Actual Discover DeSoto implementation
A destination people can explore.
Browse businesses, filter by interests and town, and bring local discoveries into the planning journey.
Explore the DeSoto directory ↗
A custom Welcome Engine for Memphis Tourism
More Memphis.
In every visit.
The city is the invitation.
The plan makes it personal.
A custom Memphis platform for discovering the city, planning a trip, and bringing people together—with local business opportunities and reporting your board can use.
For every kind of visitorPersonal trips. Gatherings worth making the trip for.
For the businesses behind the visitRelevant discovery and premium exposure.
For Memphis TourismBusiness-level analytics. Clear evidence for the board.
Riverfront: Julian Harper. Bar-B-Q Shop photograph: Memphis Travel; photographer not supplied.
Real work you can explore
See the DeSoto work.
Picture your Memphis.
Discover DeSoto demonstrates the destination experience we’ve built. Memphis would receive its own design, approved local content, consumer event workspace, partner program, and private reporting.
Recorded DeSoto planner demonstration
Watch the experience at work.
19-second silent reference recording. Shows the planner and map in a prior DeSoto sample.
Made specifically for Memphis TourismYour city. Your visitor experience.
Your city. Your visitor experience.
Your business insights.
The reference work shows the foundation. The Memphis proposal brings discovery, personal trips, a complete consumer event workspace, sponsorships, and board reporting together around your destination.
Screenshots captured October 24, 2026. DeSoto and hosted-platform screens are reference implementations; the Memphis demonstrations illustrate the custom experience proposed here.
What we found on MemphisTravel.com—and where the opportunity is
Strong content. A longer path to the finder.
Memphis already has restaurant, attraction, hotel, and member listings. The restaurant finder supports Type, Cuisine, Meals Served, and Neighborhoods; we tested its BBQ filter successfully.
On the dining page we checked, the “Find Restaurants” heading began about 5,400 pixels down on desktop and 9,000 pixels down on mobile, after editorial content. A dedicated directory entrance could put finding a place first.
Listing details already include useful amenities and nearby maps. The next opportunity is connecting discovery to a saved shortlist and an editable trip, across categories.
Browser observations, October 24, 2026; viewport 1440 × 1000 / 390 × 844. Layout can change. These are page observations, not visitor-analytics or conversion findings. Sources: dining, attractions, hotels, member directory, listing detail.
Plan your event in Memphis
Your people.
Your occasion.
One place for all of it.
Give the person bringing everyone together a place to actually organize it. Find the venue, connect the vendors, plan the stay, manage the guests, and share a weekend worth making the trip for.
Reunions · Weddings · Celebrations · Group getaways
Your custom Memphis event experienceFrom the first idea
From the first idea
to “see you there.”
A family reunion is our sample. The same workspace can be tailored to a wedding weekend, celebration, or group gathering.
Beale Street photograph: Alex Shansky / Memphis Travel
Welcome EngineYour event workspace
Make the occasion yours
Find the right places→Bring the people together→Make the whole visit count
The places behind your gathering.
Shortlist venues, stays, and vendors in one place. Example options illustrate the workspace; photographs show Memphis, not verified venue offers.
Your shortlistExplore the Memphis directory
Give the weekend its rhythm.
Mix gathering time with meals, arrivals, and time to explore Memphis. This is the schedule guests will see.
Your people, all accounted for.
Keep households and party sizes together. Update RSVP status as responses come in.
| Guest / household | People | RSVP | Manage |
|---|
This demo lets you manage responses manually. The custom Memphis build would support guest invitations and self-service RSVPs. No invitations are sent here.
Know what you’re planning to spend.
Keep estimates and paid amounts beside each other. Sample figures are planning examples, not business quotes.
| Expense | Estimated ($) | Paid ($) | Manage |
|---|
Amounts are entered by the organizer. No payments are collected or processed.
Keep the next step clear.
A shared occasion has lots of moving pieces. Track the work and who’s handling it.
A gathering becomes a visit.
Help guests discover restaurants, attractions, and neighborhoods around the main occasion. Every shared itinerary opens another door into Memphis.
Local businesses join the plan.
Connect organizers with approved venues, hotels, caterers, entertainment, and services. Offer qualified partners clearly labeled premium exposure.
Memphis can see the activity.
Report on event workspaces, business shortlists, partner clickouts, and shared-plan engagement, with the definitions agreed for your dashboard.
