GPS and Economic Development
Can GPS put your city on the economic map?
By Judith Martin

Arguably, the most innovative use of Global Positioning System technology to date is by the California desert community of Ridgecrest, which is attempting to use GPS to help stimulate its economy.

When the Department of Defense began downsizing military bases, including the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center-the town's single largest employer-hard economic times hit Ridgecrest. Community leaders put their heads together and decided to host an annual hot air balloon festival to attract tourists. The first balloon festival, held in 1997, drew more than 21,000 attendees. It was evident, though, that a once-a-year event would do little to buttress the local economy. The town needed employment for its high-technology workforce as they moved out of defense-based research and engineering jobs.

Mike Delaney, vice president of the Ridgecrest Balloon Festival board, made the connection between the following facts: Ridgecrest wants to attract high-technology employers; GPS is emerging as a popular commercial technology; and the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station has a sophisticated GPS laboratory. The result was the community's first annual GPS Scavenger Hunt held 6-8 November 1998.

The goal of the GPS Scavenger Hunt was to entice representatives from high-technology companies to examine the commercially attractive assets of Ridgecrest while having fun scouting for clues. Scavenger hunt volunteers sent out invitation letters to 1,000 high technology companies. They printed and distributed brochures promoting the event. Five scavenger hunt routes were designed, aimed at every skill level and every interest including bicycle course, horse trail, Indian Wells Valley Community Tour, 4x4 off-road route, and the hi-tech challenge.

Thanks to Magellan Systems Corporation, a major sponsor of the event, players without GPS units could rent one for $10. Magellan, a manufacturer of GPS equipment, loaned 50 GPS units for rental use. The company also donated six new Magellan Blazer 12 GPS units as prizes for the winners of each route. And for the novice GPS user, the GPS volunteers offered inexpensive training classes. For $5, players could learn the fundamentals of using a GPS unit from Sam Thompson, a former Navy chief warrant officer whose credentials include teaching Navy SEALS GPS technology.

Route leaders Thompson, Forrest Lloyd, Nancy Burton, Barbara Frisbee, Derek and Tracy Cooper drove the scavenger hunt routes and annotated the checkpoints' latitude and longitude on a route sheet for players enrolled in each category. In doing so, they realized that they didn't want the event to be a race. Instead, they wanted participants to take their time discovering and enjoying the locations laid out for them. Each route leader was encouraged to come up with a method for determining winners. First prize was a Magellan Blazer 12 GPS unit, second prize was a tote bag with the GPS Scavenger Hunt logo, and third prize was the ubiquitous T-shirt with logo.

Frisbee, Burton, and Cooper, respective route leaders for the bicycle course, horse trail, and 4x4 off-road route, settled on a simple poker hand. Participants would receive a playing card at each checkpoint and the player or team with the best poker hand would win.

The Indian Wells Valley Community and hi-tech challenge route leaders, Thompson and Lloyd, decided to keep their players engaged by using a crossword puzzle with clues indicating which nearby building or site was the target checkpoint. Crossword clues, created by local writer Henry Rodriguez, ranged from the fairly obvious, "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's hardware and software support" for Boeing Information Services, to the more obscure "Un-latch the secrets behind these glass doors" for Lockheed Martin.

Routes were ready, invitation letters were mailed, and brochures were distributed. Everything seemed to be on track for the event. Local companies, normally closed on weekends, paid employees to keep the doors open to greet scavenger hunt visitors. A sense of "build it and they will come" permeated the community.

Despite the enthusiastic community support and months of effort by a score of volunteers, turnout for the GPS Scavenger Hunt was far less than expected. Of the thousands of visitors drawn by the Ridgecrest Balloon Festival, only 47 participated in the Scavenger Hunt. "We kept believing that the crowds would come through the door at any time," says Tony Damiano, who chaired the Scavenger Hunt during its final 2 months of preparation.

Since November, Damiano and other team leaders have analyzed what they could have done to improve turnout for the Scavenger Hunt. Leaders agree they should have made personal calls to technology company representatives instead of relying on the invitations. There should have been more newspaper and newsletter articles marketing the Hunt. Leaders should have coordinated more effectively with the Balloon Festival representatives to direct players from the festival site to the Hamilton-Clarke building where the Scavenger Hunt began.

The tone of these "lessons learned" discussions has been upbeat-and with good reason. Without exception, the players said they had fun using GPS technology to explore the area and they would do the Scavenger Hunt again. In terms of getting people acquainted with GPS technology, the Hunt had served its purpose. Jo Ann Ellebracht, editor of Eastern Sierra This Week section of the Mammoth Review Herald, attended the hunt with two friends. "At first, I was afraid to touch the thing," Ellebracht says, referring to the GPS unit. "We thought it would be above our heads, but once [Thompson] started teaching and you touch the machine, it's not that hard." She and her friends are looking forward to taking a different hunt route in this years Scavenger Hunt.

Steven Garcia and his two sons entered the bicycle course competition. Steven laughs as he tells how sometimes they tried to guess the checkpoint locations based on clues instead of following the GPS unit. "The clue was 'there are diamonds in the desert'," Garcia says, "and we thought it was a jewelry store. But the GPS unit pointed us toward a field-Kerr McGee Field's baseball diamond." The Garcia family won one of the Magellan Blazer 12 units by having the best poker hand. "I take it with me everywhere and Brian took it on a Scouting trip. We're building a map by putting in the coordinates of places we go. We're fascinated by the technology," Garcia says.

Valerie Nutter, winner of the Magellan Blazer 12 GPS unit from the horse trail route, uses her GPS unit in equestrian endurance rides. "It's like a cell phone," she says, "you wonder how you lived without it."

Local business sponsors, too, are willing to give the GPS Scavenger Hunt another chance to prove itself a viable activity for economic development. Representatives from both CTA, Inc., an information technology services company, and Boeing Information Services have committed to supporting the GPS effort in 1999.

One substantive business contact came out of the GPS Scavenger Hunt. While he was making plans to attend the Ridgecrest Balloon Festival, James Swavely saw the GPS Scavenger Hunt advertised on the festival Web-page and decided to attend. Swavely works for NASA Lewis Research Center and is stationed with Boeing in Canoga Park. As a result of participating in the Hunt, Swavely met business sponsor Dr. Hal Bennett. Bennett's SELENE project, which uses laser power-beaming technology to recharge orbiting satellites with an adaptive optics telescope, interested Swavely. "I'm working on the space station," he says, "and Boeing supplies the solar arrays for the space station. The SELENE project proposes to supply power from the Earth to users like us, for example." In turn, Dr. Bennett was delighted to have met Swavely. "After all, it just takes one person to make a positive contact-makes the whole thing worthwhile," says Bennett.

Corporate sponsor Magellan remains enthusiastic about future GPS Scavenger Hunts. Don Meyer, Magellan public relations manager, says, "For a first time event, the Hunt was very successful based on feedback I got from organizers. People were impressed with the technology and with the Magellan units and would come back again." Meyer says this was the first Magellan had heard of using GPS in a scavenger hunt event. He adds that Magellan sees the hunt as "an exciting way of demonstrating the technology in a way we have never used before. This type of approach is so unique-to use GPS for economic benefit." In fact, Meyer says he is hoping this will be the first in a series of hunts not only in Ridgecrest/China Lake, but also throughout California to demonstrate the value of GPS technology.

Thompson, who is chairing the 1999 GPS events, is already hard at work developing plans. "I'd like to have mini-GPS Scavenger Hunts every 3 months throughout the year," he says. "We felt a lot of people were not aware of GPS. We want to raise their awareness." One of the avenues Thompson plans to use to increase GPS literacy is by teaching GPS during Boy and Girl Scout orienteering activities. While the details have yet to be worked out, Keith Barnes, BSA desert district executive says, "This would be a great opportunity for the leaders and the boys. Whether on mountain bikes or hiking, they will get practical experience in orienteering using compasses, GPS equipment, and maps." Barnes says he wouldn't be surprised if the Scouts eventually adopt a merit badge for GPS technology. "I don't think it's just a fad. I think it's a useful technology."

Thompson has been asked to hold a GPS Scavenger Hunt along with the community's musical festival this spring in addition to one in the fall with the Ridgecrest Balloon Festival. The theme for the 1999 GPS events will be tied into California's sesquicentennial celebration with its focus on the California gold rush of 1849, according to Thompson. The Ridgecrest area is rich in mining history and Thompson has been spending weekends documenting historically significant mining sites. Desert enthusiasts, Derek and Tracy Cooper have signed up to develop a new 4x4 off-road GPS route and Nancy Burton has agreed to lead the 1999 GPS horse trail ride.

Other encouraging signs for 1999 include the probability of more participation by the GPS laboratory at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. Ronn Brigham, who manages the laboratory, says he anticipates playing an active role this year. Marketing expertise will be aided by the addition of Ridgecrest Business Recruiter Pam Thompson to the GPS Scavenger Hunt team.

Whether the GPS Scavenger Hunt is successful as leverage for the community's economic development can only be answered in the long-term. Delaney says his success criteria for the event have all been met. "The 47 participants had a good time," he says. "Their eyes were opened to the area and its potential, and they plan to come back next year and bring their friends."

Like farming, economic development requires planting healthy seeds, tending the growth media with care, and exercising patient, hard-working faith. The seeds of the team's underlying concept were sound-holding a high technology event aimed at attracting companies who could benefit from the existing community workforce and facilities. Civic leaders like Delaney are vigilantly turning up the commercial soil. What remains is faith as this community discovers the coordinates of a healthy economic future.

Judith Martin is a freelance writer in Ridgecrest, California. She can be reached by E-mail at [email protected]

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