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Home My WebLink About2007-09-20 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, September 20, 2007 — 11:30 a.m. Wallis Building Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF IV. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT V. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT VI. HERITAGE PROGRAMS AND PRESERVATION REPORT VII. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT A. ASAE — CHICAGO B. NEW YORK SALES CALL / PFIZER NSO/CVB DAY C. SAN ANTONIO SALES MISSION D. OKLAHOMA CITY /WICHITA, KANSAS SALES MISSION E. BALANCE EXPO —AUSTIN F. BRAZOS VALLEY TRAVEL TRADE SHOW G. GOING ON FAITH — LOUISVILLE, KY VIII. OLD BUSINESS A. GRAPEFEST REPORT B. FY 2008 MEETING SCHEDULE C. TAXI REPORT IX. NEW BUSINESS A. GRANTS-IN-AID REQUEST B. X. REPORTS A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION LIAISON B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LIAISON XI. ADJOURNMENT • State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention &Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 11:30 a.m. at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Don Bigbie Chairman Ev Barnes Board Member Bill Brink Board Member Kathee Livengood Board Member Paul Slechta Board Member Steve Stinson Board Member Mark Wasiak Board Member Pat Stinson Heritage Foundation Liaison Keith Temple Chamber Liaison Jennifer Hibbs Assistant City Manager Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Ross Bannister Director of Heritage Programs & Preservation ABSENT Philip Cloud Board Member John Imaizumi Board Member Darlene Freed Council Liaison CALL TO ORDER Chairman Bigbie called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the August 16th meeting was made by Bill Brink and seconded by Paul Slechta. Motion carried. INTRODUCTION OF STAFF Mr. McCallum introduced Megan Matthews, Event Coordinator, and Sara Lorusso, Heritage Programs & Preservation Assistant, to the board. Mr. Bigbie welcomed them on behalf of the board. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT Mr. McCallum reported: • Ferrari's Villa restaurant is now open on William D. Tate. • Fireside Pies, restaurant by Bob's Chop House, has steel out of the ground. • Big Buck has been acquired by Bass Pro and the format will change to Islamorada Fish Company. They are already open in San Antonio and Garland locations. Cry Board of Directors Meeting September 20, 2007 Page 2 of 5 HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS REPORT cont. • Hyatt Place, the former AmeriSuites, is adding a small restaurant for their guests. • Great Wolf plans are approved for the additional 200 rooms. Their soft opening is December 15th and Grand Opening for January 10th • Texas Rangers owner, Tom Hicks, envisions two to three hotels for the $1 billion Glorypark Town Center Development, located between the Rangers' Ballpark and the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. • American Airlines is planning to give longer time on the ground to improve their on-time ratings. • Nash Farm and Butterfly Flutterby are coming in October (shared brochures). • October 21st the Fort Worth Symphony will perform at the Palace. • The cleanup of Vineyards Campground is close to being finished. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD George Kakos reported that the railroad carried 4,396 passengers during August including 26 field trips and groups and one charter. Great Wolf Lodge will be the presenting sponsor for this year's North Pole Express. To date 27 schools have booked for North Pole Express and twelve of them are new this year. HERITAGE PROGRAMS AND PRESERVATION REPORT Ross Bannister reported: • At Nash Farm the roof was installed over the weekend. The windows and wood siding are installed as well as decorative work around the eaves. • The Nash Farm Capital Campaign is at $700,000 with a goal of$800,000. The committee hopes to have reached their goal by February 8, 2008, the date for Jubilee. • Nash Farm Fall Round-Up is Saturday, October 13th • The Heritage Foundation accepted a donation of a civil war memorial, which lists all the men from the Grapevine Prairie that fought in the Civil War. It will be located at Nash Farm. REPORTS Heritage Foundation Pat Stinson reported: • There will be a sneak preview tonight of Jeeves &Wooster. The program for this weekend is close to a sellout. • The Fort Worth Symphony will perform at the Palace on October 21st • The movie, Dr Strangelove, will play the Palace on October 5th and the Harlem Gospel Choir will perform on October 12th • September 28th will be the next Porch Party on Austin Street. • On behalf of the Heritage Foundation Board of Directors, Ms. Stinson thanked the CVB Board and staff for the wonderful GrapeFest this past weekend. • Board of Directors Meeting September 20, 2007 Page 3 of 5 SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported for the month of August that the convention sales division produced 13 leads representing 8,464 potential room nights. The team assisted with 6 definite groups representing 26,103 room nights. Staff conducted four site inspections. Susan Burk attended the Pfizer Hotel National