[0:21] Parking is free.
>> [laughter]
[0:24] » Thank you.
[0:28] Yeah, it is pretty phenomenal.
I could park right at 1:00.
[0:34] I would like to welcome everybody to the
September 9th Marshall County Tourism
[0:38] Commission meeting.
I would like to welcome all of our
[0:40] guests. We have Placer AI with us. We
have The Reese with us and we have Duke
[0:46] with us. So, thank you guys for coming
out. Um
[0:49] we are going to put all of our stuff at
the bottom and get them going since
[0:53] everybody's here.
Um so, we're going to start with The
[0:56] Reese and their presentation.
[1:02] » Okay.
Thank you so much for having us.
[1:06] Uh I'm Kat Popa, president of The Reese.
This is Tom McFadden, he's the vice
[1:09] president. Um actually, Meg
>> Can you hear it? Can you hear Kat?
[1:14] » Can you hear us well?
Or we should we speak into the mic?
[1:18] » The mic on if you want. If you just hit
the base there and the red light will
[1:21] come on.
She said they were on. There There it
[1:24] goes.
>> Yeah.
[1:26] Okay.
>> This
[1:27] » Um sorry about that.
This is Meg Atkinson and she is our
[1:32] front of house manager of The Reese now.
And so, the reason we're here is um we
[1:38] wanted to ask for funding for Stewy and
Opal's Hideaway, which is the third
[1:43] floor of The Reese.
So, The Reese already knows how to bring
[1:47] people through our doors. What we want
to do now is give them more reasons to
[1:50] come from farther away, stay longer, and
spend more time while we're here.
[1:55] Our third floor will become Stewy Opal's
Hideaway, the original uh
[2:01] people who founded the Rees Theater in
1940.
[2:05] Um, a flexible hospitality and event
space, but also something especially
[2:09] important for our future.
A streaming capable space that
[2:12] dramatically
expands our reach beyond Marshall
[2:16] County.
It will allow us to host corporate
[2:19] meetings, seminars, weddings, private
gatherings, and special events.
[2:23] While connecting people outside our area
to the Rees in Plymouth.
[2:27] So, we're asking tourism to invest
30,000 toward the next phase of making
[2:31] that vision possible.
Um
[2:36] That's slide two. Thank you.
Um
[2:39] So, there's a big difference between
attendance and tourism.
[2:42] We can sell someone a ticket for a
two-hour performance and send them home,
[2:46] or we can create an experience that
gives them a reason to stay.
[2:49] And that's what the third floor
[clears throat] changes for us. Instead
[2:52] of simply asking, "How many people can
we put in the theater?" we can start
[2:55] asking, "How do we turn their evening at
the Rees into a weekend in Marshall
[2:59] County?"
So, next slide. Um,
[3:04] so we see three particularly strong
markets.
[3:09] First, weddings and private
celebrations.
[3:12] Those bring in families and guests who
need lodging, food, catering, and places
[3:16] to gather.
Second, corporate and regional meetings.
[3:20] With high-speed internet and streaming
capability, we can reach organizations
[3:23] that wouldn't otherwise consider
Plymouth for a meeting or a seminar.
[3:27] And third, entertainment groups,
reunions, alumni groups, organizations,
[3:31] or groups coming for a performance who
can reserve the balcony and have a
[3:35] private gathering before or after the
show.
[3:38] In every one of those examples, the Rees
becomes the reason for the trip, but the
[3:42] hotels, restaurants, caterers,
bars, and other Marshall County
[3:46] businesses benefit from it.
That's the, you know, that's pretty much
[3:50] the heart of it.
Um, so room nights, next slide.
[3:56] So, we're trying to be really
conservative here, but if we have 10
[4:01] weddings or celebrations of life and now
between all of them, restaurants or um
[4:07] sorry, retirements and or birthdays, so
10 of those events a year, which bring
[4:12] in two hotel rooms each event,
that's
[4:17] two, you know, 20 rooms.
Um
[4:22] six regional meetings, we have two of
them coming up just shortly. We have the
[4:26] funeral directors regional meeting
coming up. People are going to be coming
[4:29] in getting rooms. We have Edward Jones
regional meeting coming up. Again,
[4:33] getting rooms, going to restaurants. Um
so, if we if we have 15 rooms
[4:39] for the six total regional
that that equates to 90 and four
[4:45] destination event weekends at 25 rooms
each,
[4:50] it equates to about 390
rooms
[4:54] on an annual basis.
Um
[5:01] » Speak to Heather J.
>> Yes, Heather J.
[5:04] » Yeah, Pat, one thing I'd like to, you
know, stress to the this group is that
[5:09] the Rees is a multi-use facility, but
the streaming is the final piece to
[5:14] finish [clears throat] the founders'
vision.
[5:17] When people think of down Marshall
County, they think of downtown Plymouth,
[5:22] the Rees is one of the first places that
comes to mind. But with streaming, we
[5:26] can go beyond Marshall County to
announce to a surrounding counties what
[5:30] a great weekend destination downtown
Plymouth is. The streaming allows us the
[5:36] Rees to go beyond its four walls to the
surrounding community. So, we believe
[5:41] that ultimately this will add more heads
in beds beyond what we are already doing
[5:47] with statewide meetings, weddings,
celebrations of life, weddings, etc. So,
[5:52] we're already doing some of that. This
will be the final piece to let us do
[5:57] more and grow the pie.
>> Another cool things would be if you with
[6:03] the streaming piece of that has to do
with the fact that if you have a
[6:08] reunion, like we just recently had, the
class of 1976 was in here for their a
[6:13] class reunion in that class reunion.
There were probably 40 people, 50 people
[6:19] that could not make it in for that
reunion. It would have been cool to be
[6:23] able to stream it and have it stream
live during that whole entire time, too.
[6:26] Not to mention, um
if we do a that there's a movie night or
[6:33] there's some kind of other situation
where there's an event on the stage, it
[6:38] could be streamed to shut-ins or to any
of the local
[6:43] um the local
>> nursing home
[6:45] » nursing homes and that kind of thing,
too. So, it's a multi it and the are you
[6:50] going to talk about the grant that we
already received?
[6:54] The grant that we already received from
Subaru.
[6:57] » Yes. Yes.
>> to talk about that in here. Okay.
[6:59] Perfect.
>> Um so, um we did we what Jim was was
[7:05] just saying, we already had a a grant
from Subaru, so we already own the
[7:08] equipment.
So, what we need to do is create a space
[7:14] that's conducive to running the
equipment. So, we need a conditioned
[7:19] space and it right now it's
unconditioned. And um a So, we the space
[7:25] is there. We just need to finish it out.
So, we can have the capability of doing
[7:29] this. So, we have that. We have a little
bit of money earmarked toward it in a
[7:34] community foundation fund. Um so, this
would not complete the whole upstairs,
[7:40] but it would be able to get us
the streaming aspect of it.
[7:44] » It has to have an actual It has to have
a climate-controlled area to be able to
[7:51] have that equipment up there. It needs
to be away from the soundboard and the
[7:55] and the the balcony area. It can't
really be in the same spot cuz you can't
[8:00] cuz somebody else is going to be mixing
that sound just for the streaming.
[8:04] And so it's got to be totally separate
away. And the problem is is that it
[8:09] needs H back and all the other things.
Not only an insulated room, but it has
[8:13] to have H back and
it'd be kind of silly to
[8:18] set up the H back just for that room
only. You know what I mean? You really
[8:22] need to set up for the whole entire
space for the whole piece of it.
[8:26] » So, and then with the one nice thing is
we already have a dedicated group of
[8:30] volunteers that will provide much of the
labor at no cost to the Reese. So, the
[8:35] $30,000 that we're asking today is going
to go to materials and things that we
[8:41] have to buy to complete the space. And
the sooner we complete the space for
[8:47] streaming, the sooner we'll add to the
heads and beds in Marshall County.
[8:53] » So, we also have something that a hotel
conference room or generic rental hall
[8:58] simply just can't duplicate and that
that's the space that was It's a It's a
[9:02] Civil War building and the space on the
third floor was once the home, an
[9:07] apartment, of Stuart and Opal Reese, the
people who started the theater in 1940.
[9:12] So, we're preserving that history.
Original materials, reclaimed poplar
[9:16] wood, has made a lot of the tables in
the Reese. That was from 1865.
[9:21] Marquee elements and Plymouth imagery.
So, when someone has a reception or a
[9:25] corporate gathering here, they're not
just renting a room. They're gathering
[9:28] in a in a piece of Plymouth history. And
I don't know if any of you knew that
[9:33] that plat is actually plat one for the
original plat of Plymouth. So, that was
[9:39] the very first building in the downtown.
And so, that's kind of unique in itself.
[9:47] Um
So,
[9:50] Uh could you
advance?
[9:55] » Next.
>> I think uh
[9:58] Yeah, I think go next.
[10:02] Beautiful.
>> Right. So, um
[10:07] » So, we envision up to 40 people for
stand-alone gatherings in that space
[10:12] itself. So, with flexible seating, food
and bar capacity, the high-speed
[10:16] internet and digital display.
But, the streaming capability is
[10:20] particularly exciting cuz a 40-person
meeting in Plymouth could potentially
[10:23] reach hundreds more remotely.
That opens the door to regional
[10:27] associations, corporate trainings,
seminars, and hybrid events.
[10:32] And those 40 people physically attending
still need lunch, dinner, perhaps, you
[10:36] know,
and
[10:39] hotel rooms.
Breakfast the next day.
[10:42] So, anyway,
uh last one.
[10:46] Um
no, second last one.
[10:48] Um so, we're not coming to the tourism
to ask you to build the third floor for
[10:53] us. A substantial amount has already
been contributed like Tom mentioned,
[10:57] skilled labor. And then we also do have
some partnerships for
[11:01] um
you know, supporting the bar, the
[11:04] courts, internet,
and some of the furnishings.
[11:07] So, your investment becomes a much
larger community investment. Um so, I
[11:12] just want to be clear that that is not
going to completely finish the third
[11:15] floor.
But, it will move us through the next
[11:18] critical phase and put us substantially
closer to putting this space into
[11:22] visitor generating use.
>> And really the $30,000 will be used to
[11:28] make sure that the streaming aspect of
it gets done first. The other things can
[11:33] happen over time, but the streaming
needs to come first.
[11:37] » So we think it's another reason uh for
someone to choose Marshall County for a
[11:41] wedding, a meeting, or an event, or an
entertainment weekend.
[11:45] And when they come, we want them to stay
here and eat here and shop here and
[11:48] experience what our community has to
offer.
[11:52] So
help us turn a night at the Reeve Center
[11:54] into a visit to Plymouth and a visit to
Marshall County.
[11:58] Thank you. We'd be happy to answer any
questions.
[12:02] » Well, the other part of that is that um
it also becomes a revenue a revenue
[12:07] stream, too, because
the expanding that
[12:11] streaming service is is to use
that streaming to make money on those
[12:16] accounts, too. And that's that's the big
thing that I think is the most important
[12:20] piece besides the fact of of bringing in
weddings and that kind of thing, because
[12:24] so many people love to have stream
streamed events for weddings and that
[12:29] thing. So.
>> So you talk about the streaming and and
[12:33] I understand it completely. Um but when
it comes to like certain situations,
[12:38] weddings and things
that are streamed so the families can
[12:41] see them, do you actually see that as a
turnaround of guests coming back, or is
[12:47] it more of that's going to be a one-time
situation that they're seeing it because
[12:52] you're only having hopefully the one
wedding?
[12:54] Does that make you understand
>> Yeah, but then you get people talking.
[12:57] You like, oh, I streamed it. You should
go there and stream your wedding.
[13:02] » That's what I saw it as. I saw it as
It's a very marketable technology.
[13:07] » But also what My question is, how do you
get the hotels to market this
[13:10] technology?
>> You need to draw people to say, we have
[13:13] this technology in this county.
>> So if that technology was actually in
[13:18] Andrea's piece that she's putting on for
the advertising into that magazine, in
[13:23] the Lakes magazine.
>> Yeah, that's right. That is a huge
[13:27] thing. That's a huge thing for weddings.
>> [clears throat]
[13:29] » Potential brides are definitely looking
for something like that they can
[13:32] » Well, the thing for weddings is
like we've had a couple of weddings
[13:37] there.
We have a green room downstairs where
[13:40] people can change.
So, we're envisioning that the bride and
[13:44] the bridal party would be up in that
space. And the groom and their party
[13:49] will be down in the other space so that
they come together, you know, in the
[13:53] theater. So, that would be kind of a
cool experience for the wedding. It's a
[13:58] » Have you had any weddings there?
>> Yes, we have. We have.
[14:02] » But, I thought there was
>> And it would have been really cool to
[14:03] have a separate space for the bride and
separate space for the groom cuz the
[14:06] groom just kind of had to come in and
the bride had the green room. But, it
[14:10] would have been a really elegant place
for the bride to have their thing and
[14:13] get ready and have their own restroom
and, you know, their
[14:17] » That's just when it's not nice out. When
it's nice out, you could actually use
[14:20] the park and use River Park Square and
use the stage. You could use that as
[14:24] your wedding venue and then everybody
come up to the Reese for the reception.
[14:28] And and you could stream it live from
there. So, it's a it's a
[14:33] You have Those are the opportunities are
>> The wedding we had, they got married at
[14:37] St. Michael's and came down for the
reception. Another one, they did the
[14:39] wedding right there. Right in front of
the stage, they had the wedding and the
[14:43] bride came right up
middle or the side.
[14:47] » on the screen, the cliff
Well, we have a dreamy though.
[14:51] » What that
>> actually put the put the image
[14:54] » A lot of people
>> of them getting married on the big
[14:56] screen.
>> We have concerts and things like that.
[14:59] » kind of a cool cool look.
>> Yeah, at that time.
[15:02] Um we have people coming in from Canada.
>> Wow. That's cool.
[15:06] » Total budget for this whole project? I'm
just curious what what percentage this
[15:10] To finish off everything, which would
include bar and the furniture, etc.
[15:16] You're probably talking about $150,000
to finish the entire third floor.
[15:21] But, keep in mind to finish off the
streaming room, the
[15:25] up that that portion is probably 30,
40,000 at the most. And that's why
[15:29] » But, all the [clears throat] answer
>> You're looking for a fifth of the all
[15:32] in.
>> Yeah.
[15:33] » You said you have the rest of it in
place?
[15:35] » Well, no, we don't have the rest We
don't We We have the labor in place.
[15:39] » Some cash.
>> And we do have some cash in place.
[15:41] » some.
>> But, but the our most urgent need is to
[15:45] get the streaming room going cuz that
will really complete the
[15:49] the total picture in terms of what we
can operationally offer.
[15:53] » And that's
>> The streaming room would also be an
[15:54] office, too, for the for the front of
house manager or director, however that
[15:59] is, too. So, that's going to be a
multi-purpose type of type of room, too.
[16:04] » I mean, the most expensive thing is is
to finish out the bar area, but that can
[16:08] be done over time.
But, the most critical thing is to get
[16:11] the streaming because that, like Jim
mentioned, it does provide a revenue
[16:15] source for us, but it also provides us
to get our message out beyond
[16:20] Marshall County.
>> I think it's I think the importance part
[16:22] is that it's marketable, and we need
we always talk about the marketing
[16:28] donut, and we need to get things that
are out there
[16:31] are there a way. The Andys, the Kokomos,
the Valpos, the you know, all of those
[16:35] types of places, and that's
uh
[16:38] there's not many other ways to do that
other than
[16:40] » Do you know who else has this
technology? Are there
[16:43] counties in Indiana that are doing this
right now?
[16:45] » I don't know of anybody that does that.
>> Really?
[16:49] » I don't
And I was looking on Elkhart Elkhart's a
[16:53] a theater type of of site that we've
used to partner with and things, and and
[16:58] they've I was trying to search for for
places or venues or multi-event venues
[17:03] that offer that, and
I
[17:06] I couldn't find anything that had that
kind of capability.
[17:09] » It also shows off the the space, and
makes people want to go, "Oh, that's a
[17:13] really cool space." And people look for
really cool spaces to have events.
[17:17] » And it show off the space, show off the
block, show off the
[17:20] » Sure.
>> city, show off the county.
[17:22] I like it. I think that this this
concept
[17:27] to be unique is huge because of the
marketability and
[17:31] as a commission we talked about the
importance of investing in
[17:35] you know, tangible
changes to this county that we can
[17:40] market for tourism.
There's some gray in how that's going to
[17:45] grow, but there's gray in how anything's
going to grow. I think it takes you
[17:49] know, it's a labor of love. And
you know, sitting there and putting this
[17:53] together. I make a motion to approve the
30,000.
[17:57] » I second.
[18:01] » We have a first and a second.
All in favor?
[18:05] » I.
>> I.
[18:08] » I can't vote.
>> I can't either.
[18:10] » They're two members, so it's you three.
>> Fine.
[18:14] » [laughter]
>> Okay.
[18:15] » Uh, so full disclosure
I took the checkbook and put it
[18:19] somewhere very safe because of the
blueberry and I don't have it with me.
[18:22] Usually I'm writing checks like crazy.
They'll they'll vouch for me. I'm
[18:25] usually writing the check as soon as
it's approved.
[18:27] » I'm not sure everybody's used to leaving
the room with the check.
[18:30] » No.
>> So, I apologize.
[18:34] I apologize. I do not have the checkbook
with me today to give you the money.
[18:39] » Do you guys foresee Do you guys foresee
you guys using the streaming to get it
[18:42] out to like a lot of your events?
>> Would you streaming and monetizing that?
[18:48] » Even like nursing homes.
>> Yeah.
[18:51] » But some of the people I mean
>> I mean like I'm thinking
[18:53] » They want to get out of their seat.
>> Let's usually do a holiday concert.
[18:57] » Yes.
>> Yes, that would be an ideal one to
[19:00] promote out to not just the nursing
homes, but anyone and find a way to
[19:05] monetize that because I think if you can
use this as a springboard like they've
[19:09] been saying to
really find other revenue streams.
[19:13] That's the key to this.
>> You raise a a great point because there
[19:15] are people in Marshall County that,
believe it or not, do leave for the
[19:18] winter. And so, if they want to see
events at the Reeve, they'll be able to
[19:23] see those events down in Florida, Texas,
or the Carolinas, or wherever they're
[19:27] at, via streaming.
>> And more importantly, show their
[19:29] friends.
>> Yes.
[19:31] » So, that's
>> Get their friends to come up here.
[19:33] » I'm working
I was working at the class of '76
[19:36] reunion, and
um
[19:39] there were a couple of people that had
talked me about
[19:44] um
how disappointed they were that they
[19:47] weren't able to be here for
one of the community theater shows.
[19:51] Actually, one of them it would have been
the Missoula Children's Theater show,
[19:55] because they have, you know, grandkids
in the area, but they were coming back
[19:58] for the reunion, and they weren't going
to be able to come back for both,
[20:01] whatever the case was in that scenario.
But, they said, "I would have paid
[20:05] however much they asked if I could have
streamed that
[20:09] from from my house in Arizona."
>> That's the key thing.
[20:12] » I think that's where I'm going with it
is think bigger than you
[20:16] think bigger than you even think you're
thinking right now from a streaming
[20:19] standpoint, because
like the movies will be difficult. You
[20:23] can't stream, per se, the movies
that way. Copyrights and all that. But,
[20:28] when you have private
um artists in, you can work with them,
[20:33] and Duke will probably talk a little bit
about this later.
[20:37] Um but, you can work with them to get it
to where you can stream out their
[20:42] per- or their performances, and it just
gets to a much bigger crowd than you
[20:46] guys even thought was possible. So,
that's something we've really been
[20:49] pushing is think bigger than
you really think you're thinking.
[20:53] » So, we were So, part of the grant money
that we got from Subaru
[20:56] You know, there's a lot of types
>> That's another advertising. That's
[20:59] another You guys could do advertising.
>> Absolutely. You get Marshall County out
[21:03] there.
So, part of the grant money from Subaru,
[21:06] that's that's how we got all the
streaming services left the cameras.
[21:10] [clears throat]
I got those cameras donated from
[21:13] Sweetwater. And then
Subaru donated everything else. That's
[21:17] how that kind of worked. And then so
part of that was getting it out and
[21:21] making That's what they they were so and
uh
[21:25] interested in being involved with that
and having that Subaru name attached to
[21:31] us
pushing that out to the to the masses as
[21:34] much as we possibly can.
So.
[21:37] » Awesome.
>> Well, thank you so much for giving us
[21:40] the tools we need.
>> You're welcome. Appreciate it.
[21:46] » Um wait, so you did not say though what
they need to do to come back to We need
[21:50] Do we need to
>> Oh, you were so close. We need to find
[21:54] our way home.
>> I'll do that. I'm talking about so we
[21:59] need to make sure that we're proving
what we're doing and how we're doing it
[22:02] when we report back to the board to ask
for our money.
[22:05] » I figured you had that under control.
>> I do.
[22:07] » I figured you
>> [laughter]
[22:08] » We thought you'd talk to them on your
own.
[22:10] » Give them 1 year. 1 year. Come back 1
year.
[22:14] » 1 year.
We'll be done quickly.
[22:18] » Excellent.
>> You got to give them time to be able to
[22:19] accumulate some some kind of
>> [laughter]
[22:22] » Jim will Jim will lead you on what's I
mean
[22:25] it's pretty black and white but
he can coach you through all that.
[22:29] Obviously.
>> Thank you again. Thanks, guys.
[22:32] » So much.
>> Okay, perfect.
[22:34] » Awesome. Appreciate you guys.
>> Wait, stop stop stop. Go make.
[22:42] » It's uh
[22:45] I don't have that one.
[22:51] » You controlling this?
>> No, I am Al.
[22:54] » It's cool. You're good.
[22:58] » The actual sheets.
>> Yeah, I have a couple notes on there but
[23:01] you can look at them.
>> Oh, that's right. My manager has them.
[23:04] » Let's move on. Um our next one we're
going to talk to is uh it's Music Town
[23:08] Juke. Um we've got Griff joining us.
And Griff had a meeting with Andrea and
[23:14] I and some of the stakeholders locally.
Um
[23:18] I'm going to let him kind of explain
what you do cuz I don't want to butcher
[23:22] it.
And I told him to kind of give us a
[23:25] one-page here's what it does, but he can
he can kind of explain
[23:29] how he may be able to even enhance
what we just talked about. So, I will
[23:34] turn the floor over to you, sir.
>> Great, thanks. Um so, I'll keep my
[23:39] comments brief and then we can
uh kind of have a discussion as as other
[23:43] things arise. So, I'm Griff Neaton,
uh
[23:46] CEO of a company called Juke. I started
5 years ago up in South Bend.
[23:50] Um so, we're building the company up
there and that's our our headquarters.
[23:55] Um and so,
>> [clears throat]
[23:57] » essentially Juke started as a jukebox
for live music. And so, we've worked
[24:03] with all hundreds and even thousands of
artists of all shapes and sizes from
[24:07] very small solo acts up to uh
even touring acts. So, we just worked
[24:12] with Alan Jackson his last tour about a
about a couple weeks ago.
[24:16] Um
we also work with venues. And for those
[24:19] course of the year. And now we're And
for the past 2 years, we've started
[24:23] working with towns and cities, notably
everything in St. Joe County and Elkhart
[24:28] County.
And the concept was, well, if we're
[24:32] making
connection happen at a single show,
[24:36] connecting the artist on stage with the
audience, maybe through a simple example
[24:41] would be picking the encore song.
And so, we're establishing this
[24:45] connection between the artist, even the
venue, and because they often are
[24:49] housing the LED screens or the streaming
technologies that's got our tech up on
[24:53] the screen. And so, we're the software
that sits in between the venue, the
[24:57] artist, and the fan.
And so, as the platform's grown, we've
[25:03] said, "Well, let's take that same
concept, and what if we apply it um for
[25:07] community development?
Could we elevate, [clears throat] just
[25:10] like we elevate a singular show and sort
of the fun that happens there, could we
[25:13] elevate an entire region? And then,
could we say, "Hey, let's turn towns
[25:17] into a music town." The goal is to say,
"You know, you wouldn't know it, but
[25:21] such and such, they're a heck of a music
town."
[25:23] Okay?
And so,
[25:26] over the past 2 years, we've been
working with Saint Joseph County and
[25:29] Elkhart County exclusively, and now
we're scaling and excited to talk to you
[25:34] all. Um so, we've recently also for the
entire region won a big ready grant. And
[25:39] so, there's this sort of moment now
where
[25:42] um
it's great to be sitting in front of in
[25:44] front of you all. But, what Music Town
is
[25:47] is essentially infrastructure. It's
civic infrastructure
[25:51] to elevate and catalyze all aspects of
live music. And what that amounts to is
[25:59] more awareness of all shows, all venues,
and all artists in a region or in the
[26:04] county.
Um more shows, and and usually more
[26:08] novel and unique shows.
And so, we do that kind of in two ways.
[26:12] So,
first, there is a hub uh no, a a
[26:16] software hub that has every single live
music show in the county.
[26:22] Every venue has its own profile. Every
local artist has its own profile.
[26:26] By aggregating all of that into one
spot,
[26:30] we're essentially, as you might find
about shows at I don't know, uh
[26:36] like The Breakroom, you learn about
shows at The Reese. And then, when
[26:41] you're sitting at a restaurant having
dinner, you're going to scan a QR code,
[26:45] and you're going to learn about
uh
[26:48] you know, just all all the other shows
that might be happening or the mayor's
[26:51] summer concert series. Or, when you're
at that summer concert series, you're
[26:54] going to scan the code, you can
participate, but then you're going to
[26:56] learn, "Oh my gosh, there's a show
tomorrow night." I'll go to the Ryman.
[27:00] So, we're aggregating everything into
one spot
[27:02] of all the shows, uh all the venues, and
all the artists.
[27:07] Building off of what they did, if they
have a streaming component, that hub hub
[27:11] hub also should share the story of
festivals going on, like the blueberry
[27:16] festival, which it also we can also
embed
[27:19] the streaming content for instance. So,
it really becomes your local hub for all
[27:24] things live music, where you where our
goal then is to direct people's eyeballs
[27:29] to it, residents and even visitors. I'll
talk about visitors in a second.
[27:33] How we do the directing eyeballs, we
then work with every venue. So, we're
[27:37] talking to every bar, restaurant, venue,
explaining that, "Hey, Marshall County
[27:42] and the whole region is really
deliberately trying to catalyze live
[27:46] music.
And this is how.
[27:50] Would you Would you carry some Here are
some
[27:52] signs, table tents, posters, those
things that just say,
[27:56] you know, "Marshall County loves live
music, supports local. Here's a QR code,
[28:00] find all the shows." So,
um
[28:04] we basically get a pretty robust
coverage of print signage all across the
[28:08] city that goes to the hub.
We also produce custom
[28:12] digital content for every artist and
every venue, and we help promote them
[28:16] and say, "Hey, here's some great
posters and signs that you can send out
[28:20] that are post on your Facebook and
Instagram and those things."
[28:25] For some venues, they don't have a
calendar. We have a widget, we can say,
[28:28] "Hey, put this on your website." Shows
all of your live music and other events.
[28:32] What's great is if I find that as a as a
resident, I click on it, I see a show,
[28:36] well, I'm one click away back to the hub
to see everything that's going on.
[28:41] Um cuz that's a big challenge is
basically people not knowing about
[28:45] things. And
it's it's easier for me to cite the
[28:49] stats of say South Bend, but if I just
Google or go to Facebook or whatever and
[28:53] I say, "Hey, what's going on this
weekend in South Bend?" I'm only going
[28:57] to get about I mean, it's broad, but the
last time I did this, we got about five
[29:02] good results. It might tell you eight
things,
[29:05] three or four bad, like they're not in
the region or they're just they've
[29:09] passed.
Uh five events. Meanwhile, there's about
[29:12] 40 or 50. So, it's almost an order of
magnitude difference. Um probably a
[29:17] similar thing. So, if I'm in South Bend,
I'm thinking about coming down here and
[29:21] I say, "Wait, any live music this
weekend in Plymouth?" Maybe it pulls one
[29:24] or two or zero. Maybe there are a
handful of things or So,
[29:29] the accuracy is a really important thing
cuz just Google, Facebook, Bandsintown,
[29:34] none of these um
platforms are really capturing all of
[29:38] the shows.
Um
[29:41] So, that's kind of the hub, the
infrastructure piece. And and really
[29:45] that's kind of the the proposal that's
that's put forth in front of you is to
[29:50] is for the I guess the
you know, Marshall County to cover the
[29:54] infrastructure costs for the year, for
us to talk with every venue across the
[29:58] county.
Um
[30:00] and
you know, basically set all of this up.
[30:03] We also work with every
uh you know, major festival, parks
[30:08] department, The Rees Theatre. Kind of
the We you know, we'll talk to every
[30:11] venue, but certain ones have a little
bit more weight. So, you know, we want
[30:15] to make sure we're that
say the
[30:19] you know, blue blueberry festival comes
to mind, that
[30:22] that we're
collaborating with them in the right way
[30:27] with the the goal of both enhancing the
audience at the people that go there,
[30:31] their time, but also it's a great
opportunity to capture all the email
[30:36] addresses,
um names. That is a durable resource for
[30:40] you all. It's not It's not for us to
own. It's for you all because the the
[30:44] slow build is we're capturing residents
and visitors. We're understanding their
[30:49] listening preferences and then we get
really good at referring out, "Hey, such
[30:52] and such act just got booked. You love
jam bands. You're going to like this
[30:56] show."
So,
[30:58] um
Yeah, and and uh
[31:00] well, it's a little longer than I wanted
to go, but that's essentially what kind
[31:04] of music town, at least the
infrastructure part, is.
[31:08] » How do they find you and how do you
optimize to make sure that if they type
[31:13] in music that they come they get to
>> Yeah.
[31:15] » they get to music town.
>> Yeah. So,
[31:18] most of the
residents or visitors finding it are
[31:22] going to find it through the signs and
the
[31:25] posting that's going to happen from all
the local venues.
[31:29] Um that we're, you know, they're already
posting, but a lot of times the managers
[31:32] they just have a lot going on. Sometimes
helpful for us to come in with our
[31:38] like, "Hey, you got a show coming up in
2 weeks.
[31:41] Here's uh
you know, here's some Do you need it?
[31:43] Well,
you know, post about it or we've crafted
[31:48] um
signs and things for them already or for
[31:51] the region and say, "Hey, maybe it's
time to post this. Let's just remind
[31:54] people." So, a lot of it will be
just sort of amplifying the existing
[31:58] organic channels.
And then the signage just around town is
[32:01] really nice because we might be at lunch
at a cafe,
[32:06] see,
you know, local all local live music
[32:09] shows here. You're scanning and that's
how you're finding. So, a lot of that's
[32:12] there. In doing all of that, we end up
[32:17] there's an SEO strategy that also is is
helping
[32:21] and slowly over time it brings, you
know, some of the terms like live music
[32:26] Plymouth, it's going to bring
the
[32:30] basically the Juke Live Marshall County
hub
[32:34] towards the top of those search results.
Cuz as all of these profiles, artists,
[32:39] pages have shows,
it's
[32:42] make it'll make our site or well, I said
our site, but really it's your hub
[32:47] at the top. It doesn't happen overnight,
but
[32:50] um
and it works. I mean, we started the the
[32:52] best story we have is sort of working
with Elkhart
[32:56] not even 2 years ago prior to them
saying, "Hey, we really want to
[33:01] want to be intentional about music."
They had about 125 shows in a single
[33:05] year across 10 venues, venues being
bars, restaurants, and the learner.
[33:10] Now they're like 8x that. So, it's about
100 800 shows this year in about 20
[33:15] venues.
And
[33:18] so our our goal is really just it's sort
of rising the tide for everybody. But to
[33:22] answer your question of how do you find
it, it's
[33:25] got to do a lot of
a lot of grassroots efforts. Um one of
[33:30] the interesting things with this ready
piece is it now allows us and if you
[33:35] guys come on board, it allows
us to
[33:37] basically cross-promote between the
three regions.
[33:41] So,
um
[33:46] it maybe it's easier to use a a for
instance, but
[33:49] it allows us to
a lot of times shows are siloed. So,
[33:52] maybe there's a singer-songwriter, maybe
there's three shows next week that are
[33:56] different singer-songwriters.
Well, they're all going to be marketed
[34:00] independently by the artist, they're all
going to be marketed independently by
[34:03] the venue.
And that's that's fine.
[34:07] But there's a lost opportunity there to
make it feel bigger and cohesive.
[34:11] So, if there's a couple
singer-songwriter events that are
[34:13] happening in Elkhart County and in St.
