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Home My WebLink About2021-11-18 Regular MeetingState of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met in Regular Session on Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. at the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau, 636 S. Main Street, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Joe Szymaszek Mark Terpening Dan Weinberger Chuck Pacioni Cynthia Blankenship Corinna Wenks lain Scouller Debi Meek Sharron Rogers Board Chair Board Vice Chair Board Member Board Member Board Member Board Member Board Member Alternate Board Member Council Liaison Constituting a quorum, with the following liaisons and staff members present: Paul W. McCallum Executive Director Brady Closson Deputy Executive Director Donna Farmer Assistant to the Executive Director CALL TO ORDER Board Chairman Joe Szymaszek called the meeting to order at 8:03 a.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion by Corinna Wenks, seconded by Mark Terpening approved the minutes from the October 21, 2021 meeting and prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Weinberger, Pacioni, Blankenship, Scouller, Meeks and Rogers Nays: None Introduction of New Staff Mr. McCallum introduced staff members new to the CVB since November 2021 Ms. Diana O'Bryan is the new Festivals and Events Administrative Secretary. Mrs. O'Bryan holds her associates degree from TCC. Diana came to us after the pandemic and spending 20 years at Callahan Roach (HVAC) as an Executive Assistant. During her tenor there she was heavily involved in activities, trade shows and events. Additionally, Diana has volunteered for Main Street Fest and GrapeFest along with the Joseph Groh Foundation, Toys for Tots Drive, Dan's Haunted House and Colleyville Heritage High School Marching Band. Board of Directors Meeting November 18, 2021 Page 2 of 4 SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Mr. Brady Closson reported on the Sales Team activities. 87 Sales Leads with 66,242 Potential Room Nights, with a potential economic impact of $34,843,395. 15 Definite bookings, representing 20,931 room nights, with an economic impact of $8,218,624. 8 are in the year for the year, representing 269 room nights. 5 are for 2022, representing 10,513 room nights. The team hosted/participated in six (6) site inspections in October. The team continues to prospecting and data mine with the primary on being through Strategic Database Research (SDR) Team launched the Texas Two -Step campaign, this new promotion incentivizing new business to contract into Grapevine hotels, targeting groups up to 100 on peak, that are meeting in either 2021 or 2022. The incentive is a $5.00 rebate per actualized room night. Incentive runs through November 30, 2021. To date, the campaign has produced 40 leads to stakeholder hotels, representing over 5,200 room nights, and three conversions to definite programs, representing 642 room nights and $450K economic impact. Leisure & International Sales team sourced 3 new leads were sourced and 4 new definite bookings were produced. Heather continuing to coordinate details for the American Bus Association conference that is being held in Grapevine, Texas January 8-12, 2022. This is the third time Grapevine will host this unique, important conference. ABA conference registration continues to lean heavy on the tour operator side, currently with over a 2:1 ratio. An a -blast was sent out to over 2,800 tour operators that are not currently signed up to attend ABA Grapevine, promoting the benefits of attending this great conference. Destination Services team assisted 13 conferences representing 11,977 delegates with information and registration assistance. Potential economic Impact of $11.8M. Brochure distribution in the month of May was approximately 14,775 pieces. Visitor Information Center at Grapevine Main welcomed 5,274 visitors, CVB HQ welcomed 1,351 while Settlement to City Museums welcomed 198 visitors, totaling for the month was 6,823 guests. Grapevine Vintage Railroad continues to gain momentum producing 43 excursions in the month of October. Total passenger count for the month was 12,601. First weekend in October was the second weekend of Day Out With Thomas. Web Site visits for the month exceeded over 356K page views for the month while average time on site was 1:56. Top referring sites continue with Facebook on multiple platforms as well as Grapevine Ticketline, Dfwchild with the landing pages following as we get closer to Christmas Capital of Texas. Public Relations (Earned Media) team distributed 13 Media Releases in October. Print ad value for October had 5 articles run worth over $10K with a circulation/impressions exceeding 1.5M. Radio had 1 story run, a 90 second spot on October 15: Fall Around Grapevine With Bonnie Curry. TV had 4 story's run: SeaLife — Underwater pumpkin Carving (NBC) (WFAA), Butterfly Flutterby 147 second spot on (Fox 4), Great Wolf Lodge Halloween Spider (WFAA). Online placements for October was 56. Stories generated ranged from: Messina Hof wins Awards at LSIWC / Wine Industry Network, Trick or Treat Trains / Culturemap — Fort Worth, Veterans Day Parade / Community Impact Newspaper, 25 Best Christmas Towns, Grapevine / Green Global Travel, Fall Round Up / DFW Child, Butterfly Flutterby / The Austin Chronicle / Texas Highways, Texas Wine Month in Grapevine / Southlake Style Magazine. Board of Directors Meeting November 18, 2021 Page 3 of 4 Mr. Daniel Horsch briefed the Board on the (CCOT) Christmas Capital of Texas campaign for Grapevine and the strategy. He indicated that both traditional and non-traditional program TV, Radio, digital, podcast and streaming channels to build awareness, engagement, visitation to result in "heads in beds" and registers ringing. Daniel described the geographical targeting areas and the strategy in adjusting market drive. This was followed by the actual 15 sec and 30 sec video spots with the explanation of the intentional use of different vocals. Mr. Horsch continued sharing additional marketing plan details during the 2021 CCOT and the excitement of bringing in social media influencers and what that means for Grapevine/CCOT. The reach of these three social media influences alone is over 700K followers. Daniel wrapped up his briefing with a video of the live Christmas tree install at Peace Plaza. Several members of the Board shared their excitement of both the Christmas tree install and the new marketing campaign plan. Conversations continued regarding the possibility of airport campaigning along with other target market opportunities. ONGOING BUSINESS Mr. Brady Closson reported on the sales teams, Tanja Nichols and Heather Egan, two most recent missions participating in the IMEX America exhibition held in Las Vegas in early November. IMEX stands for the world-wide exhibition for Incentives Travel Meetings and Events. This event is the single largest taking place in North America with traditionally 12K attendees. We participated with the Team Texas booth with the following cities: Galveston, Fort Worth, Houston, El Paso and Arlington. Over the 4-day tradeshow the team conducted over 42 appointments (21 each) with targeted meeting planners along with 3 client dinners all promoting Grapevine and stakeholder hotels. The team returned with 3 RFP's which included Sunbelt Rentals for December 2021, 30 rooms, 100-150 attendees at various hotels; Master Class for Oncologists for October 2022, 302 room nights/hotel TBD; Pro -Net lead was also received for Fall 2023, 150-200 attendees, 300 room nights. The unique piece about this is while all of these are 2021, 2022 and 2023 they are all within the 300 rooms so they can go to all stakeholder hotels for consideration. The second piece is not all stakeholder hotels are able to go to these shows for one reason or another allowing locations to source opportunities otherwise they would not be able to do. Mr. Brady Closson briefly recapped the ButterFly FlutterBy event held in October. He described how the event started with Mayor Tate approaching PW McCallum and the need to have a community eccentric event. This year we produced the 24th Annual with the traditional 3 butterfly releases over 2500 visitors at the Botanical Gardens, 775 butterflies released and picked up by multiple TV stations. Nash Farm Fall Roundup also held an art dedication for Choppin Cotton, a tribute to the early lifestyles on the Grapevine Prairie with over 2000 in attendance. Giving the City of Grapevine confirmation that some normalcy is returning to the market, especially our local market. Hotels / Attractions / Activities Mr. Brady Closson reported on New Crest Image selling 27 of their 30 hotel properties to Summit Hotel properties a Real Estate Investment Trust base out of Austin. This allows them to become the second largest shareholder within Summit Hotel properties but also infused some capital back into New Crest Image. As a result part of the master plan at Silverlake Crossing track was the addition of two new hotel properties one being a 300 Renaissance Hotel and the other being a multiple flag location (AC and Element, lifestyle brands). Board of Directors Meeting November 18, 2021 Page 4 of 4 Mr. Closson commended Legoland Discovery Center for the ribbon cutting of the new Retail Space last week; the 1 st in the world to be re-concepted. The space is very interactive and offers many additional features. Hop and Sting brewery was named 2021 Best Brewery in DFW by Dallas Morning News. Mr. McCallum briefed the Board on additional activities which included the Carol of Lights, Christmas Parade; we are also hosting the Sister Cities representatives from West Lothian Scotland, Provost Kerr and his wife Marilyn, Counselor Kennedy and his wife. He also provided information on the new live Christmas tree at the Plaza along with the drone show at Hotel VIN 12/11 & 12/18 through the generosity of the Coury Hospital organization in conjunction with the Victorian Carolers. Mr. McCallum also updated the Board on the discussion with the Facilities Committee regarding the renovation of the concourse. He explained the presentation to the committee for the renovation and expansion request made to the committee further noting additional more details / explanation is needed but wanted to bring the idea to the Boards' attention. There being no further business to come before the Board a motion by Vice Chairman Terpening, seconded by Corinna Wenks to adjourn the meeting at 9:05a.m. prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Joe Szymaszek, Dan Weinberger, Chuck Pacioni, Cynthia Blankenship, lain Scouller, Debi Meek, Sharron Rogers Nays: None PASSED AND APPROVED BY THE GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS ON THIS 14th DAY OF DECEMBER, 2021. APPROVED: Joe asze Chai In E.c Donna Assistant to the Executive Uirector