Locatrix Wins Geospatial Excellence Award

Since its inception in 2002, the Geospatial Council of Australia has become the leading authority representing the interests of organizations and individuals in the geospatial sector. This includes both established professionals and those new to the field, working across a wide range of occupations in surveying, space, and spatial technologies within the digital landscape.

The Geospatial Excellence Awards serve as the industry’s foremost platform for celebrating the achievements of top geospatial organizations and individuals. These awards showcase the finest projects and recognize the significant contributions made by professionals in the field.

Locatrix is thrilled to share that on the 5th of September 2024, it was awarded the Innovation Award for Small Business, in recognition for its collaborative initiative, the Emergency Services Platform (ESP).

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Deputy Chair of the Geospatial Council of Australia Alistair Byrom’s speech acknowledged the partnerships involved and highlighted the Judge’s observations:

“This collaboration with NSW Police, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and Queensland Police has been recognised as one that will improve situational awareness for First Responders when faced with an emergency situation”.

“Since March 2019, Locatrix has been collaborating with emergency services and agencies to develop a ground-breaking way to share its extensive inventory of accurate and up-to-date digital indoor floor plans. This initiative aims to provide first responders with the most current, digitised and geo-referenced building information”.

“Helping to mitigate risks, protect people, and to keep communities safe. Locatrix believes that providing enhanced building intelligence will assist operational commands with the tools they need to react swiftly and effectively during emergencies where every second counts. Currently, the NSW Police are piloting this program, integrating it with the geospatial emergency management intelligence system”.

“The judges know that the primary purpose of geospatial data is to offer more accurate and regular insights into the real world, enabling better decision-making for optimum outcomes”.

“This initiative excels in this regard, by granting emergency service access to invaluable spatial data on the ever-changing internal layouts of buildings, leading to faster, safer and more informed decision-making that protects both emergency response crews and the communities they serve, I congratulate you on all of this”.

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John Hummelstad, CEO of Locatrix was thrilled to accept the award, noting the overall mission and intent to improve situational awareness for first responders: 

“This is an incredible award for us, to have been piloting this program for five years, and all of you in this room have done an extraordinary job of mapping every square inch of the outside world. And what we've found is emergency responders, their greatest challenge is finding the emergency information; the indoors”.

“So, to affect emergencies, save lives and ensure the safety of occupants in emergency situations is a big deal and they take it very seriously. We came out of the fire service in 2009, so we really have it in our DNA as a project and it's an incredibly interesting project. NSW Police, VIC Police, QLD Police and QFES”.

“I'd just like to thank the Geospatial Council of Australia for this award, it's a really big deal for us.” 

Over the course of the project, which has been championed by John Hummelstad and sponsored by retired Police and Fire Commissioners Alan Clarke APM and Lee Johnson AFSM, many senior members of Emergency Services have endorsed the initiative and provided support to see it come to fruition.  We would like to thank and acknowledge all of these leaders who have seen the bigger picture, with the intent to improve public safety and better inform first responders who put their lives on the line every day.

Locatrix would love to see every agency benefit from the sharing of critical building information to improve situational awareness in the hope to improve public safety the world over.  For more information please get in touch.

With this win, Locatrix immediately qualifies as a finalists in the Oceanic Geospatial Awards to be announced in April 2025 - wish us luck!

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