The problem to be solved by GeoConnect, an event today at T-REX downtown, is a gap between industry and government.
Now that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has stayed in St. Louis and almost finished its new campus, Next NGA West (N2W), various private companies have either sprung up or relocated here. Many hope to win contracts with the agency, and the NGA is interested in collaborating with them, too. Hence its move to set up Moonshot Labs, which it describes as “an unclassified innovation hub and collider space” at the downtown coworking space T-REX.
Yet, as T-REX spokesperson Noah Butler points out, the sensitive nature of the agency’s work—intelligence and combat support—means that contracting with it can be difficult to navigate. So the idea behind GeoConnect is for companies to come in and learn more directly from the NGA about what the possibilities are and how to realize them.
