success of these initiatives in service to our members.
Even as the committee work continued to be a cornerstone of WGIC membership engagement and output in 2024, we maintained a steady focus on events and outreach, participating in over 50 in-person and virtual engagements during the year. Workforce development continues to be a key concern across the globe as the industry expands and needs more talent to create solutions to address the complex challenges the world is facing. Even as progress is made with room for additional opportunities, WGIC will remain at the forefront of these discussions. More than ever, I believe the geospatial industry is well-positioned to make a difference in the world by embracing “geospatial in everything, geospatial for everyone.” Looking ahead, I see a solid foundation of community, committee engagement, knowledge, and outreach collectively built in 2024 and raising the bar to continue to create value for our members.
The Board approved a first-of-its-kind event – Horizons – scheduled for April 27-29, 2025, in Denver, USA. The WGIC officers and secretariat have worked with the membership to host talks and discussions “for the industry, by the industry”. The unique single-track event is a rare opportunity to hear from business thought leaders leveraging geospatial, reflected in the theme “Moving Beyond Boundaries” as we expand our understanding of how geospatial and earth observation technologies are used. I hope you will be able to join us!
If you are a long-standing member of WGIC, I thank you for your unwavering support over the years. If you are one of our new members, I welcome you to WGIC and look forward to working on our shared goals. If you are an officer, board member, or committee member, thank you for your service. And if you are part of the small (but mighty!) WGIC Secretariat, I appreciate your dedication and contributions to our community’s success.
