Launching Make-a-Map at the Cycle and Tri Expo, BIC, Bournemouth

We’re in Celebratory mood this month as we celebrated two 1 year anniversaries.

• 1 year since we incorporated and
• 1 year since we launched our initial Kickstarter Crowd sourcing funding campaign.

It was great to share our one year experience at the Crowd Funding conference organised by VAAC and involving @crowdsourcinguk with terrific examples of success such as @SlindonForge.  For me it was a great lesson on how the power of the crowd is being used to restore community facilities (pubs, local shops, clubs and events).

We owe so much to the #geomob community who supported us during the Kickstarter phase.  So it was a privilege for us to step forward as the latest sponsor of this group, joining KnowWhere and OpenCage.

This month, we had a great response to the launch of “Make-a-Map“, our custom map service which we launched over two great South Coast events.

The first was the #bognorcrowd at Chichester University where we were able to demonstrate the Make-a-Map application in front of an audience of 70 entrepreneurs.  It’s always a great relief when a live internet demo passes without hitch… so much that can go wrong.  But the work we had done with local businesses Devork and WP Doctors was solid and the internet itself didn’t let us down.

The second was at the Cycle & Tri Expo at Bournemouth’s International Centre (BIC).  Orders were raised at both and people are getting some pretty tailored maps for Christmas now!

Toward the end of the month we’ve been working solidly with traffic and location consultency, Steer Davies, Gleave on an exciting project we’ll announce in the new year.  This follows the announcement of out “Cartographer of the Month” initiative at CartoSoc in September.

Taking part with park authority, land administrators and event organisers on how to maintain the South Downs Way

We’re also getting more involved in the national trails and parks.  These areas are the lungs of our country, and with half the National Parks in Great Britain now retailing SplashMaps, we leapt at the chance to contribute our views and took part in the South Downs Way Events liaison in Lewes.  Together with The National Trust, the South Downs National Park Authority we joined with the big South Downs Event organisers to discuss how this well-used way can be maintained in the decline of public funding.  It was great to meet Footprints, World Challenge, Purple Trail, 209 Events and Brave Events and learn what we can do, collectively to keep the national trail alive.  A pause for thought … did you know it costs between £7 000 and £12 000 to surface 1/2 km of the 100 mile way… and that will only last 7 years?  Through local and national taxation we contribute £2 per person… there is a significant shortfall!

So it’s happy birthday SplashMaps, Happy run-up to #Mapmas for our friends… and think about the ground beneath your feet, wheels and hooves when you’re doing a challenge!