Joe County,
[34:17] but you can ahead of time plan,
organize these say 15 shows and that
[34:22] example could say, "Hey, this is the
singer-songwriter fest the remote
[34:25] singer-songwriter festival of Northwest
Indiana" or something. Great signage,
[34:30] posters, all that. Encourage everybody
to you know, kind of check off each one.
[34:34] So, we kind of have a little
gamification. People make their profiles
[34:37] on it and we can say, "Oh, you've You've
now seen 10 of the 15 shows." So, we can
[34:42] kind of cross-direct people to go from
different shows.
[34:45] Um
naturally, by doing all this, we have
[34:48] all we have the landscape of all the
shows that are happening. That's really
[34:52] helpful to share with venues that are
booking their own music from a
[34:54] transparency.
Um
[34:57] you know, I was just chatting with I
think
[35:00] uh
maybe it was Pat who mentioned they
[35:03] wanted to do a Thurs- like Thursday
movies or excuse me, Thursday shows at
[35:07] at the Reese. And
[35:11] um
when we have those conversations, we
[35:14] might say
we end up knowing, "Oh, so-and-so's
[35:17] doing Thursday. You know, maybe we
should look at Wednesday or you should
[35:19] consider Wednesday or Friday." Or we
have the just
[35:23] tech to say, "I'm not there." They can
go on the calendar themselves and see
[35:27] where the gaps are both on dates,
genres, you you name it. But, basically,
[35:33] it's a
that transparency is really helpful as
[35:36] people plan.
>> So, we have the hub. Does that mean that
[35:40] everybody in the county, every venue in
the county then
[35:44] has access to that?
>> Yeah, we do it We essentially do it for
[35:47] it. Sorry to cut you off. We do it for
>> We essentially do it for it. Sorry to
[35:50] cut you off. Yeah, we do it for them.
Um because we're talking to them and you
[35:53] know, I'm going to introduce myself,
explain what we're doing, explain what
[35:57] Marshall County and the whole region is
leaning into live music and how they're
[36:00] supporting it. Here's your page. It's
you know, big glamour shot of their
[36:04] restaurant or their bar there.
We're going to find out why is live
[36:07] music important to them. Is there any
cool stories? Cuz that's all interesting
[36:11] to me as an audience member. Um
all their socials. Then I'm going to say
[36:15] how
you got music, okay.
[36:18] Whatever you However you got it, Excel
sheet send it to me.
[36:21] We're going to put all that in.
Then we're just going to have regular
[36:24] communication with you. If you book
anything else, what else is coming up?
[36:27] Hey, you know, there's there's some
opportunities here. Now that we've got a
[36:30] better picture, we can say, you know,
there's not nothing on Wednesday nights.
[36:33] I know you told me you might do a
Wednesday night show. That might be an
[36:37] opportunity. So, that's
And and we And I might say to you, you
[36:42] know, you don't have an event calendar
on your website. Here's our code for the
[36:46] widget. You should pop that up there.
Then you can enter your And obviously
[36:49] people can go in and enter their own
stuff. When you're on that back end, you
[36:53] can also see what's coming up. You can
see
[36:58] uh what other types of shows are
happening all across the county. And so
[37:03] if you're booking if you're looking, I
don't know, 2 months out,
[37:07] is there anything going on on what like
what's going on on what Tuesday nights?
[37:10] And you might see, oh, none of the other
people have shows on Tuesday nights.
[37:15] That might be a nice night for for us to
do it.
[37:18] And last last point on that cuz it just
sometimes it just comes down to like
[37:23] these tangible little stories. I might
know your venue wants to do every
[37:27] might want to add music on Wednesdays.
But you think 52 Wednesdays a year is a
[37:31] little bit
much. But you could afford 26. You could
[37:34] afford every other one.
And that maybe you got a restaurant and
[37:37] you had the similar thought and you want
to do every other Wednesday. Well, then
[37:40] I can suggest that, hey,
alternate.
[37:44] So, now the the resident gets music
every single Wednesday of the year
[37:49] alternating. Whereas had you not
chatted, you know, maybe they'd have
[37:51] been
doubled up or what have you.
[37:54] So, it's a
>> 25,000 buys us
[37:57] a hub, established hub for the county.
>> Yes.
[38:00] » And indefinite management of that hub?
>> For it's an annual cost. Sorry. Should
[38:05] have heard that.
>> 25,000 a year?
[38:07] » Yeah.
Now, I think that will come down. Uh
[38:10] it will I think it'll continue to come
down because the sort of startup cost,
[38:15] if you will, are a bit higher as I
introduce Juke and this initiative to
[38:19] all the different bars, restaurants,
venues. Once we get rolling, it's a bit
[38:23] easier uh to maintain. And we've seen
that.
[38:26] » You setting every year? You're looking
for a certain amount of year commitment?
[38:30] I mean
>> No, I
[38:31] » No, what It's hard to establish
something in one year. What if they're
[38:34] like this there?
>> Oh, yeah. No, I think this is a This
[38:36] should be a durable piece. It should be
a three, you know, I think a three, I
[38:39] mean, one, it should never go like that.
I There's probably some point where
[38:45] it's
just rolling and that cost is probably
[38:50] half or something in like 3 years is my
hunch. Cuz that's just
[38:53] » And you never go into any of the the
proprietors and looking for compensation
[38:58] through them. That's all
>> No, it's it it's
[39:01] » Your county does this.
>> Correct. The over over time with
[39:06] Elkhart County or St. Joseph County, the
mix of
[39:10] funding has shifted. So, sometimes it's
started It's been the county,
[39:13] combination of county, city, and private
or corporate or private folks.
[39:18] And
you know, we can change. So, maybe this
[39:21] year it starts with
you know, county funds and then maybe
[39:25] next year it's like, "Okay, we're going
to do only half and we're going to find
[39:29] a sponsor for the other half." I mean,
there's
[39:31] uh
you know, certainly
[39:34] that's just what we've seen in in say
St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, but
[39:39] » The business owners give you you're
going to get in touch with all of them
[39:42] or they have to come to you and populate
them?
[39:44] » So, generally the the business we'll we
go to them.
[39:49] Now, I might ask for a handful of
introductions from the folks in the room
[39:52] if there's people that I don't know, but
generally, you know, we're or not
[39:55] generally, but we're going to them.
And just telling saying,
[39:59] you know, there's this focus on live
music.
[40:02] I need broadly speaking, here's your
profile, bless it, and um
[40:08] share your all your live music with us
and then
[40:10] there's a
you know, there's a different
[40:13] conversation that I might have, a deeper
conversation with say the Reese Theater
[40:16] than I would with, I don't know, the the
break room for instance.
[40:21] » That's her.
>> Oh, is it?
[40:22] Maybe not. Unless you're here, so maybe
you can continue.
[40:26] Also, one of some of our earliest
customers or earliest artists we ever
[40:30] worked with were
down the performing down at the break
[40:33] room like 5 years ago.
>> Oh, really? Yeah. During COVID I was
[40:36] » song requests and all this kind of
stuff, yeah.
[40:38] » I like the interactive piece of it, too,
that you had mentioned in our initial
[40:42] meeting.
There was that
[40:44] » Yeah.
>> piece. I don't know if you want to Yeah.
[40:46] » Yeah, I mean, so we're you know, we're
in shows, we're always
[40:52] part of the interesting part of the hub,
so to speak. It's not just awareness,
[40:55] but it's also engagement. And as people,
we want people to engage because then we
[41:00] learn your name, your email address,
maybe your phone number, your listening
[41:04] preferences, and that's an asset for the
county.
[41:07] Um
so you you can imagine that getting
[41:11] substantively large enough, and well,
that's going to help
[41:14] anybody who's putting on a new show or
another show market that show correctly.
[41:19] And we'll get the listening, you know,
in time. We don't have this today. Today
[41:22] people can sign up. I know your name, I
know your email address, and and uh
[41:26] your
your phone number if you've shared it,
[41:29] and I know that you you want to be
communicated with. But you've done it
[41:32] because you want to request a song or
you wanted to suggest an artist or you
[41:36] wanted to rate a show or you wanted to
use the photo the digital photo booth or
[41:42] you wanted to
answer the poll or whatever it was.
[41:46] Um
the goal of it being
[41:49] in time you're getting
a nice text message like, "Hey, you're
[41:53] going to love the show at the break room
cuz it's such and such." Um
[41:56] so.
>> So, you're marketing to the people who
[41:58] are most likely to show [clears throat]
up.
[41:59] » Yeah.
>> And then from there, the other cool
[42:02] thing is on the platform it lists all
the town or
[42:05] » Yeah.
>> Right now I'm looking at Elkhart,
[42:06] Goshen, and South Bend. So,
then Marshall County towns will
[42:12] » Correct.
>> populate on there. So, when somebody's
[42:14] on the platform already, they're more
likely to then discover whatever you
[42:18] have going on. For example, today, I
always film with that video every week
[42:24] of like what there is to do this
weekend. I had to visit five different
[42:28] Facebook pages, three different Google
links to figure out what all was going
[42:32] on in Marshall County, and that was just
music-wise, cuz we have the TGIF in
[42:37] Argos, the Mayor's Summer of Music,
Culver Second Saturday, John Baylor and
[42:42] the Moon Rockers, and then the Ranch
the Rangers. I was going to say the
[42:47] Ranchers. The Rangers who are at the
Rees, and then there's a ton of
[42:51] different uh performers at the Latino
Festival. So,
[42:56] in essence, all of those will be listed
on here, and I also never want to hear
[43:01] there's nothing to do in Marshall
County, but all of those will be listed
[43:04] on here
in a nice, organized way, and in a
[43:08] platform that has the potential to reach
the right audiences right away,
[43:12] directly, once you learn their music
preferences. The second thing,
[43:17] you're likely to be discovered by people
who are maybe in Elkhart, Goshen, South
[43:22] Bend, and then as this thing grows,
hopefully it does, sounds like you're on
[43:25] the right track with the Ready Grant and
everything,
[43:28] then it goes to the next region aside
aside those
[43:32] towns. Um
>> So, you work with those
[43:36] » proprietors to get that
to help them to go to that site, cuz you
[43:41] want one-stop shop.
And
[43:45] if we were paying for it, we would have
one shop stop. You know what I mean? So,
[43:49] that's how it would work. You would work
with those proprietors, cuz it could be
[43:54] 18 places.
>> Yeah, that's probably what I sort of
[43:56] what I thought, yeah.
>> That would all have potentially have,
[44:00] you know, some kind of
live music going.
[44:02] » and that's about what Elkhart has, about
21, South Bend, Mishawaka, Granger all
[44:08] has they have like 50 people
>> I just looked at any event center or or
[44:12] a bar or a nightclub.
>> So if you would do a bro I think 18 is
[44:15] about right.
>> You'd have a profile. You would have a
[44:17] profile.
>> Right. And then
[44:18] » Whether you're one of us it's it's about
>> I'm just saying
[44:21] » everything in one place is a big big
deal.
[44:23] It's a big big deal.
>> And so thank you. The other thing that
[44:27] for us is the signage piece where you'll
have that shareable content ready to go
[44:33] and that's on your bar top, that's on
your tabletops and everything or hung in
[44:37] your restaurants where people can scan
the QR code or type in the link to the
[44:41] website and easily connect them to music
or performance
[44:46] » More importantly given the task of this
commission
[44:49] we are once again creating a marketable
platform in this case to market to our
[44:55] visitors that are looking for things to
do and reasons to stay longer in our
[45:01] county. To me this is
this is phenomenal.
[45:05] » I went to that meeting that he was at
and I could tell you yeah
[45:09] that there were several people in there
on that table that were super excited.
[45:13] The Reese was was there.
The Wild Rose was there. Rose was there.
[45:18] There was a few other people that were
>> The mayor came for a little bit.
[45:21] » very excited about it because one school
can have a play and they can look to see
[45:26] the schedule to see okay there's already
a live performance that's being done on
[45:29] the same night so let's
>> do that too, right?
[45:31] » Yeah, they change people can look at it
and change their direction as to when
[45:36] they were going to have their
performance based upon the schedule.
[45:39] » It's a literal gift to Marshall County
venues and I know like not all of them
[45:44] are specifically venues, some of them
are restaurants, some of them are parks,
[45:47] some of them are the Reese or the Wild
Rose Moon, but it's literally like a
[45:51] gift to them to give them this platform
where you get
[45:54] » tables or Airbnbs they should have links
to this. Every one of them should have
[45:57] QR codes at every single I will probably
put put every I will have Kristen put it
[46:01] in
>> Every room, absolutely.
[46:04] » But this too so helps with meeting, you
know, with those Airbnb hosts. This is
[46:08] something that we can gift to them so
that they can have something in their
[46:13] Airbnbs and VRBOs and
have people know exactly
[46:18] what there is to do, what's happening,
when where to go once they are here,
[46:23] once we do get them here.
>> don't want to get crazy. I mean, we
[46:25] can't get everything like we have talked
about. We we really went off the rails
[46:29] and we were thinking farmers markets and
things like that. Eventually, maybe.
[46:33] » What's the roll out? How does the roll
out look? How How long do you think it
[46:37] takes? How long I mean, I want to know
what the
[46:40] What's the next step?
>> Sure. We write you a check today.
[46:43] » Yeah. What's the next step?
>> Cuz I forgot my checkbook. I didn't
[46:47] bring the checkbook.
>> You've already established that
[46:48] following you home is okay.
>> Agreements today, but no checks.
[46:51] » But
>> You know what I'm saying? But
[46:52] » Yeah, no. So, quick Yeah, absolutely.
It's about a No, about a 3-month roll
[46:56] out.
First step, I'm going to chat with
[46:59] whomever the
It's nice to have a a small
[47:04] motivated sort of thought leadership
group in the county. So, whomever that
[47:09] might be, I feel like I'm going already
>> We're already tight. Yeah.
[47:13] » You know,
um you know, I think there's probably
[47:15] three or four people just to get a sort
of hey, let's talk about strategy, let's
[47:19] talk about what
you all think is a long-term vision for
[47:23] live music to the extent that exists and
what's also a
[47:26] incremental step and what would be
something that would be helpful. So,
[47:29] » There's also one other piece to it.
>> And if
[47:33] » Yeah. This is over and above. This is
the piece of
[47:38] if let's say Swan Lake wanted to do big
events and they don't want to take on
[47:44] getting that set up.
Chris's group can work with Swan Lake to
[47:49] book
the entertainer to bring them in to have
[47:53] a concert at.
>> And his resources, the people that he
[47:56] has already connected to in Nashville in
these other areas and in within the
[48:01] region and outside of the region. Um,
this is a music lover. So, he already
[48:06] has these contacts that might not have
performed here in our area. So, it would
[48:11] differentiate what we're used to and
maybe get some
[48:13] » By us committing to this, we are giving
all of our
[48:17] various businesses and organizations
access to your portfolio. But, the
[48:23] extra the extra just so it's clear. I
want to make sure it's clear though.
[48:26] » The extra is extra.
>> The bookings like a Swan Lake booking a
[48:29] higher premiere event.
>> Yeah.
[48:31] » That would be an extra fee.
>> Yeah, I think I think people understand
[48:34] that. I don't think so. Give them a
base.
[48:35] » You could see the list of all the
singers.
[48:38] I liked I liked how that singer looked
on their YouTube video or whatever you
[48:42] Google them. And then you call them up
and book them.
[48:44] » Yeah.
>> And that's great.
[48:46] » If you have a budget set aside for
visitors.
[48:48] » Okay, yeah. Sorry, focus thing. But,
that's what I thought your question was
[48:51] about.
>> Well, kind of. No, I I'm
[48:53] going to make two motions in a row. I
think we're spinning our wheels here. I
[48:56] make a motion for a resounding motion to
approve this and
[49:01] » I second it.
>> I'm on board. I think this is brilliant.
[49:03] » I already wrote it down. Just so you
know.
[49:04] » I have a first of the This is what we
need.
[49:06] » All those in favor? I. All opposed?
Eyes have it.
[49:11] » Keep in mind that I I wanted to have us
be the center of arts and music. And I
[49:18] got shot down the end music part. They
just wanted to have it just be arts. Cuz
[49:21] I I think it's different. They all say
it's an art. Music is an art. I don't
[49:27] believe that. It should be arts and
music and that's what I want to push
[49:29] for. So.
[49:33] » People
It's sometimes if you're different, it's
[49:36] hard to behold. Like you if it's if you
start stacking
[49:40] » Yeah.
Yeah. I also think that
[49:42] » It's going to be in every hotel every
year.
[49:43] » how popular and how much music does
bring people together.
