The right hall for every free coding evening

The challenge

Each term she rents community halls for free taster evenings. She picks them on instinct. Last spring, three evenings drew four people each, and one hall sat next to a big training school already running the same course.

How the flow works

With xMap Flows, Julie built Heron. Heron is an AI employee: a flow of 7 blocks.

1. At the start of each term,

   Start of each term (Schedule)

2. for twenty halls she can rent,

   Twenty halls to rent (My data)

3. Heron counts the working age adults nearby,

   Adults within 2 km (Demographics)

4. counts the training schools close by,

   Training schools nearby (Nearby places)

5. works out the adults for each school,

   Adults per school (Calculated field)

6. keeps the best five halls,

   Best five halls (Sort and limit)

7. and emails her the list.

   This term’s halls (Email)

What it solves

• Halls picked on instinct: solved by Demographics and Sort and limit
• Four people a night: solved by Demographics and Calculated field
• Rivals next door: solved by Nearby places and Calculated field

The result

This term, Heron picked five halls with the most working age adults and the fewest training schools nearby. Every evening was full. Twenty two people signed up for her spring course.

Julie stopped guessing where to teach. Now the rooms are full before she arrives.

An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.

The flow, block by block

1. 1

   Start of each term

   Schedule

   Starts the flow on a timetable.

2. 2

   Twenty halls to rent

   My data

   Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.

3. 3

   Adults within 2 km

   Demographics

   Who lives in an area: the number of residents, men and women, and nine age groups, from xMap’s population grid (hexagons of about 0.1 km², about 100 countries).

4. 4

   Training schools nearby

   Nearby places

   Places around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.

5. 5

   Adults per school

   Calculated field

   Adds fields worked out from the others: a number, a text or a yes/no.

6. 6

   Best five halls

   Sort and limit

   Puts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.

7. 7

   This term’s halls

   Email

   Sends one email per run with all the items, or one email per item.

Templates to build it

Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.

• Competitor density around each sitePeople per competitor around each of your sites, ranked.
• Branch network review: which branches the area needsA monthly review of which branches their area needs, with a note for the committee.
• Villages with no health centre nearbyVillages with no health care within 5 km, for the mobile clinic.
• Districts with no pharmacy close byBlocks with many people and few pharmacies, ranked.
• Where young adults lack mental health careBlocks with many young adults and few mental health services.
• Neighbourhoods with many people and few notariesWhere many people live far from a notary, block by block.

Industries

Learn how it works

• How to score candidate store sitesCompare sites on residents, competitors and neighbours, with an AI score and a reason.
• Location intelligenceUsing where things are, and what is around them, to make business decisions.
• Catchment areaThe area a store or service draws its customers from.
• Ask the map a questionHow many of a kind of place, how many people for each, and where the gaps are, answered on the spot.
• Count what is around each of your placesCompetitors, footfall magnets or services within a distance of each site.
• Compare sites side by sideTwo or three spots measured the same way, one column each, the best of every row marked and the best site and why.

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