Introducing Darren Meads from West Yorkshire, UK!

Where did you study? I was taught internally by the company I started out with back in 2015, no knowledge whatsoever, I had served in the Army’s Infantry for 8 years so since 2015 I have been a student to the surveying industry starting with Ground Penetrating Radar to Utility Mapping.

An opportunity in 2016 to become a Land Surveyor which of course I jumped at the chance and have loved it ever since, Learning from mainly my colleagues and line manager it took me roughly about 6 months to really master the basics of surveying and then from this it was time to become a surveyor on my own and learn how to make it my personal way of surveying as every surveyor surveys differently using the same principles of course but making it their own, experimenting trying new ways and pushing the equipment to its full potential is always a great way to learn you don’t always need books or educational courses etc.. I guess it would help yes hugely but some people are more hands on which opens the audience to surveying.

What are the requirements to be a surveyor in your area?There are no set requirements per say and this is an important part that I believe needs to be understood. Anyone interested in surveying has the right requirements firstly by showing the voluntary interest, I love to see young people keen and enthusiastic about wanting to become a surveyor. It’s a simple case of you get out what you put in, so these are the only characterises you require to become a great surveyor.

How did you get into surveying? Actually by mistake, my dyslexia played a part in this when I was first searching for a job in 2014/2015 before leaving the Armed Forces, I thought I was going for a job in Surveillance when indeed I arrived for the interview he said “so what do you know about surveying” so I had applied for the job by pure mistake but looking back I guess it was supposed to happen because I got the job, same day, and have loved the surveying industry ever since… Fate.

*If you are not a surveyor, what do you do? I am no longer a surveyor, I work for Hexagon AB, under Bricsys part of Hexagon supplying the UK & Ireland with CAD software BricsCAD to help them be creative in the design space.

How long have you been in the industry? Since 2015, I have learnt some amazing things, it’s taken me to some great places across the UK, which to explore the UK as a surveyor has been an experience and met some fantastic people along the way which are lifetime friends.

Are you part of any associations or organisations you would like us to mention? I am a member of the CMI as a Chartered Manager (Chartered Institute of Managers) and a Technical Member to the CICES (Chartered institute of Civil Engineering Surveyors).

Why are you volunteering as a GKiS Brand Ambassador?Simply, I want to help educate young students and older generations the importance of surveying and how it can help shape your life into becoming a great part of today’s society and Get Kids into Surveying is a great way of sharing this passion, it’s a great platform to make a start on having an impact on becoming better.

Why is it important for kids to know about surveying and the wider geospatial?

industry? Because this is our future generation of building Infrastructure our build it better generation, the future of surveying depends on educating kids on what part and the importance to which surveying plays in our infrastructure without this we wouldn’t have a lot of the infrastructure we have today, with innovation going the way it’s going in surveying, its becoming more trendy and digital which is highly impressive and could help attract kids into surveying and equally be more sustainable while doing so.

What are you going to do as an ambassador for GKiS? As Country Manager for the UK & Ireland, my goal is to reach as many educational organisations and support them with data management in a digital form in the design space, help support the geospatial data sets to understand how their data can be used but equally support them on the processing side of things by providing them with the relevant software’s, and of course point them in the right direction for further support within GKiS.

What are your hobbies outside of work? I love to spend time outdoors as much as I can with my family, walks on the beach, hills, mountains anything that involves nature… equally I love to learn more about technology and innovations that can help support us become more sustainable.

If you/your company had a GKiS character, what would it be?We would be an Astronaut, rocketing the digital space into outer space.

What resource would you like to see next from GKiS? More offerings into the design space, processing space, its great to see so much around collecting data but it’s great to also see and understand the bigger picture with the data that’s been collected.

Anything else you want to add that you think our audience (surveyors, teachers, parents) would be interested in? Design helps drive creativity, creativity helps drive motivation, motivation drives creativity = Positive outcomes.

