Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The competition for jobs can be fierce, but Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance president / CEO Ryan McCrady shares one trick of the trade: geofencing during conferences.

“We know all these site selectors at a geographic location, so we will draw a digital fence around the geographic location, the hotel or the conference center, and we will drop ads on their phones about our community,” said McCrady. “We know they get them, because people were coming across the room and calling me by my first name that I didn’t know, and that was because they saw an ad that had a video in it about our community, and my name was referenced.”

The alliance’s director of business development, Abby Powell, says the public-private partnership needs a client to do some homework. “You need to have your site ready to go,” she said. “You need to have that information about the site that you’re trying to market in your pocket. You need to know, what are the infrastructure challenges? You need to understand ownership and the responses of state and local government and then, finally, the operating cost structure.”

McCrady and Powell spoke to the Citizens Club of Springfield.