A Look Back at the Year 2024

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A new year has arrived, and it’s once again time to look back at what we at Regio will remember about 2024.

Developing Company Strategy with Support from EIS

Regio’s range of products and services is very broad. But who exactly are we aiming to serve, and in which markets do we want to grow? Regio’s management team had the opportunity to participate in a four-month strategy workshop program (December 2023 – March 2024) run by the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (EIS). Immediately after the program, we held a full-day strategy session with the entire Regio team, led by growth strategist Indrek Saul.

We learned how to map our business directions and how to think more broadly — to define the specific fields we want to move toward. Now, 10 months later, we can say that we’ve broken down our goals and actions into manageable pieces, visualized them, and even printed them out on paper. That way, they’re always in front of us and help us stay on course.

Moving to a New Office

In April, we moved into new office space in Tartu — roughly 400 meters closer to the city center. After eight years in our previous office, we simply ran out of space — both literally and figuratively. Now we have more light and space, our ideas are more ambitious, and even our houseplants are thriving.

A small photo report from the move and AI-generated poetry can be found in our blog:
https://www.regio.ee/blog/2024/06/26/regio-kolimisroom

Cooperation with Guardtime OÜ in ESA’s “Civil Security from Space” Program

The global space industry is projected to grow by 185% over the next decade — by 2035, it’s expected to reach a market volume of €1.7 trillion! Estonia is aiming to be part of this boom, and thanks to our membership in the European Space Agency (ESA), we have a solid foundation to build on.

Although Regio has long been involved with space technologies, the topic has now returned to our strategic focus. We’re proud that Guardtime invited Regio to participate in the ESA “Civil Security from Space” program through the “MapGuard” project — an innovative emergency mapping service. “MapGuard” combines real-time satellite data with blockchain technology to offer secure and reliable solutions for crisis management and evacuation planning. Regio’s experts contribute by analyzing and integrating satellite imagery to ensure high-quality and trustworthy data for emergency response.

Becoming a Member of the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce

Since October, Regio has been a member of the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce (AHK). We’ve had excellent partnerships with various German institutions and companies for over 20 years, and in 2024, exports to Germany made up approximately 40% of our turnover.

In addition to AHK, Regio is also a member of the Estonian E-Commerce Association and the Estonian Publishers Association.

Migrating Regio’s Baltic Spatial Database to Open-Source PostgreSQL

The migration of Regio’s spatial database to PostgreSQL took nearly a year and a half and was completed by mid-2024. The transition was done step by step, topic by topic — all while continuously testing and keeping Regio’s services running.

We’ve been building our spatial databases for 30 years, and open-source software already plays a major role in our operations. Regio geoinformatics expert Püü Polma presented how the migration was accomplished at the European FOSS4GE conference in Tartu in July 2024. You can watch his talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xdTDwAsXT4

30DayMapChallenge

The annual mapping challenge (#30DayMapChallenge) began in 2019 and offers mapping enthusiasts the chance to create and share one map each day throughout November on social media under a daily theme. Regio joined the challenge for the first time in 2024, making November a particularly creative and educational month for our cartographers.

You can read about the maps we created and our reflections on the challenge in our blog.

Political Wall Map of the World

Regio’s political world map received a major update in 2024. The first version was created in 1993 as an A3-sized print. A wall map version followed shortly after, but since then, the design hadn’t changed much. Last year, we undertook a full redesign, including the addition of shaded relief for a modern look.

You can read more about the considerations that come with creating a political world map in our blog: How a World Map Is Made

And, of course, the map is available in our online store: https://pood.regio.ee/tootekategooria/seinakaardid/maailm/

Looking Back – Final Reflections

When we asked Regio team members what actions or moments stood out to them from the past year — beyond everything already mentioned — here were the common themes: new technologies and projects, new servers, knowledge sharing, exploring new business directions and opportunities, a supportive team, fun events, and the chance to work on very diverse projects.

Of course, there was also some stress, unpleasant tech surprises, and the need to put out occasional work-related fires. But all of that is manageable — and ultimately helps move us forward.

The past year has come to a close, and the new year has begun with energy and great expectations.