[49:46] » For businesses, but
>> They just had the blueberry festival and
[49:50] even over the festival weekend, there
was music in the park for Mayor Summer
[49:54] Music, and there was still a pretty
hefty flat crowd there at Mayor Summer
[49:58] Music, which was a folk mostly a music
event, and then there were a few food
[50:02] trucks there. But,
I think music does have that power of
[50:06] bringing people together even with
competing events around it. I mean, I
[50:10] just listed all of the music going on
this weekend, and they're all going to
[50:14] be competing with each other, but not
really because there's so much to go
[50:17] around.
>> I mean, if I have if I have a country
[50:22] band at the Reef, that's I'm going to be
I you know, somebody else is going to
[50:26] look at that and say, "Well, I don't
want to have a country band at the Reef.
[50:28] I want to have
>> Well, there's a rhythm and blues band
[50:30] band in the park, then there's the Latin
Festival all day
[50:33] » Yeah, exactly.
>> So, there's so many options.
[50:36] » Griffin, thank So, and then the next 2
months the next 2 months is building the
[50:40] site and getting signage out. So, that
did the roll out plan.
[50:44] » Through our Visit Marshall County
website.
[50:47] » Yeah. Well, so
>> Well, we could just add this to the
[50:50] » We have their own website. We now we
could talk about is, you know,
[50:54] does a widget or does part of live music
belong on? I think it'd be
[50:58] I think our technology calendar
We have a different one that you're not
[51:03] maybe you were looking at. Um that might
be a good fit as well on
[51:08] Uh a different one actually different
than that that might be a really good
[51:11] fit for
the site if you wanted to
[51:16] distinguish
music and and then non-music events with
[51:20] your other calendar. I don't want to
over-calendar people.
[51:22] » still end up I'll it will be nice to
have everything on
[51:26] » Yeah.
>> And then I can take what you have
[51:30] instead of going all those different
Facebook pages and everything.
[51:33] I would take what you have and put it on
the county calendar as well. So,
[51:37] » You it could be potentially that where
you have like it in the county like as
[51:41] you mentioned, maybe music and arts are
slightly different. You say, "Hey, we're
[51:44] we're going to have our own dedicated
page to music and that is So, but
[51:49] But yeah, we'll certainly over the next
3 months it's talking all the venues,
[51:52] getting all the signs out, and building
the whole hub.
[51:55] » So, then would you come back here like
and then we could talk about it again?
[51:59] » I don't think he needs to come back to
us. He's coming to you.
[52:01] » Oh, okay.
I didn't know if you guys wanted an
[52:04] update.
>> This is This is now your baby. You
[52:07] » So, we have really great reporting cuz
we're always We're able to start
[52:13] Anyway, we have really great nearly
real-time reporting. And so, it's not a
[52:19] big lift if you said, "Hey, in 6 months
give us a an update of how many shows
[52:25] are happening, how many are upcoming,
what is catalyzed, that or that."
[52:28] » Yeah, if there's any data or reporting,
I was just curious if you guys would
[52:31] want that update.
That comes with it, like attendance,
[52:34] page views,
>> Yeah.
[52:35] » the cross county traffic that's
>> We probably will at a year, but not that
[52:40] time soon.
>> Yeah. The rollout's going to go through
[52:42] you.
>> So, is this approved for 1 year or 3
[52:44] years? Did you guys
clarify that? Okay.
[52:48] » We'll get it started and then
>> And then we'll come back in a year.
[52:51] » Okay.
I'll think about that. Thank you for
[52:54] having me. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[52:56] » All right.
>> I'm set. You're up. Now, I'll leave this
[53:00] up to you. I have your slideshow here.
If you want to use this to scroll
[53:05] through as you're doing it, that would
be cuz all of our people see this and
[53:08] you can I think you can see I got bad
eyes, so I'm going to need it on my end
[53:12] anyway.
>> [laughter]
[53:13] » So, yeah. So, that is That's running my
computer.
[53:16] » Okay.
>> on the big screen and
[53:18] » You'll be able to see it right there.
>> Can you see it from here?
[53:20] » I got mine pulled up here as well, too.
>> But I'll let you cuz there's some small
[53:24] text on on it and uh
Let me So, to me trying to figure out
[53:28] where you're at.
>> Yeah.
[53:33] » Make this full screen for everybody.
There we go.
[53:37] So,
first off, uh appreciate everybody's
[53:41] time today.
Um,
[53:43] quick introduction to myself. I am Matt
Verdun. Um, work for a company called
[53:48] Placer AI.
Uh, we're essentially a location
[53:51] analytics software. So,
uh, what we do is I specialize with
[53:55] working within civic organizations,
uh, counties, municipalities, EDOs,
[54:00] CVBs, DMOs, tourism commissions.
Um, and what we do
[54:06] is we help these, uh, organizations and
these communities leverage mobile
[54:10] location data, uh, to then learn about
who visits their community, where do
[54:16] they come from, what do they like to do.
So,
[54:20] uh, little bit background just on Placer
itself, how we get our data, uh, who we
[54:26] are, how long we've been around. So, we
were founded in 2018. Uh, we've been
[54:30] selling in the market since 2018, I
should say. Uh, we work with over 4,500
[54:36] actual organizations now across 30
different, uh, industries. Within the
[54:41] civic industry, uh, we work with
approximately 2,000 customers. So,
[54:45] nearly half of our customer base is
civic organizations. Um,
[54:50] how we actually get our data is through
partnerships with mobile applications.
[54:56] So, these are lifestyle type apps that
when users download them, they're
[55:01] incentivized to show their location at
all times. Typically, the example that I
[55:05] like to give would be a weather app. Uh,
when you download that app, it may ask
[55:10] you, "Can we see location always, while
using, or never?"
[55:14] Users are more likely incentivized to
say always. Um, so, those are the types
[55:18] of apps that we would then partner with.
>> I always say never.
[55:22] Most And you're not getting counted.
>> And most people that I talk to do.
[55:26] Um, one of the things that is unique
though to Placer is that we don't
[55:30] collect any personally identifiable
information from those devices. So,
[55:35] prior to, uh, us even receiving the
location data, it is all de-identified
[55:40] by those mobile part mobile app partners
that we have. So, all we see is the
[55:46] latitude and the longitude of that
device.
[55:49] And then it were given a fictitious
mobile ID to then recognize that within
[55:54] our panel of devices.
Our panel's made up of about 30 million
[55:59] mobile devices across the entire United
States.
[56:03] And as I mentioned, none of that data
we have access to as far as personally
[56:07] identify identifiers.
So, what you can typically start to do
[56:13] with this data is then understand like I
mentioned previously, how many people
[56:18] are visiting a place. It is any physical
place. So, even just listening to
[56:21] Griffin talk through his his pitch.
An an application like that where you
[56:27] can have a a map or a calendar to show
you what events are going on.
[56:32] You can then utilize Placer to then use
attendance. Where did those people come
[56:37] from? So, now you can start to prove out
the fact that these other types of
[56:42] events are bringing in tourism traffic.
One of the ones that we'll focus on
[56:48] today
is actually last year's blueberry
[56:51] festival.
Kind of going back on our data a little
[56:55] bit more.
It is all historical data. So, it is
[56:59] about on a approximately a seven-year
rolling period. So, nearly eight years
[57:04] worth of data. It's about seven years
and three quarters. So, right now our
[57:09] data goes back to January 1st of 2019.
There is the ability to get down to
[57:14] daily aggregations. So, for an event
like the blueberry festival, you could
[57:18] go in and you can look at the Saturday
or the Sunday of the actual festival
[57:23] itself. But our data is updated daily.
So, every day you log in, there is fresh
[57:28] data to look at on approximately a three
to four day latency. So, it is near real
[57:34] time. So, logging in tomorrow, you would
be able to look at data for this year's
[57:39] blueberry festival and understand
attendance numbers, where those people
[57:42] came from, where else did they like to
go.
[57:44] » I think we need to show that as an
example and then give us that data and
[57:47] then we'll make it to
>> It was hot on Saturday.
[57:51] » It's too last year.
>> So,
[57:54] So, I don't I while I don't have this
year's data, this is this is an example
[57:59] of some of the data that you'd be able
to pull. This is actually from our
[58:02] platform.
This is again looking at last year's.
[58:06] So, some of the things that we look at,
the building blocks of it all are that
[58:09] panel. So, what we would start with are
how many of those panel visits
[58:14] actually came to that particular
location. We then extrapolate that
[58:18] number to account for the rest of the US
population. So, people that don't have
[58:23] their phones sharing their location at
all times,
[58:26] maybe they don't even have a phone,
they're under the age of 18, right?
[58:29] These are there's a bunch of
uh of factors that are taken into that
[58:35] particular algorithm.
What that allows us to then do is see
[58:39] things like unique visitor counts. So,
in this case for 2025, we saw 122,900
[58:46] unique visitors.
Now, those visitors made up 150,600
[58:52] total visits to the festival itself.
Average stay time was approximately 118
[58:58] minutes with that peak wait window being
from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
[59:03] » So, if Tracy was out there every day,
but she was,
[59:08] then it would only come up one time?
>> So, we we count her in Tracy's aspect,
[59:13] we would count her daily.
If she leaves what we have built for
[59:18] that geofence over the course of the day
and then were to come back, she is only
[59:22] counted as one visit for that day.
>> But if she's staying she's coming from
[59:27] Marshall County to the Blueberry
Festival area.
[59:31] » Mhm. She would still be counted as a
visit. Yes.
[59:34] » Not a unique visit.
>> Uh she would. Yes. So unique probably
[59:37] slept in the carrots with us.
>> It's one account.
[59:39] » [laughter]
>> Carrots with Unique visitor would would
[59:41] essentially just mean it's how many
people uh made up those total visits.
[59:46] » Let me ask this quick cuz I as you know
I didn't use it.
[59:49] » Mhm. Yeah.
>> Um I used it for 3 years. Um
[59:53] So my one couple questions is
if they visit once that day, leave, come
[1:00:00] back, is that just counted for that one
day?
[1:00:02] » Correct.
>> So they're never recounted if they leave
[1:00:05] that perimeter
and come back in, then it's not another
[1:00:09] visit.
>> Correct. And that And that is one of
[1:00:11] those areas where typically we will see
if somebody's using clickers or
[1:00:15] something like that, it it throws off
those counts because there's human error
[1:00:20] involved.
>> Sure.
[1:00:21] » They're sitting there watching people
walk in. They may not remember
[1:00:23] somebody's face.
>> And of course kids who do not have cell
[1:00:26] phones are not counted. So
>> They're built into the algorithm.
[1:00:30] While we don't have any device holders
under the age of 18 in our panel, that
[1:00:35] is a part that is a part of what is
built into the
[1:00:38] » That's built into this 150,000.
>> Correct.
[1:00:40] » Okay.
And then my last question cuz I know at
[1:00:44] one at some point it looks at a person
and says, "Okay, they're no longer
[1:00:49] visiting here. They live here." Or they
no longer visiting here, they work here.
[1:00:53] What is that threshold
visits that that actually starts to
[1:00:58] count because like
Tracy, does does it count her because
[1:01:02] she's there every day? Is it like,
"Yeah, she may not be visiting here. She
[1:01:05] may just be working."
>> So that's a great question. So all of
[1:01:09] those get taken into account over about
a 6-8 week period, home locations and
[1:01:13] work locations. So home locations in one
of the maps that actually that we'll
[1:01:18] we'll take a look at here. I'll skip
ahead just a little bit and jump back.
[1:01:21] That that heat map that you see is based
off of approximate home locations. All
[1:01:27] of our data goes down to a census block
level. So, what that map is actually
[1:01:32] showing is density of visits from a
census block level.
[1:01:36] So, over about a 6-8 week period, if we
see a device in our panel continuously
[1:01:41] going back to the same latitude and
longitude, uh what we then do is we
[1:01:46] observe, okay, over a Monday through
Friday 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. that
[1:01:50] device is doing this for about 6-8
weeks, this is likely a home location.
[1:01:56] Similarly to work, we just change the
time frame that we're looking at,
[1:01:59] working hours Monday through Friday 6-8
weeks, that would then be identified as
[1:02:04] a work location.
>> And the nice thing is is with this is
[1:02:09] you can get as granular as you want with
this thing. We could encircle the
[1:02:14] Lighthouse mark, and we could tell where
most of your people are coming from,
[1:02:19] where they go when they leave. Do they
leave your place, go down to another
[1:02:23] restaurant, do they go down to the root
beer stand, do they go to the
[1:02:26] So, it it's crazy how granular
you can make this information.
[1:02:32] » Yeah, uh restaurants, bars, those types
of venues where events may be taking
[1:02:37] place, uh parades, you could custom draw
geofences to look at parade routes,
[1:02:42] understand how many visitors came to
parades and fireworks shows and things
[1:02:46] like that as well, too. How far did that
bring people in? Um
[1:02:51] one of the one of the things that I
actually thought of on my drive down
[1:02:53] today was I've got a a family friend who
has a camper at Yogi, you know,
[1:02:58] understanding and geofencing Yogi as
well, and seeing, okay, well, when
[1:03:02] people leave an event like Blueberry
Festival, do they go back to a campsite
[1:03:06] like that as well?
[1:03:11] So, I'm going to jump back just very
quickly. Um one of the things that I
[1:03:14] mentioned, oh, and I got to figure out
how I can jump back on.
[1:03:19] » So, Tracy, for you, the first How do you
use the data for?
[1:03:22] » Right or left click?
>> Left just to go forward.
[1:03:26] See if I
Let me try.
[1:03:28] » What if you use the scroll wheel?
>> There we go.
[1:03:32] That's good thinking.
You'd think the AI guy would know.
[1:03:36] » [laughter]
>> Um, okay.
[1:03:38] » Needed knowing that you have the biggest
consolidation of people on that Sunday,
[1:03:43] and I would figure out I would put
better
[1:03:46] things together on Saturday to get as
many of those people to come on
[1:03:50] Saturday.
>> Yeah, that's how I would use it.
[1:03:52] » Well, fireworks is driving.
Fireworks is driving.
[1:03:55] » Giant air conditioner.
>> And to that point as well, too, is
[1:04:01] looking at that heat map within the
platform. If you're looking at a
[1:04:04] singular day of that event, that heat
map will adjust. So, based off of
[1:04:09] Saturday's versus visits versus Sunday's
visits, if we want to see a comparison
[1:04:15] of those two specific days, and
understand, okay, where is the
[1:04:18] differences and where those people came
from, you can do that.
[1:04:22] » I have to ask this question real
quickly.
[1:04:24] Can you encircle the park
and get an idea of a heat map as to
[1:04:29] where people went within the park for
that day? So, like Tracy has an idea of
[1:04:35] okay, I had more I didn't have as many
people swing down in this like the
[1:04:38] Jefferson
stage as much as people were out in is
[1:04:42] that
>> It is with that is part of what you guys
[1:04:45] would have extra to
is what we call it is placer extra. It's
[1:04:49] part of just the base subscription. It's
an incubation of reports. That would be
[1:04:53] one of those reports is a a like on-site
heat map
[1:04:58] as well.
[1:05:00] » How easy is it to use the data? And the
reason I'm asking about how easy is
[1:05:04] because
I'm a data guy. I love data. Data is
[1:05:09] that's that's my jam, okay?
But, if
[1:05:12] it's difficult to get the data and you
don't do anything with the data, the
[1:05:16] data's useless. You might as well not
have even gathered the data because
[1:05:21] unused data is is
not worth anything.
[1:05:24] » Yep. And that's a that's a great
question. So, one of the pillars that
[1:05:27] Place It was built on was actually
in it being easy to use. Um
[1:05:34] everything is labeled where you would
find it. You click into that section of
[1:05:37] the platform and the data that we're
looking at right now, for example, um
[1:05:41] with demographics, all of the
demographics are right there. Um
[1:05:45] additionally, everything is exportable
and downloadable throughout the
[1:05:48] platform. So,
all PDFs, everything that you would want
[1:05:52] to bring into like a commission meeting,
uh all of that information is very
[1:05:56] easily downloadable into PDF formats.
Uh and then finally, the best part about
[1:06:01] that is throughout the length of the
term, there's an onboarding support team
[1:06:06] uh as well as a customer success
manager. So, everybody is is given a a
[1:06:11] » Would that be true?
>> Yeah, they were great with us.
[1:06:14] » And easy to use?
>> I found it easy to use, but I'm like
[1:06:19] you. I'm
>> Right.
[1:06:19] » I'm a data guy, so
>> Yeah.
[1:06:21] » You're kidding.
>> I I I thought it was cool like I could
[1:06:24] take Swan Lake
and I surrounded
[1:06:27] French Lick and looked at data
comparisons between the two resorts to
[1:06:32] see where their traffic was coming from,
where our traffic traffic was coming
[1:06:36] from, was there crossover traffic going
on?
[1:06:40] Or were they drawing more from that
southern Indiana, northern Kentucky
[1:06:43] region and we had more of the Chicago,
Michigan region.
[1:06:48] So, I mean, you can dig it as deep as
you want.
[1:06:52] » And I also like the showing the leakage
rates because it works for you.
[1:06:58] Because in um
the case study for the Kalamazoo
[1:07:02] Discover Kalamazoo, they used that data
to um
[1:07:06] kind of prove the point for
uh why they might need another hotel in
[1:07:11] the area, right?
>> Yes. So, what Andrea is referencing is
[1:07:17] actually going to be
um
[1:07:19] this tourism and overnight leakage. So,
she's referencing the case study that we
[1:07:25] have with Discover Kalamazoo
where they actually looked at how much
[1:07:30] of overnight leakage was going to
surrounding counties and towns
[1:07:35] and they utilized that and were able to
put a dollar figure on it
[1:07:39] um and won a
uh won an opportunity for a $45 million
[1:07:43] sports complex to bring in additional
sports and tourism to their to their
[1:07:47] area. So, that's an example of how it
could be used for something along like a
[1:07:51] leakage analysis. Um the $3.3 million
number that you see there is actually
[1:07:57] based off of the data in our platform.
So, that is $3.3 million
[1:08:02] of bed tax money that is going or
overnight tax money that is going to
[1:08:08] surrounding counties.
>> And it looks like St. Joseph is taking
[1:08:12] the 25% of those. So, learning about
what these other what our competitors
[1:08:18] are doing that maybe we're not or just
trying to like focus on um maybe we we
[1:08:23] don't have this certain type of
experience that that they're providing
[1:08:26] there that visitors are going they're
going to travel 30 to 40 minutes away to
[1:08:31] stay overnight there instead of just
staying here in Marshall County. It
[1:08:34] could help make those decisions more
educated decisions moving forward when
[1:08:39] there is another hotel proposal for this
area.
[1:08:43] » So, is this So, Discover Kalamazoo,
that's your Kalamazoo is a place you're
[1:08:46] working with right now currently?
>> They're one of our customers currently.
[1:08:49] » Okay, so that customer,
who are they because when Matt was doing
[1:08:54] it, Matt was doing it through Swan Lake.
Okay, so he bought it through Swan Lake
[1:08:57] and they were paying for it. Okay, so no
one else was using that data. If we were
[1:09:02] to buy it from the county perspective,
how is Kalamazoo
[1:09:06] helping other one other um
companies within their county? Are they
[1:09:14] doing it for free? Are they charging
them? Are they What what's How is that
[1:09:18] split up? Do you have any idea about
that?
[1:09:20] » Yeah, so a lot and and if I understand
the question you're asking, it's it's
[1:09:24] proving out the value to those
those um
[1:09:29] those businesses in their community that
their efforts are working.
[1:09:33] » resource for our businesses.
>> So, that's that's where with an event
[1:09:37] like
and if I go back a little bit here,
[1:09:43] it's going the wrong way.
[1:09:46] » I don't mean to make you jump.
>> No, that's that's okay.
[1:09:49] » We know we we all know what the Place
DNA I does, so
[1:09:52] » Yes. So, in this instance here to answer
that question, right? You can start to
[1:09:57] see
from the example of Blueberry Festival,
[1:10:01] people that visited the Blueberry
Festival, where did they go directly
[1:10:04] beforehand and where did they come go to
directly after? Now, what we'll see on
[1:10:08] the first part of that for the before
and after
[1:10:12] for the before feature,
>> [clears throat]
[1:10:13] » typically with an event like that, we're
going to see a lot of parking on there.
[1:10:16] So, we can filter those things out when
we look at a report. You know, you talk
[1:10:21] with your customer success manager and
you say, "Hey, we know people park here.
[1:10:25] Can we look at some of those other
areas?
[1:10:27] But typically what we'll see afterwards
are places that they're going to stop
[1:10:31] and eat food, go get gas,
maybe they're stopping, they're going
[1:10:35] back to a campsite or whatever and
they're stopping at Walmart to get, you
[1:10:39] know, a case of beer or whatever the
case may be. Um
[1:10:42] Additionally, the the top lodging and
entertainment destinations, that's being
[1:10:46] pulled from over the course of that
weekend,
[1:10:50] where did people go back to or where did
people visit that were hotels and
[1:10:55] casinos.
Those are the top five.
[1:10:57] » Do you think because and Andrew knows
this question is
[1:11:00] » because I look at this and say
because of Tracy,
[1:11:04] Swan Lake is sold out for the week.
They're not even showing up.
[1:11:10] So,
what what makes you think
[1:11:14] what what makes that possible, I guess,
if
[1:11:18] » Well, I I I think there's a couple of
things in there. One of them that might
[1:11:22] be just the mapping that we haven't
>> Okay.
[1:11:24] » Um that that it could be thrown off
before prior post. For the weekend, it
[1:11:29] it just also could be that we're not
measuring those particular visits.
[1:11:33] There also could be no no correlation
between people going to Swan Lake over
[1:11:38] the course of Labor Day weekend, maybe
they're not visiting the Blueberry
[1:11:42] Festival.
>> Most of them are No, most of them are
[1:11:44] they're all fair people.
>> Yeah, that's just a that's just a, you
[1:11:48] know, overall kind of
>> Understood.
[1:11:50] » theory. You know, those are the theories
that I have. But, those are again all
[1:11:53] things that we would look at and we
would sit down and we would say, you
[1:11:56] know, that that's a conversation that
you guys you all could have.
[1:11:59] » I can I can speak to the before and
afters because
[1:12:03] I used it and I hate to keep using this
word.
[1:12:05] » It's applicable to the situation.
>> I surrounded our restaurant as it's own
[1:12:10] piece.
And then the it was inside the resort
[1:12:15] bubble. So, when people would go into
the restaurant, they would count as
[1:12:19] going into the restaurant. So, I could
tell my leakage from guests at the hotel
[1:12:24] going from the golf course, where did
they go?
[1:12:26] They went either back to our restaurant
or they went to another restaurant and I
[1:12:31] could start to see
>> Which is code for your restaurant's not
[1:12:33] good enough. I'm going leaving.
>> Right. I'm serious.
[1:12:36] » Yes.
>> So, or I used it
[1:12:39] » Or I want to try something different.
>> Or I used it as
[1:12:42] I went in one time and did a report of
all of my guests,
[1:12:47] where did they eat over the last 6
months?
[1:12:51] And I used that to build out our menu.
Because I looked at the menu the types
[1:12:56] of restaurants they were visiting. Like
I knocked out the McDonald's and the
[1:12:59] Burger Kings and all of that. But I
looked at what restaurants they were
[1:13:02] visiting and what type of food genre
they were looking at and that's what
[1:13:06] helped us build our menu.
>> If they're going to a Mexican restaurant
[1:13:09] if the majority are going to Mexican
restaurant, you're going to have some
[1:13:12] Mexican dishes.
>> I knew I had to work with Yolandas or
[1:13:14] with Mi Comino or one of those in a
So, the data is it's crazy how you
[1:13:21] » manipulate
it. Yeah, all the story, right?
[1:13:25] Um and that's that's a part of it too is
is all of this data is a touch in the
[1:13:29] eye of the beholder.
Um and it's how you want to tell that
[1:13:33] story to those local businesses
uh to to, you know, county government.
[1:13:39] Um one of the case studies that's in
here is actually
[1:13:43] uh about a festival from Prescott,
Arizona uh where they utilized Place
[1:13:48] Search to then tell the story of one,
the estimated visitor spend that that
[1:13:54] actual festival brought in to the
community and turned that into two a
[1:13:58] $200,000 grant for revitalization and
tourism uh efforts in in their
[1:14:04] community.
>> I think another piece that Jim was kind
[1:14:06] of wondering
>> Correct me if I'm wrong. Are you are
[1:14:09] they is Kalamazoo monetizing this in any
way?
[1:14:12] » Yeah, they make any money off of it or
they have it
[1:14:14] » No, if they have a business that comes
to them and says, "Hey, we'd really like
[1:14:16] to understand what's going on." Is that
something you're seeing
[1:14:21] in the world that
>> Unfortunately, that is not because
[1:14:24] that's a part of our like agreement our
contracts with each of those
[1:14:28] organizations is that they can't take
Place Search data to monetize it. Um
[1:14:33] it's more of like a partnership benefit
that they would have with those local
[1:14:37] businesses saying, "Hey, this is
something that we have paid for. Um you
[1:14:41] know, this is something that we want to
>> You go to the city and say tell the city
[1:14:45] say, "Look, this is something we're
looking at. Do you want to buy in with
[1:14:48] us?"
>> And I think that whenever I was having
[1:14:51] those meetings and talking about Placer
to these different groups like One
[1:14:55] Marshall County, and I went to the
mayor's office, and I talked with a few
[1:14:58] other groups as well, they were all very
interested in the data. I think maybe
[1:15:03] the city would be willing to to donate.
>> I just don't want all those other
[1:15:07] entities to get their own situation You
know what I mean? Cuz they could get a
[1:15:11] competitive, you know, a competitive
industry out of you.
[1:15:14] » Yeah, that'd be great.
>> Marshall County has this, and city has
[1:15:17] this, and neither of these are right.
And then this doesn't make any sense to
[1:15:20] do that. It makes no sense.
>> too is it, even though we're not selling
[1:15:24] it to people, if somebody were to come
to us and ask for $5,000 for their event
[1:15:28] or whatever
whatever it is, say, "Well, we'll give
[1:15:31] you 3,000 because we're already
investing in this platform, which will
[1:15:34] become of use to you. We can run the
numbers after your event's over and give
[1:15:38] you this data."
>> you know if you're worthy next year. Can
[1:15:40] they?
Can they?
[1:15:43] » Yes, what Andrea is say What Andrea is
What you said is an example. Yeah, so we
[1:15:48] what the way that we classify it in like
at our order form is Placer AI data
[1:15:54] versus research data. In that sense,
that would be research data. Research
[1:15:59] data is classified as being used in an
instance where you're using it for your
[1:16:04] internal use to then maybe distribute
those funds or go to the commission and
[1:16:09] give a presentation or go to the, you
know, county government and give it
[1:16:13] a presentation, those types of things.
Placer data would be, hey,
[1:16:17] this is your, you know, visitation to uh
the Reese over the last 12 months, and
[1:16:24] you give that to the Reese every single
year just because.
[1:16:26] » That's part of your partnership with
them.
[1:16:29] » Yeah, so that Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so we
could give Tracy data reports. Yes, we
[1:16:34] can so she can see over years.
Yes. Yep.
[1:16:40] Got you. Yep.
Um
[1:16:42] I do want to kind of jump through some
of these other ways that it could be
[1:16:46] used and and this is I can get on the
same there we go. This is kind of that
[1:16:51] event analysis and event impact that is
you'll see the case study for Prescott,
[1:16:56] Arizona down there.
It had it shows their population as a
[1:16:59] city
but ultimately their office of tourism
[1:17:03] within the city has a Christmas event
that they run every year.
[1:17:07] They were able to classify that 300,000
total visitors
[1:17:12] had come to that particular event.
90,000 of those visitors
[1:17:18] would be classified as tourists. So
people coming from
[1:17:21] 50 or more miles away.
That in turn then allowed them to go
[1:17:26] after a tourism grant that they did not
even think that they would be eligible
[1:17:30] for.
[1:17:35] Last part here is that tourism
marketing. This is one of the biggest
[1:17:38] things that Andrea and I have spoken
about
[1:17:40] even outside of the event analysis. So
utilizing the demographics portion of
[1:17:47] Placer
and then the mapping portion of that
[1:17:50] understanding where visitors come from.
>> [clears throat]
[1:17:52] » We can then
reverse analyze that and understand
[1:17:56] okay, where are people of the of the
classes of the segments that you guys
[1:18:02] bring in as a community, where do they
currently live? Where are they most
[1:18:06] populated at? Allowing you to see okay,
we get people from here, maybe we should
[1:18:10] focus marketing on there. So the case
study that's there is specific to a
[1:18:14] casino
but it's more of a marketing
[1:18:18] use case there.
They looked at that trade area that heat
[1:18:21] map. They looked at the psychographic
pieces of that segmentation data sets of
[1:18:26] household types
and then we're able to retarget
[1:18:29] audiences based off of who is most
likely to attend and increase ticket
[1:18:33] sales for them by by 42%.
[1:18:38] Um
Some of the things that do come with the
[1:18:41] formatting on this one got a little
messed up
[1:18:44] um
is monthly reporting. So, imagine some
[1:18:47] of the ease ease of use um we have what
we call one-click reports
[1:18:53] uh working with that customer success
manager Andrew would be able to set up
[1:18:57] monthly reporting to her email.
So, she can see if there's any changes
[1:19:02] um that would be be alerting and then
kind of go from there and understand
[1:19:06] inside the platform but also would have
access to the platform at any any point
[1:19:10] as well.
[1:19:13] Um breaking down the script subscription
a little bit further again that uh
[1:19:17] world-class support system so onboarding
specialist that you'll work with and and
[1:19:21] that customer success uh customer
success you can set up you know
[1:19:26] meetings by uh you know really any kind
of
[1:19:30] uh um
need by need. Um most often I see
[1:19:35] monthly meetings uh with with the
customers that I work with
[1:19:39] um and the customer success managers
that I work with but there's also things
[1:19:43] like webinars. Uh we have a a in-portal
and an online uh kind of thing you're
[1:19:48] able to work on uh onboarding by
yourself as well too
[1:19:52] um and then uh and then additional
support throughout that our support team
[1:19:56] solutions engineering as well.
[1:20:00] So,
little bit further of that what's
[1:20:04] included unlimited users uh within Visit
Marshall County uh we do extend that to
[1:20:10] the commission as well. Uh so, the
commission and board members of the
[1:20:15] commission would have the ability to
have access to that uh um have their own
[1:20:20] email address.
>> So, how does
[1:20:21] » How does that work? So, I know at one
point it was based off of the domain.
[1:20:25] » Domain. Yeah, it's still set up like
that so if you guys have your own like
[1:20:29] emails through
uh the commission that's typically how
[1:20:33] we would set it up
Um or if you were to set them up through
[1:20:37] Visit Marshall County, we could we could
do it like that.
[1:20:41] Um
but it is unlimited users, unlimited
[1:20:45] points of interest and queries
throughout the entire platform. So it's
[1:20:49] US wide data.
There's no additional cost to go in and
[1:20:54] look at any venues. You could pull 50
reports a day if you really wanted to.
[1:20:59] Adding venues to the platform is at no
additional cost.
[1:21:03] Traffic pins as well which are very
similar.
[1:21:06] Um and then again that customer reports
team are placer extra as well.
[1:21:12] Demographic and psychographic data sets
that you see below. So census, pop stats
[1:21:17] which is very similar similar to census
data. It's just updated more frequently.
[1:21:21] Spending patterns which gives you an
idea of really where some of these
[1:21:25] individuals like to over a period of
time spend their money.
[1:21:29] Market outlook is very similar to that.
Workplace is more workforce development
[1:21:33] aspect of that. Experian Mosaic would be
one of those psychographic segmentation
[1:21:37] data sets. Um and then this price does
also include our visitor spend data
[1:21:42] which is where some of those numbers
about leakage, overnight leakage cost
[1:21:46] over the course of a year
as well as economic impact where some of
[1:21:50] those numbers get pulled from. So
no implementation implem- implementation
[1:21:55] costs and there is an an annual opt-out.
This is a 12-month
[1:22:00] price that you would see here at
$36,000.
[1:22:03] » Matt, that price has went up
considerable
[1:22:06] since the last time.
Why?
[1:22:09] » That is a great question. So previously
before I know I kind of was brought into
[1:22:14] that conversation last year,
that pricing was given
[1:22:18] prior to me coming into the conversation
by two individuals that no longer work
[1:22:23] with Placer.
It was It was very very low pricing from
[1:22:29] their end. Um Um it was one where we
were trying to continue to grow in this
[1:22:33] region.
At this point, we we do have additional
[1:22:36] customers in the region. We try and
remain equitable amongst that customer
[1:22:40] base. This price would remain more
equitable amongst that customer base at
[1:22:44] this point.
>> Is there any type of
[1:22:47] a la carte type of
option?
[1:22:50] » Uh not at this time, no.
>> What if we did like a 3-year
[1:22:55] commitment?
>> Yep, there is benefit to that. That does
[1:22:58] change the price as well. Additionally,
if you didn't want to add the visitor
[1:23:03] spend data, that would cut off about
$6,000.
[1:23:07] So, that is that is an extra data set
that is being currently added.
[1:23:11] Um but if we were to do something like a
three a 3-year commitment, which was our
[1:23:15] which is our max right now, um that does
that does allow me to go back and
[1:23:20] incentivize some of that pricing as
well, too.
[1:23:23] » Do you know what that might be if we
were to do a 3-year?
[1:23:26] » I could I could give you guys 10% right
now.
[1:23:29] Yeah.
[1:23:31] » That $6,000 you said was that you would
take off for
[1:23:36] I'm I'm
>> Visitor spend data.
[1:23:38] » What's the benefit of that visitor
spending?
[1:23:40] » Um one, it does give you access within
our travel and tourism dashboard
[1:23:45] to then see what that number for
overnight leakage that maybe you're
[1:23:49] missing out on for a that particular
month or 12-month period. It allows you
[1:23:54] to actually see the dollar figure
within that, but it also then gives you
[1:23:58] categorically where is that money being
spent by these individuals? Is it
[1:24:03] hotels? Is it retail and restaurants?
Those types of things.
[1:24:06] » Is that the pre-
and
[1:24:10] » that's included in the base platform.
That's all based off visitation, which
[1:24:14] we do see correlation with with
spending, but
[1:24:18] the spend data comes from a third party
that actually uses credit credit card
[1:24:22] information credit card data not
information.
[1:24:25] » And I think the visitor spend helps us
to monitor like what our competitors are
[1:24:29] doing and how that's attracting people
away from Marshall County.
[1:24:34] » So we're looking at video three-year
commitment we're looking at 32,400 a
[1:24:37] year then.
>> A year or does it go down every year?
[1:24:40] » If we were to do if we were to do a
three-year commitment based off of this
[1:24:45] price right here that first year would
be 32,400.
[1:24:49] We do have a 5% increase baked in every
year but it does lock in that pricing
[1:24:56] whereas year-to-year typically right now
it is anywhere from 3 to 8% but it is a
[1:25:02] little bit based off of
it is based off of our data costs.
[1:25:08] » What do we have to do to get that number
down to 27,000? That's where I want to
[1:25:11] be.
>> Excuse me?
[1:25:13] » What do we have to do to get that number
down to 27,000? That's where I want to
[1:25:16] be.
>> If we were to include I cannot get down
[1:25:19] to that including the visitor spend.
If we were to go down to 27,000 today
[1:25:26] without the visitor spend that's
something I could do with the three-year
[1:25:28] commitment.
>> The visitor spend is 6,000, right?
[1:25:33] » And it can be added at any
>> have a slide with the visitor spend on
[1:25:37] here?
>> Yes.
[1:25:38] » Or do you have something you can show us
that we would could see what the visitor
[1:25:42] spends like?
>> So that would be
[1:25:46] how we're getting to this num these
numbers here.
[1:25:49] » I thought that was the most compelling
slide.
[1:25:51] » Yeah like it gives you your information
on your competitors and what you're not
[1:25:56] doing.
>> I
[1:25:59] think our sole objective I mean we got a
lot going on but the main
[1:26:04] the main thing we need to
prove and convince
[1:26:07] county leaders is that we need a a big
hotel.
[1:26:12] And 30 and 31 is the would be the target
in my mind. I mean a big hotel legit a
[1:26:18] Hilton, a Marriott, a the Hyatt.
Something that's going to
[1:26:22] just
>> Yeah, but we need a casino. We need a
[1:26:24] casino there.
>> But that's I don't know. There's a whole
[1:26:26] lot of No, that's not going to happen.
But
[1:26:30] I don't think that argument I think
>> Yeah.
[1:26:33] » If we're using [clears throat] this
>> Then if we get it
[1:26:35] » argument this particular portion is
>> Just over the course of a year.
[1:26:39] » And that $138,000 number that you see is
being generated one off of a monthly
[1:26:45] report tied into what you would look at
for the visitation to Blueberry Festival
[1:26:50] for
>> Yeah, that's just Blueberry Fest.
[1:26:52] » Yes, that is just Blueberry Festival.
>> So, we're losing a lot more.
[1:26:56] » So, over the course of a 12
>> Yeah, Notre Dame home games, all the
[1:26:59] academy visitors, are you kidding me?
>> It's It's about everything else.
[1:27:02] » $3.3 million over the course of a
12-month period.
[1:27:05] » You did that already.
>> Yeah, so that would be Yeah, that would
[1:27:08] be in this slide here.
>> Yeah.
[1:27:11] » I missed that one somehow. Okay.
>> No, he's been bouncing back and forth.
[1:27:14] You're okay.
>> Yeah, I mean Yeah, we've been We've kind
[1:27:16] of been kind of all
>> We keep asking different questions.
[1:27:19] » Yeah.
>> But you use the data to support the
[1:27:23] hotel and lodging supplies.
And then
[1:27:26] from there, I mean, once you have the
data in your hands, we really just need
[1:27:30] to
be aggressive about
[1:27:33] » I mean, I think my biggest thing is we
have to make sure we're using it.
[1:27:37] » Yeah.
>> I I mean, I physically spent most That
[1:27:41] was my job. I spent most of my days
>> I know I would
[1:27:45] » geek out use it.
>> I would geek out.
[1:27:48] » But
>> as busy as Andrea is,
[1:27:52] I mean,
>> Yeah, I'm not sure we're ready for this.
[1:27:55] I I need this in our future.
>> I absolutely I don't know if I see it in
[1:27:58] our 12-month future. Maybe our 24-month
future.
[1:28:02] » But you're saying I wouldn't be able to
use it?
[1:28:04] » I I think you've got a lot of irons in
the fire that I This is a good thing.
[1:28:08] It's a compliment.
But I I'm not sure
[1:28:12] you could take this on as well right
away. I think you definitely need this
[1:28:16] in your future. It's the question of
when.
[1:28:18] » Well, Maya, my schedule just opened up a
lot for the next few months.
[1:28:24] So, I've got
I could help her if someone says if you
[1:28:28] we needed to research some area that I
could have the time to do that.
[1:28:33] » How long is the support for?
>> Length of the term.
[1:28:38] » I mean, logging in weekly, I would be on
weekly logging in to check the data.
[1:28:43] » And typically an onboarding takes
anywhere from 45 to 60 days. That's
[1:28:49] generally
how quickly that person, those users
[1:28:53] adopt new platforms and data. Uh that's
on average what we see. Um once you
[1:29:00] » pick that? Can we pick a start date?
>> You can.
[1:29:03] » I mean, like if we were I'm just I'm
just I'm not speaking for the group.
[1:29:07] If we were like, "Hey, we want to start
March 1st or April 1st." I'm just
[1:29:11] throwing that out there. That's doable?
That's not too far
[1:29:14] » You could, yes. Um theoretically, yeah.
>> with that date in mind as a company.
[1:29:20] » Uh well, so your onboarding wouldn't
start until that start date.
[1:29:23] » Perfect.
>> Yeah.
[1:29:24] » Um
Onboarding is the most important part
[1:29:28] and that's the most extensive part as
far as cost goes. So, what if we were to
[1:29:32] pay $36,000
the first year and then 27 the last 2
[1:29:36] years?
[1:29:39] » We'll look at him weaseling around over
there like twice.
[1:29:42] » Negotiating with us.
>> Hey, I would not be able to get approval
[1:29:45] on that. Um mostly because our data
costs go up every year. So, I have to
[1:29:50] build in that 5% year-to-year at the
very least, so I couldn't do a discount
[1:29:54] in those two following years. Um
additionally, the
[1:30:00] the customer support aspect of that is
something that's just
[1:30:04] it's it's built in. Um it's something
that we give everybody. It's not
[1:30:09] necessarily something we charge for.
Uh, we charge solely for the use of the
[1:30:13] data.
>> So
[1:30:15] » It was 5 years. What if the commitment
was 5 years?
[1:30:17] » He just told you max was three right
now. I appreciate your your
[1:30:21] I appreciate you, Jim. I really do.
>> Part of me wonders so right away
[1:30:27] if that visit I know you're going to
fight this
[1:30:30] but I'm not sure that the vendor's been
this is important as anything else right
[1:30:34] now.
>> But we can add it later.
[1:30:35] » You can add it. Yes, you can add it in.
You can add it in. I think you need to
[1:30:39] » Is it pro-rated?
>> Is it Y- yes, you would add it later and
[1:30:42] it would be pro-rated to that.
>> $500 a month.
[1:30:45] » Yes.
>> That's good to know.
[1:30:47] » I think your I think your first goal
really should be
[1:30:51] » to learn it.
>> learn it
[1:30:53] understand it then we add the extra
piece.
[1:30:56] » Which is yes, that is typically what we
see. Like Steuben County is a great
[1:31:00] example. We have
>> How did they What did they do? Cuz I'm
[1:31:02] from a I worked over there, too. So
>> Um, as far as usage of it?
[1:31:06] » Yeah.
>> So right now our our
[1:31:09] the executive director is the only user
um, and she's utilizing it for
[1:31:13] specifically events um, and
understanding when people come to
[1:31:18] » didn't do the the leakage
>> [clears throat]
[1:31:20] » She didn't She didn't start with it.
>> It would make a little sense then things
[1:31:24] for the casino ramp up in Fremont.
>> So we start this at 30 cuz you said it
[1:31:29] was six, correct?
>> Right now, yes. So so without the add-on
[1:31:33] it would be 30. Um, 10%
>> And we do the three years with 10% off
[1:31:36] that, we're at the 27.
>> Yes, and with 5% built in year-to-year.
[1:31:41] So year one would be 27,000
um, and go up 5% from there. My math
[1:31:46] would not matter if I did it well.
>> One question I have is is
[1:31:50] and I know you probably don't know this
off the top of your head. What's the
[1:31:53] retention rate?
What's the retention rate of actually of
[1:31:56] of of
counties like us that are buying this
[1:32:01] and then
continuing on.
[1:32:03] » Yeah. So, from a perspective of DMOs and
CVBs, typically we have a retention rate
[1:32:10] of anywhere from 88% to 92%. It floats
between that year to year.
[1:32:16] Um a great example of when I was asked
that question and somebody is now
[1:32:21] like we will never get rid of this.
Uh Kankakee County in Illinois uh is one
[1:32:26] of my customers. They utilized it from a
perspective of very similar area as you
[1:32:31] all. Uh not heavily populated, not
heavily urban area. So, there's a lot of
[1:32:36] areas where there's campsites. There's a
lot of areas where people go and spend
[1:32:39] in
uh you know, state parks and things like
[1:32:41] that. So, they're looking at those areas
to understand overnight leakage to those
[1:32:47] specific places, but then being able to
prove it to actually how are these
[1:32:53] people then moving throughout the
county? What businesses are they going
[1:32:56] to? How are they spending their money?
Are they going and stopping at the
[1:33:01] Walmart two counties over before they
come into Kankakee, or are they spending
[1:33:05] money at our Walmart and then going to
their campsites?
[1:33:07] » But we don't need that extra piece to
see that
[1:33:10] » No, journey, Pete.
>> So, that
[1:33:12] » That visitor journey aspect of that,
that visitor journey will correlate to
[1:33:16] spend, especially within uh like things
like uh a grocery store where our our
[1:33:21] data is between 98 99%.
>> I think her biggest thing right now is I
[1:33:26] think she really needs to understand the
journey of where people are coming from
[1:33:30] and where they're going.
>> So, she knows where to market to.
[1:33:32] » Of course, she needs to market to first.
The the leakage piece is
[1:33:37] » to me, that's a year or two down the
road when cuz we're not going to build a
[1:33:41] hotel in the next
3 years.
[1:33:43] » We're doing it next month. We're going
to figure it out right now.
[1:33:45] » So, what I what I'll say to, you know,
kind of
[1:33:49] like to to almost agree with you there,
Matt, is that what we will typically see
[1:33:54] is that plan of action, right? Year one,
let's get our feet under us with the
[1:33:59] onboarding. Let's utilize this for
marketing strategies for our large
[1:34:02] clients. Show the county how we're going
to start to use this data. And then year
[1:34:07] two now comes into, okay, now that the
county likes the data that we're showing
[1:34:10] them, let's show them why we need XYZ or
why we need funding for XYZ, those types
[1:34:17] of things.
[1:34:22] » Like the table, but
I'd like to discuss it Yeah, further.
[1:34:25] » I was getting ready to
put put a motion on the floor to do it.
[1:34:29] But I've been a fan of this for You know
I've been a fan of this for the years.
[1:34:32] I think it's got a lot of great benefits
to us and
[1:34:37] we've got the money to do it now. If
we're going to do it, now's the time to
[1:34:39] do it.
>> What do you think, Andrew?
[1:34:43] » Well, I'm for it, but I I just like
taking the guesswork out of it, really,
[1:34:48] and numbers give you that
educated decision-making that you can be
[1:34:53] like
>> How do you utilize it right out of the
[1:34:55] gate?
>> So, I think looking at all of our events
[1:34:58] and seeing when where we're
seeing the largest crowds coming in,
[1:35:02] where people are going, where I can
market to for what's coming up here this
[1:35:07] winter and
into next year.
[1:35:10] Um kind of just learning more about our
visitors and
[1:35:14] what they're gravitating towards when
they're here, so we can do more of it.
[1:35:22] And if I'm talking about things on my
social media or if I'm
[1:35:26] putting an ad in a magazine, I can take
in that data and be like, okay, let me
[1:35:31] show people that we do have that here.
Maybe I focused on something Maybe I
[1:35:34] focused more on camping than I did on a
luxury stay at Swan Lake, but I'm seeing
[1:35:41] that a lot of the visitors at this time
of year are going to Swan Lake. Maybe I
[1:35:45] need to
market some experiences like that some
[1:35:48] more.
>> So, I can I can see her
[1:35:53] She's going to see where her heat maps
are. That's the big thing right now is
[1:35:56] her understanding where these people are
coming in from. Those heat maps will
[1:36:00] tell her where she doesn't initially
need to go focus on the advertising
[1:36:03] because they're coming in.
>> Here Here's my
[1:36:06] Maybe I don't know enough To me those
heat maps are going to show what we
[1:36:10] They're going to show the heart of the
donut that we're trying to avoid.
[1:36:14] » They are, but what I'm saying is
>> They are.
[1:36:16] » They are, but it will also show her
where she may be getting a little
[1:36:20] a little traction cuz we used it that
way. Where we were getting We were
[1:36:24] starting to see little blips happening
out of Ohio.
[1:36:27] » Yeah, there were blips from from Ohio
for
[1:36:29] » That's what I mean, but we saw not the
Like our major areas were
[1:36:34] » a blip in Columbus, Ohio, you're not
going to start putting
[1:36:38] » No.
>> That's not what I That's not what I'm
[1:36:39] saying. What I'm saying is you start to
see as the data comes in and you look at
[1:36:44] it at a longer You You're looking at it
from a very small like hey, this moment
[1:36:49] in time.
>> Right. I looked at it over months
[1:36:52] » you looked at it over a year.
>> We tracked it and saw hey, we we saw a
[1:36:57] 10% jump out of the Cincinnati area.
Let's go focus some time down there.
[1:37:01] That paid off.
>> And additionally
[1:37:03] » We see tracking out of Columbus. We
started to see it move.
[1:37:06] » were marketing to Cincinnati and getting
more people?
[1:37:09] » Mhm.
>> But the other thing too, like On
[1:37:11] Magazine has approached me a few times
and that's an entertainment magazine and
[1:37:15] they have uh the Indianapolis one,
they've got the one in Cincinnati and
[1:37:20] they've got another one in I believe
South Bend, but I've been holding off on
[1:37:26] placing any advertisements in there
because I've been focused on Travel IN
[1:37:29] Magazine and In Indiana Magazine, which
also have digital versions as well.
[1:37:35] And
without the understanding of like well,
[1:37:39] do we have people coming from Cincinnati
or do we have people coming from
[1:37:43] Indianapolis, which I know we do. Um and
Chicago
[1:37:48] Then it kind of justifies
>> a game of understanding where people are
[1:37:52] coming from and not necessarily worrying
about that leakage piece because I think
[1:37:56] we're always going to leak to South
Bend.
[1:37:59] » For sure.
It justifies the spend on where I'm
[1:38:02] targeting.
>> But I think this helps her It does help
[1:38:06] her understand
what the dynamics look like from
[1:38:10] different areas.
>> If If I may as well, too, one of the
[1:38:13] portions of that the demographics, the
psychographics that I've been speaking
[1:38:17] about, the uh if I go back to
this portion here. So, you see things
[1:38:24] like Autumn Years, Family Union, Golden
Year Guardians. That whole section next
[1:38:29] to it that explains who these
individuals are or who these types of
[1:38:33] households are.
Um through Placer, you can then
[1:38:37] understand are they making up visits to
Marshall County? And then from there,
[1:38:42] understand, okay, well, what types of
media actually gets this this segment's
[1:38:47] attention. So, now Andrea also has the
idea of, okay, who to target, where to
[1:38:53] target, but what media to target them
with. Is it social media? Is it print
[1:38:58] ads? Is it Maybe we set up text
messaging to those types of things, you
[1:39:03] know, uh understanding that media aspect
of it as well is is is very helpful.
[1:39:07] » And what types of stays they're looking
for. So, as I go into the fall, I'll be
[1:39:12] focusing more on places to stay as well
as continuing my things to do series
[1:39:16] that's been going on. But places to
stay, if I'm looking at the data and I'm
[1:39:21] seeing we have more families coming in
during that time of year, then I'd
[1:39:25] probably focus on our larger uh
short-term rentals, maybe family suites
[1:39:30] at some of our resorts or hotels, and
the cabins at Swan Lake, the cabins at
[1:39:36] Jellystone Park. Those are also
available as well, and they're enticing
[1:39:40] for a family to come and visit. And I
can promote that more.
[1:39:45] But knowing the right times of year
would be would be great. And knowing who
[1:39:49] I'm marketing and when.
[1:40:02] » Answer your question. We say we're going
to do three years. We use it for a year
[1:40:06] and a half or so and find out that it's
not the bump that we thought it was.
[1:40:10] Are we able to get out of the contract
of three years? Are we stuck until the
[1:40:13] three years?
>> There is that opt-out clause, yes.
[1:40:15] » Yep.
>> Does that have an additional cost to
[1:40:17] that opt-out or is it just
>> No. So, it's it's what we'd call is like
[1:40:21] non-appropriation.
Um if you move that funding somewhere
[1:40:25] else, uh it allows you to get out of the
contract.
[1:40:30] » I motion that we do the 27 for the first
year with the
[1:40:34] with the increase
for the three years and with the opt-out
[1:40:38] option if in case we decide where it's
not working for what we need.
[1:40:48] No one else like something?
>> I also I want to understand like the
[1:40:51] hang-up though. I I really I don't
understand
[1:40:55] » It's cost versus usage, I think at this
>> Okay.
[1:40:59] It's not a question of like
>> What are you going to do with this Think
[1:41:02] about it. You do if you do
Let's say you do a thousand ads. You use
[1:41:07] this information to do a thousand
advertisements for our county for Visit
[1:41:12] Marshall County.
You You're going to have to amortize
[1:41:15] some of this cost amongst those ads. Not
exclusively. I mean, there's plenty of
[1:41:20] other benefits.
I see tons of value in this.
[1:41:23] » Yeah.
>> I just don't know if we're ready to
[1:41:25] maximize its value. It's awesome stuff.
Phenomenal. I just don't know if we're
[1:41:32] quite there yet. We will be. We're on
the right path. That's why for me
[1:41:36] » Yeah, like I would to kick kick the ball
down just a little bit just buy us a
[1:41:40] little bit more time.
I mean, I also know that our county goes
[1:41:44] like this in the winter, which we want
to avoid that.
[1:41:47] But, getting the information on this
doesn't necessarily help you build to
[1:41:52] avoid it. I mean, I guess maybe next
year.
[1:41:57] » Start building on next summer and next
spring and figuring out what we
[1:42:00] » disagree with that.
>> What if What would if What if I were to
[1:42:02] suggest this?
I can I can hold that pricing.
[1:42:07] » No, you're Yes, keep going.
>> [laughter]
[1:42:09] » If if we were to do an agreement this
month with a start date of January 1st.
[1:42:15] So, then that allows you to then get in,
start utilizing it for next year,
[1:42:21] and starts to allow you to get the
benefit out of it out of a full year,
[1:42:25] and then start to see the difference
between a full year January last year
[1:42:30] during your downtime versus the hot part
of the summer.
[1:42:33] » I I like that significantly more.
>> Yeah, that's that's personally.
[1:42:37] » Yes, and I'm not a bean counter.
>> Guys, I'm the He's the first one to
[1:42:41] throw a fit.
>> I We're not saving for retirement here.
[1:42:44] We're you know, let's let's invest the
money.
[1:42:46] » Do you have access to start learning it
before January 1st, or are you saying
[1:42:49] January 1st
>> January 1st would be the start date of
[1:42:51] the agreement. Yeah, so it would be
onboarding it be 45 to 60 days from
[1:42:55] there. Yeah, so you'd be looking at
about March is when Andrea would be
[1:42:59] fully ramped into the platform and
utilizing it.
[1:43:03] Now, typically our customer success,
they're going to be on a schedule that's
[1:43:07] like, "Let's get you there before that
45 days." That's our average.
[1:43:14] » I like it. I I like looking at a
calendar year, too. I think there's
[1:43:16] something to be said.
>> a little bit better with typically uh
[1:43:19] fiscal things like that as well.
[1:43:25] » Might log in and make my first start
date in my motion then.
[1:43:28] » [laughter]
[1:43:31] » Is there any other concern like I'm
looking
[1:43:34] » It's just math for me. I'm guessing
>> It's absolutely math.
[1:43:37] » It's that's it's it's dollars. It's it's
knowing that
[1:43:43] it's going to be utilized for what it
need. I love the data. The data is
[1:43:46] amazing. I love the whole entire premise
of it.
[1:43:49] » Yeah.
>> But
[1:43:51] it's a lot of money.
>> And you guys think you wouldn't log into
[1:43:54] it?
>> We don't have But the problem is we
[1:43:56] don't have a domain.
>> What?
[1:43:59] » We don't all have emails.
>> We can probably That's probably
[1:44:02] something easy to solve, don't know?
>> Yeah, I mean we could
[1:44:04] » We could
get you emails into
[1:44:07] » That's what I mean. We all just get
visitors.
[1:44:09] » Yeah, I don't think that's a
>> We can pay for that to cover
[1:44:11] » Yeah.
>> those emails. So, that's not There
[1:44:13] that's not a
[1:44:16] » I just I'm curious like if we didn't
invest in something like this, how else
[1:44:21] would we get the data? Would we be
investing in more surveys? Would we
[1:44:25] out there on the street asking people to
do this? But do you need this to operate
[1:44:29] for the next 3 months? You're operating
I was just
[1:44:33] No, she's going to start ramping down a
little bit with the cuz there's not
[1:44:35] going to be as much stuff going on. I
think it's a great opportunity for her
[1:44:39] to get trained in the I like the January
to January.
[1:44:43] I feel like if it's her downtime like
end of the year, beginning of the year,
[1:44:47] it gives her opportunity to pull data
for the from last year to figure out
[1:44:51] where she needs to spend all her time,
where she needs to focus stuff, and
[1:44:55] pre-plan for the year versus
running straight into spring and now
[1:44:59] she's been trained and now she's got to
figure out how to do this. But January
[1:45:02] will be the ultimate downtime. I
understand this. I'm trying to make sure
[1:45:06] I was understanding like the looks on
some of you guys' faces if it is just
[1:45:10] the math of it and making sure it's
going to be used properly. I want to
[1:45:14] make sure there was nothing else that
was like causing the whole thing.
[1:45:18] » No, it's just another it's another thing
for you to manage and you
[1:45:23] We We've made it very clear that you are
the face of this and we need you to put
[1:45:27] the county's
visitor needs on your back and this is
[1:45:32] more weight on your back. Ultimately, I
think what you learn it is going to
[1:45:35] alleviate some of that weight. No doubt
about it.
[1:45:37] » Yeah.
>> I just don't know if that's Personally,
[1:45:39] I think Jim's right.
I I don't know if that's the case right
[1:45:42] this very second.
>> Right.
[1:45:44] » You've got a lot of things going on.
You're still catching your vibe. You're
[1:45:47] still You know, you've you've created
this this digital marketing for our
[1:45:52] county that we've never seen before.
>> Yeah.
[1:45:54] » I don't want you to pull back from that
because you get stuck in the math of the
[1:45:59] just numbers. I don't want you to I
don't want you to look at the matrix.
[1:46:02] » Well, what I was and what I was hoping
how to use it, too, is to be able to
[1:46:06] share
to share with both boards what I'm
[1:46:10] finding on here and ask for that help
and the guidance of like, okay, now how
[1:46:14] do I
you know
[1:46:15] » Yes, I agree. I mean, I'd be fine if you
feel like you want to hit the ground
[1:46:19] running in February. I mean, then maybe
we do
[1:46:21] December 1st, which is weird with
Christmas though. I feel like that's
[1:46:24] just
>> I think December 1st is fine. I just
[1:46:26] wanted to make sure that there wasn't
anything else that like wasn't being
[1:46:29] communicated here so that I understood
cuz I just think it's such a valuable
[1:46:34] resource not just for us but for, you
know,
[1:46:37] other groups.
>> you are going to maximize what it can
[1:46:40] do, you personally
Yes, it's a great view. I mean, you have
[1:46:44] my vote if that's what you're asking. I
just I'd I just want to wait.
[1:46:48] You're doing well. I don't want to slow
down what you're doing.
[1:46:51] » Yeah. Yeah, I don't either.
>> [laughter]
[1:46:54] » Having an assistant.
>> No, but I
[1:46:56] » Right, no.
>> I
[1:46:57] » I would love to get to that level and we
can do that.
[1:47:00] » Yeah, so I mean, if she had that extra
hand.
[1:47:03] » Yeah.
>> I think I just need the most help with
[1:47:04] like editing all the stuff that I'm
cranking out digitally, but like if
[1:47:09] » Now, if we're talking about paying an
assistant, that's back to math. That's
[1:47:12] back to amortizing this new system and
all these factors into producing one
[1:47:17] effective ad. And I I mean, I'm all for
that. That's how you have to get big,
[1:47:20] but like
we're still in growth mode.
[1:47:24] Amend the date and
>> Okay.
[1:47:27] » [laughter]
>> I mean, is that
[1:47:29] » Thank you for
>> Yeah.
[1:47:31] » That's like I'm ready to go home.
>> I know. I know.
[1:47:33] » Tell me, are you buying the or not?
Let's go.
[1:47:35] » Um [laughter]
Um I motion that we purchase the plaster
[1:47:40] with a 3-year status with 27 as the
start date. I mean, 27 is the start
[1:47:45] amount.
Um with January 1st as the start date.
[1:47:49] Did I get that right?
>> That's a lot of words.
[1:47:52] » I believe you.
>> I think we're good.
[1:47:53] » Okay. Okay.
>> January 1st, like I got to log in on
[1:47:56] January 1st. Like, what if I'm a little
bit sleepy?
[1:47:59] » If you're hungover, that's fine.
>> I'll be hungover. I
[1:48:01] » January 2nd would be
>> For the record.
[1:48:05] » If I'm not mistaken.
>> The mics are hot, guys. Okay?
[1:48:09] » I know that.
>> I think January 15th
[1:48:11] doesn't matter.
>> Let's do the first to make it a nice
[1:48:14] clean
>> January 1st is a Friday. We're you're
[1:48:16] fine. I think the 4th, which is a
Monday, is
[1:48:18] » I'm just going to pick January 20
>> 27.
[1:48:20] » Perfect.
>> [laughter]
[1:48:23] » And then we can pay Do we Should we
Should we paying for it now on this this
[1:48:27] uh quarter?
>> So, the way that it the invoicing would
[1:48:30] work is the invoice would go out on
January 1st.
[1:48:33] » Okay. So, we can pay it before then.
Okay.
[1:48:35] » Yep. So, between now and then
figuring out how that will
[1:48:38] » So, no check for you.
>> That'll also give you time to get with
[1:48:42] someone who's used it a lot and like
make a plan. You know what I'm saying?
[1:48:46] » Hug Matt some more.
[1:48:50] What's wrong, Jim?
>> It's the money thing. So, why couldn't
[1:48:55] we have
why couldn't we get
[1:48:59] one Marshall County
to
[1:49:02] partner with us on this and get
the city of Plymouth to partner with us
[1:49:07] to help split up that
>> We will. Can you even do that?
[1:49:11] » It affects the cost because you're
adding because we license per entity. If
[1:49:15] we were to add
three more entities to it, it affects
[1:49:19] the cost that we're looking at.
>> They're lumping the Tourism Commission
[1:49:24] and Visit Marshall County together
because we are connected.
[1:49:28] » Yes, you guys are
essentially the same organization.
[1:49:31] » County, all right.
>> I mean, it's
[1:49:33] They're not connected.
>> They're not connected, but it's still
[1:49:35] the county.
>> It's the scope of how the work how the
[1:49:38] data is being used as well. So, our
pricing goes off of what the business
[1:49:43] is,
the scope of the work that it's being
[1:49:45] used, and remaining equitable amongst
that customer base in that region that
[1:49:49] does that same
>> If If she's the only one that's pulling
[1:49:52] that data for One Marshall County, why
couldn't she do that?
[1:49:57] » Because the scope of that would then go
to additional parties to be used in
[1:50:00] other ways.
[1:50:04] For like example, Marshall County
Economic Development is a part of One
[1:50:09] Marshall County.
The lens of how the data is being used
[1:50:12] for tourism versus economic development
is different. So, if Economic
[1:50:16] Development was to use it,
then that would account for a second
[1:50:20] organization using it outside of a
different scope that would need to be
[1:50:24] added to that agreement.
[1:50:38] » I put the motion out there.
>> I'll I'll second your motion.
[1:50:43] » We have a
motion and a second.
[1:50:46] All in favor?
>> Aye.
[1:50:49] » Aye.
>> Aye.
[1:50:50] » All opposed?
>> Opposed.
[1:50:53] » Orpheus Snow. I love it.
I I said I'll go for search for snow. I
[1:50:58] love it.
>> We have four to one, so the motion
[1:51:01] passes.
So, we
[1:51:03] » But you are heard, Jim. Jim, you are
heard.
[1:51:06] » I feel bad, though.
>> Well, I I mean, it's fine.
[1:51:10] » I know.
>> And And if you guys have any additional
[1:51:13] questions, um Matt has this
presentation. So, feel free to look over
[1:51:17] this presentation. I'm trying to get to
the end so you guys can see my contact
[1:51:21] information as well.
So, all of my contact information is on
[1:51:26] there as well. My cell number and my
email. If you guys have additional
[1:51:29] questions over the next couple of weeks,
over the next couple of months, let me
[1:51:33] know. What I'll do on my end is I'll get
the formal agreement together. Um
[1:51:39] one of the things that I'm going to be
asked is if signature, we've had a vote,
[1:51:43] but if signature, I'm assuming that you
would be the signer on this,
[1:51:46] could happen outside of a formal uh
committee meeting. Okay. So, I will then
[1:51:52] get with you
>> We just need to add to the motion
[1:51:57] that I would sign on behalf of
the Tourism Commission.
[1:52:00] » I add on that Matt will sign on as the
president of the Tourism Commission.
[1:52:06] » Taken.
[1:52:09] » All right. Words are tracing.
>> So, I'll work I'll work to get that
[1:52:12] finalized over the next day or two here
and get with you and Andrea and we'll
[1:52:15] get that finalized, but um if there are
any questions, please feel free to reach
[1:52:20] out to me directly
um and I'm I'm more than happy to answer
[1:52:23] them to the best of my ability. Uh but I
really do appreciate everybody's time
[1:52:27] tonight and I'm looking forward to our
partnership.
[1:52:31] » Thank you, Matt.
>> Thanks, Matt.
[1:52:32] » Thanks, Matt.
>> Matt, I will give you your mouse back.
[1:52:37] » [laughter]
[1:52:40] » There you go.
>> Thanks. Great. Just Good to meet
[1:52:42] everybody.
>> You too.
[1:52:45] Yeah.
>> Um
[1:52:47] One last thing just
what we'll do is we'll
[1:52:51] table the discussion on the agreement
>> have that.
[1:52:55] » You have that?
>> Yes.
[1:52:56] » We'll table the discussion on the
agreement with
[1:53:00] the commission and Visit Marshall County
to our October
[1:53:03] 22nd meeting.
