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Harnessing Open Data for Business Advantage (MRS), 5th November

Harnessing Open Data for Business Advantage and SLA members may be interested in attending.

This full day event has been specially designed focus mainly on how users have been applying census and other open data, with an emphasis on ‘how to’ case studies and useful lessons learnt.

The next CGG seminar will focus mainly on how users have been applying census and other open data, with an emphasis on ‘how to’ case studies and useful lessons learnt.

Topics to be covered will include:

  • Techniques for visualising population change
  • Predicting retail performance using data on home and workplace populations
  • Using census migration and commuting data to analyse who moves where
  • Geodemographics of use/engagement with the Internet
  • Open data – suppliers’ update and user experiences
  • Applications and use cases for samples of anonymised raw data from the census
  • Social and cultural influences in the digital age – the balance between individual and area data

MRS are happy to extend the MRS member rate to SLA members.

To find out more and book your place visit: https://www.mrs.org.uk/event/course/2436

All you need to know about Workplace Zones, 9th Sept, London

Date: Tuesday, 9th September 2014
Time: 5.45 for 6.15pm.
Venue: PLEASE NOTE – JLL HEAD OFFICES HAVE MOVED TO: Jones Lang LaSalle, 30 Warwick Street, London W1B 5NH


nb: Please ALSO note the slightly earlier start time. Please arrive for registration at 5.45 as we will be starting at 6.15pm.


Download presentations

  1. Peter Sleight – Introduction and Welcome
  2. Workplace Zones – an introduction – Ian Coady, Geography policy and Research Manager, Office for National Statistics
  3. Illustrating Workplace Zones populated with Census variables – Robin Edwards, University College London
  4. Developing a Classification of Workplace Zones – Dr Samantha Cockings, Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton
  5. Introducing the new Output Area Classification – Chris Gale, Research Associate, University College London (UCL)

What are Workplace Zones?

Workplace Zones are a new output geography for England and Wales which has been produced using workplace data from the 2011 Census. It may be extended to Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2015.

This seminar will provide you with all the information you need to know about Workplace Zones from how they were created to their many uses. A must attend for any site location analyst working with address data.

Agenda

  • 5.45 – Registration
  • 6.15 – Peter Sleight – Welcome and introduction.
  • 6.20 – Workplace Zones – an introduction – Ian Coady, Geography policy and Research Manager, Office for National Statistics (30 mins.)
  • 6.50 – Illustrating Workplace Zones populated with Census variables – Robin Edwards, University College London (20 mins.)
  • 7.10 – Developing a Classification of Workplace Zones – Dr Samantha Cockings, Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton (20 mins.)
  • 7.40 – Introducing the new Output Area Classification – Chris Gale, Research Associate, University College London (UCL) (30 mins.)
  • 8.10 – Q&A (10 mins.)
  • 8.20 – Drinks & mingling.

Speaker synopsis

Developing a Classification of Workplace Zones

Dr Samantha Cockings, Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton
The creation of an entirely new set of output geographies designed specifically for the publication of workplace-relate data and the recent publication of associated 2011 Census data provide exciting opportunities for new insights into the spatial patterns of workers and workplaces. This talk outlines ongoing research by University of Southampton, in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics, to develop a national geodemographic classification of workplace zones based on 2011 Census data.

Introducing the new Output Area Classification

Dr Chris Gale, Research Associate, University College London (UCL)
Created from the 2011 Census, the new Output Area Classification offers a free and open geodemographic perspective of the UK. Released by the Office for National Statistics in July 2014, this talk introduces the new classification, highlighting its methodology advances and ability to differentiate different socio and economic groups found across the UK.

Speaker biographies

Ian Coady, Geography policy and Research Manager, Office for National Statistics
Ian Coady has worked for the Office for National Statistics as Geography Policy and Research Manager for the past 5 years.

During this time he has overseen the maintenance of the Output Areas and created the Workplace Zones as a new geography for the publication of small area economic and workplace statistics.

Robin Edwards of UCL
Robin Edwards, University College London
In 2011-12 Robin studied for a Masters degree (MRes) at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. The degree focused on GIS technologies, geographical and spatial analysis, urban modelling, understanding complexity and data visualisation. His dissertation analysed the 2011 riots in London, with a focus on their spatial structure and underlying motivations for participation.

In 2010 Robin gained an Honours degree (a South African higher Bachelor’s qualification) in Public Policy at the University of Cape Town. His research investigated the dynamic processes underlying policy formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation, particularly with respect to the state of innovation within the South African public sector.

From 2001-10 he served in the British Diplomatic Service, working in London and various embassies and missions overseas. His work included promoting bilateral and multilateral foreign relations, and political analysis and reporting.

