City-Parish President Joey Durel is expected to sign a contract this week with a new consultant and marketing specialist tasked with helping the city raise its profile in the tech community. Last week, Lafayette Consolidated Government’s Professional Services Review Committee approved Geoff Daily for the position. Daily was the only applicant for the specialized one-year contract. Daily is a DC-based technology journalist and broadband activist who writes the technology blog App-Rising.com, which “covers the intersection of broadband networks, applications, and policy.” Daily also serves as co-chair of the Implementation Working Group for the U.S. Broadband Coalition and as executive director of the Rural Fiber Alliance. For the past few years, Daily has reported on the progress of Lafayette Utilities System’s fiber to the home project and last year he helped organize the CampFiber conference.
We’re still awaiting a copy of the contract, but according to the professional services review committee agenda, LCG’s annual cost should be about $24,000. In a recent e-mail, LCG Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley said the funding would be split between LUS Fiber and the city-parish general fund. The deal comes on top of a $12,000 one-year contract Daily signed with the Lafayette Economic Development Authority in April. Stanley writes Daily’s duties will include “helping Lafayette position its unique assets (Fiber, UL, etc.) to attract a greater level of attention of high tech companies, encouraging expansion of such companies in Lafayette” and “helping LUS Fiber remain engaged in the numerous world-wide discussions of the progressive possibilities for the major bandwidth we are installing.” Lafayette Utilities System Director Terry Huval adds Daily will consult on the creation of fiber-centric marketing materials for the city of Lafayette and work on recruiting applications developers for the fiber network.