>> Okay, hold on. I got to write that down.
[1:53:06] Are you writing it?
>> I'm pretty sure as a piece of the pie.
[1:53:09] » You're talking too fast for Jill. Hold
on.
[1:53:10] No, you're good.
>> Okay.
[1:53:12] Um
and then
[1:53:16] I think
maybe I didn't send any emails.
[1:53:18] » October 27th about everybody.
>> Thursday.
[1:53:20] » Matt Riffle was offered a position on
the board.
[1:53:23] » Jeremy.
>> Jeremy, sorry.
[1:53:25] » Jeremy Riffle.
>> But he had I had to back off that offer
[1:53:29] because
with the statute in place the way that
[1:53:33] it is, if you work in a hospitality
industry, you can live anywhere in the
[1:53:38] state of Indiana. If you do not, you
have to live in Marshall County and
[1:53:42] unfortunately, he lives in Kosciusko.
>> He would have been awesome.
[1:53:46] So, back to square
>> We are still back to square one looking
[1:53:49] for an additional board member.
>> All right, I tried. And what about the
[1:53:52] what the guy that does the Summer Fest
in Bourbon?
[1:53:56] What's his name?
[1:53:59] Lonnie.
>> No.
[1:54:03] » Why not?
And no. This room is still live. Want to
[1:54:08] Okay.
>> He wouldn't do it anyway.
[1:54:09] » We still have Andrea. She has to give a
quick update.
[1:54:11] » Oh, that's right. Okay.
>> Well, I thought of the guy
[1:54:15] » candidates.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
[1:54:18] I just like cuz he was so involved in
Bourbon, but
[1:54:21] » He is, but he wouldn't he wouldn't want
to do something like this because of the
[1:54:24] the automation and all these things.
This is not He does his own thing.
[1:54:28] That's his thing that he does and that's
it.
[1:54:29] » It's good to know.
Um
[1:54:33] yeah, updates. Um well, we had Blueberry
Festival. We had our booth over at
[1:54:38] Blueberry Festival where I was
conducting a three, four question survey
[1:54:43] to guests of the festival and we were
also mailing
[1:54:49] postcards all over the world and
it's been pretty slow being housed at
[1:54:55] the Marshall County History Museum, but
I had 50 postcards.
[1:55:00] And then we also had 50 bags that had
the state of Indiana with Marshall
[1:55:06] County identified via a heart.
And then the other one was uh blueberry.
[1:55:12] And if you completed the survey and you
send out a letter or um follow us on
[1:55:18] social media and complete the survey is
actually what I was pushing.
[1:55:23] Um,
then you can take one of our bags and I
[1:55:27] put some information in there of like
events coming up uh here in Marshall
[1:55:31] County as well.
Um, we got
[1:55:35] but anybody could do the survey.
Um, we had 93 complete the survey. And
[1:55:42] now I did give Tracy a few of the bags
uh and
[1:55:47] and [laughter]
um and uh
[1:55:50] small-town Indiana Toby uh one of the
bags. So, that would account for my
[1:55:54] seven missing ones. But, those 93 people
completed the survey, which was great.
[1:56:01] Um, I also got to talk to much more than
the 93 people uh outlined here in the
[1:56:06] survey.
And um
[1:56:09] a lot of them would come back for
another festival. They also loved all
[1:56:13] the festival food and all the different
options for entertainment. So, it was
[1:56:18] great to get to
uh just be at the booth and talk to the
[1:56:21] visitors. Um,
Toby did a bunch of live videos and
[1:56:26] stories, and he also tasted some of the
tenderloins at the festival. He also
[1:56:32] went to Hooples, which did not
I don't know if it wasn't released yet
[1:56:39] um that tenderloin review, and Pagan N
Pan um which is usually in Culver, but
[1:56:45] they happened to be at the Mayor's
Summer of Music.
[1:56:48] So, I just gave him a bunch of
restaurants that uh that have
[1:56:52] tenderloins, and then I let him kind of
decide where to go.
[1:56:56] Surprisingly, Ralph Smith's tenderloin
didn't rank as well, but he's been in
[1:57:01] the game for a long time, so I thought
it would do better than it did.
[1:57:04] But um Pig in a Pen got a nine, so that
was cool.
[1:57:08] Um of someone from Walmart or Walmart
from Elkhart come to the pub because
[1:57:14] they saw his video.
>> Oh, yeah.
[1:57:16] » to let you know.
>> Are your tenderloin sales still good?
[1:57:19] » Yeah, they're still strong.
>> Still strong?
[1:57:21] » Yeah.
>> The Toby effect.
[1:57:23] Um
But
[1:57:25] yeah, being my first blueberry festival
weekend, I in the future of course will
[1:57:30] share that booth time with board members
as they want to if they want to come to
[1:57:35] the booth. Um board member Jim, that's
his name online,
[1:57:39] um really helped me a lot with
collecting content throughout the
[1:57:42] weekend, creating content throughout the
weekend. Uh we went in a helicopter, he
[1:57:47] went to the mayor's summer music, he
also went to the parade. Those were
[1:57:51] events
Yeah.
[1:57:53] » He was everywhere.
>> Yeah.
[1:57:55] » I would say this moving forward
>> Yeah.
[1:57:57] » I think it becomes an expectation of
your board
[1:58:01] your board
>> Yeah.
[1:58:02] » that they are there.
>> Yeah.
[1:58:04] » That needs to be something
>> And as I mentioned, they did offer they
[1:58:08] wanted me to create a sign-up sheet and
I just I've done that so many times in
[1:58:12] the past where I'm I've got the sign-up
sheet and then it turns into one more
[1:58:15] thing I need to manage and if they're
not there at the time they said, oh hey,
[1:58:19] are you coming? And also training them
on the booth. Samuel kindly came and did
[1:58:24] a shift at the booth.
He opened it up and it was after I had
[1:58:29] shut it down for the day and I come up
to him, I see him standing there and
[1:58:33] he's got, you know, the pens all over
the table and he's got bag in each hand
[1:58:38] and he's like he's trying to hand the
bag to people. I got there right in time
[1:58:42] though. And I was like, Samuel, what are
you doing? He's like, well, I'm having
[1:58:47] people fill out the postcards and then I
was going to give them a the And I'm
[1:58:50] like, no, like they got to do the survey
and follow us on social media." So,
[1:58:55] training the board members on like what
I was doing at the booth.
[1:58:59] Um
but I have been kind of like
[1:59:02] just running to keep up with everything.
Uh the the two the two videos a week and
[1:59:08] all of that and with blueberry being my
first time, it was a lot of um just
[1:59:12] trying to keep up.
>> Those videos are great, Andrea.
[1:59:15] » Yeah.
>> Keep going. Don't stop. Just
[1:59:17] » I know it's going to get tougher.
>> Yeah, I know.
[1:59:19] » It's just so much
time. But you can spend so much time.
[1:59:23] » They
the editing part of that.
[1:59:25] » Yeah.
>> She's Yeah, it's huge.
[1:59:28] » So, I do have somebody that um she's
willing to volunteer part of her time to
[1:59:33] help with the editing. I was going to
give her a sample of content and see
[1:59:39] what she does with it and then present
it at our board meeting and see if she
[1:59:42] might be the right fit for an editor. Um
it's a younger girl. She's in her 20s
[1:59:48] and she's got a great online presence on
in her own right. So, I thought she
[1:59:53] would be a good fit and she also fits
like the style of what I'm going for. Um
[1:59:57] so, that will help immensely to just
have somebody to edit and it won't
[2:00:02] change the style of like what I'm doing.
Maybe it'll make it better. But um I
[2:00:07] think people have really liked and
responded to
[2:00:10] uh how I present things on the screen
and everything and linking it below. Um
[2:00:15] hopefully
>> What's that?
[2:00:17] » Your humor.
>> The humor. So, yeah, I do need to
[2:00:21] get
a good night's sleep in order to keep
[2:00:23] that up and
four shots of espresso. That's the
[2:00:27] That's been the
Yeah.
[2:00:30] Um
but
[2:00:33] yeah, uh
that partnership with Toby was great. Uh
[2:00:37] we just submitted our next ad for Travel
IN Magazine.
[2:00:41] Um and then they offered us like an
additional space to promote wedding
[2:00:45] venues in the area or just having your
wedding in Marshall County. And it looks
[2:00:49] like the board did vote yes on that for
the extra
[2:00:52] little advertisement.
Um, I'm also still talking with
[2:00:58] uh in Indiana magazine.
Nate Spangle was at Blueberry Festival.
[2:01:03] » Mhm.
>> He did the
[2:01:04] » He did our pie eating contest.
>> pie eating contest
[2:01:07] » We're going to do it again next year and
he's going to be the host next year,
[2:01:09] too.
>> He tried
[2:01:10] » He didn't bring Joey Chestnut though,
did he?
[2:01:13] » No.
He brought a young lady with him though.
[2:01:17] » So So Joey Chestnut lives in Indy. Joey
Chestnut who does the hot dog eating
[2:01:21] contest every year, he lives in Carmel.
Yeah.
[2:01:24] » So and they're friends. So he was going
to bring him, that's what he was trying
[2:01:26] to do, but it was like it was all a big
secret, but he couldn't didn't have him.
[2:01:30] » Yeah.
And then um
[2:01:36] Samuel and I, we're working on updates
to the website. That's been something
[2:01:41] that
I just am struggling to um
[2:01:45] update certain parts of it because I
don't have the information from the
[2:01:48] businesses. But like for example, I have
a meeting set up with the people who own
[2:01:53] Roxy's in um Bremen.
And they're also involved in Carmens, I
[2:01:58] think.
The Roxy's scoops, heavenly scoops.
[2:02:03] Well, they have two places in Bremen. I
don't know if it's Carmens, but
[2:02:07] um just meeting with those people and
figuring out what they want their page
[2:02:10] to look like. I wish they could just
access it and update it themselves, but
[2:02:16] I don't know, you know.
Are there any other questions though? If
[2:02:20] you Have you guys seen anything that's
good or
[2:02:23] do more of this?
>> Good.
[2:02:25] » Andrea, nothing's been good.
>> It's all been good.
[2:02:31] » I'm really trying to
>> How do you feel? Do you You enjoying it?
[2:02:34] » Yeah. Yeah. I'm enjoying like getting to
know more of the county um
[2:02:39] or things to do than I realized and
going into the fall I'll be like I said
[2:02:45] focusing on places to stay.
So just trying to
[2:02:50] get some stays at certain locations for
starters but I know Jellystone their
[2:02:57] season ends in November.
But they're
[2:03:01] I think they have a really cool event in
in September for Halloween where they
[2:03:06] drop candy out of a helicopter. I can't
get enough helicopters.
[2:03:10] So
>> [clears throat]
[2:03:11] » that was
>> up in the meeting.
[2:03:12] » so comfortable in there.
>> gosh. I thought I would have done
[2:03:15] better.
>> You've got some some events coming up
[2:03:18] or still going on. You've got you've got
trick-or-treat trails that you
[2:03:22] » Oh there's so much in October. I just
mean if I'm going if I start doing
[2:03:27] places to stay I might do Jellystone in
the beginning before their season ends
[2:03:32] so that I can highlight something cool
that's going on there.
[2:03:35] » You're turning in your expenses
to get reimbursed for
[2:03:38] » Next meeting I will be.
So
[2:03:42] It's not it's not a ton but yeah.
>> I'm just I'm just I'm reminding her that
[2:03:47] she needs to make sure that she's
turning in her expenses for that stuff.
[2:03:51] » Yeah.
>> Who's the treasurer for that?
[2:03:54] Amy Beacham
>> Isn't there a way that you could give
[2:03:56] her like Blueberry gave me a card?
>> I have a card.
[2:04:01] » Okay.
>> They want like everything I don't know.
[2:04:03] Sometimes I do break the rule like I
like to get it all approved before and
[2:04:08] like getting the tent I was supposed to
get the tent through Bowen. I have like
[2:04:12] a branded Visit Marshall County tent but
it wasn't done in time cuz they were
[2:04:17] behind just they were busy with
Blueberry Festival.
[2:04:20] But um
I had to get a tent and then I bought a
[2:04:25] mailbox because
it made sense with the whole setup and
[2:04:28] it caught people's attention so it
worked and but that stuff I'm not like
[2:04:32] spending $5,000 on my card or anything.
It's just little things that I needed in
[2:04:37] the moment that I couldn't put on my
own.
[2:04:39] » Make sure you get reimbursed for that,
Deborah.
[2:04:40] » Yeah.
>> Yeah. All right.
[2:04:42] » All right. Last thing I have real quick.
Um I've got a little bit of a budget for
[2:04:48] Monday.
Council.
[2:04:51] » Mhm.
>> Um unfortunately, I won't be able to be
[2:04:53] here for it cuz I already had a prior
commitment for the radio.
[2:04:57] So, I will be putting together a budget
and just sending them a letter from me
[2:05:01] apologizing for not being here.
Um but that being said, I wanted to
[2:05:05] verify
>> [clears throat]
[2:05:08] » budget piece on the bottom. Did we
switch that to 50/50
[2:05:13] with the thought that if we needed to
put more towards
[2:05:17] Visit Marshall County, we would. I don't
know if we did, but I do think we
[2:05:21] should.
I think that
[2:05:24] they need to focus on the marketing
stuff and we focus on the big tangible
[2:05:29] things, which we've been doing
naturally, but it does make sense.
[2:05:33] » like the break and if we're capped on
our budget
[2:05:35] » if somebody comes and asks for and and
we're starting to feel that budget
[2:05:38] crunch, which
you know, we don't have one of those
[2:05:41] right now.
>> Not at the moment.
[2:05:42] » But if we do, then we just be honest.
Like not in this cycle. You know what I
[2:05:46] mean?
>> But the 50/50, we're good on the 50/50
[2:05:49] and
my
[2:05:50] » My vote would be 50/50. I don't know if
everyone I don't know if
[2:05:52] » It's 60 cuz right now it's 60 the way
it's set up on this budget is it's 60 to
[2:05:57] Visit Marshall County, 40 stays with us.
>> Yeah, I think you're good with 50/50.
[2:06:01] » I think that's better.
I thought it was we switched it to
[2:06:05] » No, I'm sorry. I I think we should leave
that. I think we should leave it
[2:06:08] » to leave it that way?
>> Yeah, I think we keep 40 and give them
[2:06:10] 60. Yeah, sorry.
>> I thought we were already 50/50. So.
[2:06:15] » Yeah, I did, too. I thought our was more
I can go back to my minutes.
[2:06:20] You were here for that.
>> Double check it for I'll write
[2:06:22] » I was here for that. It was before.
>> we I thought we were I thought it was
[2:06:25] inverse. I thought we were 60, they were
40, and then we pushed it to 50/50.
[2:06:30] » Cuz
>> we I think we're going for
[2:06:32] » It was
>> we were 60, they were 40. We switched it
[2:06:34] to
>> Okay, so you're saying we could have
[2:06:36] done a 20% pivot, not a 10.
>> That's right.
[2:06:39] » Got it. Okay.
>> We did I thought
[2:06:41] » You should do 50/50.
>> Okay. It should be 50/50.
[2:06:43] » 50/50.
>> It's pretty easy, too. I mean, you know.
[2:06:46] » Got it.
>> Like I said, we were never
[2:06:49] » we put a motion through on that?
>> Okay, hold on.
[2:06:51] » Just to verify.
>> Is that old business?
[2:06:54] » Yes, motion to make sure that that's
50/50.
[2:06:59] Second.
>> Anyone anyone?
[2:07:01] » Second.
>> There you go.
[2:07:03] » I.
>> No, no, Jill said second.
[2:07:05] » I'll second, Jill.
>> Okay.
[2:07:07] » All in favor?
>> I.
[2:07:08] » All opposed?
>> Oh, I
[2:07:11] » I I was going to
>> any money. I don't need to put a motion.
[2:07:13] I don't need to put the motion.
>> I just
[2:07:14] » I do make a motion to adjourn, though.
>> Wait, the money is accurate. Hey, I did
[2:07:18] get a copy of the she sent me.
>> you put it
[2:07:22] » Yeah, but I'm saying it is accurate if
you guys got to check it. Cuz I couldn't
[2:07:24] access it for some reason.
>> Why are we meeting in October? Cuz this
[2:07:29] was just a
>> emergency meeting for him.
[2:07:31] » Oh.
>> Keep it up. Good stuff.
[2:07:34] » Hey, did you ever do the do
>> I'm not going to be here, though.
[2:07:35] » Do it, Liam.