Geospatial Risk Summit
The inaugural Geospatial Risk Summit took place in New York, Jan 29 - 30, 2025. What began as a crazy idea by the formidable Tee Barr and taken over by Priscilla Cole, was wildly successful, uniting over 200 professionals from very different sectors around the common theme of Geospatial Risk. This conference explored how the private sector is tackling physical & climate risk, from their data, tools, strategy, and portfolio management. We brought together industry leaders in finance, insurance, supply chain, energy, and healthcare. We saw a healthy turnout from the startup community, data & tech platforms, and industry veterans looking at risk in a new way.
The Summit in 2025 was an extravaganza! - taking place in the glitzy Hard Rock Hotel in midtown, Manhattan. We're not repeating this blow-out event in 2026, but continuing the movement with smaller, pop-up, and heavily partnered events.
NEW: Geospatial Risk LinkedIn Page
2025 LinkedIn Summit Group (retiring soon)
Archived Summit Podcast Interviews
Sessions & Speakers:
Morning Keynote
Paul Shotton
White Diamond Risk Advisory
Afternoon Keynote
Mike Spaeth
Earth Daily Analytics
Master of Ceremonies
Priscilla Cole
Geospatial Risk Summit
Panel 1: Observations of Physical Risk - From Satellites to Social Media
What is considered data when it comes to signals about planetary conditions, weather, disruptions, and damage? In this panel, we explore a variety of data inputs and the industries that they inform.
Moderator:
Priscilla Cole
Andy Read
ICEYE - VP Gov Solutions
Nima Pahlevan
NASA HQ - Program Scientist & Manager
Erik Weber
ISeeChange - VP Product & Operations
Noam Rosenthal
Kettle - Head of Product
Panel 2: Translation of Data to Domain
Candid conversation about the struggle to make data useful and deliver insights to the people who need it. This brave bunch have pivoted, upskilled, and crawled through the trenches to build products that meet their markets.
Moderator:
Will Cadell
SparkGeo - Founder & CEO
Chris Sams
NearMap - Product Management Lead
Ajay Gupta
HSR.health - CEO & Co-founder
Yana Bebieva
Swiss Re - VP, Nat Cat & Climate Risk Modeling Advisor
Panel 3: Portfolio Risk & Response - Assets, Finance, Insurance
Moderator:
Elizabeth Foughty
Elizabeth Foughty LLC - Strategy consultant
Lou Bonanno
Arch - AVP, Property Underwriting
José Miranda
CPCU, ARM, CCRMP
Vantage Risk - VP, Group Risk Analytics
Ken Zockoll
Spatial Risk Systems - CEO & Founder
Joel Scata
NRDC - Senior Attorney, Water & Climate
Panel 4: GeoAI - Managing Technical, Legal, Ethical Risks
Experts will address the technical challenges, such as data accuracy, bias, and model transparency, while also considering the legal implications of data privacy, intellectual property, and regulatory compliance. Ethical concerns, including potential misuse, fairness, and the impact on vulnerable populations, will be central to the conversation.
The panel will drive insights on how to balance innovation with responsibility, ensuring GeoAI benefits society while minimizing harm and preserving trust in geospatial technologies.
Moderator: Tee Barr
Geospatial Disastertech | Insurtech | Climatetech | Leadership
Daniela Moody
Perennial - CTO
Kevin Pomfret
Attorney, Author | Geospatial Law, AI, Privacy
Nataliya Tkachenko
Lloyds Banking Group, Sustainable AI Ethics Lead
Franklin Manchester, CPCU
SAS - Global Insurance Strategic Advisor
Panel 5: Risk in Movement - Supply Chain, Event Tracking, Telemetry, & Logistics
Risks like weather are always on the move. Fixed assets move in and out statuses of danger, and sometimes the assets themselves are traveling, bearing risk inherent to movement and intersections with extreme events. Hear various perspectives of tracking assets and risks on the move.
Moderator:
Matt Schmidt
Ecopia - Senior Associate
Sadie Frank
ENES - Co-founder
Jim Young
Atomic Maps - Managing Director
Catherine Bohn
Dewberry - Project Manager
Kari Primiano
New Light Technologies - Product Solutions Engineer
See the Pictures!
Technical Workshops - January 29th, 2025
Jump into this action-packed training session where top data scientists, analysts, & engineers show off risk analytics applied to real world problems. See how climate and disasters impact portfolios, properties, claims, business interruptions, emergency management, and more. The talks will be data and code heavy, so buckle-up! (Space is limited.)
Speakers:
Helen McKenzie
CARTO - Geospatial Advocate
Ryan Abernathey
Earthmover - Scientist, CEO, Founder
Frank Romo
RomoGIS - CEO & Geospatial Consultant
Matt Forrest
Author Spatial SQL - Wherobots (former Carto)
Daniel Smith
Wherobots - "Cloud native insurance risk concentration analysis"
Moderator: Evan Picard
Geo Data Engineer
Sponsors & Supporters
Who's Attends *
Insurance, Modeling, Finance
Swiss Re
Munich Re
Arch
FM Global
Liberty Mutual
Milliman
Vantage Risk
Kettle
Reask
reThought
Verisk
Moody's RMS
SAS
Lloyds Banking Group
Delloite
ICE (NY Stock Exchange)
White Diamond Risk Advisory
Data Producers, EO, Remote Sensing
ICEYE
Nearmap
Ecopia
Earth Daily
NASA
EIO Space
Planet
Supply Chain, Energy, Healthcare
ENES
HSR.health
I See Change
Atomic Maps
Dewberry
Media, Groups, Universities
TerraWatch Space
Climate Proof
Geospatial Index
NY Climate Cities
Climate Pints
ClimateTech Connect
InsNerds (Nick Lamparelli)
Data Spartan
AGS
Geo2050
GISMO
RomoGIS
NY Climate Exchange
WGIC Council
NRDC
Department of Energy
NY Academy of Science
NYU
Columbia Climate School
St. John's School of Risk Manag.
Taylor Geospatial Institute
Villanova
John Jay College
San Diego State University
Analytics companies & Platforms
Wherobots
CARTO
ESRI
Earthmover
New Light Technologies
Restack Earth
Perennial
MSCI
AWS
Spatial Risk Systems
Inframappa
Maptycs
Map Guru
True Flood Risk
ARUP
Opterrix
Vibrant Planet
Veritree
SparkGeo
Arturo.ai
IQ Spatial
BSR
T-Kartor
Hydronos Labs
Element84
Second State Solutions
New Forecast
Airborne Snow Observatories
Insurance & Mobility Solutions
Cowi
Array Labs
Faura
* Companies represent parties who purchased tickets or expressed verbal interest in attending.