McKinney Economic Development Corporation staff on Feb. 18, 2025 previewed a busy spring of sporting events and tourism activity, described a new interactive projects dashboard and innovation fund activity, and announced the upcoming departure of Mike Wilkes, who has managed the city's innovation fund.

Luke Gajari, MEDC marketing and social media manager, told the board the PPA Texas Open professional pickleball tournament will be held March 12–16 at the courts in McKinney with an expected 1,500 players and as many as 3,000 spectators over the weekend; the event will be nationally televised. Gajari also previewed the International Girls Cup of McKinney (April 16–20) at Craig Ranch soccer complex, which staff said could host between 200 and 250 teams including international entrants, plus a kickoff event at Tubbs Brewery. He said tickets and a resident discount code are available via event sites and MEDC social channels. Staff also mentioned the CJ Cup Byron Nelson golf event immediately following those tournaments.

On innovation and economic development pipeline matters, Senior Vice President Michael Talley and staff previewed a new interactive projects funnel dashboard that will display leads, active projects, projects in legal review and capital investment and job metrics. Talley said the dashboard will have both public-facing and more detailed internal versions and that staff plan to provide board access so members can view updated metrics in real time.

Staff reported 28 total projects in the pipeline with seven classified as leads; Talley highlighted that one project in the top tier represents more than $500 million in potential capital investment at the lowest bar shown on the public slide deck. The MEDC innovation fund logged 11 applications in January, eight screened and one approved by the committee as the first innovation fund approval for 2025.

Staff announced that Michael (Mike) Wilkes, who ran the innovation fund for more than a year, will leave MEDC; his last day is Feb. 27. Staff said Wilkes will continue to work from the Plug and Play office downtown on a weekly basis following his departure. Staff also recognized Eric Rodriguez, the new analyst, for building a data warehouse to support the dashboard and thanked Wilkes for his work growing the innovation fund network.

Marketing metrics presented by Gajari showed strong web engagement and a notable LinkedIn increase after a sponsored appearance at a Dallas Meetup event. Staff noted targeted outreach to higher-cost-of-living areas such as parts of California where the top five visitor sites to MEDC job pages were located.

Staff asked the board to expect more detailed project and innovation dashboards in executive session and regular meetings; no formal board action was recorded on event hosting or the dashboard at this meeting.