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Home My WebLink About2009-05-21 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, May 21, 2009 — 11:30 a.m. Wallis Building Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. OLD BUSINESS A. VISITOR SHUTTLE UPDATE B. CVB HEADQUARTER COMPLEX UPDATE IV. NEW BUSINESS A. BUDGET 09-10 B. SUMMERBLAST V. SALES & MARKETING REPORT A. PLAN YOUR MEETINGS B. DFWAE C. NY MIX (kw D. SPRINGTIME, D.C. E. 2009 REJUVENATE ADVISORY BOARD COUNCIL F. NY SALES MISSION G. TEXAS TRAVEL COUNSELORS CONFERENCE H. HOUSTON SALES MISSION I. NEW VINTAGE FAMS VI. HOTELS /ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES A. HOTEL UPDATES B. ATTRACTION UPDATES VII. FESTIVAL & EVENTS REPORT A. MAIN STREET DAYS REPORT VIII. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT IX. LIAISON UPDATES A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES 1. ADVOCACY AWARDS 2. MEMBERSHIP DRIVE 3. EDITH'S FOLLIES B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTIVITIES X. ADJOURNMENT State of Texas ,. County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Steve Stinson Chairman Ev Barnes Board Member LuAnn Chapman Gatts Board Member John Imaizumi Board Member Chris Leighton Board Member Paul Slechta Board Member Bill Streidl Board Member Sharron Spencer Council Liaison Pat Stinson Heritage Foundation Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Cor ABSENT: Andrew Davidson Board Member Terri Shimmel Board Member Jennifer Hibbs Assistant City Manager Tom Kormondy Chamber Liaison CALL TO ORDER Chairman Stinson called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the April 23, 2009 meeting was made by Ev Barnes and seconded by Chris Leighton. Motion carried. OLD BUSINESS Visitor Shuttle Update Mr. Kakos reported that last Tuesday council approved the lease/purchase of 4 coaches to be used for the shuttle system. We are proceeding with the hiring of drivers, ticketing system, and signage. We expect to know the delivery date for the coaches by the end of this week and will then be able to give the timeframe for a start date. L Board of Directors Meeting May 21, 2009 Page 2 of 4 OLD BUSINESS cont. CVB Headquarter Complex Update Mr. McCallum reported that last Tuesday council approved Architexas as the architect for the project. Architexas has done the Wallis, City Hall, and Palace. Of the 19 firms who responded to the RFQ we narrowed the group to six and after an interview process came to Architexas. On the Construction Manager at Risk we are in the negotiation stage with our first choice. We should know by the end of the week if we can then take this to council or move on to the next choice. We hope to bring the CMAR before council at the June 2nd meeting. NEW BUSINESS Budget 09-10 Eloise Koehn reported that we are in the budget process along with the rest of the city and that we are looking to reduce the budget while maintaining all sales and marketing programs. We will look to make cuts in other areas in order to have a "Make Ends Meet" budget. The first draft is due tomorrow followed by departmental hearings with the city manager. The budget will be submitted to council in July and adopted by council on September 15th. We will do a mid-year review with the possibility of readjusting the budget at that time. SUMMERBLAST Mr. McCallum reported that we are working on a staycation program which is named SummerBlast. It will include 16 weeks of Friday night fireworks and promotes all the other activities available in Grapevine. It will also promote hotel summer packages. The program will be marketed through the web site, brochures, ads, and a 30-second television commercial. Promotion will start the latter part of next week. We have a multi-year commitment to this program. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that the convention sales team produced 15 leads representing 18,415 potential room nights, seven for 2009; and assisted with ten definite bookings representing 4,608 room nights, eight for 2009. They conducted seven national and two local site inspections. Staff participated in Plan Your Meetings Tradeshow in Austin and met with 15 planners and produced 3 potential leads. Staff participated in New York Mix Tradeshow and Conference where they met with 29 planners and produced two leads. Staff participated in Dallas/Fort Worth Association Executives Association Day meeting with six planners from the DFW area. Staff produced a New Vintage fam for 11 local planners and guest and are working on a number of potential short term leads. Staff participated in Springtime Tradeshow in Washington, D.C. where we joined forces with seven other Texas bureaus and had a total of 285 planners visit the booth and received four RFPs. And finally, Bruce Dalton was invited to be a part of an advisory committee to Rejuvenate Marketplace to explore ways to improve their tradeshow. Board of Directors Meeting May 21, 2009 Page 3 of 4 SALES AND MARKETING REPORT cont. Tourism sales produced seven leads representing 240 potential room nights and 315 delegates. They assisted with three definite bookings representing 106 room nights and 120 delegates and conducted one site inspection. Staff conducted a Houston sales mission making 13 sales calls on AAA offices as well as travel agents promoting staycations and SummerBlast. Staff participated in Texas Travel Counselors Conference where they hosted a breakfast for 92 travel counselors. They also hosted a booth at the tradeshow. Destination Services provided information and registration assistance to nine groups representing almost 16,000 delegates. They distributed almost 76,000 brochures during the month and welcomed over 20,000 guests to the Visitor Information Center and mailed over 13,000 information packets as follow up to requests. The Convention Center booked 19 future groups representing 8,308 attendees and hosted 46 events with $44,963 in total sales. The Palace Arts Center booked nine future groups representing 3,000 attendees with total sales for the month of$20,268. ,, The web site traffic for April was 94,454 unique visitors with over four million hits. The total number of email subscribers to our monthly newsletter is just under 39,000. $163,000 was spent on group and leisure advertising and public relations generated was $179,443. FESTIALS & EVENTS REPORT Main Street Days Report Mr. McCallum reported that while attendance at Main Street Days was up on both Friday and Sunday, the weather on Saturday caused the overall attendance to drop to 94,955. The 25th Annual Main Street Days had a great layout and several new activities. The weigh-in between Luis Calderon and myself raised over $18,000 for the hospital and Rotary school projects. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT Mr. McCallum reported that the Grapevine Vintage Railroad carried 13,419 passengers during the month of April. Caboose 1 has been air-conditioned and FRA approved. They are selling children's birthday parties and small groups. The new piston is built for engine 2248 and they will be here next week to set the rings and do some cylinder work. We hope to have 2248 back in service by mid summer. Revenues for the train are up but so are expenses. L L Board of Directors Meeting May 21, 2009 Page 4 of 4 HOTELS / ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES • The Dallas Convention Center hotel referendum passed. • Michelle Fuentes is the new director of sales at Super 8. • Bella Butterflies has opened on W. Worth Street and sells children's & women's apparel and home decor. • Vignettes has opened in the former Teddy Bear store and sells home decor. • The new branding for Arlington is: Arlington, Texas and the Crowd Goes Wild. • Hilton Garden Inn's new opening date is June 3rd LIAISON UPDATES Heritage Foundation Activities Advocacy Awards Pat Stinson reported that Preservation Advocacy awards were presented at council this week to John Beck for the Miles — Chambers House, Sarah and Jason Wright for the Millican House, Faith Christian School for the GHS Band Hall and Homemaking Cottage, Jackie and Vick Cox for their residence on East Texas Street, to Grapevine Masonic Lodge for their lodge building, and a special award for Mary Virginia Simmons presented to her son for her support of historic preservation. Membership Drive Ms. Stinson shared the new membership drive program and collateral. She encouraged the CVB board members to join the Heritage Foundation if they are not already members. Edith's Follies Edith's Follies III will take place at the Palace Theatre on June 12 and will feature local performers. The theme this year is "Back to Broadway." ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board, Chris Leighton made a motion to adjourn, seconded by John Imaizumi. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: