Denise McKenzie is a strategic advisor, partnership builder, and presenter with over 20 years of experience with the global geospatial community. Currently, she is a co-Director of the Benchmark Initiative operating through Ordnance Survey’s Geovation accelerator, exploring the ethical use of location data, and is in the process of completing a Masters in Sustainability with the University of Southampton.

In the broader geospatial community, she is the Chair of the board of directors for the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) in the UK, is a member of the Global Advisory Board for the Location Based Marketing Association, and a steering committee member for both Women in Geospatial+ and GEO Business.

We spoke to Denise to find out more about her background and get her thoughts on all things geospatial.

When did you start and how did you get into geospatial?

I think you could say I “fell into” geospatial over 20 years ago now. I was fresh out of university as a Public Policy & Politics graduate in the Victorian Government Public Service and in my first few roles worked for the Valuer General, then Surveyor General and then into a new area called Land Information Group that was using GIS to help underpin a vast amount of decision making across government. Following that I spent 12 years evangelising the benefits of geospatial and explaining its value to anyone that would listen and overseeing some incredible innovations across the profession. And that has pretty much what I have done since in both my OGC roles, and now as a consultant with Benchmark Initiative and the boards that I work with across the profession.

What is the most exciting element of your current role?

Benchmark Initiative has allowed me to explore areas and learn more about geospatial in ways that I didn’t expect. As a profession I think we are sensational at talking about the technical capabilities of what we do, but the human and environmental aspects are tough and ethics / responsible use is really about these and not doing harm with the amazing technology we have. The exciting part is that I believe with the new Locus Charter that this will start a new dialogue and culture for us as a profession and one that I hope will help us all to be even better at what we do and how to use our skill to make the world a better place.

Who from the profession has been the biggest inspiration in your career?

There is no one individual, but these days I am always inspired by the generations and young leaders that are coming after me. I simply love hearing their ideas, thoughts and hope for the future of the profession. I had the privilege of mentoring two incredibly talented ladies last year and I am sure I learnt far more from them than they did from me!

What is the most impressive geospatial innovation you have seen in the last five years?

I think it has to be the one we are experiencing now with the use of AI to feature detect, but also to expand our analysis of the world around us. We are really only at the edge of what this innovation will bring and it will ultimately change the way we have done geospatial over the last 30+ years.

Where in your opinion has geospatial contributed the most in the fight against Covid?

Hmm, this is a tough one. As sadly, I don’t think it was utilised as well as it should have been. If you take for example tracing apps, generally the uptake was not enough to make the right difference and it would appear that how they were implemented and what people understood of them was not as good as it should have been. Or the large Covid maps of the world where the way countries collected and reported data was all different, so the underlying data was inconsistent. This said, the role that geospatial has in helping us all recover from what has happened is critical. Whether that is managing transport, understanding new configurations for office space or the major responsibilities around not letting emissions go back to the levels they once were.

What do you think the future of geospatial will be?

I hope an ever evolving and learning future, and one that eventually means that it is such an integrated part of people’s lives that they just expect it to be there. To be successful though, I do think we need to spend a bit more time thinking not just about how we talk about the technical aspects of what we do, but how we explain the real-world impact of what we do. Because as great as our technology might be, it is the positive impact on the world that is what really counts.

You can find out more about Denise’s work by visiting her website here.