The Real Inflection Point for St. Louis Geospatial Isn’t What You Think........
It was an interesting experiment to be part of the recently released St. Louis Post-Dispatch article titled, “St. Louis geospatial industry is at an inflection point. Will the jobs come?”
And honestly, it also validated some concerns I had going into the interview in the first place.
When you spend well over an hour in conversation—sharing context, nuance, and perspective—and then see only a small fraction used, specifically the part that supports a predetermined narrative, it’s disappointing. Not surprising, but disappointing.
Because the reality is, the story is bigger than what was presented.
Leaving out the strides being made by organizations like Gateway Global and the University of Missouri–St. Louis is a miss. Not acknowledging long-standing, high-quality programs at Saint Louis University (SLU), Lindenwood University, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is also a miss. These aren’t side notes; they are foundational to what this region has built over decades.
St. Louis has never been new to GEOINT.
We’ve been a national leader for a long time.
And when I talk about GEOINT, I mean it the way I’ve always known it—geospatial intelligence as a core discipline within national security. That legacy matters. That ecosystem matters.
A lot of credit belongs to leaders like Robert Cardillo, who helped this region understand, appreciate, and invest in an industry that most people still don’t fully understand. Because let’s be clear:
This industry isn’t emerging.
It’s established.
It’s growing.
And it will continue to grow.
Why? Because every other industry either already depends on location—or will.
If you don’t believe that, go spend some time on Esri’s industry pages. Look across the verticals—logistics, agriculture, utilities, healthcare, finance, retail, defense. The use cases are endless. The relevance is undeniable.
The Problem Isn’t Jobs. It’s Awareness That Leads to Interest—and Interest That Leads to Employment.
I’ve been saying this for years to anyone who will listen:
We have a 6-to-60 spatial literacy problem.
And that problem starts long before students ever reach higher education.
If young people aren’t exposed to geography, geospatial science, and how location impacts the world around them, they don’t pursue it. Then they grow into adult leaders, decision-makers, and executives who still don’t understand it.
And if they don’t understand it, they don’t invest in it.
They don’t hire for it.
They don’t build with it.
That’s the real issue.
It’s not that jobs don’t exist.
It’s that people don’t understand the importance of geography, geographic science, the industries that depend on it, and the jobs within it.
And beyond that, they don’t understand that these jobs go far beyond technical roles. This isn’t just about GIS analysts or developers. This is about operations, planning, policy, and business strategy—roles across every industry that rely on spatial thinking.
Where We’re Falling Short
As an industry, we haven’t done enough in three critical areas:
1. Early Education
We are not consistently exposing students to geography and geospatial concepts early enough.
2. Career Awareness
We are not clearly communicating the breadth of career opportunities—especially non-technical ones.
3. Pathways
We are not making it easy to understand how to go from interest to education to employment.
That gap—more than anything else—is what’s impacting job growth, company formation, and innovation.
Geography Is the Foundation
At its core, this all comes back to one thing: geography.
Geography is the foundation for understanding how our world works. It connects people, places, data, and decisions. It provides the spatial context needed to address everything from national security and economic development to disaster response, infrastructure planning, and environmental sustainability.
In a world driven by location-based data, geography transforms information into insight.
It helps leaders:
See patterns
Anticipate risk
Allocate resources
Make smarter decisions
Simply put, geography is not just about maps.
It’s the lens through which we understand complexity—and turn data into action.
We’ve Been Here Before
This isn’t a new message for me.
I’ve written about it before in:
“Geospatial Excellence: STL has been Geo-Special for a very long time” (April 26, 2023)
“GEO Relevance & 314 Day: St. Louis’ Past, Present, and Future in Geospatial Relevance”
The region has the institutions.
It has the history.
It has the capability.
What it needs now is alignment around awareness, education, and access. The entire country does.
The Real Inflection Point
So yes—St. Louis, and any city that sees promise in geospatial as an economic development focus area, is at an inflection point.
But not because we’re waiting to see if jobs will come.
The inflection point is this:
Will we finally invest in building a spatially literate population that understands the value of “where”?
Because if we do, the jobs will follow.
The companies will follow.
The innovation will follow.
If we don’t, we’ll keep asking the same question five years from now.
And we’ll still be missing the point.