Sam Cockings, Senior Lecturer, University of SouthamptonDr Samantha Cockings, Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton
Dr Samantha Cockings is Senior Lecturer in Geography and Environment at University of Southampton. She developed the methods employed by the Office for National Statistics to maintain the 2011 Census Output Area geographies as well those used to create 2011 Workplace Zones, the first ever set of output geographies to be designed specifically for the release of workplace-related data in the UK.

ChrisGaleDr Chris Gale, Research Associate, University College London (UCL)
Dr Chris Gale created the new Output Area Classification, in partnership with the Office for National Statistics, as part of his PhD undertaken in University College London’s Department of Geography. He currently works as a Research Associate in UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering as part of the EPSRC funded Crime, Policing and Citizenship project.

How to get there

Our 30 Warwick Street office is situated towards the south of Regent Street, near Piccadilly, London. The office is easily accessible by public transport and car parking can be found locally in nearby Poland Street. It should be noted that the office is located within the Central London Congestion Charge zone.

Piccadilly is the nearest tube station, which is roughly a 5 minute walk away. Here you can reach London Heathrow Airport directly using the Piccadilly line or London Waterloo station using the Bakerloo line. The Piccadilly line also serves King’s Cross St. Pancras with international rail connections to mainland Europe. Oxford Circus tube station is also nearby, roughly an 8 minute walk, where the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines are available.

Book now

There will be light refreshments provided.


To reserve your place to attend this free event please email info@thesla.org

Social Media Applications, London, 25th March 2014

Venue: CBRE Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, London, W1G 0NB
Nearest tube: Bond Street
Time: 6pm for 6.30pm start


To reserve your place to attend this free event please email info@thesla.org

Speakers include:

  • Guy Lansley and Muhammad Adnan , Department of Geography at UCL
  • Andy Bell, Data Products Manager, Pitney Bowes Software Software (MapInfo)
  • Nick Henthorn, Smart Steps, Telefonica Digital

Download presentations

Agenda

  • 6.30: Peter Sleight, Chairman, The SLA – Introduction, news and announcements
  • 6.40: Muhammad Adnan and Guy Lansley, UCL – Using Social Media for GeodemographicApplications
  • 7.10: Andy Bell, Pitney Bowes Software – Opportunities for retailers from the rise of Social/Local/Mobile
  • 7.40: Nick Henthorn, – Mis-steps and Smart Steps – The challenges of using mobile data for location insights
  • 8.10: Q&A
  • 8.20: Networking
  • 9.00: Close

Speaker Synopsis

Opportunities for retailers from the rise of Social/Local/Mobile (SoLoMo)

Andy Bell, PBS Software (MapInfo)

  1. Introduction to SoLoMo
  2. New data for new analysis
  3. How can businesses exploit SoLoMo
  4. Case studies

Microblogging services

Guy Lansley and Dr. Muhammad Adnan, Research Associate, Department of Geography at UCL

Microblogging services such as Twitter have become an important part of life for millions of users in many countries around the world. These services are used not only for communicating with friends, family, and colleagues, but also for real-time news feeds and content sharing venues. We are investigating the ways in which a geo-temporal demographic classification can be created by using the inferred attributes of the social media users and their activity patterns. This is a step towards moving beyond the night-time residential geographies of conventional geodemographic classifications, and analysing the activity patterns of social media users during different times of the day and week in the quest of creating a geo-temporal geodemographic classification of social media users.

Mis-steps and Smart Steps – The challenges of using mobile data for location insights

Nick Henthorn, Business Development Director, Smart Steps, Telefonica Digital
A summary of the developments in Smart Steps, the part of Telefonica that is building a business generating insights for organisations using the data that O2 gets on people’s mobile phones. This will look at the challenges we’ve faced along the way, and plenty of interesting maps!

Speaker biographies

Andy Bell, PBS Software (MapInfo)
Andy Bell, Pitney Bowes SoftwareAndy Bell is Global Product Manager for Data at Pitney Bowes Software. Andy has accumulated a wealth of experience in geographic and demographic data as well as analytics, leading teams involved in retail location analysis, product development, statistical modeling and GIS.

He has previously worked for GMAP, GlaxoSmithKline and CallCredit where he instigated the development of the International suite of CAMEO geodemographic classifications which now covers 37 countries.

Andy is currently interested in the development and implementation of data products associated with social media, location and mobile technology.

Nick Henthorn, Business Development Director, Smart Steps, Telefonica Digital
Nick is Business Development Drector looking after the retail sector.

