Breakfast Roundtable

Capacity Development Program to Strengthen National Geospatial Ecosystems (Invitation Only)

Date: 9th September 2025 // Time: 0730-0900 hrs

Background

As nations increasingly rely on geospatial information to drive digital transformation, infrastructure modernization, and long-term economic development, the urgency for robust, future-ready geospatial capacity development has never been greater. Despite rapid technological progress, significant disparities persist in how countries adopt, integrate, and institutionalize geospatial tools—often due to limited technical expertise, legacy institutional frameworks, and insufficient infrastructure.

Current international efforts to enhance geospatial capacities remain fragmented and under-leveraged. Bridging these gaps requires a coherent, collaborative approach that reflects the diverse operational priorities of national stakeholders—including national governments, industry leaders, researchers, and local communities.

To support this effort, the Geospatial World Secretariat has established the Global Advisory Board for Advancing Capacity Development Toward Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure. This group will guide multistakeholder collaboration, generate evidence-based insights, and develop a shared roadmap to strengthen national geospatial ecosystems.

Key priorities of the Advisory Board include:

  • Mapping the national and global geospatial capacity development landscape across stakeholder groups, including National Mapping and Geospatial Agencies (NMAs), the geospatial and space industries, end-user organizations, research institutions, and academia;
  • Identifying capacity and capability gaps, structural obstacles, and institutional inefficiencies;
  • Recommending strategic, policy-aligned, and innovation-enabled interventions;
  • Promoting collaborative models that deliver accessible, high-impact geospatial solutions;
  • Providing strategic oversight on design, implementation, and stakeholder engagement to ensure alignment with domestic priorities, global trends, and evolving technologies.

About the Roundtable:

To advance the global geospatial capacity agenda, Geospatial World is hosting a high-level breakfast dialogue alongside the GeoGov Summit, taking place September 8–10, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Dulles, USA. This exclusive gathering will bring together senior leaders and strategic partners to explore three interlinked themes central to strengthening geospatial capacity development.

Insights from the dialogue will inform a flagship publication, Advancing Capacity Development Toward Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure: Pathways for Stakeholder Empowerment, to be launched at Geospatial World Forum 2026. The paper will present actionable strategies to enhance geospatial capabilities at national, regional, and institutional levels—critical for building a competitive, innovation-driven future.

Themes & Objectives

Theme 1: Strengthening National Geospatial Capacity Ecosystems

Discussion Focus:

  • Evaluate the status of geospatial capacity across public, private, academic, and community sectors
  • Identify persistent obstacles, workforce shortages, and institutional limitations that hinder effective national geospatial systems
  • Explore approaches to build agile, future-ready, and strategically aligned geospatial ecosystems tailored to national priorities
Theme 2: Advancing Strategic Frameworks and Collaborative Models for Capacity Development

Discussion Focus:

  • Share successful capacity-building models and metrics for measuring progress and outcomes
  • Define the roles of stakeholders in co-creating a scalable, technology-aligned capacity development roadmap
  • Promote strategic partnerships, policy innovation, and institutional collaboration to accelerate long-term growth
Theme 3: Building an Innovation-Ready Geospatial Workforce

Discussion Focus:

  • Align workforce development with emerging technology trends and national innovation goals
  • Address present and future workforce challenges through upskilling, reskilling, and curriculum modernization
  • Enhance geospatial workflows and tools to support better decision-making and national infrastructure strategy
  • Identify underutilized opportunities with high potential for sector-wide transformation

Proposed Agenda

Time Session
5 mins

Welcome, Context & Introduction

Facilitator: Chair, Geospatial World
Set the stage with an overview of the Advisory Board’s goals and the importance of the capacity development agenda.

15 mins

Theme 1: Strengthening the National Geospatial Capacity Development Ecosystem

  • Review of current capacity landscapes across sectors (government, industry, academia, civil society)
  • Challenges: workforce shortages, institutional limitations, infrastructure gaps, and funding barriers - Insights into the limitations of existing capacity-building efforts
15 mins

Theme 2: Advancing Strategic Frameworks and Collaborative Models

  • Exchange of successful, scalable capacity development models and why they work
  • Lessons from ineffective efforts
  • Roles of stakeholders in shaping an integrated, forward-looking roadmap
  • Early ideas for baseline indicators and long-term monitoring frameworks
15 mins

Theme 3: Building an Innovation-Ready Geospatial Workforce

  • Long-term ecosystem building
  • Preparing the workforce to meet innovative demands
  • Tackling education and training gaps
  • Integrating emerging technologies and identifying high-impact opportunities
10 mins

Synthesis: Defining Immediate and Long-Term Priorities

Expected Outcomes

  • A Shared Understanding of Priority Areas for Geospatial Capacity Development
    A clear, stakeholder-driven assessment of critical capacity gaps and structural barriers across sectors, helping define national and subnational priorities for building modern, innovation-ready geospatial ecosystems.
  • Actionable Pathways for Collaborative, Technology-Aligned Capacity Building
    Strategic recommendations for developing co-created capacity frameworks—featuring scalable partnerships, policy enablers, and workforce strategies—that align with current innovation trajectories and national development objectives.

Interested in joining this ‘invitation-only’ session? Write to Supriya Krishnan, Associate Partner-Consulting, Geospatial World, at supriya@geospatialworld.net for signing in.