Introducing our latest Brand Ambassador Jay Shakespeare who is covering the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire areas of the UK!

Introducing our latest Brand Ambassador Kyle Reiner from Dallas area in Texas, USA:

Welcoming our latest Brand Ambassador Suzana Sormaz from Serbia:

Introducing our latest Brand Ambassador John Fraser from Milton Keynes in the UK:

Introducing our latest sponsor who have the new Homework Project ‘Masters of Measures’, check it out!

Let’s learn some more about them:

1. Company Name –

McElhanney

2. Location –

Our headquarters are in Vancouver, BC but we have 30+ offices across Western Canada! 

3. Why is it important for your company to help Get Kids into Survey?

As surveying has been a core McElhanney service since 1910, we have always been – and always will be – dedicated to advancing the industry and helping the next generation of surveying professionals flourish. 

Everything in our built world – including the parks we play in, schools we study in, and paths we ride our bikes on – would be impossible without surveying. Surveyors are essential to developing vibrant communities, and we couldn’t build the places we call home without them!

And guess what? Surveying is also a fulfilling, fun, and outdoor-based career choice. We wanted to get involved in Get Kids into Survey because we want kids, teachers, and students to know about all the exciting career paths available in the industry. The world needs more surveyors!

4. What do you do?

I am a surveyor at McElhanney, which means I get to go to all sorts of wild places (sometimes back to my home swamp!) and play with wicked technology. At McElhanney, we provide geomatics, geospatial, GIS, engineering, environmental, planning, and landscape architecture services to clients across Western Canada and beyond. Me and my fellow McElhanney surveyors use all sorts of cool equipment like drones, laser scanners (ground-based and mobile), GPS, and total stations to collect and display our data in all sorts of ways: digital maps, plans, 3D models, and augmented reality models!  

5. How long have you been in the survey industry?

McElhanney’s roots go all the way back to 1910: we’ve been in the survey industry for over 110 years! 

6. How did you end up getting into the geospatial industry?

Growing up in my small home swamp, I knew I wanted to do something more with my life and sought out to find my purpose. Being so passionate about surveying, you would think that was the career I chose first. But no! I started out on a berry farm. Well, truthfully, they just hired me to stomp on the berries with my exceptionally large hooves to help make juice and jam! 

While that job gave me a taste for working with my hooves in the outdoors, I felt like wanted to do something more. One day, a surveyor came to map out an area of the berry farm that had to be realigned, and they had so many cool gadgets that I just had to know more! Luckily, the surveyor was really friendly and spoke to me about how they got into surveying and where to start out. 

I worked for McElhanney for a few years as a surveyor, starting out as an assistant and then becoming a junior technician. I went to university and then returned to McElhanney over my summer breaks until I got my degree! I’ve been with them ever since.

7. State a funny fact about you…

My legs are so long that I have my own custom-made tripods. It is often helpful that I am tall, because it means I get higher than some trees when we work further north, meaning I get a better signal with our GPS. I’m not quite as high up as the satellites that our GPS technology uses to calculate our position on the earth’s surface, but sometimes I feel like it! When I am working with other surveyors who are not moose like me, we have to set up our tripod low enough for them and I have to kneel down to see through the telescope. Luckily, we’re using laser scanning more and more now, which doesn’t require a  telescope.

8. Favorite piece of kit and why?

Gather ‘round, my forest explorers! Let me spin you a tale about old Spruce the Moose here, once named the Quirkiest Moose in all the Land! Now, you may think as a moose, I would spend my days munching on leaves and counting pinecones. But no! There is a lot more to me, you see. I have a secret – a love that runs deeper than the roots of a Spruce tree.

I’m sure you’d expect me to stick to the forest floors but let me tell you: I harbor a love for the subsea, and what’s my favorite aquatic sidekick? Sonars! These nifty gadgets go “ping” and echo, revealing all the mysteries hidden beneath the waves. Imagine me, the antlered adventurer, wearing moose-sized goggles diving into the ocean using my near X-ray vision to see for thousands of feet! With these sonars, I can help unravel the secrets and treasures the ocean floor loves to keep.

