I am pleased to announce that we have appointed Luis Sanz as CARTO’s new CEO, effective immediately.

The market for “Smart Cities” solutions is expected to more than double over the next five years, from $308bn in 2018 to $717bn in 2023. With growth driving greater innovation and flexibility in the industry, “Smart City” is no longer a cool buzzword for boosting proposals at city hall, but has the potential to be an attainable standard for cities of any size, worldwide.

2018 is drawing to a close and here at CARTO it has been a year for the record books. From January’s company retreat in Valencia to this month’s inclusion as Strong Performers in Forrester’s Location Intelligence Wave Report, we aimed for the stars and had a lot of fun along the way.

Every Tuesday morning we deliver the CARTO 5 — our weekly roundup of news, blog posts, maps, and other interesting odds-and-ends from, and relating to, the Location Intelligence space — to inboxes around the globe. Seeing what resonates with readers provides a unique insight into the minds of the LI community writ large, a motley collection of Cartographers and Data Scientists, Corporate Executives and Open Source Evangelists, and many more.

Amid growing demand for quick service restaurant (QSR) properties, private and 1031 investors have started supplementing QSR evaluation metrics, like past sales performance, with new measures related to past site planning decisions to gain competitive edge.

McKinsey estimates that in-store sales will still make up 75% to 85% of all retail sales in 2025. For online-native retailers eyeing growth and expansion, this makes an omnichannel retail strategy critical.

One year ago today, we announced the launch of CARTOframes, a Python package for interacting with CARTO built specifically for data scientists. To celebrate, I sat down for a Fireside Chat with CARTOframes creator and member of our data science team, Andy Eschbacher, and Senior Customer Support Manager Jeff Ferzoco.

The recent releases of CARTO VL and Airship presented the opportunity for a post on solving common mapping problems.

When building new software applications, developers wrestle with doubts on whether their design decisions will deliver users the best possible experience. From interface layout to control and display element selection, developers must decide on a range of issues which directly impact the functionality of their apps. At CARTO we’re fortunate enough to work with a fantastic Design team who provides feedback on our projects, but most customers and partners don’t sit across from designers who can help them with these decisions.

To say that Amazon’s HQ2 decision proved divisive would be an understatement. Whether Jeff Bezos selected the neighborhoods of Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia and Long Island City, in Queens, New York because of their proximity to the political and economic centers of the U.S., or because he owns homes in each area, or both, many are criticizing the e-commerce giant for its year-long site planning contest where local officials in 236 U.S. cities dedicated limited resources on proposals to attract Amazon that could have been better spent.