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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-05-16 Regular MeetingCITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, May 16, 2024 — 8:00 a.m. CVB Headquarters Boardroom 636 S. Main Street Grapevine, Texas AGENDA 1. Call to Order 2. Citizen Comments Any person who is not scheduled on the agenda may address the Convention & Visitors Bureau Board under Citizen Comments or on any other agenda item by completing a Citizen Appearance Request form with staff. A member of the public may address the CVBB regarding an item on the agenda either before or during the Board's consideration of the item, upon being recognized by the Board Chair or upon consent of the CVBB. In accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, the CVBB is restricted in discussing or taking action during Citizen Comments. 3. Approval of Minutes 4. Sales & Marketing Report A. Sales Trade Shows and Conferences B. Media Report 5. Ongoing Business A. 40th Annual Main Street Fest a. Main Street Fest Meeting Planner FAM b. Main Street Fest Leisure Sales FAM 6. New Business A. Barossa Mission Spring 2025 B. Meeting Planner and Tour Operator Videos 7. Liaison / Hotels / Attractions — Updates A. Liaison Updates 8. Adjournment If you plan to attend this special public meeting and have a disability that requires special arrangements at the meeting, please contact the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau at (817) 410-3185 at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting. Reasonable accommodations will be made to assist your needs. In accordance with Texas Government Code, Chapter 551.001 et seq, Acts of the 1993 Texas Legislature, the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Advisory Board Meeting agenda was prepared and posted on this the 1 Oth day of May, 2024 by 5:00 p.m. 40 /11j� B ky Roberson E �ecutive Assistant County of Tarrant City of Grapevine State of Texas MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met in Regular Session on Thursday, May 16, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. at the Stephen W. Stinson Boardroom of the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau, 636 S. Main Street, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Joe Szymaszek Mark Terpening Chuck Pacioni Debi Meek Mike Oakley Chairman Vice Chair Board Member Board Member Board Member Constituting a quorum, with the following liaisons and staff members present: Paul W. McCallum Executive Director Leigh Lyons Assistant Executive Director Becky Roberson Executive Assistant Leon Leal Council Liaison Kelly Schwartz Chamber Liaison Absent: Dan Weinberger, Matthew Brink, Cynthia Blankenship and lain Scouller CALL TO ORDER Board Chairman, Joe Szymaszek, called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Board Chairman Szymaszek called for a motion to approve the minutes from the April 18, 2024 meeting. With a motion from Mike Oakley and seconded by Debi Meek, the minutes from the previous meeting were approved. SALES AND MARKETING REPORT Assistant Executive Director, Leigh Lyons, reported on trade shows and conventions attended during April. Joe Thompson and Tanja Nichols attended the Connect Trade Show April 1-4. It is a reverse tradeshow and networking opportunity with meeting planners from the Association, Corporate, Diversity and Sports segments. Mr. Thompson participated in the Association track with 38 appointments and Ms. Nichols participated in the Corporate track and had 36 appointments. They returned with three requests for proposals, two for 2026 and another for 2027. Altogether, these requests account for more than 5,400 room nights. Ms. Nichols attended Sports ETA Symposium and Marketplace April 22 — 24. This is the only trade association for sports events and the tourism industry. She held 32 one on one appointments resulting in two requests for proposals for new business. Ms. Nichols also partnered with 26 Sports Commissions and Convention and Visitors Bureaus to host the 3rd Annual Texas Tuesday Night event with 80 sports planners in attendance. Sports ETA released the new state of the industry report. A key takeaway was sports -related travel provided $52.2 billion in direct economic impact in 2023 with 200 million people traveling to amateur and collegiate events. Sports travel generated more than 73.5 million room nights in 2023 alone. Connie Ash attended the Conference Direct Annual Partners Meeting April 8 —10. Conference Direct is a third -party meeting planning organization. Ms. Ash met with 20 meeting planners during the show and returned with four potential requests for proposals spanning 2025 through 2027. One request has already been confirmed as a definite for 500 peak rooms. Four staff members attended at least one event of the 69th Annual Texas Travel Counselors Conference and Texas Travel Alliance Expo. This conference focuses on the travel counselors who work at the twelve Texas Travel Information Centers. This is an important audience as they help us get the word out about Grapevine for visitors coming into the state. In 2023, Texas Travel Information Centers served 1.19 million individuals coming into the state of Texas. The conference consists of trade show and educational sessions. Grapevine CVB staff has attended and presented at this event for thirty eight years. Ms. Lyons shared the press releases from April. These covered a variety of topics including music headliners for the 40t" Annual Main Street Fest —A Craft Brew Experience presented by Bank of the West, Grapevine Main Live! concert series, Destination Grapevine Texas Women's Open, Congressional Art Show, solar eclipse coverage and more. The solar eclipse event held at Peace Plaza and other happenings throughout Grapevine received coverage from MSNBC, NBC Today Show, NBC Universal, NBC New York, and the Dallas Morning News Events Guide. Eclipse coverage Between television and digital markets, solar eclipse coverage had the potential reach of 268 million viewers. Community Impact highlighted New Vintage Wineries and Galleries Trail. The Dallas Morning News Events Guide showcased Spring Into Nash. Throughout April, staff hosted three travel writers. One writer was from Austin Food Magazine and another writes for Railway Age. The third travel writer was from Germany and writes articles for a variety of publications and sites. The Visit Grapevine website registered big bumps in April which are attributed to the total solar eclipse. 132,985 new users visited the site. Social media proved to be very strong in April. There were 1.9 million impressions on Facebook posts and 35 thousand likes, shares and comments. Instagram garnered 153 thousand impressions and two thousand likes, shares and comments. ONGOING BUSINESS Executive Director, Paul W. McCallum, reported that the Friday night headliner for the 40t" Annual Main Street Fest — A Craft Brew Experience presented by Bank of the West would be Texas Country Music Artist, Casey Donahew. The Saturday night headliner would be Deep Blue Something, famous for their song "Breakfast at Tiffany's". He shared that the Sales Team would host several meeting planners for the festival weekend. He explained that festivals drive weekend hotel business and often inspire return visits. Hosting familiarization tours during festivals has proven to be a unique and successful avenue to showcase all that Grapevine has to offer potential clients. One meeting planner that will attend this festival is working with a group of car enthusiasts specifically looking at 2026 or 2027 for a large gathering. Another meeting planner representing a group that operates 10-100 annual meetings is looking at Grapevine for a meeting in September or October. Five additional meeting planners would join the familiarization tour in search of meeting venues ranging from 2024 through 2030. An International and Leisure familiarization tour is already underway. Heather Egan is hosting three Australia travel agents who were top performers in booking flights to the USA on American Airlines this past year. Australia, like much of the world, requires retail travel agents to book international travel. Director McCallum thanked the board members for their role in the familiarization tours. NEW BUSINESS Director McCallum shared that a mission to Barossa Australia was in the initial planning phase. In partnership with Grapevine Colleyville Independent School District, staff is working on building an official delegation to go to Barossa in the spring of 2025. Dates and program outline are still being discussed. The intention of this mission is to continue to build the relationship between the two sister cities and solidify the educational component highlighting the arts, agricultural and STEM programs within the local school systems in both Grapevine and Barossa. He reported that in the coming weeks, work will begin on new Meeting Planner and Tour Operator videos for our team to use to book meetings, conventions and leisure travel groups, as the current videos require a refresh. Videos will be geared for high end operators and meeting planners as the market is indicating that we are geared towards growth for Texas and the Metroplex specifically. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS/ACTIVITI ES Kelly Schwartz, Grapevine Chamber of Commerce liaison, shared an update of recent and upcoming chamber events including Leadership Grapevine graduation, the waitlist for next Leadership Grapevine class and new monthly alumni mixers. Mrs. Lyons shared updates related to hotels and attractions. The Grand Hyatt has a new Director of Sales, Tyler Song and Hotel Vin also has a new Director of Sales, Michael Cole. Meow Wolf has a new Director of Marketing, Kyle Croegert. His background features various marketing roles with Ruth's Chris restaurants and Six Flags. For the second -consecutive year, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport has been named the best large airport in North America for customer service by Airports Council International World. The Airport Service Quality Award is based on third -party customer survey responses, and further validates Dallas Fort Worth International Airport's focus on providing an exceptional customer experience. Aloha Dreamers has now brought shaved ice to Chicken N Pickle and will be open Wednesday through Saturday. Buffalo Wild Wings has relocated next to Crush It! with the new location featuring 80 televisions and 30 beers on tap. Beth Marie's Ice Cream is now officially open in the space previously occupied by Buzzed Bull Creamery. Judy Pie has been nominated by USA Today as one of the top twenty pie shops in the United States. Voting was open through June 8 and participants could vote once per day. Meow Wolf has won Two National Webby Awards: The Webby Winner and People's Voice Winner in the category of Al, Metaverse & Virtual Best Installation or Experience. Webby Awards, often referred to as the Internet's highest honor, celebrate excellence including on websites and mobile sites, video, advertising, social, podcast and more. Meow Wolf is adding a custom mural to cover 100 parking spaces outside of the entrance. Whoa Zone's opening date has been pushed back to June 15 due to high lake levels. The Art of Mosaics Grapevine Show is now open in the Tower Gallery. The four week show features works of glass, pencil and oil artworks as well as interactive components. The show is set to run the entire month of May, including during Main Street Fest. And coming this summer is a family -friendly dinosaur activation appropriately named, All Tracks Lead to Grapevine. This large citywide program to educate the public about the dinosaur discoveries in Grapevine will include an exhibit in the Tower Gallery of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as activations at the Grapevine Library, local merchant, movies at the Palace Theatre, Grapevine Vintage Railroad and a dinosaur program at the Observation Tower in Grapevine Main. ADJOURNMENT Board Chairman Szymaszek called for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:54 a.m. Motion: Mark Terpening Second: Debi Meek Approved: 5-0 ATTEST: Becky Roberson APPROVED: r Joe Szymasz k Executive Assistant Chairman