Sales and CVB Meeting in New York and also conducted nine sales appointments while there. Tourism sales staff produced nine leads representing 86 potential room nights and 316 day guests. They assisted in five definite group bookings representing 22 room nights and 173 day guests. Staff participated in Balance Expo in Austin with a show attendance of 4,000. They visited with over 200 people interested in Grapevine. Staff attended Going on Faith Conference in Louisville, KY and met with 35 religious travel planners over the 2-day show. Staff conducted a San Antonio Sales Mission and an Oklahoma City/Wichita Sales Mission. Staff also participated in the Brazos Valley Travel Show and spoke to approximately 100 planners. Destination Services staff provided registration and information services to seven groups representing 12,700 attendees. 71,899 brochures were distributed during the month and 19,407 visitors were welcomed at the Visitor Information Center. The Grapevine Convention Center booked 21 future groups representing 4,650 attendees. They hosted 18 events representing 9,364 attendees, which was the third highest month in terms of attendees; this in spite of the renovations that are ongoing. The Palace Arts Center booked nine future functions representing 1,155 attendees and hosted 35 events representing 5,195 attendees. The Grapevine Vintage Railroad website had 23,897 unique visitors and the general site had 79,924 unique visitors. There was a spike on August 30 and 31 due to the festival. Public Relations generated $142,360 in print media, the highest for the year, and $56,555 in electronic media for a total of$198,915 in media coverage. OLD BUSINESS GrapeFest Report Mr. McCallum recognized Ron and Barbara Stacy for the great job they did throughout the festival weekend and time leading up to it. Highlights included: • GrapeFest had 264,850 patrons come through the gates. • It has once again been named a Top 100 event for 2008 by the American Bus Association. • People's Choice featured 122 Texas wines from 37 of the state's wineries. Three Grapevine wineries won medals, Delaney Vineyards, Cross Timbers Winery, and Homestead Winery. • Media coverage was tremendous. During the weekend there were various radio stations on the grounds for a total of 101 hours. Board of Directors Meeting �r September 20, 2007 Page 4 of 5 OLD BUSINESS cont. GrapeFest Report cont. • The Grapevine Vintage Railroad brought 122 folks from Fort Worth to GrapeFest. They came from various locations including: Arlington, Aledo, Azle, Buda, Crowley, Dallas, Frisco, Granbury, Bedford, Burleson, Haslet, McKinney, Plano, Richland Hills, Tyler, Fort Worth, Oklahoma, New York, California, and England. • The Grapevine Vintage Railroad mini excursion runs carried 3,173 passengers. • GrapeFest Convention Sales FAM consisted of 14 planners and five guests, two represented associations and the balance represented corporate clients. Several planners came with RFP's in hand and several more are expected this week. • GrapeFest Tourism Fam had 7 attendees from 6 different states representing potential individual, group tour and convention business. Two AAA offices will be promoting Grapevine as a leisure destination. AmeriCoach works with a number of conventions they believe to be a perfect fit for Grapevine and the other companies are expected to book holiday, new year's, and spring cowboy tours. • We had 24 guests from Parras and a delegation of nine from West Lothian, Scotland. The group from West Lothian wants to move forward with a sister city relationship. FY 2008 Meeting Schedule Ev Barnes made a motion to approve the FY 2008 Meeting Schedule as presented. Steve Stinson seconded. Motion carried without discussion. Taxi Report Mr. McCallum reported that the Dallas Fort Worth Area Tourism Council has established a task force that will work with an existing Dallas task force on taxi issues. It is the goal of this group to have established zone fares posted in all taxicabs that operate out of Dallas Fort Worth Airport. Also they will work to have the "starter" hand each customer a card with the expected fare information. It is felt that this will alleviate fare gouging and enhance the customer service for taxi riders. NEW BUSINESS Grants-in-Aid Request Mr. McCallum shared the annual Grants-in-Aid request from the Ex Student's Association for the Grapevine High School Homecoming Parade. Bill Brink made a motion to approve the request in the amount of $2,500. Seconded by Ev Barnes, the motion carried. • • Board of Directors Meeting September 20, 2007 Page 5 of 5 REPORTS Chamber of Commerce Keith Temple recognized the CVB staff for all their work with GrapeFest. He reported that the Chamber lacked $400 of having their best festival ever. The member appreciation picnic is scheduled for September 27th from 5:30 — 7:30 at Parr Park. November 13th is the date for the annual Chili Cookoff. The Women's Division's Anniversary Ball is scheduled for December 1st at Embassy Suites. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board, Ev Barnes made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Paul Slechta. 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