If you’re going to get anywhere in business, you’ll need have some idea of how you’re going to get there. You might call that a strategic plan, maybe a business model. Whatever you call it, it’s basically a map: a sketch of the possible paths from A to B. 

Maps are pretty useful. The business of making them — cartography — has gotten pretty sophisticated. We’re not using sketchbooks and astronomical positioning like Lewis and Clark. We’ve got satellites, global positioning systems, LIDAR, radar and other digitizable data points to describe the world around us on a map. 

All of that can now be condensed into layers with rich levels of information. GIS mapping is the standard now. And the way Mike Donlon explains it, in GIS the where meets the what. 

Mike grew up in Boston loving maps, science and math. He got degrees in mechanical engineering and archaeology, went into telecommunications engineering, and climbed to a senior role before deciding he didn't want to do it for another decade.

So in his late twenties he went looking for a growing industry, found cartography, and followed it into GIS — geographic information systems. He started over at entry level. It stuck.

Mike joined Lafayette based engineering services company Fenstermaker four years ago and now manages its GIS team, a small group that works across the firm's engineering, surveying and environmental divisions. They fly drones over coulees for Lafayette's drainage work. They map sewer lines and sidewalks. And after a state law required schools to digitize their floor plans, they worked with Lafayette 911 to standardize plans for about seventy schools in a few months — maps first responders can now pull up from their vehicles.

His team, Mike says, touches everything.

Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Gravy in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.