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City, EDC, chamber and tourism split two-year Placer.ai subscription to inform economic development and tourism
Summary
Council authorized the Economic Development Corporation to subscribe to Placer.ai and split costs among the EDC, city, chamber and tourism: $18,000 year one, $20,000 year two; resulting shares $4,500 year one and $5,000 year two for each of four organizations.
The Mineral Wells City Council authorized the Economic Development Corporation to subscribe to Placer.ai, a location-based consumer data service, with the cost split among four partners: the EDC, the city, the chamber of commerce and tourism.
Presenters said Placer.ai uses anonymized cell‑phone location data to estimate consumer visitation patterns, including where visitors come from and peak times. Staff and EDC representatives said the tool can help the city, chamber and EDC make marketing and retail-recruitment decisions by identifying visitor origins and event draw patterns.
The vendor proposed fees tied to population: $18,000 for year one and $20,000 for year two on a two‑year contract. Staff proposed splitting the costs across four organizations, which would yield payments of $4,500 each in year one and $5,000 each in year two. City staff said the product does not provide personal identifiers; it aggregates location data to identify where phones are most frequently located overnight and estimates trips to retail areas.
The Economic Development Corporation board and chamber have seen demonstrations and supported the subscription; council authorized the EDC to take the subscription and implement the cost split. The council vote to approve the two‑year subscription and split funding was recorded as 5-0.
Staff offered to provide individual demos for council members who wished to see the platform in detail.
