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Home My WebLink About2016-02-18 Regular MeetingState of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met in Regular Session on Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. at the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau, 636 South Main Street, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Joe Szymaszek Chairman Dan Weinberger Board Member Iain Scouller Board Member Mark Terpening Board Member Cynthia Blankenship Board Member Constituting a quorum, with the following liaisons and staff members present: Balla Wright Heritage Foundation Liaison Steve Haley Chamber of Commerce Liaison Jack Bateman Managing Director, Sales & Marketing Paula Newman Managing Director, Administration/Operations Lindy Bell Assistant to the Executive Director Absent: Jim Quinn Board Member Keith Spinden Board Member Debi Meek Alternate Board Member Sharron Spencer Council Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director CALL TO ORDER Chairman Szymaszek called the meeting to order at 8:02 a.m APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion made by Cynthia Blankenship, seconded by Dan Weinberger to approve minutes from the January 14, 2016 meeting prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Szymaszek, Terpening, Weinberger, Blankenship, Scouller, Nays: None Board of Directors Meeting February 18, 2016 Page 2 of 5 LIAISON UPDATES Heritage Foundation Activities Balla Wright reported the Spring into Nash committee met February 9th to start planning 95th Annual Spring into Nash event April 16th. Dedication of orchard will be made in honor of Bobby Flanagan's years of volunteer service. Nash Farm The Frugal Farm Wife program is scheduled for Friday, February 19th and the Bread Making teaching session is scheduled for Saturday, February 20th Paula Newman reported Cody Jolliff has been identified as the new Nash Farm Manager with a projected start date of March 7th. Mr. Jolliff has an extensive historical background. The Palace Arts Center The movie, "RENT", will be shown Friday, February for $6.00 admission. Chamber of Commerce Steve Haley reported the Chamber held a successful Community Awards Banquet January 28th. The Women's Chamber Luncheon has recently been held and the Business Institute Quorum is well underway focusing on 20-40 year old leaders. Police Chief Salame is the speaker at the monthly membership luncheon scheduled for February 18th SALES & MARKETING REPORT Mr. Bateman reported the convention sales team had 78 leads with 78,000 potential room nights and a potential economic impact of $32,800,000. They assisted with 11 definite group meetings representing 17,000 room nights and a potential economic impact of $17,000,000. The team had 10 sales appointments and participated in two tradeshows RCMA which result in a potential site visit for Hyatt DFW in addition to several other leads. 70-80 planners visited the Grapevine CVB booth. The Southwest Showcase in Austin was attended, meeting with over 50 meeting planners resulting in 7 RFP's with 4,900 room nights and a potential economic impact of $1.9 million. Leisure sales generated three new leads, two with Luxy Development and one with Jamboree Travels, representing 25 room nights and an economic impact of $6,840. International sales team is currently working on a China FAM with Active America China, consisting of 200 agents taking place March 17th. Participation in the 1811 annual Austin Home and Garden Show as well as Oklahoma Garden Show. One FAM representing Texas Tourism in Europe was hosted; group was touring major Texas cities. Board of Directors Meeting February 18, 2016 Page 3 of 5 Participated in the ABA show in Louisville, KY, represented by Daniel Horsch. Attended the TACVB Mid -Winter Conference in Beaumont. Several seminars were attended including "Do's and Don'ts of Successful Content Marketing", "Measuring Impact of Social Media" and "10 Things About Mobile Every DMD Should Know". Sister City - Paula Newman reported that Maureen Baricelli has been identified as the new Sister Cities Development Manager and National Leisure Sales with a start date of February 22nd Destination Services distributed over 71,000 brochures in January and welcomed 5,000 guests to the Visitor Information Center, Settlement to City and the Depot. Destination Services assisted four groups representing over 3,500 attendees with information and registration assistance and a potential economic impact of $2,000,000. Visitor shuttles continue to increase in ridership carrying 5,200 passengers in January versus 3,900 prior year. Shuttles created an economic impact over $1.4M. The Convention Center booked 27 future groups representing 10,000 attendees and had an economic impact of $134,000. The Palace Arts Center booked 23 future groups representing 