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Home My WebLink About2012-10-18 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, October 18, 2012 — 8:00 a.m. CVB Headquarters Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF IV. LIAISON UPDATES Cr A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTIVITIES V. OLD BUSINESS A. ICE HOUSE UPDATE B. WEBSITE UPDATE VI. NEW BUSINESS A. MARKETING COMMITTEE UPDATE B. CHRISTMAS CAPITAL OF TEXAS MEDIA C. CLASSIC CHILI COOK-OFF VII. SALES & MARKETING REPORT VIII. HOTELS /ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES IX. ADJOURNMENT State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 8:00 a.m. at the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Headquarters, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Paul Slechta Chairman Tom Cherry Board Member LuAnn Chapman Gatts Board Member John Imaizumi Board Member Lance Marrin Board Member Dennis Roberts Board Member Joe Szymaszek Board Member Dan Weinberger Board Member Sharron Spencer Council Liaison Jacob Miles Heritage Foundation Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Michael Woody Assistant Executive Director Absent: Doug Lawson Chamber Liaison Jennifer Hibbs Assistant City Manager CALL TO ORDER Chairman Slechta called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the September 20, 2012 meeting was made by Dan Weinberger and seconded by Tom Cherry. Motion carried. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF Mr. McCallum introduced new staff members Chris Karpinec, Train Mechanic, and Michael Woody, Assistant Executive Director, to the board. LIAISON UPDATES Heritage Foundation Activities Paul McCallum reported that this Saturday, October 20th will be Fall Round-Up at Nash Farm. The Farmhouse has been decorated and the final Butterfly Flutterby release will take place at the Farm at 1:30 p.m. Staff has launched the farm hands program for those who want to work at the farm. Board of Directors Meeting October 18, 2012 Page 2 of 4 LIAISON UPDATES cont. Heritage Foundation Activities cont. The Candlelight Tour of Homes is scheduled for November 10th from 4 — 7 p.m. The tour will start at Homestead Winery and includes five homes and two businesses. One of the homes is a period infill property. Chamber of Commerce Activities Paul Slechta reminded everyone that the Chamber's 20th Annual Chili Cook Off is November 13th OLD BUSINESS Ice House Update Mr. McCallum reported that the interior of the Arpco Building is being redone in preparation for the Grapevine Historical Society to move into this facility. Hennessey Engineering is designing the façade. Bids were mailed this week to eight area contractors and the project is expected to move forward quickly. The target completion date for the facade is March of 2013. Website Update Michael Woody reported that the web and CRM (Customer Relationship Management or Contact Management Database) project continues to progress. Many of the elements for the home page and the primary and secondary levels of navigation are approved. Staff is finalizing the third and fourth levels of navigation. CRM is the back-end database that houses all of our key information and drives the sales lead distribution to our partners. We will schedule a major data upload to occur probably by end of this month. We're aiming for an early December launch for the CRM and an early 2013 launch for the website. NEW BUSINESS Marketing Committee Update Chairman Slechta reported that the Marketing Committee met on Thursday, October 11th to review the current Marketing Plan as established last year and to discuss the major marketing initiatives for the coming year. Several of our local partners were in attendance including hoteliers (all six full service properties as well as one select service property), a representative from the Historic Downtown Grapevine Association, CVB Board Member Dennis Roberts and CVB Staff. Staff reviewed the Mission Statement, Brand Promise, A SWOT analysis, current convention sales and leisure sales initiatives, and our current marketing and advertising Cao plans. Board of Directors Meeting October 18, 2012 Page 3 of 4 NEW BUSINESS cont. Marketing Committee Update cont. After the review the staff facilitated group discussions related to the various marketing initiatives which led to several opportunities that staff will review for possible inclusion in the 2013 plan. This was a very positive meeting and the conversation verified that CVB staff was on target with the marketing directives and recommendations currently in play and those being considered for 2013. Christmas Capital of Texas Media Fams Mr. McCallum reported that Leigh Lyons, Communications Manager, has developed several media fams for the upcoming month. The Family Travel Conference will take place in Dallas November 9 — 11. Grapevine will be hosting up to 20 of these top-tier travel bloggers for a post conference media fam. Blissful Media Group will be here in November and will do a story focused on Grapevine as a leisure destination for families. Heather Warlick-Moore is editor of the lifestyle section for the Oklahoman and will be here November 23 - 25 in order to get a story our earlier on the Christmas Capital of Texas. Staff will host a Christmas Capital of Texas Media Fam for Texas Highways new editor Jill Lawless. Southern Living will be here in December and will do a Christmas story for 2013. Also, Karen Shaler, ABCNews.com/HuffingtonPost.com will be here in December to do a general destination story. Huffington Post is an online website focusing on lifestyle, politics, travel, news and society, with over 30 million unique visitors per month. Classic Chili Cook-Off Paul Slechta stated that the CVB Board will make a return visit this year to the Classic Chili Cook-Off and expect to win. The Chili Cook-Off is November 13th at Classic Chevrolet. Dan Weinberger is in charge of the chili. Councilwoman Spencer wants to ramp up the decorations. The group will set a meeting in the next few days to determine the team name and details. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that during the month of September, Convention Sales produced 24 leads representing 25,225 potential room nights; 19 of which are for 2012 and 2013. They assisted with nine definites representing 8,263 room nights; six for 2012 and 2013. They conducted four site inspections and hosted a luncheon for faith-based meeting planners. Staff participated in the annual meeting for Texas Society of Association Executives in Irving and participated with the Gaylord Texan in hosting nine meeting planners for the Cowboys Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. Tourism sales assisted with 11 definites with 239 room nights, all for 2012. 123,435 brochures were distributed and 12,706 guests were assisted at the Visitor Information Center. Destination Services provided registration and information assistance to 11 groups representing 8,228 delegates. Board of Directors Meeting October 18, 2012 Page 4 of 4 SALES AND MARKETING REPORT cont. The Convention Center had 17 future bookings with 12,603 attendees and total sales of $63,474. The Palace Arts Centre had 15 future bookings with 2,517 attendees and total sales of$21,562. The Concourse had eight future bookings with 1,330 attendees and total sales of$9,648. To date the Grapevine Vintage Railroad has booked 29 schools representing 2,380 passengers for the North Pole Express School runs. There were 172,134 unique visitors to the web site of which 13% used a mobile device to access the website. There were nine convention group ad insertions, 110 on-line ad insertions, 80 consumer print publication ad insertions and 2,286 TV/radio runs. Public relations generated over $120,000 in print, and over $807,000 in electronic for a total public relations value of$927,381. Mr. Kakos shared articles from True West magazine and Metro Family magazine. The Gaylord was once again selected as one of the best large firms to work for in the Metroplex by Dallas Business Journal. HOTELS / ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES • Baymont Inn is now the Comfort Inn and has new ownership. • Courtyard and Town Suites project is scheduled to open in April 2014. • A building permit has been issued for In-N-Out Burger on William D. Tate. • Certificates of Occupancy have been issued to El Pasa Mexican Restaurant, Brandi Renee Designs, Hair Pop, The Rusty Rabbit and Gypsy Muse Studio. • Golf Galaxy, located at Park and Northwest Highway, is having their grand opening. • Giddens Gallery of Fine Art is having their Grand Opening October 26 —28. • Spirit Airlines will expand their service over the next few months. This low cost carrier currently provides service to Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, LA, NY LaGuardia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego and others. They will open a flight attendant and pilot base here next summer. • Ritzi's Restaurant has closed. • Lighting Ceremony for Gaylord is November 8th Adjournment Lu Ann Chapman Gatts made a motion to adjourn seconded by John Imaizumi. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: