The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2004-04-15 Regular Meeting ,. CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, April 15, 2004 -- 11:30 a.m. WALLIS BUILDING ONE LIBERTY PARK PLAZA, GRAPEVINE, TEXAS AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT IV. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT (ior V. OLD BUSINESS A. SISTER CITY REPORT B. NEW VINTAGE WINE TRAIL VI. NEW BUSINESS A. AWARDS VACATION PACKAGES B. GRAPEVINE TEXAS MAGAZINE C. MARKETING COMMITTEE VII. REPORTS A. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE B. HERITAGE FOUNDATION VIII. ADJOURNMENT State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, April 15, 2004 at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Don Bigbie Chairman Ev Barnes Board Member Bill Bretches Board Member Bill Brink Board Member Darlene Freed Council Liaison Kathee Livengood Board Member Paul Slechta Board Member Steve Stinson Board Member Martin Thompson Grapevine Chamber Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Absent: Philip Cloud Board Member Tom Smith Board Member Pat Stinson Heritage Foundation CALL TO ORDER Chairman Bigbie called the meeting to order, welcomed Martin Thompson as the new Chamber representative to the board, and thanked Kathee Livengood for chairing last month's meeting. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the March 25th meeting was made by Bill Brink and seconded by Bill Bretches. Motion carried. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT Mr. McCallum shared the following: • Vetro Glass Works is now located at the Founders Building. They do glass blowing demonstrations, have already hosted several tour groups, and have the ability to do small dinner functions. • With the Glass Works completed, work on the foundry will resume. • Merry's Christmas and Clowns and Napoli Restaurant plan to be open by Main Street Days. r The Board of Directors Meeting April 15, 2004 Page 2 of 4 HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT cont. • The Culinary Cottage has opened in the former Martin Thompson Chapel. They do cooking classes and demonstrations, small dinners, and catering. • The British Emporium has converted their tearoom into additional retail space. • Rockin' Retro Saturdays concerts will continue for the next couple of weeks. There has been good feedback from the merchants. This coming Saturday, there will be a special program for the Red Hat Society. • Gaylord Texan had a successful opening. • Ms. Freed shared that the airport will present the aviation museum plan to council on May 4th. Their position is to move forward with the museum and they are ready to go public. They have both the Fort Worth and Dallas mayors on board. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos shared recent press coverage from several publications including the Daily Oklahoman, USAE, Sculpture Journal, Fort Worth Key Magazine, and Texas Highways Magazine (6 pages in the May issue). Mr. Kakos shared highlights from the month of March. The convention sales division produced 29 leads representing a potential of 23,264 room nights; 14 of the leads were for 2004 representing 2,316 room nights. The team assisted with 3 definite groups representing 860 room nights. Convention Services assisted 3 groups representing 346 attendees. The Tourism team generated 5 leads representing a potential of 135 room nights. The Convention Center booked 33 groups representing 8,530 attendees. The Grapevine Vintage Railroad ridership was 4,659 for the month, which included two spring break weeks and our partnership with Radio Disney. Web traffic was 5,473 visits on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad site and 5,943 on the general site. This is the first time the general site has attracted more visits than the train site. Public Relations generated $180,669 in print and $114,948 in electronic media for a total of$295,617. OLD BUSINESS Sister City Report Over the April 1 - 4 weekend there were 4 separate fam tours; including a bank travel group, media, meeting planners, and two sister city delegations. Staff did an outstanding job of coordinating these groups as well as conducting regular bureau business. Board members went on record to commend the CVB staff on their work. The Board of Directors Meeting April 15, 2004 Page 3 of 4 OLD BUSINESS cont. Sister City Report cont. The delegation from Krems included the mayor, his assistant, the chief surgeon and chief civil engineer. From Parras the delegation included the mayor, director of economic development, a Rotarian representative and four reps from Casa Madero. Mayor Tate and Mayor HOlzl had previously held discussions regarding Parras and their many needs. Following the New Vintage weekend the Krems delegation and staff traveled to Parras. A check for$5,000 was presented to the Guadalupano Hospital from Krems. This mission put the sister city relationship on a very personal level. The chief surgeon's son will spend two weeks with the American Red Cross in Parras this summer. New Vintage Wine Trail Mr. McCallum reported that the wineries saw growths of from 48 to 108% over last year. Main Street stores gave positive feedback on the weekend. Staff continues to look for ways to expand and improve the Blessing of the Vines. The Jazz Wine Train went to North Richland Hills and back. Staff responded quickly and operated with 5 instead of 6 (irr coaches when one had to be pulled from service. The wine pourers did a great job throughout the weekend as well as the bus docents, who were mostly volunteers, on Saturday. NEW BUSINESS Awards Vacations Packages George Kakos reported that Heather Kisabeth, tourism sales manager, is working with Award Vacation Destinations to sell our packages. She has put together several packages. At this point the contract is with the city attorney. We are anxious to get this program up and running 365 days a year via the website: ww.awardvacations.com. Packages are travel agent friendly. GRAPEVINE TEXAS MAGAZINE Mr. McCallum shared that we continue to focus on Grapevine and enhance Grapevine and define ourselves. American Airlines Printing, which produces the American Way and other top end magazines, would produce the magazine for Grapevine. It would initially be a bi-annual publication and would contain 75% editorial and 25% advertising with a target launch date the end of 2004. Distribution would be through hotels and attractions. We are also looking to form a partnership with car dealers, as Grapevine is a car-buying destination with a wide range of dealerships. The 48 page publication would focus on life style feature stories with an initial run of 150,000 copies, 75% to be distributed locally. Ad space would be less than $5,000 for a full-page ad. Ev Barnes Cry made a motion to move forward on this project. Paul Slechta seconded. Motion carried. 1 The Board of Directors Meeting April 15, 2004 Page 4 of 4 NEW BUSINESS cont. MARKETING COMMITTEE Mr. Bigbie appointed Paul Slechta to chair the marketing committee to develop the program for the 2004-2005 Fiscal Year and appointed Kathee Livengood and Steve Stinson to serve on the committee. All agreed. REPORTS Chamber of Commerce Kathee Livengood reported that this year's Chamber Banquet had 635 people in attendance and that Don Bigbie received the Don Ramey award and Paul W. McCallum received the D. E. Box award. Martin Thompson is the new director of the Chamber and they are gearing up for Main Street Days and the golf tournament. Heritage Foundation Bill Brink reported that they held a clean-up Day for Nash Farm. The Palace Theatre continues to host many new people at the attractions they have. ADJOURNMENT Darlene Freed shared concerns regarding the special legislative session and Gov. Perry's plan for school finance and its impact on Grapevine. There being no further business to come before the board; Kathee Livengood made a motion to adjourn; seconded by Steve Stinson. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: