Antony Burton: Winner of 2023 GIS WebTech Award for Technology Leadership

Antony Burton is a thought leader in the use of data in economic development. Antony recently moved to a new position with EY’s economic development advisory services, after nearly five years with the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance (CRBA). While we are recognizing Antony for his outstanding work at CRBA, we have no doubt he will continue to excel at EY!

As an experienced analyst, Antony knows that major businesses use Esri data for their national and regional searches, and at CRBA he ensured perfect data consistency by providing Esri data on his website.

Figure 1: Manufacturing Cluster in the Charlotte Region

Antony also knows that local data is critical for standing out in the competitive world of business attraction. After all, the reason businesses and site selectors come to an economic development organization’s website is to research the local community, and EDOs that do not provide relevant local data risk being passed over. Antony understood that advanced but easy-to-use tools displaying and providing access to detailed local data could help the Charlotte region showcase its major assets to targeted industries. So, Antony spearheaded an initiative to gather relevant local data for a specific set of target industries. He then reviewed it with local communities to ensure its accuracy and took advantage of the latest GIS technology to showcase it on the CRBA site.

Figure 2: CRBA Research Team: Adrienne Hua,
Corey Correll, Antony Burton, and Akofa Dossou

The result is a series of visually striking interactive data sets, each providing important information for recruiting businesses in target sectors. The nearby image shows a great example: manufacturing firms by employee count. Antony added similar interactive data sets showing other important information for manufacturing, like training centers and R&D centers. He similarly added data sets for other targeted sectors, including life sciences, technology, and logistics/distribution.

As a result of Antony’s efforts CRDA is now providing cutting-edge data addressing targeted industries’ needs in interactive and engaging formats.

GIS WebTech is pleased to name Antony Burton one of three winners of the 2023 GIS WebTech Award for Technology Leadership for her outstanding work applying technology in support of her local communities. Our entire team congratulates Antony and wishes him well in his new position at EY!