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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-07-21 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS tir GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, July 21, 2011 — 8:00 a.m. Wallis Building Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. OATH OF OFFICE III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES IV. BOARD MEMBER INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS V. OLD BUSINESS A. CVB HEADQUARTERS UPDATE B. MARKETING COMMITTEE REPORT C. SISTER CITY UPDATE D. LEGOLAND / SEALIFE UPDATE VI. NEW BUSINESS A. LIFE IN GRAPEVINE — GREAT COLLECTIONS PUBLICATION VII. SALES & MARKETING REPORT A. SUMMER E-BLAST LOCAL PLANNERS B. DFWAE DINE-AROUND C. BASEBALL TOURNAMENTS D. GRAPEVINE MILLS EXPO E. DFW AAA OFFICES F. CHRISTMAS MAILING TOUR OPERATORS VIII. HOTELS /ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES IX. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT X. LIAISON UPDATES A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTIVITIES Cof XI. ADJOURNMENT Loy State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Tom Cherry Board Member LuAnn Chapman Galls Board Member John Imaizumi Board member Dennis Roberts Board member Peggy Weaver Board Member Dan Weinberger Board Member Angela Mitcham Chamber liaison Rick Lawlis Heritage Foundation liaison Sharron Spencer Council Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Absent: Paul Slechta Chairman Andrew Davidson Board Member Jennifer Hibbs Assistant City Manager CALL TO ORDER Paul McCallum called the meeting to order. OATH OF OFFICE Carol Marchant administered the oath of office to returning board members, Tom Cherry, LuAnn Chapman Galls, John Imaizumi, Dan Weinberger and to Dennis Roberts who will fulfill Steve Stinson's term. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the June 16, 2011 meeting was made by LuAnn Chapman Galls and seconded by Dan Weinberger. Motion carried. BOARD MEMBER INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS • Sea Life opened July 12. • Gaylord Texan expanding their special rates from Memorial Day through Labor Day as conventions are flowing which will fill in the gaps with higher rates. • Andrew Davidson from the Grand Hyatt DFW has turned in his resignation letter as he has been transferred to Washington, D.C. to assume responsibility of the Park Hyatt Washington Hotel by the end of July 2011. Board of Directors Meeting July 21, 2011 Page 2 of 6 BOARD MEMBER INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS cont. • The unveiling of the GrapeFest poster is taking place today, Thursday, July 21st at 10:30 at the Lancaster Theater. • The Corner Stone Ceremony for the new CVB Headquarters will take place on Saturday, August 6th at 9:30 a.m. OLD BUSINESS CVB Headquarters Update Mr. McCallum reported that the project is 92% complete. Concrete paving underway; curb and gutters are 50% completed, sidewalks are 25% completed. Masonry completed at all locations, except for the tower entry. Zinc facades and cornices are completed. Retail area storefront installation is 90% completed. Second floor ceiling is completed. First floor lobby beams are 90% complete. Wood trim and stain work at Function Room is 99% completed. 95% of walls at second floor have received finish and paint coat. Marble flooring at lobby completed. Tile at lobby restrooms 99% completed. Stone toilet partitions complete. MEP trim at Open Office is 99% complete. MEP trim at remainder of the building is 60% complete. In the next 30 days concrete and asphalt paving will be completed. Masonry to be 100% completed. Dunn's building wood siding will be completed. East and south balconies will be completed. Main stair treads to be nearing completion/completed, railing to be nearing completion/completed. Public and staff restrooms will be completed. Board Room and Office 212 is near completion. Additional Offices at Open Office will be completed. The fabrication of the gunfighters is in progress. We expect to receive the building by early September. The move will take place two weeks after GrapeFest. In October we are planning to put the weather vane on the tower. The clock on the tower should be running before the Christmas season. Mr. McCallum shared a quote from a blogger "... CVB Headquarters was the best thing that could have happened to Texas, and you know why? Because there is nothing better." Marketing Committee Report Chairman Tom Cherry presented the Marketing Committee Report. The committee had two meetings last month regarding the development of the 2012 marketing plan. The first meeting was held on June 15th. At this meeting, we reviewed the 2011 marketing plan, and discussed changes, additions and deletions. A large portion of this meeting concentrated on updating the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) Analysis. try Board of Directors Meeting July 21, 2011 Page 3 of 6 OLD BUSINESS cont. Marketing Committee Report cont. Some ideas that came out of these meetings included: • Market Grapevine as both a group/meetings destination as well as a leisure destination • Continue to emphasize Summer and Christmas as seasons to help fill hotels throughout the year • Continue to investigate digital marketing aspects that put Grapevine on the forefront of technology • Develop mobile applications to further help the visitor • Significantly reduce the amount of print advertising for the group/meetings market • Promote the destination to the groups/meeting market by investing in site visits to Grapevine, educational opportunities for meeting planners and events in major cities that promote Grapevine. Staff is continuing to do some research and collect some feedback from our stakeholders. Over the next few weeks, they will be finalizing the 2012 Marketing Plan. (, Sister Cities Report Parras We hosted two interns from Parras —Adrian Viera who worked for the CVB and Alejandro Verastegui who worked for the Parks and Recreation department. The CVB staff is planning a mission to Parras from August 8th to the 12th. We will have 9 representatives and will take a proclamation letter for Jose Milmo. During the 25th Anniversary of GrapeFest we are expecting a large delegation from Parras. They are sending 13 Folklorico/ballerina's dancers to perform. We are working with the GCISD Spanish classes to arrange host families for these children (ages 13- 17). We will host them September 11th through the 18th and are preparing a number of activities for them. They will also perform at GHS & CHHS and shadow students at GHS for a day and attend the GHS