And that, my friends, is why I love sonars of all varieties. They’re not just a piece of my kit, but they’re a ticket to adventure, discovery, and a splash of underwater magic!

9. Favorite Survey technique and why?

I have a real “hoof” of a time when I’m working on a survey that incorporates all of my skillsets, as the variety keeps my job interesting. However, when I get to fly our drones, I feel like a pilot! 

Actually, I am a pilot, but only of small remotely piloted aircrafts. I wouldn’t trust me in a commercial plane, as I wouldn’t even fit in the cockpit with my antlers! So, I’d say that capturing LiDAR data from one of our multi-rotor drones is my favourite survey

Who are our Brand Ambassadors?

What does being a Brand Ambassador Involve?

What do you receive when you become a Brand Ambassador?

How do I become a Brand Ambassador?

Want access to our new Brand Ambassador Hub (with thanks to Topcon)?

All these questions are answered in the downloadable document below!

Brand Ambassador Hotsheet

For further information please email erin@getkidsintosurvey.com

Or have a read and apply through the Brand Ambassador page.

Introducing our latest ambassador Mike Stewart who is from Utah area in the USA:

Where did you study? Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah

What are the requirements to be a surveyor in your area? To be a surveyor in Utah, you need a combined 8 years worth of schooling and work experience. The good news is you can obtain them simultaneously. You also need to pass 2 national exams and the Utah state specific exam. For me, I obtained my bachelors degree in Geomatics and then had 4 years of work experience

How did you get into surveying? I was introduced to the idea of becoming a surveyor at age 20 by a future employer who was working as a civil engineer. I was exploring civil engineering at the time and when I met with this engineer he told me that if he could go back and do it all over again he’d be a surveyor. I asked him why, and he said that surveyors get to work inside and outside and are always working on different projects and are not confined to a desk every day. That peaked my interest and the more I looked into surveying the more I liked it and it didn’t take me long to fall in love with the profession.

How long have you been in the industry? I have been in the surveying industry since 2015.

Are you part of any associations or organizations you would like us to mention? I am a member of the Utah Council of Land Surveyors.

Why is it important for kids to know about surveying and the wider geospatial industry? Kids love technology and as a surveyor I get to use some the latest cutting-edge technologies in my work. Weather it’s a drone, a GPS, a LiDAR system, or a new computer program I get to combine state of the art technology with centuries old methodologies to do something I love. Beyond surveying, there are great careers in other related fields such as GIS (geographical information systems), Geodesy (the study of the shape of the earth and the math and science behind coordinate systems), Photogrammetry (creating high accuracy 3D models from images), and Remote Sensing (3D scanning via LiDAR, multispectral scanning, and raster image analyzation).

On top of all this cool tech, surveyors play a vital role in our society’s infrastructure. When a new road, building, house, etc… is going to be built, surveyors are called. When a property owner wants to know their property boundary, a surveyor is called. When land is going to be subdivide, combined, or adjusted, a surveyor is called.

What are you going to do as an ambassador for GKiS? What are your hobbies? As an ambassador for GKiS, I will be working with the local schools to help promote the great industry of surveying. I will be attending and helping with STEM fairs and Career Nights. My biggest hobbies and passions involve the outdoors. Weather that is hunting, fishing, backpacking, rock climbing, hiking, or exploring, I just love seeing the beaty of the land. I also enjoy playing sports and being active.

Anything else you want to add that you think our audience (surveyors, teachers, parents) would be interested in? In conclusion, surveying is a very old and well-respected industry. Traditionally, it may not have paid as much as its neighboring field of engineering. However, that is not the case anymore. Surveying has become a very well paid profession and for me is very satisfying and rewarding.