Matt Forrest is the Director of Customer Engineering & Product Led Growth at Wherobots, where he helps organizations adopt cloud-native geospatial infrastructure at scale. With over a decade of experience in geospatial technology, including 8+ years at CARTO where he served as Field CTO, Matt has become the leading voice making spatial SQL accessible to GIS professionals worldwide.
He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Geography and has since dedicated his career to promoting open, interoperable, and standards-based geospatial technologies. Matt is the author of "Spatial SQL: A Practical Approach to Modern GIS Using SQL" (published by Locate Press), a comprehensive guide that takes readers from SQL novices to spatial SQL experts through practical examples covering everything from basic queries to advanced analytics like suitability analysis and routing.
Matt's definition of "modern GIS" encompasses the intersection of cloud computing, open-source data and standards, AI, and scalable spatial architectures. Through his newsletter, YouTube channel, LinkedIn presence, and educational platform (moderngis.xyz), he reaches over 100,000 geospatial professionals with weekly insights on Python, SQL, cloud workflows, and career development. His courses include the "Modern GIS Accelerator" and free QGIS certification programs.
He serves on the Cloud-Native Geospatial Foundation's board, contributing to educational and editorial direction for advancing awareness of cloud-native formats and open standards. Matt is passionate about helping professionals transition from traditional desktop GIS to modern, cloud-based spatial workflows, believing that automation and scalability are essential for breaking geospatial work out of project-based-only patterns into continuous, impactful analysis.
