The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About1995-01-19 Regular Meeting ✓i t 1 3y P ti r, rF ^TE' OF TEXAS ';*LINTY OF TARRANT jTY OF GRAPEVINE MINUTES The Grapevine Convention& Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, January 19, 1995 at the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau, One Liberty Park Plaza, Grapevine, Texas at 11:30 a.m. with the following persons in attendance: Warren Dearing Board Member Nancy Reams Board Member Bruce Crouch Board Member Phil Parker Board Member 011 Gary Blagg Board Member Greg Saunders Board Member /11 Mark Hickey Board Member C. Shane Wilbanks Council Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director Fran Fairchild Dir. of Marketing & Sales Absent: Don Bigbie Chairman Peggy Britt Board Member Trent Petty City Manager 011 CALL TO ORDER Warren Dearing called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the December 15th board meeting was made by Phil Parker; seconded by Nancy Reams. Motion carried. OLD BUSINESS Chicago Promotion: The information for the Chicago Promotion has been mailed to board and council so travel selections can be made. The sales promotion will kick off in the suburbs on February 9th with the main function for the suburbs on Monday, February 13th. This will be a small group and will experience a wine tasting/food paring with a professional wine instructor. It will have a theme menu with a Texas flair and Texas wines. Then the promotion moves to downtown Chicago with the main function on Thursday night, February 16th, at Vinny's similar to, but a little more elaborate than, the one in the suburbs. fi a y::::,-,41,-'!4 of Directors Meeting - .--Pr.,IS : -1; ,•, 19, 1995 =e2of4 y��Of OLD BUSINESS cont. 7 k New York Promotion: This year there will be a suburban promotion in New Jersey on Tuesday, March 14th and then move into Manhattan for a promotion Friday, March 17th. We are taking Nomeasures to be sure we get the meeting planners we want there. We have a much improved and cleaned-up invitation list. This should do much to keep a qualified attendance. Several sites were considered but the decision was made to stay at the Alamo. They have added a new facade 1111 that is a replica of the Alamo and have made many improvements. It is planned to use the front of the Alamo on one of the invitations. The format willbe changed slightly with a different method for handling door prizes. Being as St. Pat's falls on Friday this year, there is expected IIto be a heavy party mood. The sales promotion part will be done at the beginning. Approximately 40% of attendees are repeat; 10-15% are previous customers of our hotel 1.11 properties; and 40-50% are new contacts. Mr. Saunders suggested a "fish eye" picture of the group in front of the building. It would be necessary to contact Nelson to get approval to eliminate parking in front of the building. It was also suggested to have a banner stating this 1111 was the 8th year for the promotion. Mr. McCallum presented photos from last year's promotion to the board members who attended. ce Hotel/Convention Center Study: The approval for this study was given last year. RFP's were reviewed and PKF Consulting, Hospitality Advisory Services has been engaged to do the study. It is a two part study; 1) to consider hotel development and expansion of the Convention Center, III and 2) to determine why Grapevine is not attracting new hotel development when Irving and Arlington are. I Foundation Update: The annual meeting for the Foundation was held last week. Mr. McCallum shared a timeline of accomplishments from the Foundation. Of the 1.2 million dollar budget only about $ 134,000 comes from hotel/motel tax. Five years ago approximately $ 380,000 IIcame from the hotel/motel tax. Much of the savings have gone into promotions. The blacksmith shop is under construction using donated funds. The basket factory, which IIrepresented a big industry in this area in the early 1900's will begin construction with donated funds. Next month they will begin on the section house and turntable. These projects are funded from GrapeFest. There will be a ribbon cutting during Main Street Days. II NEW BUSINESS 1 Texas Wine and Grape Growers (TWGGA): Last Tuesday, council approved the establishment I of a contract between the CVB and TWGGA for the association to be housed in the Wallis Building for a cost of $500. per month. We will bill them for extra help, postage, and other expenses incurred. We will help them look for a permanent home in Grapevine. IIV I Ilit4l01Ilil�1 1 •' 4 Ili Board of Directors Meeting 6 January 19, 1995 gage 3 of 4 NEW BUSINESS cont. IIII McCallum will make a presentation at a future board meeting of the possibility of a visitor Mr. 1 center/headquarters for TWGGA. He is putting together this proposal for the City Manager. 11111 This Visitor Center/Headquarters would be an attraction in and of itself. TWGGA brings with it lots of publicity opportunities, both national and international and we'll Illibe able to focus Grapevine into this. At the next board meeting Mr. McCallum will show the Robin Leach gourmet food and wine IIIIprofile of Texas. We are receiving inquiries as a result of this segment. III Vineyard District Update: A vineyard district is anywhere a winery locates. We have two areas approved and two more coming. Mr. McCallum shared the rendering of the Delaney Vineyards Winery on a 14 acre site (Vineyard District #2). They are constructing a two million dollar 110 facility. In two years they will break ground on the chateau. They will have their first crush this year in late August and officially open the winery during GrapeFest in September. The barrel room will seat a couple hundred people. As there will be no kitchen facilities there will be catering opportunities. Dr. Bobby Smith has Vineyard District #1 on East College Street ei on a 1.6 acre site where he is constructing a tasting room. The interior is almost complete and the brick is well underway. It will be open to the public in March. The planting will go in in 01 April and it will officially open in September. It is a 3,000 sq. ft. facility with a 2,000 sq. ft. tasting room. Mr. McCallum will be talking with Homestead Winery in Ivanhoe this weekend. 00 SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Fran Fairchild gave a quarterly update and compared growth to the first quarter of 1993-94 budget year. We are telemarketing for weekend/summer business. The Convention Center increased bookings by 51. They increased revenues and catering. Mr. McCallum attributed some of this growth to Mr. Parker's Committee that realigned how we booked business and the i new rate structure on the smaller rooms at the center. Mr. Saunders suggested another person might need to be brought on board to grow the wedding/graduation party business. It was suggested we might use an outside contractor as a wedding consultant. EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS REPORT Mr. McCallum reported that the renovation.of the Concourse is well underway. We have the opportunity to make it the premiere wedding facility in Grapevine. It will be in use after February 2nd at a cost of under $100,000. We did some of own general contracting and the savings were was put in to upgrades to the facility. 1011 A� � I F. r1 4t i . . of Directors Meeting sip---_---ei: :!"-,,-4:4'w a . 19, 1995 %reAtge4of4 r ' ,EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS REPORT cont. ` The Community Center in the recent bond election will be a 48,000 sq. ft. facility located north of the library. It could possibly change the access to the Convention Center. Mr. Wilbanks shared comments of his trip to the Governor's Inaugural Ball. Mr. McCallum shared the new DFW area guide with the revised Grapevine portion developed by Fran Fairchild and John Mayner. There are 750,000 of these guides printed and distributed nationally. Mr. McCallum reported that we would show videos of the fantastic press coverage received on the Delaney Vineyard Ground Breaking at the next Board meeting. ADJOURNMENT It was agreed that the next board meeting would be moved from Thursday, Feb. 23rd to Friday, February 24th due to a conflict with the Texas Tourism Unity Dinner. There being no further business to be brought before the Board, the meeting was adjourned by consent. bi MI 0111 Attest .(,,,6„1:-..t ke)q,A(t ,43 . Date . .'1-2.-il 1 qi b 0,ir ill i1111 1 1111 oi1 4 oiI