Nat Geo Maps at the Ace Hardware Show

Maps are sold in a lot of interesting places. Some of them are Ace Hardware stores. Of course, most of those stores carry a lot more than hardware. Many have sporting goods, home décor and school supply products. Our maps fit these categories, so we're at the Ace Hardware trade show this weekend in Dallas.

We've met hundreds of friendly Ace managers and owners and are glad to be welcoming a bunch of them on board as dealers.

NGMaps Sales Manager Christy Schoonover (above with a customer) had the idea to invite attendees to put a pin in a map indicating their store location. Nearly 300 did, and it was fun to see the geographic spread from northwestern Alaska to the Florida Keys.

Nat Geo Maps at SHOT Show

We wrapped up our exhibit at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas Tuesday. SHOT stands for Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade. Some people were surprised to find us there. But our TOPO! software is perfect for hunters as they need the most detailed maps possible. And as a conservation organization, National Geographic understands the role hunting plays in conserving species and habitats.

This year, we gave away copies of the November issue of our magazine with the article Hunters: For Love of the Land.

For the second week in a row we introduced our forthcoming TOPO! Explorer web site and application to the trade and press. Of particular interest here was our "hybrid quad" which combines contours and other line work from USGS topographic maps with high-resolution aerial photography. It's often difficult to view an aerial photo and know what you're looking at. The hybrid solves that problem.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks. If you'd like to know more about TOPO! Explorer, go to topo.com and sign up for our mailing list.

TOPO! Explorer a Hit at Outdoor Retailer

The kudos for TOPO! Explorer are coming in just days after our first demos at Outdoor Retailer.

For instance, see this piece by Stephen Hinch on his amazon blog.

Coming to the SHOT Show this weekend? See us at booths 5897 (with Magellan GPS) and 21013.

Nat Geo Maps at Outdoor Retailer

We're exhibiting this week at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market.

Outdoor Retailer happens twice a year and is the largest trade show in the outdoor specialty field, catering to trails sports and related activities.

We're getting a fantastic reaction from the industry to demos of our TOPO! Explorer digital map application, trail database and web site announced Tuesday.

Product Manager Mike Dyer (l) and CTO Paul Glauthier (r) introduce TOPO! Explorer to the outdoor recreation industry

Nat Geo Maps at CES

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), going on now in Las Vegas, has been all over the news. Hundreds of new product announcements are timed for this show. Once upon a time, this show was mostly about stereo equipment. Now with electronics embedded in so many products, attendees see everything from refrigerators to cars there. The Engadget blog has had more than 400 posts in the last several days!

We're excited to be there for the first time in some years, demonstrating TOPO! and how it works on a Magellan Triton GPS.

NGMaps Sales Manager Alisha Daniels demos TOPO! + Triton at CES