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Home My WebLink About2006-01-19 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS \irr GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, January 19, 2006 — 11:30 a.m. Wallis Building Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT IV. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT (lw V. OLD BUSINESS A. CHICAGO SALES MISSION B. AMERICAN BUS ASSOCIATION — NASHVILLE VI. NEW BUSINESS A. IMAGINUITY VII. REPORTS A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE C. SALLIE ANDREWS APPRECIATION RECEPTION VIII. ADJOURNMENT C State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, January 19, 2006 at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Don Bigbie Chairman Bill Brink Board Member Philip Cloud Board Member John Imaizumi Board Member Kathee Livengood Board Member Paul Slechta Board Member Steve Stinson Board Member Mark Wasiak Board Member Darlene Freed Council Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director ABSENT Ev Barnes Board Member CALL TO ORDER Chairman Bigbie called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the December 13th meeting was made by Kathee Livengood and seconded by Steve Stinson. Motion carried. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT • Grapevine CVB won 13 first and second place awards at the Texas Association of Festivals & Events annual meeting recently. • We received a thank you letter from the End of the Runway Players for the grant monies from the CVB. • Alcohol permit has been approved for Bone Daddy's restaurant. — 1720 William D. Tate. • Zack & Zoe's has moved into 601 S. Main Street. The owner's name is Michelle Johnston. They sell gifts for people and their pets. • Bank of the West has received a permit for a temporary bank building with drive- through service — 108 West Northwest Highway. They are working with the city on their headquarters building. • The Ice Results from Gaylord are in with a final attendance count of 183,933. The forecast was 150,000. The Board of Directors Meeting January 19, 2006 Page 2 of 4 HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT cont. • The Glass Cactus - (29,000 sq. feet) at the Gaylord is tentatively scheduled to open Labor Day 2006 and could be as early as August. • Hyatt Regency DFW will begin renovations on the sleeping rooms in 2007. • Fairfield Inn will become a training hotel for the chain. • Homewood Suites is currently sold out for January 2006. They will have a new owner in the near future but the same management company. • Hampton Inn & Suites and Comfort Suites will make improvements to their guestrooms with an upgrade on all hotel bedding. • At the January 3rd Council meeting, council approved additional hours for Main Street Days extending the hours for a full 3 days of festival. The additional hours from 10 a.m. — 5 p.m. on Friday will be free admission. • Grapevine's 8th Winery Tasting Room is Lone Star Wine Cellars located at 201 E. Franklin. They currently have an operation in McKinney and their vineyards are in the Red River grape-growing region. • Chocolate Festival — Choco-l'art-y-gras is an event put on by Travelers Aid. It is scheduled for February 25th from 11 —4:30 at the Founders Building. Plans include Cro local artisans and 20 chocolate vendors. $15.00 for 10 samples. An evening event will be held at Main Street Blues Room. • The Blacksmith shop will again be up and running. Britt Trolinder, blacksmith, has come on board as of January 1st. He will be working 20 — 25 hours per week at the shop. Britt holds a M.F.A. (Masters of Fine Arts) degree and a B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in Design Communication from Texas Tech University and has exhibited his art at several shows around the state. Britt also works at the blacksmith shop at Old City Park in Dallas. • The Polar Express Experience was sponsored by Grapevine Towne Center, Stacy Furniture and Cook Children's Hospital. Over 13,600 passengers on public runs and over 5,400 students and teachers on School Polar. There were 34,443 unique visitors to the train web site between Thanksgiving and Christmas — many of these were for Polar. Several new additions this year included, among other things, costumed Christmas characters and outstanding holiday decorations in the Heritage Center. • New street signage in town is being well received by the merchants. • The HDGA president reported that merchant sales for the Christmas period was up 6-18% over last year. • La Buena Vida label and Grapevine tasting room have been sold to John & Gina Puente Brancato. They will also maintain the La Bodega label and the two facilities at the airport. Plan to make this location a small event oriented facility. C The Board of Directors Meeting January 19, 2006 Page 3 of 4 SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported for the month of December that the convention sales division produced 35 leads representing 31,273 potential room nights. Mike Kemp has resigned and has gone to Galveston working for Landry Hotels. The team assisted with ten definite groups representing 3,683 room nights, with at least one definite for each of our full service hotels. The team conducted five site inspections and attended Holiday Showcase in Chicago and International Association of Exhibition Managers in Atlanta. Tourism sales produced 5 leads representing 560 potential visitors and 480 room nights. Staff assisted with 6 definite groups representing 440 room nights and conducted one site inspection. There were at least 110 bus tours during the month. Destination Services assisted 2 groups representing 3,470 delegates. During the month 38,560 brochures were distributed and 17,763 guests visited our Visitor Information Center. The Convention Center booked 26 groups representing 6,744 attendees. In- house catering for the first quarter was $58,280 versus $44,487 for the same period last year. The Grapevine Vintage Railroad carried 22,742 passengers versus 12,806 for last year. Visits to the Grapevine Vintage Railroad website totaled 34,311 unique visitors and visits to the general site totaled 30,977 unique visitors. Public Relations generated $64,940 in print and $82,005 in electronic media coverage. Work has begun on the final working drawing for the Nash Farm House Restoration. The Nash Farm capital campaign has raised $410,000. The Palace Theatre hosted 38 events during the month with 6,571 attendees. OLD BUSINESS Chicago Sales Mission This year's Chicago Sales Mission will include sales calls in the suburbs and downtown, a dinner for meeting planner's and their guests, and a luncheon. At this time the Grand Hyatt will be participating in this sales mission. American Bus Association — Nashville February 3 — 8 are the dates for this year's annual ABA meeting. It will be at the Gaylord Texan in 2007. Gaylord and the CVB are hosting the final evening's event with a "Gone To Texas" theme. A reception takes place at 7 p.m. followed by dinner and entertainment by Mark Chestnut. NEW BUSINESS Imaqinuity This company will be designing the new CVB website. Council approved this item and staff has been working with these bright young people to design a state-of-the-art site. We hope to have it up and running by this summer. This group is also doing the city's website. The Board of Directors Meeting January 19, 2006 Page 4 of 4 REPORTS Grapevine Heritage Foundation Pat Stinson reported that the Heritage Foundation received a $330,340 check from the proceeds of GrapeFest and she thanked the board. They have raised $410,000 for the Nash Farm restoration and are now working on the project. Upcoming projects include Valentines Day Dinner and a Movie and Nash Farm Round Up on April 8. The Foundation is pleased with the improvements that have taken place at the Palace. Ms. Stinson announced Sallie Andrews' resignation from the Heritage Foundation but that she will continue to work on projects on a contract basis. Kathee Livengood stated that she had attended the recent Dinner and a Movie and the Gaelic Storm program and that both programs were excellent. Chamber of Commerce Ron Stacy reported that the final quarter of the year saw 31 new members, 36 members lost, 21 members reinstated, 89 renewals for an all time high membership at the end of the year of 774 members. Mr. Stacy invited everyone to the Chamber's Annual Banquet on March 30th at Austin Ranch. Linda Oliver is chair for the event and the theme is Fiesta Grapevine. Don Bigbie will be the emcee for the evening. Phil Cloud mentioned that the AMBUCS Bowling Tournament will be on February 9th at C5:30 p.m. at Main Event. This weekend Willhoite's celebrates 25 years with special entertainment. This year will also be the 100th anniversary celebration for Grapevine High School. Events will include a Hall of Fame Banquet, Homecoming, a wall of recognition tiles at the high school and a street dance. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board; Bill Brink made a motion to adjourn; seconded by Phil Cloud. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: C