Louise Meek

I’m Louise Meek, an entrepreneur and founder of Public Access Consulting (PAC), an early stage startup that leverages Wi-Fi hotspots in cities to run market research.

Our business mandate is to unlock valuable data and insights, using Wi-Fi hotspots, to conduct digital research and collect big data on cities and city residents.

We do this in one of two ways:

1. The installation of isabelo™ smart benches

isabelo™ smart bench technology is the first of its kind in Africa. We have created a smart bench, called isabelo™ that is solar powered and Wi-Fi enabled. We place the isabelo™ smart bench in public spaces in African cities. Clients are then able to conduct low cost per contact, location specific research, using the isabelo™ smart bench as a connection point to a user-base of city residents that regularly return to isabelo™ for connectivity.

2. Commercialize existing client-owned Wi-Fi infrastructure

We are also able to leverage existing client-owned Wi-Fi networks by providing the research software that can ‘piggy back’ off their Wi-Fi active portals, allowing a wealth of consumer insights to be unlocked and commercialized as a result.

Public Access Consulting ties together my passion for consumer insights, my love for urban renewal and my belief that if we start using people-centric design in city planning, we can unlock new creative ways of thinking about the challenges of urbanization and climate change on our cities.

For the last 6 years I have worked as a marketing professional, with some of the world’s largest FMCG brands across Africa. In early 2015, I started a part time Master of Philosophy in Urban Infrastructure, Design and Management through the Engineering Department at the University of Cape Town, where I intend to bring a people-centered approach to urban management in African cities.

Public Access Consulting is the big data collection network we need in African cities in order to bring greater knowledge and insights to African decision-makers.

Read more about us here: https://hashtagpublicaccess.wordpress.com