He has a Degree in geography and his first job was working in GIS (what feels like many years ago). Since then he has worked in sales and sales management within insight and data services including credit referencing, database hosting, crm and digital marketing. He joined Telefonica in January this year.


To reserve your place to attend this free event please email info@thesla.org

Retail Location Analysis (RLA) – Finding the locations that matter, 28-30 April 2014

OXIRM RLA training courseThe programme offers managers with oversight of planning, development and site assessment – from retail, consumer service, property and other professional services businesses – the opportunity to explore the latest thinking in retail location analysis. The programme remains the only one of its kind.

Developed markets across Europe continue to experience economic challenges, which have direct effects upon consumers’ confidence and retail spending. Combined with the impact of non-store retailing on established retailers, the main priorities for location analysis professionals will be the continuous evaluation of existing sites, the optimisation of network performance – and, where relevant, the consideration of selective disposals.

We know that all kinds of locations – High Streets or out-of-town – and all sizes of organisation are under pressure. For some businesses, however, exploring the opportunities presented by newly vacated sites, or running the slide rule over potential acquisitions, whether nationally and internationally, is still a real possibility.

We believe that our three-day residential programme is the only one of its kind. Our tried and tested, deliberately small-scale approach, encourages discussion with speakers and individual learning through techniques workshops.

Dr Jonathan Reynolds ran the 2013 programme in tandem with Dr David Rogers from DSR Marketing Systems in the US. Between the two of them they have over 50 years of experience in site location issues. Other contributions were made by visiting practitioners and experts.

And for the third year running, we were delighted that location planning experts from CACI supported the programme.

Sessions offered in 2013 included:

  • Developing a Location Research Methodology
  • The Analogue Method
  • UK store forecasting and location planning: the state of the art
  • Property, economics and retail planning
  • Network rationalisation and research for existing stores
  • Data workshop: new sources, new methods
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Emerging issues in retail location planning
  • Optimising networks in an omni-channel world
  • Retail location analysis in international markets
  • Shopping centres and retail locations: the case of Trinity, Leeds
  • Gravity & spatial interaction modelling in theory and practice

To book email OXIRMenquiries@sbs.ox.ac.uk

http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ideas-impact/oxirm/education-and-more/executive-education/retail-location-analysis

Location analysis for service delivery planning in the public sector – 12th Nov

Date: Tuesday 12th November
Time: 10.00 for 10.30 to 1.30
Venue: Chamberlain Room, Birmingham City Council, Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB

How to find the venue:

Attendees should approach the Council House building via the front entrance middle set of doors – you can’t miss them as they have stone pillars around the doors. Enter the building, up the initial staircase to the security guard, who will point you to the room, which is on the first floor.

Official start time is 10am. If people arrive very early, there is a Starbucks next to the building.

Please download the
Council House Map and Directions here.


A very huge thanks to everyone who made this event a really interesting and worthwhile debate. A lot of hard work and planning went into getting this regional event organised and we hope to do more events like this in the future. We know that you, our members, really value regional events but we will need all your help in future to help us attract more delegates to regional sessions. Not least because it’s a shame when members miss out on such valuable and interesting learning and debate.

Special thanks to our hosts, Birmingham City Council for welcoming us to the beautiful Council Buildings and even organising the Christmas market to be set up right outside.

Thanks to our brilliant speakers who all spoke from the heart about very different subjects and approaches, but it was encouraging to see that there were also many similarities to the challenges faced.

We would also like to thank Bob Barr for standing in at very short notice to present on behalf of Blair Freebairn and Sarah Hitchcock of GeoLytix. Bob gave us his spin in Open Data, the innovations GeoLytics are using to bring you free open data for many, many fascinating data sets and how the future might look.

Finally thank you to those who attended. We were a little thin on the ground with far fewer than we normally expect to our events but it was a lovely cosy atmosphere with some good debates, questions and networking.

Download presentations here:

We are pleased to provide copies of all the event’s presentations here:

“Adapting retail location planning techniques for the public sector – Steve Scholey, Customer Intelligence, Hampshire County Council”

“Location planning for delivery of public services in Birmingham –
Zoë Wright, Data Analyst, Birmingham City Council”

“Defining priority areas for Police and Partnership working – Andrew Brumwell, Geo-spatial Research and Intelligence, West Midlands Police”

“Bob Barr of Manchest Geomatics presenting for Blair Freebairn and Sarah Hitchcock of GeoLytix”

Feedback and comments from speakers and delegates

This event received the BEST EVER feedback on the quality of speakers and relevance of subjects. 100% of attendees said the speakers were good or very good and every speaker got 100% score for their presentation. This is the best score we’ve ever had for any event.

