Take a Break with 1Spatial’s Phill Ridley

Tell us about yourself? 

I joined 1Spatial back in April 2019 after deciding to pivot my career from working in delivery to move into a sales-based role, and pre-sales seemed like a good place to start. I came into the GIS industry after finishing my geography degree at Plymouth University where I didn’t know what to do with my life, so did another degree. I enjoyed the GIS course on my degree and therefore decided to do a masters in GIS up at Nottingham. After university I spent 5 years working for a crime prevention company called SmartWater, during which time I trained as a criminal intelligence analyst. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds – I thought I was going to be like James Bond on the French Riveria but instead I was at a conference centre in Wyboston Lakes for 2 weeks. 

At 1Spatial I work in the Government team, supporting the wider accounts across the vertical with business development. I’m also taking the lead on establishing policing as a new sector in the vertical. 

I live with my wife Hannah and our cat Ella in South West London, and when I’m not in lockdown I enjoy travelling as well as my music and bellringing hobby commitments. 

Fun fact about you? 

I was one of the team who rang the bells at Westminster Abbey non-stop for over 3 hours in a marathon performance to announce the birth of Prince Louis, third child of William and Kate.  

What do you enjoy most about working at 1Spatial? 

I really enjoy the range of customers we have and get to work with, and the positive relationship that 1Spatial has with their customers. It means we can work closely with them to develop exciting and innovative projects and solutions. 

What are your favourite geospatial products/technologies and why? 

After discovering 1Integrate I am really impressed with the way you can define how you want your data to be written with positive rules without the need for any coding. I can think of a number of times before being at 1Spatial that it would have been helpful in delivering projects where the data was a bit tricky to work with! 

What’s the most interesting solution problem or data challenge you’ve tackled? 

I think for me it was the Avon & Somerset Police POC we ran back in the summer of 2020. Having done lots of market research and seen the desire for policing to be more data driven, and therefore need to improve their data quality this was a great project to start thinking with almost a blank piece of paper! If you want to find out more about this work there is a blog and an on-demand webinar. 

What do you love about working in the Government team? 

In the Government team we have a real sense of 1 team working together. Everyone is always happy to muck in wherever needed, even if it isn’t in their job description to make sure that we deliver the best results we can for our clients. That combined with the knowledge and experience of the team means we’re always thinking “what can we do next?!” which makes every day interesting and exciting. 

What makes 1Spatial a great place to work? 

I have really enjoyed that, despite being locked down, we have been able to remain closely connected, and that is due to the attitude of those I work closely with at 1Spatial. We are a team who always look out for each other and take a team approach to our work. I’ve spent more time at 1Spatial working in lockdown now than I have seeing everyone in person, and can’t wait until we are all back together again! 

If you were given an airline ticket to go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why? 

Antarctica! It looks like such an adventure and would be something completely different. Hannah said it looks too cold and she would stay behind, so anyone fancy coming along?!