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Council hears proposal for $10,000-a-year analytics tool to track event visitors
Summary
Council discussed a proposed subscription to a data-analytics service (referred to as 'Place' or 'Place or AI') at roughly $10,000 a year that would track visitor origins for events and could be shared with city staff and the CDC; staff cited April 6, 2024 Eclipse Fest data showing about 13,000 people in town from outside city limits.
The chair introduced a commercial analytics tool the city could purchase to better understand where event visitors come from and how to allocate promotional and infrastructure dollars. "It's roughly $10,000 a year with access for anybody in the city that any city employees that would like to utilize it," the chair said.
He cited data from the April 6, 2024 Eclipse Fest that staff had reviewed: "We had about 13,000 people downtown from 6,000 people downtown. The day of the eclipse, we had about 13,000, almost 14,000 people in town inside the city limits from outside only," the chair said, using the numbers to illustrate potential insights the tool might provide.
Council members expressed interest in seeing examples and references from other communities that use the tool; no formal procurement or funding decision was made. The chair suggested exploring cost-sharing with the CDC and gathering vendor references and user letters before bringing a formal proposal back to the council for potential action.
