Non-English speaking populations present challenges for city governments

By Mike Switzer

Published October 13, 2023 at 6:30 AM EDT

Mike Switzer, host of the South Carolina Business Review — SC Business Review

Several years ago, we interviewed our next guest about a chatbot service his company had developed to help residents communicate with their local governments about various issues, such as potholes. Now they have added a multilingual version because many cities are finding that their non-English speaking population is on the rise. Mike Switzer interviews Bratton Riley, cofounder and CEO of Citibot in Charleston, S.C.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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