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County hears demo of 'While You're in Town' directory and QR-code network; decision tabled
Summary
A vendor presentation described a county directory, QR-code network and optional video/marketing services to drive tourism and local visits; the board asked for more data on reach, costs and cybersecurity and tabled any purchase decision for additional information.
The Duchesne County Economic Advisory Board heard a 20‑minute presentation Nov. 18 from Martha LeBaron of While You're in Town on a countywide directory and QR‑code network designed to aggregate businesses, attractions and events on city and county pages.
LeBaron described a directory product with searchable city pages, filters for attractions and businesses, QR codes distributable to hotels, gas stations and shops, and the ability to embed city pages on municipal and chamber websites. "If the companies do not add the listing, we are happy to go create a listing for them and send them a link," LeBaron said, offering to provide customer support and content creation so small jurisdictions with limited staff would not have to populate listings themselves.
Board members asked for evidence the product drives traffic and raised cybersecurity and adoption concerns. Irene Hansen, who said she has 20 years of travel and tourism promotion experience, warned that QR codes have been flagged as a cyber risk on other boards and emphasized that many small towns lack the bandwidth to create or maintain listings. LeBaron said the company can produce short videos, run targeted advertising and provide embeds that help Google ranking, and that she has worked with several rural counties with reported high view counts.
Members were cautious about committing county funds without quantitative performance data and clearer pricing. The board did not vote on a contract; instead members asked staff to collect visitation statistics, pricing and examples from other counties and return with more detail for a future decision.
No contractual obligations were created at the meeting; Deb will request additional information and examples and circulate them to the board for review.
