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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-07-15 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION&VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, July 15, 2021 —8:00 a.m. CVB Headquarters 636 S. Main Street Grapevine, Texas AGENDA 1. Call to Order 2. Citizen Comments Any person who -is not scheduled on the agenda may address the Convention & Visitors Bureau. Board under Citizen Comments or on any other agenda item by completing a Citizen Appearance Request form with staff. A member of the public may address the CVBB regarding an item on the agenda either before or during the Board's consideration of the.item,, upon being recognized by the Board Chair or upon consent of the CVBB. In accordance with the Texas Open.Meetings Act, the CVBB is restricted in discussing or taking action during Citizen Comments. 3. Approval of Minutes 4. Sales&Marketing Report 5. Ongoing Business A. MPI wEC Vegas Recap B. HelmsBriscoe ABC Recap C. GrapeFest Update 6. New Business A. Observation Tower Operational Options 7. Hotels I Attractions l Activities 8. Adjournment If you plan to attend this special public meeting and have a disability that requires special arrangements at the meeting, please contact the. Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau at (817) 410-3185 at least 24 Hours in advance of the meeting. Reasonable acconunodations will be made to assist your needs, In accordance with Texas Government Code, Chapter 5 51.001 et seq, Acts of the 1993 Texas Legislature, the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Advisory BoardMeeting agenda was prepared and posted on this the 9th day of July, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. ,r r D. nna Farmer Assistant t the Executive Director F State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention &Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met in Regular Session on Thursday, July 15, 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 Board Chair Mark Terpening Board Vice Chair Dan Weinberger Board Member Chuck Pacioni Board Member Cynthia Blankenship Board Member Corinna Wenks Board Member Debi Meek Alternate Board Member Sharron Rogers 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 Absent: lain Scouller Board Member CALL TO ORDER Board Chairman Joe Szymaszek called the meeting to order at 8:04 a.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion by Dan Weinberger, seconded by Corinna Wenks approved the minutes from the June 17, 2021 meeting and prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Terpening, Pacioni, Blankenship, Meek and Rogers Nays: None SALES AND MARKETING REPORT 8:16am Mr. Brady Closson reported in June 2021 the Sales team generated 76 Sales Leads with 63,455 Potential Room Nights, with a potential economic impact of$30,093,335. 23 Definite bookings, representing 32,739 room nights, with an economic impact of$13,144,637. 11 are in the year for the year, representing 1,954 room nights; 4 are for 2022, 1 for 2023, 3 for 2024, 2 for 2025 and 2 for 2026; two of those bookings were Love's Travel Stops. The team hosted/participated in seven (7) site inspections in June. Board of Directors Meeting July 15, 2021 Page 2 of 5 Leisure & International Sales team sourced 11 new leads, representing 354 potential room nights, with a potential economic impact of$140,692. 5 new definite bookings, 4 of which are for 2021 business. Mrs. Heather Egan participated in the AAA South Texas Blitz sales mission. Hosting 13 appointments in the following markets: Austin, San Antonio and Houston, all promoting the Summertime in Grapevine campaign. Participated in the final week of American Bus Association (ABA) virtual Marketplace. 11 virtual appointments were conducted over the week, also produced the virtual closing event, showcasing Third Rail at Grapevine Main Station with live music, a Texas twostep lesson. ABA will be hosted in Grapevine, Texas January 8-11, 2022! Destination Services Assisted 7 conferences representing 10,794 delegates with information and registration assistance. Potential economic Impact of$7.5M. Brochure distribution in the month of May was approximately 32,525 pieces. Visitor Information Center at Grapevine Main welcomed 5,439 visitors, CVB HQ welcomed 1,274 while Settlement to City Museums welcomed 208 visitors and the Cotton Belt Depot welcomed 1,338. Total for the month was 6,713 guests Grapevine Visitor Shuttle returned to modified service on Friday, June 4, 2021. The service is running Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. /on :30 minute headways. Total ridership for June was 685 guests. One route with two shuttles all complimentary. Grapevine Vintage Railroad produced 29 excursions in the month of June. Total passenger count for the month was 6,212. Web Site Unique Visitors to the website (GrapevineTexasUSA.com) for June totaled 96,954 visits while total visitation to the website was 130,862 with over 284K page views for the month while average time on site was 1:56. Our core/outer Market TV—479 spots/on air mentions, representing 3 hours, 59 minutes and 30 seconds of Summertime in Grapevine promotion! Public Relations (Earned Media) Team distributed 7 Media Releases in June; Print ad value for June had 2 articles run worth over$20K with a circulation/impressions exceeding 597K. TV/Radio had 1 story run with an audience of over 1.6M; Patio Paradise with Hannah Davis— Featuring Hop and Sting Brewery. Online placements for June was 29. Stories generated ranged from: o Where to celebrate the Fourth of July in North Texas/ Dallas Observer o Check out these Grapevine date ideas and add some variety to your summer/ Dallas Morning News o Nash Farm's 1920's Ice Cream Social / DFW Child o Texas Wine, Come and Taste It at Grapevine's 35'Annual GrapeFest—A Texas Wine Experience/The Gilmer mirror online o Hot Fun in the Summertime in Grapevine/Fort Worth Key Magazine Mr. Closson provided the Board members with the new/ updated rack cards for review, discussing changes briefly. The Marketing/Communications team hosted a writer from Texas Highways Cynthia Drake who was escorted throughout Grapevine with a curated tour. As a result, Ms. Drake will be working on a feature article to be produced in the November or December issue. In addition, Mr. Drake writes for the AAA Explorer formerly Texas Journey Magazine which we anticipate a feature on Board of Directors Meeting July 15, 2021 Page 3 of 5 Grapevine Main, Harvest Hall to be published in the winter 2021 issue while she is also pitching an additional option for Texas Monthly as well. ONGOING BUSINESS Mr. Closson shared the excitement of the CVB Sales team back out on the road post pandemic recently participating in the 2021 MPI WEC Vegas mission June 14 through 17, providing a recap to the Board. The conference welcomed approximately 1300 in-person attendees with a strong interest in Grapevine resulting in $16,400 in potential revenue booked from the conference. The sales teams hosted several third party meeting planners whom are booked at the Gaylord in 2021. In addition, the sales team participated in over 20 meetings and currently waiting on anticipated RFP's as a result. MPI was a significant partner working with Grapevine to ensure there were additional print material during the 2020 conference while also promoting multiple other touch points. Mr. Closson provided a recap on the Helms Briscoe ABC (Annual Business Conference) held Jun 29 & 30 held in Dallas with 830 attendees; 250 Helms Briscoe associates and 580 suppliers. Attendee numbers indicate that suppliers with staff are getting back out on the road. Codi Missimo and Connie Ash both represented the Convention and Visitors Bureau team at the conference. Mr. Closson provided details of the activates the team participated in during the conference including hosting 26 one-on-one meetings with meeting planners. Future potential bookings from the conference includes a medical device organization out of New York booking for 2022, hosting all doctors with 100 rooms on peak; historically they meet in Austin however they are looking for an alternate City; RFP is expected very soon. The team also meet with a Helms Briscoe representative for State Farm based out of Richardson, looking for DFW airport location; a corporate construction company for a 2023 annual meeting with 900-1200 attendees expected. Physical RFP's obtained from the conference include: Kimley-Horn's kick off meeting for 2023, 550 total room nights with an expected economic impact of$500,000 and a 2021 Assured Partners Budget Review meeting 221 total room nights with an expected economic impact of$40,000. At 8:54a.m. Mr. McCallum provided the Board members with an update on the 35th Annual GrapeFest which is well into the planning stages. The theme of the festival is "Texas Wine, Come and Taste it"while acknowledging the Co-Chairs as Steve (GM, Hilton DFW Lakes) and Maggie Haley. Mr. McCallum overviewed the festival operations to include dates, hours of operations and the reasoning behind the shift in hours and structure in order to hopefully benefit the residences and merchants within the historic district and Main Street. Merchants and restaurants have been invited to come back out into the street similarly down but with the GrapeFest feel. We believe this will be helpful, as although we will have some professional food vendors, there has been a reduction of approximately 35% of outside vendor selection. The remaining food offerings will be offered by civic and service groups and main street restaurants. This was decided in effort to balance the demand of festival goers and the success of those available offerings. The marketplace and artisans have been reduced by approximately 60% as well; the idea of doing this was to help drive patrons back into the Main Street businesses. Mr. McCallum overviewed activities to take place during the festival including the Peace Circle Dedication on Saturday. Activities will begin at 11:30am with the Tribal Nations represented by their respective Chief's and Captains moving into a 1:30pm official kick off of the event; many nations having already accepted with flutes, drums, etc. with the strong possibilities of the eagles coming upon approval from the State of Oklahoma. Mr. McCallum detailed "Taste of Two Valleys" sponsored by Gaylord Texas, featuring a country and a state this year being Barossa Valley, Australia and Napa Valley, California. Mr. McCallum continued to detail various aspects of the festival format, activities and current sponsorships. Texas Wine Tribute will move to a date in October to celebrate Texas Wine Month. Board of Directors Meeting July 15, 2021 Page 4 of 5 Chairman Szymaszek inquired on the price increase going to Council; Mr. McCallum recommended gate prices increase from $9 to $10, children and seniors will stay the same at $5, advising that it was taken to City Department Head meeting resulting in the recommendation to take it back to the CVB Board for final approval. Mr. McCallum explained the last time a rate increase was implemented was in 2007 and since has had an overall operational cost increase of over 300%; he formally requested the Board's approval of a rate increase of$1/adult ticket; followed by Board discussions. Motioned by Chairman Joe Szymaszek, second by Mark Terpening. APPROVED Ayes: Blankenship, Weinberger, Pacioni, Wenks, Meek, Rogers Nays: None Mr. McCallum noted that the festival will also be returning to traditional coupons vs that of electronic couponing due to operational cost savings and the lack of vendor support. NEW BUSINESS Mr. McCallum provided the Board members a brief overview of the Observation Tower Tours resulting from the open areas at the top of the tower and safety concerns. He shared the challenge of placing items on the ledge which is directly above the plaza and various other public space areas along with the cost associated for installation of barriers. Tower Tours are escorted tours of the Grapevine Main Station, Harvest Hall and Plaza ending at the top of the tower with detailed information of historic Grapevine offered for$3/pp. Mark Terpening addressed the Board with a proposal to nominate Gayle Hall for the Don Bigbie Legends of Grapevine award. This was followed by extensive discussion with overall support, consideration of the eligibility criteria and alternative options of recognition for exemplary service. At the end of the discussions, Chairman Szymaszek motioned the Board to move forward with the nominate of Gayle Hall for the Don Bigbie Award, second by Cynthia Blankenship. Ayes: Meek, Weinberger, Pacioni, Wenks, Rogers Nays: None Hotels/Attractions/Activities Mr. McCallum respectfully requested to overview the approval of the Hudgins street property purchase approval previously approved by the CVB Board has now been approved by City Council. Chairman Szymaszek shared details on the Texas Police Motorcycle Rodeo in September [dates to be presented soon]. A skilled competition which will incorporate a 911 march from the monument to the mail. Board of Directors Meeting July 15, 2021 Page 5 of 5 There being no further business to come before the Board a motion by Chairman Szymaszek, seconded by Mark Terpening to adjourn the meeting at 9:12a.m. prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Weinberger, Pacioni, Blankenship, Wenks, Meek, Rogers Nays: None PASSED AND APPROVED BY THE GRAPEVINE CONVENTION &VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS ON THIS 19th DAY OF AUGUST, 2021 APPROVE �i i Joe Szymaszek I Chairt ATTEST: Donna Farmer Assistant toifhe Executive Director