Explore board analyticsProposed Memphis experience. This interactive sample runs in your browser with fictional guests, illustrative options, and sample costs. Production delivery includes persistent accounts, organizer permissions, guest responses, and approved Memphis data. Your guest itinerary excludes your guest list, budget, and private tasks.
One destination. A more connected experience.
From “we should go”
to “here’s our Memphis.”
Imagine a visitor finding three places they love. Watch those discoveries become a plan—and a more useful connection to local partners.
Discover
Animated concept · 18 secondsA city full of possibilities.
Memphis’s content becomes a connected starting point: music, local flavor, and places worth exploring.
Now try the directoryPlay it, pause it, or choose a chapter. This animation illustrates the proposed Memphis experience; it does not show live recommendations or measured outcomes.
Different reasons to visit. One place to make it happen.
Let them find
their Memphis.
Build around the reason someone comes—and help them discover what else belongs in the visit.
“We’ve got a weekend.
Let’s make it Memphis.”
Proposed Memphis experienceA little music.
A little music.
A lot to make their own.
Start with music and local food. Find the places that fit, save favorites, and build a weekend that still has room for discovery.
- Discover music, dining, and neighborhoods.
- Bring favorite places into an editable trip.
- Save the plan and share it with the people coming.
Illustrative visitor story, not a testimonial or a booked itinerary.
The content is already valuable.
The connection is the opportunity.
A clearer directory, a personal planner, and a thoughtful partner program turn separate visitor actions into a destination-wide experience Memphis can own.
A better next step for visitors
Find, save, plan, and return. Measure whether people can complete the journeys that matter.
More useful local discovery
Connect relevant businesses to visitor intent, with a qualified premium program and transparent reporting.
Evidence your board can use
Show which businesses receive clickouts and planning activity, with a private dashboard and clear, shareable reports.
Builds on your existing personalized quiz, planning resources, events, and member benefits.
A stronger front door for local discovery
Find your place.
Make it part of the plan.
A dedicated, searchable Memphis directory: dining, attractions, stays, and eventually venues in one familiar experience. Try searching, filtering, saving, and adding a place to the sample trip.
MEMPHIS
My sample trip ↗5 places to explore
Memphis-approved content, connectedOne place to discover. One plan to keep.Open the sample trip ↗
Names, listing links, and photographs from Memphis Travel. Photo credits: Central BBQ—Alex Shansky; Huey’s—Huey’s Memphis; Memphis Botanic Garden—Mike Kerr; Stax—Stax Museum; Peabody—photographer not supplied. No ratings, sponsorship status, hours, or availability are invented. Saved places remain in this browser.
Connect what Memphis already owns
Use approved content and an agreed CMS export or integration. Keep editorial ownership with your team and link existing pages to the new experience.
Make every listing useful
Scope richer profiles, clear amenities, trustworthy review data where licensed, map discovery, accessible filters, and direct partner actions.
Give discovery a destination
A visible directory entrance, consistent mobile navigation, and a shared save-to-plan journey. Validate the paths with real visitors.
Take the idea for a spin
A trip that feels like
it was made for you.
Pick a mood. Change the days. See where each stop fits on the map. This is the kind of hands-on experience we would tailor to Memphis.
2 days · Music & soul
Your Memphis mixtape
Sample order only. Check operating hours, tickets, and travel time with each venue.
Day 1 on the map
Your stops, connected.
The map background is unavailable. Your itinerary and numbered pins still work; use each place’s link for more details.
Connected in itinerary order
Select a pin or “Show on map” to explore a stop. Dashed lines show the sequence, not driving directions or travel times.
Saved in this browser. Shared links include the sample itinerary, without personal information.
For visitors
Less starting over. More time looking forward to the trip.
For partners
A relevant place in the plan, with a clear path to their website.
For Memphis Tourism
Measurable planning activity and, as group tools develop, better-informed inquiries.
People don’t just visit a place.
They come for
what happens together.
Make the occasion part of the planBeale Street gathering · Alex Shansky / Memphis TravelTwo ways to bring people to Memphis
Give people a reason to come.
And a way to bring everyone.
Connect public events to a fuller visit, and give organizers the tools to manage their own gathering.
Proposed expansionThe show is the starting point.
The show is the starting point.
The whole weekend is the opportunity.
A visitor finds an event they love. The planner helps turn it into a fuller Memphis visit—with things to do before, dinner ideas nearby, and a plan for the next morning.
Illustrative evening · no scheduled performance
Your night, with the gaps filled in.
- BeforeExplore the neighborhood
Discover approved attractions around the event area.
- DinnerMake room for Memphis flavor
Save a nearby restaurant and follow its booking link.
- The reasonYour chosen show or festival
Anchor the plan to the official event source.
Would use an approved event source, freshness checks, and cancellation handling. Ticketing and reservations remain with the provider.
Consumer event planning
Bring the whole occasion together.
Help everyday organizers move from the group chat to a useful plan, then connect them with Memphis Tourism when they need local expertise.
Your family reunion plan
0 of 4 readyThis quick brief complements the full event workspace above, including guests, RSVPs, budgets, schedules, and shared guest itineraries.
More value for visitors. New value for partners.
A directory that can
support its own growth.
Give qualifying, highly rated businesses a way to invest in a stronger presence. Build a premium program around visitor relevance, visible sponsorship labels, and measurable partner exposure.
Standard discovery
Maintain ordinary discovery and the benefits Memphis already promises members. Useful facts, partner links, and a place in relevant visitor searches.
Enhanced profiles
Offer qualified partners richer photography, a fuller business story, additional calls to action, and direct access to their own performance dashboard.
Sponsored discovery
Sell a limited number of clearly labeled category, neighborhood, or campaign placements that match what the visitor is exploring. Every premium sponsor can see its own exposure and engagement.
Premium sponsorship includes direct analytics access.
Preview sponsor analyticsEvery premium sponsor gets its own secure dashboard to see exposure, tracked link activity, planning actions, and the performance of its investment.
Quality earns eligibility.
Sponsorship buys visibility.
Agree the rating source, minimum rating, review evidence, freshness, and editorial standards with Memphis. Paid exposure never changes a review score. Keep organic results useful and clearly distinguish paid placements.
Memphis already offers member listing and marketing benefits and displays Featured labels. This proposal would complement that program; existing Featured status alone does not establish a paid sponsorship.
Sponsored · example placement
Eligible Memphis partner
A richer introduction. A clear next step. Relevant to the category the visitor chose.
Generic layout example. No real business is represented as a paying sponsor.Explore the economics
What could a partner program generate?
Change the assumptions. These are example package prices and sold counts—not Memphis rates, a quote, or a sales forecast.
Enter whole, nonnegative numbers within the field limits. Sold placements are assumed filled for the month.
Illustrative gross sponsorship revenue$7,500
per month at these assumptions
$90,000annualized at 12 identical months
30 × $150 + 4 × $750
Gross revenue before setup, maintenance, sales costs, fulfillment, taxes, churn, or displacement of existing ad sales. No profit, return, or self-funding guarantee is implied.
What we would scope to operate the program
Partner qualification and approval; enhanced-profile fields; available inventory and relevance rules; sponsorship labels; start/end dates; impression and partner-click definitions; secure own-business analytics access for every premium sponsor; sponsor exports and renewal reporting; renewal workflows; and handoff to Memphis’s commercial team for contracting and invoicing. Pricing, inventory caps, rating thresholds, revenue ownership, and any revenue share would be agreed before launch. Sponsor serving and commercial administration are proposed development; native payments are outside this proposal.
Included for every premium sponsor
Their investment.
Their results, in view.
Every premium sponsor would receive secure access to its own analytics dashboard. Let businesses see the exposure, visitor engagement, and planning activity their sponsorship generates—and download a report whenever they need it.
Direct access comes with premium sponsorship.Their business and placements · Their reporting periods · Their downloadable results
Memphis Tourism · Premium partner
Sample barbecue partner
Own-business dashboard preview
Fictional sample data
Attributed to sponsored discovery
Sponsored website referrals
By monthOne business. One view of the activity behind its placement.
Your business across discovery sources
See sponsored activity separately from ordinary directory and planner discovery.
| Discovery source | Profile views | Website clickouts | Added to plans | Saved places |
|---|
The cards and cost measures above isolate sponsored-discovery activity. These are recorded actions, not unique visitors, confirmed bookings, purchases, or incremental revenue. Production reporting would show missing attribution and data coverage explicitly.
A login for every premium sponsor.
Give authorized business users their own dashboard, date filters, placement performance, and exports as part of their premium sponsorship.
A clear reason to keep investing.
Support renewal conversations with the business’s actual recorded exposure and engagement. Compare like-for-like periods using agreed definitions.
The right view for each audience.
Sponsors see only their own business. Memphis Tourism keeps the destination-wide view for management and board reporting. Visitor guest lists and personal planning details stay private.
