nostalgeo wins the audience award at Apps For Europe
After winning AppsforGeo and AppsforFlanders, nazka's nostalgeo also won the audience prize at Apps for Europe.
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22 may 2026
Many organisations manage and visualize their spatial data with a quick DIY map. This seems easy, quick and cheap. For a one-time presentation or prototype that's definitely the case. But when your map needs to support decisions, will be used by many people or regularly needs to be updated, you will quickly run into limits.
AI-tools and standard solutions assume that your data is map-ready and don't take into account the bigger picture. They give quick results, but no guarantees on the long term. So you will end up with a nice demo, not a trustworthy instrument. Experience and expertise make all the difference in these cases, something no standard solution can offer.
A good map starts with good data. In practice, we seldom encounter datasets that are ready to put on a map. The projection system of the data is not useful, addresses are incomplete, coordinates are missing or data is scattered over multiple files. Or the map data is not even digitally available but only as pdf or on paper!
A mapping partner will help you clean up, link and enrich your data, to make sure you start from a solid baseline. This means:
This way you minimize chances of drawing wrong conclusions or that users lose their trust in your map.
AI tools will give you exactly what you ask for, but they don't help you think about what is the best solution for your problem. The map is not an end in itself. It should answer a question of specific users: colleagues, policy makers, customers, or your grandma.
Together we translate your goals into a design for the map. Which data are we showing? For whom are we making the map and what are their needs? How do we ensure that the map is accessible for people with limited digital skills? By consciously thinking about that from the start, we can create an application that does not only look nice, but is useful and clear for your target audience.
What if your map suddenly receives much more visitors than expected (because someone writes a social media post about it and it goes viral)? Or what if the license terms change and your solution suddenly becomes much more expensive? DIY solutions and one-time scripts do not take into account scalability, security or future expansions.
A mapping partner thinks along about the underlying architecture. How do you host your map in a safe way? How to protect your data from misuse? How to make sure performance keeps up when user analytics soar? By already thinking about this from the start, you avoid having to reinvent a succesful project later on.
AI tools and standard mapping solutions like Google My Maps can be powerful tools. They can offer a first idea, speed up repetitive tasks and quickly generate a prototype. At Nazka we also make use of AI or standard tools, when they are the right tool for the job. A mapping partner makes the difference in the important steps in between: asking the right questions, putting the data in order, developing a well-thought-out design and making sure everything runs smoothly when you go live.
Together we map what you want to accomplish, which data you have and which solution fits best. We guide you from the first idea and prototype to a stable application in production. We keep thinking about optimalisations, new functionalities and integrations with other systems within your organisation along the way.
We use open source technology as much as possible to avoid vendor lock-in. Every map we make, starts from the Mapframe, our battle-tested framework for performant digital maps. No more worrying about your application getting hacked or taken down by bots, if you work with us. We ensure that your map stays online and offer a hosting and maintenance contract tailored to your project.
This way you can trust your map to act as a tool for policy decisions, communication or service provision, instead of hoping that a DIY solution keeps running. And you can focus on what you do best, doing the actual work in your organisation.
Does your organisation have valuable geodata that you want to put to good use? Do you want to be sure that your map solution clicks, is useful and can grow along with your organisation and your ambition?
We help you think about a solution that fits your goals, users and IT environment. Get in touch with the team to discuss your idea or project. Together we can make a mapp that matters!
