The City of Early unveiled its new QR code sign on Thursday morning with a ceremony at Early City Hall. The event was led by Dr. Robert Mangrum, Mayor of the City of Early. Members of the community along with chamber members and public servants came out to see the unveiling of the sign that will offer a different way to access visitor information online. He presented the community with the benefits of the QR codes, and introduced Larry Bartley, who was responsible for coming up with the idea for the sign.

Larry Bartley, of Image1Plus, has been researching this idea for a couple years and is the one who brought it forward to the city council about 6-8 months ago. Since then, the city has been working on the project, and has enlisted help from several community groups. Jason McKibben’s FFA class of 2011-2012 from Early High School made the frame structure for the sign. The EHS Gifted and Talented students are the authors of “Things to do and see in Early, TX” which compiled information for the website which is displayed after scanning the code. Bartley designed the sign and Willie’s T's created it.

Anyone can use the QR codes by downloading the free QR code reader on their smart phone or tablet. Once the application has been installed, users and open the app and scan the code. The code will direct users to the website with visitor information. The sign has 6 different QR codes. One for the main website and 5 others including Where to Eat, Where to Stay, What to See, About our Lake and General Info.

Bartley said that anyone can access the website without a QR code by visiting www.earlytx.org.

“One of the main things to remember on this is that you don’t have to have a QR code to access all the information, just go to the webpage,” Bartley states. “You get the same thing on any device, it is smart enough to know whether you are on a cell phone, tablet, or iPad and, it delivers more of a full size experience on a tablet.”

Pictured above are attendees at the unveiling and the sign.  Below are more photos of the event.

The QR Code Visitors Information Sign

Larry Bartley and Mayor Mangrum pictured above with the sign.