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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-09-23 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS L GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, September 23, 2010 — 8:00 a.m. Wallis Building Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. OLD BUSINESS A. CVB HEADQUARTERS UPDATE B. FY11 MEETING SCHEDULE IV. NEW BUSINESS A. FY 11 BUDGET L B. STAFF ASSIGNMENTS V. SALES & MARKETING REPORT A. FORT WORTH HOME AND GARDEN SHOW B. DALLAS HOME AND GARDEN SOW VI. HOTELS /ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES VII. FESTIVALS AND EVENTS REPORT A. GRAPEFEST WRAP-UP B. UPCOMING EVENTS VIII. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT IX. LIAISON UPDATES A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTIVITIES X. ADJOURNMENT State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Steve Stinson Chairman Tom Cherry Board Member Andrew Davidson Board Member LuAnn Chapman Gaits Board Member Mike Wainwright for John Imaizumi Peggy Weaver Board Member Dan Weinberger Board Member Sharron Spencer Council Liaison Melva Stanfield Heritage Foundation Liaison Louie Sullins Chamber Liaison Jennifer Hibbs Assistant City Manager Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Absent: Paul Slechta Board Member CALL TO ORDER Chairman Stinson called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the August 19, 2010 meeting was made by Dan Weinberger and seconded by LuAnn Chapman Gatts. Motion carried. OLD BUSINESS CVB Headquarters Update Mr. McCallum thanked the board for attending the topping out ceremony. The top of the tower is visible from highway 114 and Texan Trail and from highway 114 and Main Street. To date the dirt work and storm sewer are 90% complete, the sanitary and water utilities, structural steel and structural concrete are 100% complete. The contractors are working on the waterproofing, framing, sheathing, MEP rough-in and carved sandstone. The overall project is 40% complete. There were three weather days this past month. In the next 30 days they will start on the roofing and they hope to have the temporary dry-in by the end of October. The tower masonry is likely to begin in December. 4.„ Board of Directors Meeting September 23, 2010 Page 2 of 6 OLD BUSINESS cont. FY11 Meeting Schedule Mr. Stinson presented the FY11 meeting schedule as presented last month. LuAnn Chapman Gatts made a motion to approve the schedule as printed; seconded by Tom Cherry. Motion carried. NEW BUSINESS FY11 Budget Mr. McCallum reported that council approved the FY11 budget on Tuesday, September 14th. We expect to see growth in hotel occupancy numbers there is still a decline in revenue due to low rates. The total CVB budget revenue is $16,305,708 and budgeted occupancy tax is $10,427,365. We are experiencing flat facility rentals, a small increase in train revenue and a slight decline in festival revenue. Overall revenues are expected to be down 7%. This budget will have a full year of shuttle operation and a full year of debt retirement on the new CVB headquarters. When developing the budget we focused on the core mission of the CVB, to drive visitors into the city to generate not only hotel tax but also sales tax. In order to maintain our core mission we had to address some program and staff reductions. We reduced programming by two million and $860,000 out of personnel, which impacted five positions and the loss of three people. Positions eliminated included the Assistant Executive Director— Sales & Marketing, the Heritage Programs and Preservation Director, the Artist in Residence, the Sister City Manager, and the administrative assistant for the Heritage Programs and Preservation division. Two of the people in these positions qualified and were absorbed into other open positions. Staff Assignments Mr. McCallum reported that he has been unable to address staff changes with boards and staff until the budget was approved by council. As of October 1, Ross Bannister will move to an open festival and event manager position. David Klempin will lead the Historic Preservation and Programs division with the Palace activities moving to the Facilities division. Sara Lorusso will be returning to UNT to obtain a Master's degree. Her duties will be picked up by Cheri and Nadine in facilities and by Mary Bush. The Sister City program will come under the leadership of Heather Kisabeth and Naomi will go into an open administrative assistant position. Archie St. Clair will continue on at the studio and will be available for contracted art projects. George Kakos and Paul McCallum will cover the divisions that were under the leadership of Bob McPherrin. All the administrative assistants will be picking up new areas of responsibility. Ashlee Holmes will move into the train sales and marketing. Board of Directors Meeting September 23, 2010 Page 3 of 6 SALES & MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that during the month of August the convention sales team produced 28 leads representing 16,777 potential room nights. Eleven of the leads are for 2010 and 12 for 2011. Staff assisted with 10 definite bookings representing 7,459 room nights and conducted eleven site inspections. There have been major phone and email solicitations by each sales manager. The GrapeFest FAM consisted of eleven planners and five guests. To date there have been two RFP's produced with a total of 2,500 potential room nights. Tourism sales produced 14 leads representing 284 potential room nights and 509 attendees and assisted with eight definite bookings representing 186 room nights and 285 attendees. They participated in the Fort Worth Home and Garden Show and the Dallas Home and Garden Show. Between the two shows there were 201 visitors filled out an information form and 108 of them opted in to the e-newsletter. Staff has begun working on Christmas Capital motorcoach solicitation. Destination Services provided information and registration assistance to six groups representing 7,031 delegates. They distributed 76,440 brochures during the month and welcomed 7,590 visitors at the Visitor Information Center. The Convention Center booked 29 future events representing 5,978 attendees and had $31,703 in total sales. The Palace Arts Center booked 12 future events with 1,728 potential attendees and had $18,453 in total sales. The Concourse had eight future bookings representing 1,015 attendees and $4,857 in total sales. The carpet in the hallway at the Convention Center will be replaced in October with carpet squares. Funds are available in the Capital renovation project. The web site had 142,001 unique visitors, a 28% increase over last year and 4,655,797 total hits. On the group advertising side there were 13 convention group advertising insertions, 4 leisure group insertions, and 18 on-line insertions. On the consumer advertising side there were 53 consumer print insertions, 119 advertising TV/Radio runs and 131 online insertions. The total advertising investment was $133,504. Print publicity for the month was $113,259 and electronic publicity was $38,994 for a total of $152,253. Mr. Kakos shared the North East Tarrant Business Resource with Gaylord featured on the cover and some of our other properties included in the inside article. He also shared Travel Log which carried the Legoland Groundbreaking on its cover and an article from the Fort Worth Business Press on the topping out ceremony. Board of Directors Meeting September 23, 2010 Page 4 of 6 HOTELS / ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES Mr. Kakos reported: • Blue Moon Gallery will close the end of October. • The 110-room Hilton Garden Inn has been purchased by the Apple Reit Nine Group for $17 million. They are out of Richmond, Virginia. • Spirit Halloween store has leased 35,000 sq. feet at Grapevine Mills. • Maher Jallad has been named Executive Assistant Manager/ Rooms at the Hyatt Regency DFW. • Eric Hoyt has transferred to the Hyatt Regency DFW as a sales manager. He comes from the San Antonio Hyatt Regency. • Groundbreaking for Grapevine Sea Life Aquarium is scheduled for Wednesday, October 20th at 10:30 a.m. • Cero's Heros is now Grapevine Subs and More. FESTIALS AND EVENTS REPORT GrapeFest Wrap-Up `rr Festival chair and board member LuAnn Chapman Gatts reported on GrapeFest: • Attendance at GrapeFest was 266,126. • There were 19 civic and service organizations that participated in GrapeFest. • GrapeFest Golf Classic on Friday, September 10, there were 58 players that participated. • Vintners' Auction Classic— on Saturday, September 11, at the Convention Center has a tailgate party theme. • GrapeFest Tennis Tournament - the weekend of September 10, 11 &12. The adult tournament was USTA sanctioned and had 122 players in 15 divisions. The juniors (non-sanctioned) had 83 players in 6 divisions. 30 different tennis courts were utilized. • ItalianCarFest— on Saturday, September 11 at Nash Farm with 80 cars and 20 motorcycles. • GrapeStomp —There were 2 special stomps; the Seniors and Mayoral. The public stomp Grand Champion Stomp-Off on Sunday brought the attention of HDNet TV. The champions were Jesika and Ronnie Cook from Euless. This was their first visit to GrapeFest and first time to stomp grapes and managed to set a new record for public stomp at 36 oz. • Super Wine Experience — Partnering with E J Gallo, festival patrons were able to sample premier wines that will be featured during Taste of the NFL program. Patrons also voted for their favorite football team to see who goes to the Super Bowl. • People's Choice Wine Tasting Classic— 31 Texas wineries and 112 wines in 10 categories. (111w Board of Directors Meeting September 23, 2010 Page 5 of 6 GrapeFest Wrap-Up cont. web site • Created a separate microsite that was launched on July 2, 2010 — During the week of September 12, there were 150,352 unique visits to the site, up 70% from GrapeFest 2009. • Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday all broke the previous all-time record for unique visits in a single day on the web site making this September the largest month ever in the history of the web site for unique visits. • Online ticket sales, combining all GrapeFest items that can be purchased online, were up 28% year/year. Advertising • 146,902 pieces of collateral produced • 244 minutes of radio ads in the DEW market • 1,383 minutes of streaming (internet) radio ads • 666 minutes of TV ads in the DFW market • 1,037 column inches of newspaper ads Upcoming Events Mr. McCallum shared the following upcoming events: • First Friday Film Series "The Big Lebowski" on Oct. 1st at the Palace Theatre. • 10th Annual Nash Farm Fall Round Up on Oct. 9th at Nash Farm. • 13th Annual Butterfly Flutterby on Oct. 16th in Historic Downtown Grapevine. • Candlelight Tour of Homes on Oct. 23rd in Historic Grapevine. • Halloween Scream Trains on Oct. 30 & 31st - Grapevine Vintage Railroad. • ICE! will kick off at the Gaylord Texan on Nov. 11th and run through January 3rd GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that the railroad has just under 3,000 passengers during the month of August, as well as ten groups and one charter. Coaches 207, 208 and the caboose now offer an air-conditioned ride. Work continues on the dry pipe for engine 2248. Staff is in the process of selecting fall/winter uniforms. LIAISON UPDATES Heritage Foundation Activities Melva Stanfield reported that the October 1 is the First Friday Film Series and on October 9 will be Nash Farm Fall Roundup which will have farm events and games for the kids. Grapevine AMBUCS will bring their dog wagon to sell refreshments and then donate the proceeds to the Heritage Foundation. Board of Directors Meeting September 23, 2010 Page 6 of 6 LIAISON UPDATES cont. Heritage Foundation Activities cont. The Nash Farm committee plan to establish a volunteer group to support programming and events at the farm. October 23rd from 4 — 7 p.m. will be the Candlelight Tour of Homes. The tour will start at Homestead Winery and the cost is $10. The National Trust will be in Austin this year and several board members will attend. Chamber of Commerce Activities Louie Sullins reported that the Chamber did so well at GrapeFest that they made up for any reduction from Main Street Days. The Chamber Golf Tournament is scheduled for Monday, September 27th and is sold out. On October 14th Bill Lively, NFL president is the speaker for the Chamber luncheon. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board, LuAnn Chapman Gatts made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Dan Weinberger. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: