Park City Chamber and Visitors Bureau utilized the PCCAPS program to help teach students real-life business scenarios for its upcoming Mobile Information Center. Photo: Park City Education Foundation.

PARK CITY, Utah — A mobile information center was but a glimmer in the eye of the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau. To bring this concept to life, it was brought to none other than…high school students—specifically, Park City High School’s Centers for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) program.

CAPS is an elective available to 11th- and 12th-grade students to develop “success skills” by working on real-world projects for actual businesses and organizations, from coding to health sciences.

The Mobile Information Center project took place during the students’ second half of the school year, January through May, with the final presentation on May 23.

“The Park City Chamber had the concept of developing the mobile information center and went to CAPS with the basic concept,” said VP of Partner Services for PCCVB Scott House. “The CAPS team took that concept and helped us develop a budget, select the best vehicle platform, design the interior and other aspects of the vehicle to suit our needs, and develop a graphic to represent our brand.

House and the team gave PCHS students opportunities for real-life business experience in conceptualizing the mobile information center for Park City.

This isn’t the first time the Park City Chamber has worked with the CAPS program; they’ve collaborated on multiple projects. Last year, PCCAPS conducted a greenhouse gas assessment of the Chamber. For every cohort, the Chamber meets internally to discuss possible projects to work with the PCCAPS program.

“We feel the PCCAPS team put us on the path to developing a truly unique tool we can deploy throughout the year and the Wasatch Back that will allow us to share valuable information and education around local business, sustainability, things to do, and tips for being a more sustainable visitor and resident,” House said.

The students were broken out into three teams. The engineering team selected the vehicle platform and designed its modifications to suit the Chamber’s needs and ideas. A design team created a graphic wrap for the vehicle, incorporating Park City’s ridgeline. The business team acted as project managers and identified where to source the vehicle and its modifications.

The engineering team based its designs on a food truck with a window and screens displayed. The mobile information center will be piloted by a staff member on-site to answer any questions and provide information. An awning for the vehicle was included in the designs as well for fair weather. They even left space on the rear doors for QR codes that could be switched out depending on season and initiative.

“The program was incredibly valuable for everyone involved. From our end, we got a great baseline to work toward developing our mobile information center. From design, budget, and graphics, the CAPS team provided us with a great roadmap to develop this asset in the future. It was an incredible opportunity to mentor the CAPS participants and help them work through the challenges we faced collectively. Truly an awesome experience to help some talented young individuals grow.”

Now, the project is in the hands of Morgan Mingle, Director of Sustainable Tourism for PCCVB. She said they anticipate active development to begin this fall, with a launch in around 12-18 months following.