3,700 attendees with an economic impact of $55,000. The Concourse booked eight future groups representing 490 attendees with an economic impact of $17,000. The Grapevine Vintage Railroad was closed for the month of January due to annual maintenance. The web site had 59,000 unique visitors with over 26,000 reaching through a mobile device. For the calendar year, visitor traffic was up 11 % and unique visitor traffic up by 10%. For marketing, there were eight print trade publications, all group related, 120,000 online impressions including CVENT, Association Forum, and Texas Meetings and Events sites. There were 20 print consumer publications insertions and 13 spots on Penny Gilley show airing on RFD TV. Online advertising had 491,000 impressions such as Facebook and Tour Texas.com. Public relations print value was more than $800,000 representing over 2,700,000 circulation impressions and electronic ad value was $32,000 generating 215,000 audience impressions and with continual impressions was able to reach other markets. Highlights included KXAS TV — Gaylord Expansion, KFOR-TV LEGOLAND Discovery Center and KTXA — Grapevine Wine Tours. No action taken by the Board Board of Directors Meeting February 18, 2016 Page 4 of 5 OLD BUSINESS Shuttle Shelter Up -Date Paula Newman reported that three structures were set to be installed next week but may be delayed for electrical lines to be added for security lights. Locations are Uncle Buck's, Bob's Steak and Chophouse and Saltgrass. Additional structures are being planned and will be located in the Historic Downtown area following appropriate discussions with property owners. No action taken by the Board. NEW BUSINESS New York Mission & City Wide Convention Status Brady Closson presented plans for the 28th annual New York City St. Patrick's Day mission scheduled for March 17th. Two events for area meeting and event planners, including a wine -themed dinner and reception, are scheduled at the 21 Club located in the Mid -Town area. Brady Closson provided an overview of the upcoming "Mission Possible" comprehensive direct mail campaign. The themed campaign will targets a pre- determined group of 300 meeting planners who typically plan meetings for groups falling into the range of "city-wide" being defined as groups that book rooms across any three or more Grapevine hotels. Spanning 90 days, three unique and distinctive direct mail pieces will be sent with direct connection to their designated CVB sales manager. No action taken by the Board HOTELSIATTRACTIONS ACTIVITES Jack Bateman reported the Gaylord -announced expansion of 300 more rooms including 86,000 square feet of additional carpeted meeting space. GameStop announced their working with Insomniac Games for release of upcoming underwater set adventure, "Song of the Deep". Mercedes announced the building of a parts distribution center and technician training center which will bring 150-200 technicians to Grapevine weekly. Gateway Classic Cars has opened a new showroom on Mustang Drive rotating display of over 100 classic cars at a time. It is billed as "Dallas Showroom". American Airlines is working on a code share revenue program with South America and Latin Airlines groups with flights between the United States and Canada, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Board of Directors Meeting January 14, 2016 Page 5 of 5 The new archery range at Rock Ledge Park is in the final stages with no construction start date set. Unsure of opening of Vineyards Lake Park due to 2015 flooding. Parks and Rec are hopeful lake levels will return to normal by Memorial Day. New air walls have been installed at the Convention Center. Additional security lighting have been placed in the downtown public areas for night visitors. Fireworks will be held this summer but location has not been determined. Anticipate July Fourth fireworks being held at Lake Grapevine pending lake levels and crowd public safety concerns. Coca-Cola has signed a 10 -year contract with DFW Airport replacing Pepsi who had been provider since 1995. New dining space at Main Street Bakery was well done and has been well received. Brady Closson read an e-mail to the Board from new Grapevine resident, Autumn Hunt, expressing her appreciation for the outstanding customer service experienced at the new Farmers Market. ADJOURNMENT Next meeting to be held March 24th. There being no further business to come before the Board, a motion by Cynthia Blankenship and seconded by Dan Weinberger to adjourn the meeting at 8:48 a.m. prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Weinberger, Szymaszek, Terpening, Blankenship, Scouller Nays: None PASSED AND APPROVED BY THE GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS ON THIS 24th DAY OF MARCH, 2016. ROVED: n ATTEST: 4�V�Y.�Z U Lindy Bell Assistant to the xecutive Director