See the Memphis Tourism board viewProposed Memphis sponsor portal. This interactive preview uses one fictional business and sample figures; it is not an authenticated sponsor account. Sponsor access controls, placement tracking, event attribution, and reporting definitions are part of the sponsorship delivery.
Track the journey. Show the value.
Show your board
where the interest goes.
Track every link across the custom Memphis experience, then show which businesses receive referrals, additions to plans, and saved-place activity. A private analytics backend gives your team and board a clear view of the value being created.
Included in the core Memphis scopePrivate team dashboard · business-level reporting · board summaries · data exports
Every link tracked.
Every partner visible.
Every link across the custom Welcome Engine experience is included in the measurement plan—from directory listings and saved itineraries to business websites, directions, menus, ticket links, and event or vendor referrals.
Which businessWhich linkWhich placementWhich action
Show Memphis and each premium sponsor where visitor interest turns into a business referral.
Tracking covers interactions within the delivered experience. Reports account for consent choices, blocked or missing events, and data coverage; activity after a visitor leaves requires additional integrations.Understand where
visitors go next.
A planned Placer.ai integration would bring aggregate visitation insights alongside Welcome Engine’s tracked engagement—giving Memphis a fuller picture of where people go throughout the destination.
Where do they go?Visitation trends across attractions, districts, and participating business locations.
Where do they come from?Visitor origin markets and changes across comparable periods.
What happens around an event?Patterns in visit duration and visits to surrounding businesses.
Bring digital interest and physical visitation patterns into the same board conversation.
Future phase, subject to Placer.ai licensing, permitted data access, location coverage, and integration scope. Aggregate estimates would not identify individual Welcome Engine users or prove that a specific click caused a visit or sale. Sponsor access to Placer-derived insights would depend on permitted sharing rights.Explore Placer.ai’s tourism and event insights ↗Memphis Tourism
Business engagement
Custom analytics backend concept
Illustrative sample data
Sample reporting view
America/ChicagoWhere website clickouts go
By categoryBusiness-level activity
Fictional businesses demonstrate the reporting structure.
| Business / neighborhood | Profile views | Website clickouts | Added to plans | Saved places |
|---|
These are recorded actions, not confirmed visits, purchases, bookings, or unique people. A business can appear in multiple plans; adding it to a plan is different from saving the whole trip.
One view for leadership
Share period summaries, business activity, category and neighborhood distribution, and the next questions for your team.
Direct access for premium sponsors
Every premium sponsor gets secure access to its own exposure, engagement, clickouts, and planning activity, with period filters and downloadable reports. Memphis retains the destination-wide view.
A clearer picture of planning
Include destination-wide plans created and saved, return use, sharing, and business-level additions. Keep each definition visible.
How we would make the reporting board-ready
Define the action
Website clickouts are tracked outbound actions. Added to plans counts listing additions, not distinct trips. Saved places counts listing saves. Profile views records opening business details. Report unique saved plans separately where trip identifiers support it.
Keep the numbers comparable
Agree the reporting period and time zone, visitor-consent handling, duplicate suppression, staff and bot exclusions, and source coverage. Reconcile tracked redirects and planner events so the same click is not counted twice.
Separate contribution from conversion
Clicks and planning actions show engagement and referral intent. Confirmed bookings, sales, or economic impact would require additional partner data or attribution agreements. Missing data should stay visible.
Build around Memphis
Role-based access for the team, agreed board-report templates, filtered CSV exports, and Memphis-specific business/category/neighborhood views. Premium-sponsor accounts access only their own business reports and exports; Memphis Tourism retains destination-wide reporting. Scope sponsorship and event attribution with those modules.
The current platform already has tracked outbound links, planner events, per-business activity, and authenticated reporting. The dashboard above is an interactive concept using fictional data; the custom Memphis backend, board format, data mapping, and measurement acceptance are part of the proposed delivery.
A paid custom implementation
Built for Memphis.
Scoped, funded, and delivered.
Memphis funds its custom build through a one-time setup fee, with monthly maintenance for ongoing operation. Agree the scope, investment, payment schedule, and delivery milestones before development begins.
Agree
Define the build and investment
Confirm the custom scope, setup fee, monthly maintenance, payment schedule, and acceptance criteria. Begin development after approval and the agreed initial setup payment.
Build
Make it unmistakably Memphis
Create the Memphis visitor experience and backend around approved local content, directory structure, planning workflows, sponsorships, and reporting in the agreed scope.
Launch
Put your custom experience to work
Review the agreed visitor journeys, validate tracking and reporting, prepare your team, and launch against defined acceptance criteria.
Improve
Measure, maintain, and grow
Use business referrals, planning activity, sponsor results, and board reporting to guide ongoing improvements. Support the agreed service through monthly maintenance; scope and price future additions separately.
Confidence comes from a clear agreement.
Defined acceptance. Brand, content, visitor flows, and reporting agreed before launch.
Visible costs. A setup fee, monthly maintenance, and an agreed payment schedule, with usage, support, and expansion costs made explicit.
A paid kickoff. Development begins once scope and pricing are approved and the agreed initial setup payment is received.
An investment that matches the scope
A custom build.
A setup fee.
Monthly maintenance.
The setup fee funds the custom Memphis implementation. Monthly maintenance covers the agreed ongoing service. Define directory, sponsorship, event, and group capabilities in the initial scope, with later additions quoted separately.
Build and launch your experience
Memphis pays a one-time setup fee for the agreed custom visitor design, private analytics backend, content onboarding, integrations, reporting templates, and launch. Confirm the payment schedule before work starts.
Fee determined by implementation depth.Keep the experience working
Define maintenance, content refresh, tracking health, reporting, and the support level your team needs.
Monthly fee determined by ongoing scope.Discussion scope: personal trips + event-led discovery + consumer group planning.
Pricing drivers: custom design, reporting depth, content volume, directory depth, sponsor operations, rating sources, integration complexity, event freshness, organizer permissions, usage, and support. Agree provider-usage allowances, overages, and service commitments before launch.
Commercial structure for discussion. No dollar amounts, discounts, contract term, or delivery dates are committed in this proposal.
Make the opportunity measurable
What could more
visitor action look like?
Explore a scenario using your own assumptions. These are calculated planning actions, not a traffic forecast, guaranteed lift, bookings, or revenue.
Illustrative monthly actions
2,500planner starts
750saved plans
625starts with a partner handoff
Saved plans and partner handoffs can overlap. These are not unique people or incremental outcomes.
See the math and proposed performance scorecard
Starts = eligible sessions × start rate. Saves = starts × save rate. Handoffs = starts × partner-click rate. All rates above are editable assumptions; Memphis traffic and baseline conversion data have not been supplied.
Proposed scorecard: eligible sessions → planner starts → itinerary saves → return use → partner clicks. Track group-brief completion and qualified inquiries only when the group module launches. Agree deduplication, consent, event definitions, and a baseline or controlled test before making any claims about lift.
Research, scope, and creative credits
Built on what Memphis already does well
Reviewed October 24, 2026: the homepage, personalized quiz, planning hub, events calendar, reunion services, RFP handoff, and Beale Street guide.
This review found substantial planning content and a personalized quiz. It did not establish an existing unified save/edit/share trip workspace. That is an opportunity to validate together, not a claim that every possible site flow was tested.
What is a concept here
The current Welcome Engine foundation supports listing and approved-knowledge discovery, itineraries, saves, sharing, exports, and branded embedding. Memphis onboarding and launch acceptance would still be required. The proposal includes a custom Memphis visitor platform and private analytics backend with board-ready reporting and direct own-business analytics access for every premium sponsor; exact design, integrations, and measurement definitions follow discovery. The proposed Memphis delivery includes event discovery, consumer organizer workspaces, and qualified sponsorship operations. DeSoto and hosted-platform captures are references to prior work. They do not represent the custom Memphis design or a deployed Memphis tenant.
This demonstration uses local sample data. It does not offer bookings, payments, live availability, ticket sales, or voice. Exact dates, price, service levels, and integrations are subject to an agreed scope.
Memphis identity & photography
Observed website colors: blue #004A88, turquoise #63CCCA, plum #5F295F, and gold #F5C65D. Fonts: Montserrat and Roboto Slab. These reflect the website, not a supplied brand manual.
Memphis logo and reference photographs belong to their respective owners. Beale Street: Craig Thompson. Mempho: Alex Shansky. Stax family: The Traveling Child. Additional official source imagery: riverfront—Julian Harper (source filename); Mempho aerial—Isaac Russel / Disciple Photo; Beale gathering—Alex Shansky; Botanic Garden—Craig Thompson; Gus’s tabletop—Alex Shansky; Bar-B-Q Shop owner with ribs—photographer not supplied. Used in this private proposal concept; public reuse permissions remain to be confirmed.