SAN ANTONIO (KMOX) — Local political, university and business leaders are in south Texas this week to position St. Louis as a prime place for mapping technology companies to settle.
They're at the annual GEOINT conference, which is centered all around the latest geospatial, or mapping, technology.
"St. Louis is making a very big splash," says Jim Alexander of the St. Louis Economic Development Alliance.
He says the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency putting a headquarters in north St. Louis is a chance for the region to become a powerhouse in geospatial, whose uses have grown beyond just driving directions on your phone.
Mapping technology now impacts industries from energy and agriculture, to financial services and health.
Those are sectors which the St. Louis region is already strong in, especially with firms like BioSTL and SixThirty supporting developing businesses in those fields.
So, Alexander says this group is making a big marketing push: "We want to make sure that the four thousand people attending this conference know what St. Louis has to offer."
You'll see the #STLMADE brand on display as you walk around and even on stage, with roundtable discussions about the region and Mayor Krewson set to give a keynote on Wednesday.
The St. Louis delegation even brought two of our region's signature desserts -- Ted Drewes frozen custard and gooey butter cake -- to share with technologists at the conference.
Alexander called the KMOX newsroom on Monday night as the Mayor and others were getting ready to hold their own Blues watch party. The Mayor of San Antonio was set to join; his city is home to a Blues minor league affiliate.
But focus remains on boosting the profile of St. Louis as a geospatial destination.
"At the conference today," Alexander explains, he had "conversations with private sector groups, with other government agencies, and these were some very large, very well-known companies, and others were almost classified as start-ups."
The chief of NGA even gave St. Louis a shout-out in his address.
The GEOINT conference will come to St. Louis in 2023 and 2025.
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