It’s Touching: Introducing Touch Screen to Downtown Grinnell

Over at REMAX Partners Realty - Grinnell, Chief Technical Officer Jess Dawson can do it all — drone photography, website development, T-shirt presses, you name it. But her most recent and newly revamped project? A touch screen television in the front window of the RE/MAX building on Main Street.

The storefront touch screen has been around for five years, highlighting the RE/MAX website and its listings of beautiful houses. But once the website’s company went out of business during the pandemic, the software died right with it. RE/MAX’s owner, broker, and agent Matt Karjalahti challenged Jess to innovate and recreate the touch screen.

With her technical and creative skills, Dawson masterminded a brand new configuration. “I specifically designed it to be touch screen friendly so people can interact with it,” shrugged Dawson. “In college, I was going to major in computer science, but then pivoted to graphic design and marketing. So I had those IT skills along with my creative ones to help with this project. Matt calls me his little pocket ninja unicorn,” Jess laughs.

So naturally, Jess started thinking bigger, as she does with all her projects — why not add information the community might need to the touch screen? “I saw the kiosk at the Grinnell Chamber running a stream of community event graphics, and so I thought I could fit those onto our screen, too.”

You might be familiar with the Grinnell Chamber Community Calendar weekly event series, even if you haven’t seen them directly on the Chamber kiosk. Every Monday, the Grinnell Chamber releases a slideshow (also known as Facebook and Instagram stories) with details of member events happening Monday through Friday in Grinnell.

“So I reached out to Yesenia [marketing coordinator> about it and the Chamber became the test subject for this vision. Now, Yesenia sends me the movie clip and JPG files of the events every week and I get them uploaded on our screen.”

With the screen outdoors, Jess began building big plans. “I’ve obviously worked with Yesenia already to upload the Chamber’s holiday events and advertisements on our screen, but I’ve started working with the City of Grinnell to see if we could also put up emergency announcements.”

The goal? To become an information hub of Grinnell community events — oh, and promote RE/MAX’s listings, too.

In the near future, Dawson plans to improve the screen’s functionality and have a way to scroll through the event calendar and avoid waiting for a missed slide. Plus, she’s hoping to incorporate some advertising for local businesses with an exciting twist — when you click an advertisement, it would lead you straight to their website.

If a business is interested in replicating this into a similar community tool, contact Dawson or Karjalahti at (641) 236-6683! “A standard TV screen is fairly low cost. Once you upload the designs and graphics, either you or RE/MAX can help run it.” The touch screen is supported by a back end that Dawson built herself. “If you can run Canva, you can use this!”

Chamber Ambassadors from left to right:

• Dan McCue — McCue & Associates LLC - American Family Insurance
• Blake Pearson — Converge Chiropractic PLLC
• Jennifer McAlexander — JM Consulting & Hawkeye Lock & Security
• Dedee Lehman — All In Real Estate Inc.
• Trent Arment — MCG - Mahaska Communication Group
• Jess Dawson — REMAX Partners Realty- Grinnell
• Nicolle Donnelly — Poweshiek Insurance Agency
• Fran Conn
• Nikki Armstead — Grinnell Chamber
• Monica St. Angelo — Grinnell Area Arts Council
• Yesenia Mozo — Grinnell Chamber
• Claire Burch — Temp Associates Grinnell
• Erin Bustin — Grinnell School of Music