As with every session we organise, there is always room for improvement on the event planning and the only regret is that so few managed to attend on the day. We really do want to run regional events for members but would like to see more attendees in the future. We also appreciate how much life and work get in the way, but those who attended on the 12th November had a real treat. Those who didn’t make it really missed out.

“A big thank you to all for hosting a really interesting event. I look forward to the next one.” Andy Brumwell, West Midlands Police

“This is the first SLA event I’ve ever attended and I found it very useful and look forward to attending more in the future.”

“I found it very interesting and the cosy feel really helps with the getting to speak to people. It would be good to attract more people and this does dissapoint a little but we must be mindful of the scale of change in the public sector at present. This will have had a big effect. Many thanks also to the presenters very interesting topics and we can all say we learned something new too. Also thanks to Susan who did a stirling job organising things here at the council.”

“Thanks for organising what was a good, if slightly sparsely attended, event. I thought the other speakers were great!” Bob Barr, Manchester Geomatics.

Agenda

Chair: Steve Scholey, Hampshire County Council

  • 10.00 – Refreshments and networking
  • 10.30 – Welcome and introduction
  • 10.40 – Adapting retail location planning techniques for the public sector – Steve Scholey, Customer Intelligence, Hampshire County Council
  • 11.10 – Location planning for delivery of public services in Birmingham –
    Zoë Wright, Data Analyst and Susan Keung, Strategic Research, Birmingham City Council
  • 11.40 Refreshments
  • 12.00 – Defining priority areas for Police and Partnership working – Andrew Brumwell, Geo-spatial Research and Intelligence, West Midlands Police
  • 12.30 – Bob Barr, ODUG
  • 13.00 – Discussions and close
  • 13.30 Lunch and networking

Speaker synopsis

Adapting retail location planning techniques for the public sector

Steve Scholey, Customer Intelligence, Hampshire County Council

Various case studies and examples. The intention is to focus on methodologies that others might wish to apply in their areas of work.

Location planning for delivery of public services in Birmingham

Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council

Using Birmingham City Council as an example, how the public sector can and does use sophisticated geodemographic (GDIS) tools and localised data to help profile citizens and local businesses, who does and doesn’t use Council services, and the most effective ways to communicate with users, residents and businesses.

Speaker biographies

Steve Scholey, Development, support and promotion of Customer Insight (CI) at Hampshire Customer Insight Partnership

Steve Scholey of Hampshire Customer Insight Partnership
Steve Scholey of Hampshire Customer Insight Partnership
Steve Scholey has been applying location analytics and customer insight across the retail, public and other sectors for 15 years. He has been a member of the SLA since its inception 10 years ago and has been on the committee since April 2010.

Within the public sector, Steve has contributed to DCLG-led projects on provision of customer-facing and waste collection services and to Hampshire projects on usage of libraries, cultural and recreation services, smoking cessation, demand for early years and special educational needs places and assessments of troubled families, children in need and school catchments.



Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council

Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council
Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council

Zoë Wright is an analyst for Birmingham City Council’s Customer Knowledge team, a centralised Customer Insight function.

Her background is in local government, starting in policy support, and now providing geodemographic and data analysis.

She has experience of working on customer segmentation, location profiles, and business data.

She graduated with a MA psychology degree from a Scottish university and moved to Birmingham for work a few years later, and has been here ever since.


Andy Brumwell, Geo-Spatial Intelligence Analyst at West Midlands Police
Andy Brumwell is geo-spatial intelligence analyst at West Midlands Police, UK’s second largest Police Force covering a population of approximately 2.7 million residents. He has responsibility for supporting the Force in the analysis of spatial data for strategic and tactical purposes.

He is responsible for supporting and training analysts and Police officers in the use of crime mapping and geo-spatial intelligence analysis techniques. He is also very interested in the use of multi-agency partnership data.

Andy is vice-chair of the International Crime and Intelligence Analysis Conference steering group. He has contributed to a number of crime mapping and analysis publications including the POP Centre Guide “Crime Analysis for Problem Solvers – 60 Steps” and the UK NPIA guide for crime analysts “Analysis of Geographic Information – Workbook”

He has a BSc (Hons) Geography Degree (Uni of Birmingham, UK) and a Post-graduate Certificate in Crime Prevention and Community Safety at the Jill Dando Institute for Crime Science, University College London (UCL), UK. He is an accredited geographic profiling analyst.

To reserve your place to attend this free event please email info@thesla.org

The SLA Forum 2013, 18th Oct 2013, London

‘Update on Open Data and Mapping’

Venue: CBRE Henrietta House, 8 Henrietta Place, London W1G 0NB
Nearest tube: Bond Street
Date: Friday 18th October 2013
Time: 9.30 for 10.00; close at 4.30 pm

Don’t miss your chance to attend this year’s SLA Forum; we have five excellent speakers lined up to give you an in-depth update on open data and mapping for the site location and planning industry.

It’s free to attend.

To book your place please email info@thesla.org.

Download presentations

Download ‘GeoEnabling Retail and Property’ by Steven Eglinton, Director for EMEA at GeoEnable, from Slideshare by clicking on the image below:

Download MapInfo update, roadmap and social media by Jon Flitton and Tom Probert, Pitney Bowes Software.

Download Is authoritative data worth the price? by Robert Barr.

Download A Brave New World – the impact of Location analytics, Big data and multi-channel on the retail market by Graham Wallace, Senior Business Strategist, ESRI.

Download Smart Cities – Location, The Citizen and Systems by Andy Hudson-Smith, Director and Reader in Digital Urban Systems, CASA.

Agenda for The SLA Forum 2013


Speaker synopsis

Geo-Enabling Retail and Property


By Steven Eglinton, Director, The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) and Director for EMEA, GeoEnable.

In this presentation I will examine how Location Analytics, as a technology solution and a term, is very rapidly becoming a mainstream concept in IT and GIS.

With examples, what one thought of as specialised tools, such as GIS, are now being ‘democratised’ and embedded in easy-to-use business processes and workflows.

With examples of how this could benefit the property and retail sector, I will examine the main and most important trends in, ‘Geospatial’ and Location Analytics that affect anyone involved in spatial analysis or GIS. These trends really are ‘game changers’ compared with the last 35 years of GIS and Location Technologies and need to be understood to leverage the potential benefits.

  1. Cloud GIS – off-premise hosted mapping and location analytics tools. This can dramatically reduce costs and complexity of implementation.
  2. ‘Big Data’ – analysing and visualising vast quantities of near real-time data
  3. Location Analytics – the use of, what would have been called GIS technologies, embedded in systems for NON-specialist users.
  4. Dynamic (Real-time) Mapping
  5. Open Data – Open data from the UK and US for use in business context. This includes postcode data, which is now free to use
  6. Mobility – Real-time maps in people’s pockets! with the ability to edit and capture new data
  7. Embedding Location – Integration of Location in enterprise solutions – esp for Asset Management / ERP
  8. Location for all – Location Analytics is becoming part of peoples’ jobs as part of a workflow. Typically non-specialist users are now leveraging ‘GIS-like’ technologies without even knowing.


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A Brave New World – the impact of Location analytics, Big data and multi-channel on the retail market

By Graham Wallace, Senior Business Strategist, ESRI

The expansion of BI into BI + GIS = Location Analytics and look at some of the Gartner and analyst thoughts and recommendations about the future role of Location Analytics in the retail and Distribution sector.

Here I have in mind an assessment of how existing investment in BI systems can be enhanced by integrating these with GIS – and providing some examples of how this adds value in the Store / site selection process as well as improving data visualization and enhancing the capex management process. I will focus on opportunities to deliver sales and profit improvements with minimal investment

The potential impact of Cloud computing and Big Data

Here the main topics covered will be access to external data sources and trends in data access and data costs. This includes social media feeds and crowd- sourced data as well as an assessment of the quality of these feeds and whether they help or hinder the internal decision making process

What the rise of multi-channel retailing means in terms of capex management and data management

Here the main topic that retailers seem to be grappling with is how to create a standardized environment which integrates feeds from multiple channels and presents as single view of a customer as well as deciding how to allocate capital and investment resource to develop new routes to market. This is tied together by looking at the value of Location Analytics.


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Smart Cities – Location, The Citizen and Systems

Andrew Hudson-Smith, Director and Reader in Digital Urban Systems, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
University College London

The talk looks at the rise of the Internet of Things and its implications for pulling together BIM, Geographical Information Systems and Augmented Reality as a move towards Smart Buildings and Smart Cities.


MapInfo Innovations

Tom Probert, EMEA Product Marketing Manager

  • MapInfo Professional update and road map
  • Resources for you! For example, Community Downloads, White papers, MI Pro journal, Tutorial videos, Ideas portal, etc.

Dr Jonathan Flitton, Senior Analytics & Data Consultant

Some aspects of Social Media data in Site location Analysis – can foursquare check-ins and Instagram locations help retailers?


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Is authoritative data worth the price? – the case of UK address data


By Dr Robert Barr, OBE

In the UK we have some of the most expensive address data in the world (possibly the best, but far from perfect) originally collected by the public sector. However recent changes have resulted in a number of poorly regulated for-profit entities preparing themselves to increase their profits from it. This is likely to lead to a reaction by the big data, web science and volunteered geographic information communities who will probably challenge these monopolies by identifying, collecting, quality assuring and exposing address data in the public domain if this comes to pass.

The questions for government are whether this continuing address war is in the public interest; does the protection of a poorly regulated for profit monopoly / duopoly serve UK plc best or should we follow an increasing number of countries in releasing a maintained national address base as open data?


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Speaker biographies

Graham Wallace, Senior Business Strategist, Esri UK Ltd.

Greg Wallace, Esri
Graham Wallace is Esri UK’s senior strategist with over 30 years Business Planning and Programme Management experience gained in the IT, financial services, telecom & retail sectors.

Working at Board level for a number of FTSE 100 companies much of this work has been focused on strategy, business transformation and M&A activity.

Graham read Geography at Cambridge University.

He is also Director of the AGI (Association for Geographical Information).


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Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith FRSA, Director and Reader in Digital Urban Systems, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London

Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith is Director and Deputy Chair of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at The Bartlett, University College London. Andy is a Reader in Digital Urban Systems and Editor-in-Chief of Future Internet Journal, he is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Greater London Authority Smart London Board and Course Founder of the MRes in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation at University College London. He is also course founder of the new 2014 course MSc in Smart Cities and Urban Analytics .

Twitter @digitalurban web http://www.digitalurban.org


Dr Jon Flitton, Senior Analytics & Data Consultant, Pitney Bowes Software

Dr Jon Flitton, Pitney Bowes Software

Dr Jon Flitton is a Senior Analytics & Data Consultant within the UK Analytics team of Pitney Bowes Software. Having studied the spreading of Nuclear material for his PhD and then research into underwater mine detection and tank camouflage Jon joined a small boutique Retail Analytics company called NumberCraft (run by identical twins Simon and Peter Grindrod (OBE) and David Waters). Jon then joined GeoBusiness on the day it was bought by MapInfo which itself is now part of Pitney Bowes Software.

Jon spends his days solving client problems and playing with lots of data across Europe. These include Retail Sales models, product mix, market segmentation, optimal networks, Open Data, Social Media Data, bus route optimisation and optimally sized postcodes for postcode lotteries.


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Tom Probert, EMEA Product Marketing Manager for Pitney Bowes Software
Tom Probert, Pitney Bowes Software

Tom Probert is the EMEA Product Marketing Manager for Pitney Bowes Software.

He is an ex-pat American, and though with 12 years of experience living in the UK still sounds like a Yankee.

His responsibilities include presenting at MapInfo User events, meeting with customers to understand how we should improve our software and he is the editor for “The MapInfo Professional” monthly journal.


Dr Robert Barr, OBE
Dr Robert Barr, OBE
Bob Barr retired from the University of Manchester after a 30 year career of lecturing, research and consultancy on Geographical Information Systems. His laboratory was spun out as a company, Manchester Geomatics, of which he is now Chairman. He was a Harkness Fellow and studied the use of geographic information for the delivery of social services in the United States; he was also a member of the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit’s policy action team which reported on “Better Information”.
He is a Visiting Professor at Liverpool University and Honorary Fellow at Manchester University. Bob is also a Borough Councillor and on Warrington Borough Council and an independent director of Helena Partnerships, the stock transfer Housing Association for St Helens.
He is currently an active campaigner for the release of Public Sector Information as Open Data and is a member of the Cabinet Office Open Data User Group and of the Ministry of Justice / The National Archives Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information. Bob was made an OBE, for “services to geography” in the 2008 New Year Honours list.


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Steven Eglinton BSc, MBCS, IoD
Council Member, Director, AGI (The UK’s Geospatial Industry Body)
Director, GeoEnable

Steven Eglinton

Steven is a thought leader in the innovative use of Geospatial Solutions, GIS and Location Analysis for Environmental Conservation, Asset Management, Construction and community empowerment. Having been the GIS Coordinator at Iracambi in 2004-2005, he remains involved with a strategic role providing advice to continually develop the mapping, surveying and GIS capabilities at Iracambi.

Following studies in Environmental Biology in the UK, Steven has worked his way from hands-on to strategic GIS roles, in the development, implementation and integration of geospatial and information-centric solutions. Including applying his skills to the UK government (7 years), London Underground, Asset Management and in the construction industry with King’s Cross.

He now understands that true ‘holistic’ solutions require more that ‘tech’ alone, but require innovative thinking; outcome-based management, end-user engagement, senior management backing and (crucially) strong leadership. With this in mind Steven is very active in shaping the Geospatial Industry as Founder and Director of geospatial and information management (IM) solutions company, GeoEnable, and as a Director and Council Member The UK’s Geospatial Membership Body – The AGI.

Steven’s Memberships and affiliations include:

  • Director/Council Member of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) – The UK Geographic Information Industry Body
  • Chair, Membership Committee of the British Cartographic Society (BCS)
  • Chair or the AGI’s Asset Management / GIS special interest group
  • Member of the International Geospatial Society (IGS)
  • Member of BCS – Geospatial Specialist Group
  • Member of the Institute of Asset Management (AIM
  • Member of Esri UK DeveloperHub
  • International GIS Committee Coordinator, Iracambi Research Center

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To register for this free to attend event please email info@thesla.org.

The future of convenience retailing, Manchester, 3rd Sep 2013

Venue: The New Cooperative Group HQ, The Auditorium, 1 Angel Square, Manchester, M60 0AF
Download: Manchester Campus Visitor Guide
Date: Tuesday, 3rd September 2013
Time: 6.00 for 6.30pm
Refreshments will be provided.

Thanks to everyone for attending this event. With over 45 attending and 50 booked it was yet another successful SLA event with some really thought provoking presentations and interesting debates, not to mention excellent catering from The Cooperative Group. Special thanks to our excellent speakers and The Coop for hosting.

Download presentations.

Download “What does convenience mean?” (659 KB) by Blair Freebairn.

Download em>”Market factors & business opportunities in international convenience retailing” (2,581 KB) by Dr Jonathan Reynolds.

Download “The evolving convenience market: a retailers perspective” (1,564 KB) by Mark Harlow.

Introduction

Our next event it taking place at The Cooperative Group’s new headquarters in Manchester on Tuesday 3rd September.
Registration will be from 6pm and the presentations will begin at 6.30pm.

We have an excellent line-up for this event. Joining Mark Harlow, Senior Location Analysis Manager from The Cooperative Group will be Blair Freebairn, Founder and Principle of GeoLytix and Dr Jonathan Reynolds, Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management. Blair will be sharing his thoughts on what convenience means to different customers in a multi-channel, multi-format world and Jonathan will be talking about the market factors and business opportunities in international convenience retailing.

The Co-operative Group will be sharing their experiences in the convenience market, looking at how the convenience market has evolved from a retailers perspective and what challenges remain.

Speakers

  • Jonathan Reynolds – Market factors & business opportunities in international convenience retailing
  • Blair Freebairn – What does convenience mean to different customers in a multi-channel, multi-format world
  • Mark Harlow, Senior Location Analysis Manager, Co-Op – The evolving convenience market: a retailers perspective

Speaker biographies

Dr Jonathan Reynolds, OXIRM
Dr Jonathan Reynolds, Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School

Jonathan Reynolds is Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School.

A geographer and planner by background, he now works with students of marketing and retailing of all ages and leads applied research projects on the sector internationally.

He is the current director of the longstanding Oxford Retail Location Analysis workshop.


Blaire Freebairn
Blair Freebairn, Founder and Principal Geolytix
o Founded Geolytix 2011 to present
o Global head of analytical data and routing at PB MapInfo – 2011
o Manager of the MapInfo UK predictive analytics (PA) business 2009-2011
o Principal architect and methodologist for EMEA PA 2005-2009
o Modeller working in UK retail 2001-2005
o Head of Site Research at UK largest leisure retailer 1997-2001
o Operational management for leisure retailer 1991-1997
o Over the last ten years have served the site research teams at the majority of the top 25 UK retailers

About GeoLytix
o Founded by Blair Freebairn in 2011 to deliver vendor neutral spatial analytical consulting, development and deployment services
o Sarah Hitchcock joined in Oct 2012 from managing the Network Planning team at J Sainsbury’s bringing additional business consulting, project management and training skills
o Recent projects have included bespoke store forecasting models, training, custom data development, system development and consulting projects
o Can be found via www.geolytix.co.uk or by email to blair.freebairn@geolytix.co.uk


Mark Harlow, The Co-operative GroupMark Harlow, Senior Location Analysis Manager, The Co-Operative

Mark has a strong retail background stemming from a number of store management roles at Tesco. He has worked as an Area Manager on the Express format and prior to that managed stores within the Extra hypermarket format.

He has also recently completed his MBA in Retail at Stirling University.

Having initially worked as a Regional Location Analyst, Mark now leads the North team of analysts assessing and delivering on new food retail opportunities for the Co-Operative Group.

NEW DATE – Changing Grocery Store Formats, London, 16th July

St Martin Court, London, CBRE office mapVenue: CBRE, St Martin Court, 10 Paternoster Row, London EC4M 7HP
Nearest tube: St Pauls
Date: 16th July 2013,
Time: 6.00 for 6.30 pm

How to get there

The nearest underground station to CBRE’s offices at 10 St Martins Court is St Paul’s on the Central Line. Take exit 1 out of the tube station and turn left onto Newgate Street. St Martins Court is the second entrance on the left.

Alternatively, if you are coming from Bank underground station on the Northern Line, take exit 1 out of the tube station and head down Poultry, which continues into Cheapside. At the end of Cheapside is a staggered junction and the sign for St Paul’s tube station is visible on the other side of the road. Cross the road, towards the tube station, and walk past the tube entrance onto Newgate Street. St Martins Court is the second entrance on the left.

Refreshments will be provided.

Changing grocery store formats

Are the days of building new grocery hypermarkets finally over? If so, how might formats evolve in future? Our three speakers will give their views on the likely way forward for the UK grocery market.

Speakers

  • A retailers’ view of changes in grocery formats – Andy Thompson, Head of Network Planning & Property Insight at Sainsbury’s
  • Staying ahead of the convenience shopper – Steve Jones, Retail Supermarket Agency & Development at Unilever (formerly Tesco)
  • Evolving store formats – Hamish Macmillan, Associate Director – Supermarket Agency and Development, CBRE

Download presentations:

Steve Jones, Unilever – “Staying ahead of the convenience shopper”

Hamish Macmillan, CBRE – Evolving store formats

Agenda timings for the event:

  • 6.00 – 6.30 Registration
  • 6.30 Introduction – Peter Sleight
  • 6.40 Evolving store formats – Hamish Macmillan
  • 7.00 A retailer’s view of changes in grocery formats – Andy Thompson
  • 7.20 Staying ahead of the convenience shopper – Steve Jones
  • 7.40 Q&A – Jonathan Reynolds, OXIRM, University of Oxford
  • 8.00 Networking
  • 8.45 Close

Speaker biographies

Andy Thompson, Head of Network Planning & Property Insight at Sainsbury’s

Andy began his career in GIS and Location Planning at Laser Scan and then Small World Systems some twenty years ago. He then moved to Rank Group as Market Intelligence Manager, where he met future business partners Jon Walker and Steve Halsall.
Andy Thompson, Sainsbury's
His next venture was to set up his own business, GeoBusiness Solutions, alongside his two former work colleagues, Jon and Steve. GeoBusiness Solutions was an independent location analysis company which grew in success with many customers across retail, property and leisure using their consultancy and modelling skills until its takeover by MapInfo, now Pitney Bowes Business Insight.

Andy enjoyed being his own boss and running his own business so he then set another new company, The Wendover Group for three years before moving on to a completely new venture at Anytime Fitness, where as MD Andy helped to establish this successful brand, with over 2,200 clubs across 14 countries, including US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Anytime Fitness now has 15 clubs open in the UK with plans to double this by the end of 2013.

He is currently working at Sainsbury’s heading up their Network Planning and Property Insight team.

Steve Jones, Senior Format Manager, Unilever

Steve began his working live in GIS and Research at Jones Lang LaSalle where he stayed for 3 years before moving on Tesco where he worked in location planning, corporate marketing, international and Tesco Express for 10 years. Then after a brief spell as a Retail Consultant at CBRE he joined Unilver where he is Senior Format Manager.

Steve will be talking about how the C-sector has been through a period of great change in the last 20 years, and continues to be one of the most dynamic and fastest growing grocery channels. So what’s next? What will shoppers want from their local stores in the future? And how will retailers develop their store propositions to stay ahead of the game and grow sales?

Hamish Macmillan, Associate Director – Supermarket Agency and Development, CBRE

Hamish MacMillan, CBRE
Hamish Macmillan is Retail Supermarket Agency & Development in CB Richard Ellis Retail Division and works in the Supermarket Group within the Division.

Hamish is an associate director within CBRE’s retail supermarket agency and supermarket team. Having acted for many major developers on in town retail led schemes for parties such as Hammerson, Land Securities, Lendlease to name a few, he now concentrates on developer led clients initiating supermarket led schemes throughout the UK.

Dr Jonathan Reynolds, OXIRM
Dr Jonathan Reynolds, Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School

Jonathan Reynolds is Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School.

A geographer and planner by background, he now works with students of marketing and retailing of all ages and leads applied research projects on the sector internationally.

He is the current director of the longstanding Oxford Retail Location Analysis workshop (which next runs between 8-10 April, 2013).


To reserve your place please email info@thesla.org