Great Bend Economic Development Executive Director Jason Kuilan said he plans to ask the City of Great Bend to purchase software that can track foot traffic at community events.
“Placer.AI tracks people’s cellphones so that you can get an idea of how many people are at a location over a period of time,” Kuilan told the City Council at its July 6 meeting. “So, for example, we can track how many people are downtown at a specific event.”
The software could map the entire city over the course of a year to see how many people come from outside Great Bend. Planners could then extrapolate how many dollars visitors are spending that go into sales tax revenue.
He did not go into details about the cost, but indicated he had sent councilmembers more information to look it.
“I think that could be a really powerful tool as we start to tell the story as to why we need to increase sales taxes,” he said. “Also we’ll be able to tell how many people are coming from out of town for specific events like the races at the dragstrip or for downtown events. The tourism bureau would obviously get a lot of use out of it with their conventions, so I would recommend that the city council look to that document I sent through.”
Kuilan noted he has a background in data analytics and a master’s degree in data science. “So I’d be happy to take the lead on using that platform. However, I do think the city should be the owner.” He said the organization that leases the software gets unlimited users for one year, so it makes sense for the city to hold multiple licenses.
Councilman Gary Parr asked how the software works. “Is that something that the user has to have on their phone, like a tracking device, or do they have to have an app on their phone?” He also asked whether the phone’s owner has to give permission to be tracked.
Kuilan said they do. “They opt in to let this platform track their cellphone based on several different apps. Placer.AI partners with existing apps and other services already on your phone.”
Large retail stores already use this technology, he said. “For example, Walmart knows exactly how many people are in their stores at any given time. Placer.AI would then estimate how many people they think are in a Walmart and validate that against Walmart’s actual data to see how close they are with their estimates. They estimate they’re within five percentage points for the population of any given area,” he said.
“Now, obviously the bigger the area and the greater the time period, the more accurate it’s going to be,” he said. “That’s why I think for the total city of Great Bend over the course of a year, it should be very accurate, because you’re giving it a lot of data points.”
Kuilan said he also plans to ask the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureau to be involved in the software purchase.
Great Bend Chamber President Megan Barfield, who was in the audience, said her staff have discussed the idea and agree it could be useful.
Kuilan said he expects to bring a proposal to the City Council in August.