vs CHHS football game. They will have the opportunity to attend a Pep Rally. West Lothian Five exchanges have taken place since May 2011. We hosted Colin Bell, West Lothian Parks and Rec here in Grapevine for a professional exchange. Five golfers from CHHS visited West Lothian to compete for the Gallacher Cup. Two students, one from GHS and one from CHHS, participated in a culinary exchange in West Lothian. Joe Moore, Grapevine Parks and Rec. Dept., spent 10 days in West Lothian on a professional exchange. Nine CHHS students traveled to West Lothian on an educational exchange. �r We are currently looking to host an intern from West Lothian in October and November of this year. tre Board of Directors Meeting July 21, 2011 Page 4 of 6 OLD BUSINESS cont. Sister Cities Report cont. Krems We have a new sister city contact in Krems—Anna Wegl. She is a History and Geography teacher. Dennis Slechta and Shelley Ruddick will be visiting Krems at the end of August and will deliver a letter and gift from the Mayor to the Bergermeisterin and Bernhard Lechner. SALES & MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that during the month of June the convention sales team produced 46 leads representing in excess of 46,000 potential room nights, 16 of the leads for 2011. Staff assisted with five definite bookings representing 12,251 room nights. Staff conducted eleven site inspections and attended the Dallas Fort Worth Association Executives Dine Around held in Plano this year. Tourism sales produced eight leads representing 203 room nights and 4,352 attendees and assisted with two definite bookings with 37 room nights and 124 attendees. Cif The Visitor Information Center staff distributed over 87,000 brochures and welcomed 3,831 guests to the Visitor Information Center. The team conducted sales calls on 14 AAA Dallas Fort Worth offices promoting Summer Blast. Destination Services provided information and registration assistance to seven groups representing 18,620 delegates. June was the second highest ridership month for the Grapevine Visitor Shuttle with 4,379 passengers. Much of the growth is coming from international passengers with long layovers. The Convention Center booked 35 future groups representing 6,886 attendees and had $50,523 in total sales. The Palace Arts Center booked 18 future groups representing 2,525 attendees and had $20,794 in total sales. The Concourse booked 18 future groups representing 1,726 attendees and had $9,950 in total sales. The website had 185,617 unique visitors, a 40% increase over last year. There were just fewer than eight million hits, 41% over last year. The advertising investment included 17 group trade publication print insertions, two leisure group trade publication insertions, eight online group advertising insertions and 60 consumer print insertions. TV and radio had 772 runs and online consumer advertising insertions were 92. Print publicity was over $161,000 and electronic publicity was over $203,000 for a total of over $365,000. The Grapevine CVB received Texas Festival and Events awards for Summer Blast, „r Main Street Days and New Vintage. Board of Directors Meeting July 21, 2011 Page 5 of 6 HOTELS / ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES Mr. Kakos reported: • Gaylord Hotels have kicked off their Christmas Holiday and campaign which this year features Ice! and Shrek the Halls. • The TNT Network has announced that 10 new episodes of"Dallas" will be aired in 2012. Hopefully this will rekindle the interest from 20 years ago. • An MPI survey indicated 205 of the planners surveyed felt airfares and fuel costs could negatively impact the industry. • Napoli's Confectionary is now open on Main Street adjacent to the restaurant. • Winewood Grill is now open as of July 20th • Mi Dia is opening in Mid-August. • FreeBirds World Burritos will open in the old Boston's location on William D. Tate, July 27th • Our new park district ball fields are a big hit and have hosted a number of baseball and soccer tournaments. • According to a USA Today survey, Texas is now the nation's number 2 economy surpassing New York. California is number 1. • Gaylord Hotels announced the development of a 1,500 room resort and convention trif center in Aurora, Colorado which is 10 minutes from the Denver airport. Meeting facilities will be similar in size to the Texan. Completion is anticipated in Mid-to-late 2015. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT Mr. McCallum reported that June ridership was 5,354 including 20 groups, one charter and five special promotional runs. The reserved seating on all coaches starts this weekend. Friday's One hour Fun Trains are running consistently with 300+ passengers. Summer Wine Train is scheduled for August 3rd Coach 209 is now air conditioned giving us 3 coaches with AC. Electrical work on car 206 will begin on Friday to prepare for air conditioning which will give us 4 coaches with AC. Lone Star Hi-Railers are in the process of setting up the baggage car with their train display and will have part of it ready for Lionel train collectors who will tour the roundhouse and exhibit on Wednesday, July 27th. Annual inspection on 2199 will be completed this week. LIAISON UPDATES Heritage Foundation Activities Rick Lawlis reported for the Heritage Foundation and mentioned that the Palace Arts Center has hosted over 30,000 visitors since October 1st, 2010. The Foundation is focusing on the educational programs, having a photographer and hiring a full-time person to work at the Nash Farm. Staff is working on developing the Nash Farmhand Program of volunteers to operate the farm as a year round venue. Some of the categories include: Greeter/Host Farmhands, Tractor Driver Farmhands, Docent Board of Directors Meeting July 21, 2011 Page 6 of 6 LIAISON UPDATES cont. Heritage Foundation Activities cont. Farmhands, Barnyards Farmhands, Agricultural Farmhands and Heritage Craft Farmhands. Chamber of Commerce Activities Angela Mitcham reported that the chamber has three main goals. One of them is the business leadership goal/certification programs. The second one is Membership and adding value. Paying dues and register for luncheons on-line. The third one is business retention program due to the fact that membership has dropped slightly. The financials are strong. Staff is looking to add Grapevine businesses such as GameStop and Stone Myers. The chamber has updated their website and is adding features such as, job postings, connections and technology. The chamber wants to start reaching out to sister communities. 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: