City of Myrtle Beach staff are continuing efforts to make Myrtle Beach a ‘smart city’.
A Smart Cities Council has been created. It’s an internal working group made up of 13 staff members from nine different departments. They officially started meeting toward the end of April. During the meetings they talk about economic development strategy, what are some kind of technology or research they want to bring to Myrtle Beach.
Myrtle Beach staff has also recommended the development of a 311 Office, at the beginning of 2024.
The 311 Office will be a place where people can call and get their government services answered and they don’t have to be bounced around from place to place to get an answer.
They also want to implement virtual management with the 311 Office so that chatbots can answer people’s questions if they don’t want to call
Myrtle Beach Chief Innovation Officer, Howard Waldie, is also hoping to develop a “Myrtle Beach 101″ app to not only help people answer questions but can be a place where residents and visitors can alert the city to issues.
“So, there’s obviously a public safety component, but I mean it could be endless. It could have augmented reality at some of our hot-spot visitor destinations or also hot-spot destinations for our residents,” Waldie said. “That tells you the story of a park or tells you the story of Myrtle Beach’s history during World War II.”
The goal of a smart city is to use advanced technology to help improve the quality of life and businesses. That could include smart trash cans.
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