Talking Spatial

A recent community post sparked a massive question: Is FME at risk of becoming a tool used exclusively to support expensive legacy systems?

In this fireside chat from London, Safe Software’s Don tackles this "elephant in the room" directly and explains why he is incredibly excited about the future of data integration. As the development landscape shifts from visual programming with a blank canvas to collaborating with AI agents, FME is evolving rapidly. Here's the key topics we cover in this episode: 

• The Viral Community Post: Don's candid reaction to the fear of FME becoming a 'legacy' tool and why feeling uncomfortable is a crucial driver for innovation.
• The Power of MCP (Model Context Protocol): FME's unique position as an MCP server, which allows AI agents to securely interact with, query, and construct FME workflows without friction.
• On-Premises AI & Security: The reality that the future is not solely in the cloud, alongside an examination of air-gapped systems, local LLMs, and the growing importance of data sovereignty.
• The Changing FME Workspace: The potential shift away from monolithic, thousand-transformer workspaces towards bite-sized, deterministic building blocks orchestrated by AI.
• Looking Ahead: A sneak peek at the FME UC in London (March 2027), the elements of a great speaker abstract, and an exclusive leak regarding the next UC location.

Today we have a very special podcast. We have invited two presenters to take a look at our company by showing them our website (www.tensing.com). What makes it special is the fact that the presenters are not flesh-and-blood people, but are made of generated A.I. content. 

Their conclusions are quite realistic, please listen for yourself :) 

Dave Laurier travels to Vancouver, British Columbia and speaks with Don Murray and Dale Lutz, the co-founders of the Canadian software company Safe Software.

Their Data Integration Platform, FME, is the one and only spatially aware data integration platform. Making FME the undisputed Data Integration platform within the geospatial industry.

Don and Dale explain why a Data Integration platform is necessary, how it works and what it can mean to you.

Dave also asks them about their company's purpose which is about improving lives, life and the health of our planet and queries them around fun at work, corporate responsibility and their advice to young talent in the geospatial industry. 

Learn more around Don and Dale, the co-founders and co-CEO's of Safe Software at https://www.safe.com/about/history-leadership/

For more information around FME, the only spatially aware Data Integration Platform, please visit the Safe Software website at  https://www.safe.com/fme/

This podcast is brought to you by Dave Laurier and Tensing, an Avineon company. Learn more about us at https://www.tensing.com 

Dave Laurier travels to Palm Springs, USA and speaks with Jack Dangermond. Jack is the co-founder, together with Laura Dangermond, of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a privately held Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software company.

Together they talk about the world's challenges today which are big and complex and the GIS acting as the intelligent nervous system for the planet can help solve those challenges.

For more information about Dave Laurier or Avineon-Tensing please visit our corporate website at https://www.tensing.com  or read the blog about this episode (Dutch)  at https://www.tensing.com/blog/talking-spatial-gis-als-ruimtelijk-zenuwstelsel