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Home My WebLink About2011-03-24 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS thy GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, March 24, 2011 — 8:00 a.m. Wallis Building Grapevine, Texas AGENDA I. CALL TO ORDER II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES III. BOARD MEMBER INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS IV. OLD BUSINESS A. CV B HEADQUARTERS UPDATE kre V. NEW BUSINESS A. GRANTS-IN-AID REQUEST VI. SALES & MARKETING REPORT A. MPI SUPPLIER SHOWCASE B. PRE-OSCAR EVENT VII. HOTELS /ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES VIII. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT IX. LIAISON UPDATES A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTIVITIES X. ADJOURNMENT (Iirg State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met on Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. at the Wallis Building, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Tom Cherry Board Member LuAnn Chapman Gatts Board Member Mike Wainwright for board member John Imaizumi Paul Slechta Board Member Peggy Weaver Board Member Dan Weinberger Board Member Sharron Spencer Council Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director George Kakos Assistant Executive Director Absent: Steve Stinson Chairman Andrew Davidson Board Member rr Jennifer Hibbs Assistant City Manager CALL TO ORDER Board member Slechta filled in for Chairman Stinson and called the meeting to order. Mr. McCallum extended Steve's regrets to the board and gave an update on staff member Tom Wayne. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to approve the minutes from the February 17, 2011 meeting was made by Tom Cherry and seconded by LuAnn Chapman Gatts. Motion carried. BOARD MEMBER INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS • Legoland Discovery Center (LDC) will host a media preview at 10:30 a.m. today. Cal Welch, a Grapevine High School graduate, is the master builder for LDC. OLD BUSINESS CVB Headquarters Update Mr. McCallum reported that most of the brickwork, much of the cast stone and most of the windows are installed. They are working on the interior millwork at this time. We Board of Directors Meeting March 24, 2011 Page 2 of 4 OLD BUSINESS cont. CVB Headquarters Update cont. expect to accept the building from the contractor in the May / June timeframe. After that, we will enter the second phase which will include elements of the tower and the first floor museum spaces among other items. NEW BUSINESS Grants-In-Aid Request Mr. McCallum presented a grants-in-aid request from the End of the Runway Players in the amount of$13,000. This is their 28th season in Grapevine and their program draws from throughout the Metroplex. Discussion followed on the budget reduction for this line item, the amount of funds available and other expected requests. Staff recommended that within these restraints the board consider an amount not too exceed $7,500. A motion was made by LuAnn Chapman Gatts to grant the request in the amount of $5,000 and seconded by Tom Cherry. Motion carried. tiv SALES & MARKETING REPORT Mr. Kakos reported that during the month of February the convention sales team produced 34 leads representing 20,757 potential room nights; 16 of them for 2011. Staff assisted with six definite bookings representing 2,045 room nights all of which are for 2011. Staff conducted four site inspections and hosted 72 meeting planners at the third annual pre Oscar event and exhibited at the MPI Suppliers Showcase held at the Irving Convention Center. There was good visitation at the booth. Tourism sales produced seven leads representing 260 room nights and 280 day guests; all for 2011. They hosted the American Bus Association 2012 Marketplace Advisory Committee. The Visitor Information Center staff distributed 95,127 brochures and welcomed 4,080 guests to the Visitor Information Center. Destination Services provided information and registration assistance to eight groups representing 5,808 delegates. The Convention Center booked 29 future groups representing 9,875 attendees and had $58,575 in total sales. The Palace Arts Center booked 17 future groups representing 4,280 attendees and had $18,141 in total sales. The Concourse booked six future groups representing 575 attendees and had $7,785 in total sales. The website had 108,108 unique visitors, a 19% increase over last year. There were 3,892,562 hits, a 27% over last year. The total advertising investment was $39,547 including 16 convention group insertions, one leisure group insertion, eight online group insertions, 33 consumer publications insertions, 300 TV/ radio runs, and 60 online leisure advertising insertions. Print publicity for the month was $97,584 and electronic publicity was $49,005. Board of Directors Meeting March 24, 2011 Page 3 of 4 HOTELS / ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES Mr. Kakos reported: • Legoland Discovery Center will officially open on Wednesday, March 30th and the anticipated opening of Sealife Aquarium is July 1. • 19th Annual Blessing of the Vines and New Vintage Wine and Gallery Trail is April 8 and 9. There will be Jazz Wine Trains on Friday and Saturday nights and the trail is on Saturday. • Quantas will begin service out of DFW and will be a key gateway to trade and tourism from the south Pacific. The flight will operate four days a week and will begin on May 16th • Our Face Book page has 2,569 fans and our typical fan is a female who lives in Dallas or Richardson and likes Starbucks, the Texas Rangers, and Chick-Fil-A. • Grapevine had four hotel properties in the top 50 Texas Rev Par listing for 2010. They are the Grand Hyatt, Gaylord Texan, Embassy Suites and Great Wolf Lodge. • Texas Star Dinner Theater will open on Thursday, March 31st with regular shows on Friday and Saturday. Price is $55 plus tax. The theater is located in the building at the corner of Main and Dallas Road. • On Saturday, March 19th, auditions were held at the Lancaster Theater for NBC's Minute to Win It game show. Approximately 500 people auditioned. We received multiple coverage on NBC channel 5 over the weekend. • On Sunday, March 20th HGTV had a camera crew doing filming in Grapevine for an episode of My First Sale. • Several Grapevine businesses made the Colleyville Courier and Grapevine Courier Best of the Best lists. • Spring Into Nash event will be held on Saturday, April 2nd at Nash Farm from 10 a.m. to noon. • Edith's Follies will be held at the Palace Theatre in June. • Two certificate of appropriateness cases passed the Historic Preservation Commission this month. GRAPEVINE VINTAGE RAILROAD REPORT Mr. McCallum reported that the Grapevine Vintage Railroad shut down for six weeks at the beginning of the year and resumed service with Sweetheart Express in February. During this down time rebuilds were made on most of the equipment. Puffy, engine 2248, repairs have become more difficult and costly than expected. We are waiting on a bid to complete work to put Puffy back in service with the goal to have her back in service this summer. A new generator has been installed in coach 208; this single generator has enough power to run the entire consist. A third coach is being air- conditioned. Spring Break saw five days of"sold out" runs. Day Out With Thomas is this weekend and next with presales running ahead of last year's pace. We are expecting record numbers. Board of Directors Meeting March 24, 2011 Page 4 of 4 LIAISON UPDATES Chamber of Commerce Activities Paul Slechta invited everyone to the ribbon cutting for the Thompson Group this evening at Classic Chevrolet on 121. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the board, LuAnn Chapman Gatts made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Tom Cherry. Motion carried. ATTEST: DATE: