LYING TO OURSELVES IS A TERRIBLE STRATEGY FOR ST. LOUIS

The region needs a reality check about its delusional tech sector claims

The self-appointed guardians of the St. Louis region proclaimed this week that we are “the country’s center for geospatial technology.”

No, we’re not. Not even close. There’s not a shred of evidence that the geospatial technology industry regards St. Louis as a top-10 market, much less the center of its world. We’d be lucky to rank in the top 20.

Cities such as Boston, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Chicago and New York – the list goes on – serve as major activity hubs and headquarters for the top geospatial companies in the nation. Right now. In the real world.

I can’t imagine any of these cities making bodacious claims about serving as the nation’s “center” for the industry. They don’t need to.

Neither does St. Louis unless the mission is to raise funds and stroke egos at Greater St. Louis Inc. (GSL). There, the business leadership has taken an important priority – becoming a larger player ­­in the geospatial space ­– and exploited it for a trip to fantasyland.

Consider this whopper in GSL’s latest newsletter under its “GEOFUTURES” branding. It attempted to glom on to a convention coming next month to St. Louis.

“Highlighting St. Louis’ role as the country’s center for geospatial technology, GEOINT Symposium, the nation’s largest annual gathering of GEOINT professionals, will return to America’s Center this May 21-24.”

Whatever. If the selection of St. Louis highlighted anything, it was some good work by the oft-maligned Explore St. Louis in selling the city to host the prestigious, 4,000-attendee convention. There had to be serious competition.

But that sale was closed in June 2019, a full year before the rollout of the GeoFutures Strategic Road Map touting the emergence of a grand new path forward. It was 18 months before GSL was created and three years before the Taylor Geospatial Institute was announced.

Only with a crystal ball could the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation have decided in 2019 to “highlight” St. Lous’ self-imagined role as the center of its universe. But that didn’t deter GSL from shoveling this to its followers:

“The St. Louis geospatial ecosystem has continued to show why we are the nation’s hub for geospatial technology, and this year will be no different. Through the STLMade booth, events, and leadership on the main stage of the GEOINT Symposium, attendees will see that St. Louis is a unified engine of geospatial growth, an exciting metro with a highly organized geospatial industry cluster executing a well-defined plan — the GeoFutures Strategic Roadmap — to establish St. Louis as the global center for geospatial innovation, growth, and opportunity.”

Wow.

Far be it from me to suggest that, after the conference, these Mensa-level tech people won’t return to their hometowns saying things like, “Hey, that St. Louis is one exciting metro! I’m especially impressed with their highly organized industry cluster and that well-defined plan. What a hub!”

That’s not all. Our visitors are going to learn this about us, according to the newsletter:

“They will also see how St. Louis is a diverse and welcoming community that fosters collaboration and connects and businesses to growth opportunities.”

You talking about us?

Look, I’ve been complaining for years that St. Louis needs to get over its civic inferiority complex. We are a great city with all sorts of amazing attributes to be proud of. We need to believe in ourselves and promote our strengths with passion. Too often we overreact to the smallest slight in the national media. We need to be comfortable in our skin.

But we also need a sense of realism as to what we can achieve. It’s hard to set attainable goals when you're awash in a sea of nonsensical, new-age corporate gibberish.

St. Louis is poised to become a larger player in the geospatial arena. The new NGA headquarters in North St. Louis represents a terrific foundation to build upon.

But outrageous hyperbole isn’t going to get that done.

The Taylor Geospatial Institute, which was unveiled one year ago to the day, offers a good example of this. It’s a solid initiative bringing together eight important institutions to collaborate on a new research center.

As the Post-Dispatch reported, it plans to “fund research and develop programs to draw top scientists to St. Louis (and) hire research support staff, house cutting-edge equipment and computing power, and build an extensive data library in a bid to draw the top minds in the field here.”

What’s not to like? And there has been a stream of nice local news stories lately about some good hires, grants and studies. It’s off to a nice start. There hasn’t been much national coverage, but that’s understandable: It takes time.

But the Institute is already promoting itself on its website as “the Nation’s Leading Geospatial Research Collaborative.” Why? Don’t you think we should wait until the nation finds out about it?

I’d like to propose a bold new strategy for promoting St. Louis and its many assets. Including our expansion into the tech sector. It goes something like this:

Be real.