This article was first published in the Geography Teacher’s Association of Victoria website.

My name is Ivan Motley and I am a geographer.

Officially I am the Founder and Director of .id (informed decisions) www.id.com.au, but whenever I travel overseas I always proudly refer to myself on the immigration documentation under the question, “What is your occupation?” as a “Geographer”, because that is my qualification and it is the way I think.

I think in terms of places and the communities, economies and environment that make up those places. I think about places in terms of the role and function that they play within their region and how places and the people in them change over time. I think about where people live, where they work, where they socialise and how and why they move between places. I’m fascinated by the fact that people make individual decisions that collectively create patterns that can be observed, studied and anticipated. I’m fascinated by social trends and how they can be influenced to achieve better social outcomes. Where people live should not mean that they have better or worse opportunities to participate in the “good society”. Also of course, geographers love maps. A good map can reveal profound insights into places and what makes them tick. But most importantly, a good geographer is a good story teller.

The way the internet has developed over the past 20 years has completely enhanced the way geographers can communicate their insights to the world. Data-driven charts and maps mean that we can dynamically utilise these important geographers’ tools to influence people’s decision-making. Geographers can introduce the power of looking at the world though a spatial lens that can change the way we see the world for the better.

.id (informed decisions), the enterprise I started 20 years ago, applies Geography principles to decision-making and is proof of the power of thinking as a geographer. At .id we are not only the industry standard for providing local government across Australia and New Zealand with their demographic, housing and economic data, but we now advise Australia’s major banks, developers, retailers and sporting organisations, based on our geographers’ perspective of the world. .id now employs over 40 people (including a few geographers, planners, economists and web developers) and has a turnover approaching $10m.

I have an Honours Degree in Geography from Flinders University and always intended to undertake a Masters in Urban Planning, which I never got around to doing. On graduating, after travelling, I started a job in the Geography Department at Flinders as a cartographer for the Atlas of South Australia (Griffin and McCaskill, 1986, Wakefield Press). Following this, I worked on various research projects at the university before landing a job with the City of Adelaide working on the first major Plan Review with a multi-disciplinary team of architects, planners and economists. We worked with consultants like John Mant, and academics like Hugh Stretton. I learnt so much about planning and cities. I then undertook a huge task conducting a land use survey of the City of Adelaide, which was a classic geographer’s project of collecting, mapping and analysing data on the city’s land use to help planners develop policy and strategic plans for the future development of the city. I worked as a researcher in State Government in Victoria, producing land supply studies and demographic forecasts which formed the basis of co-ordinating the provision of services and facilities across the metropolitan area of Melbourne. I worked with Metropolis in Mexico sharing the knowledge of our work in Victoria, and have also worked in the US on various projects.

I always travel extensively to understand places. A passion for place is what makes geographers tick. This requires a deep curiosity and, combined with the tools and skills of a geographer, means that you can have lethal influence on decision-making.