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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-19 Regular Meeting CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS GRAPEVINE CONVENTION &VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, October 19, 2017 — 8:00 a.m. CVB Headquarters 636 S. Main Street Grapevine, Texas AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 3. LIAISON UPDATES A. HERITAGE FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES B. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTIVITIES 4. SALES & MARKETING REPORT A. GRAPEFEST SALES FAMS B. 2018 SALES MISSIONS C. 2018 TRADE SHOWS D. 2018 SISTER CITY MISSIONS 5. OLD BUSINESS A. GRAPEFEST REPORT B. DON BIGBIE AWARD NOMINATIONS C. STORAGE TRACK STATUS REPORT 6. NEW BUSINESS A. GRANTS-IN-AID REQUEST 7. HOTELS /ATTRACTIONS /ACTIVITIES 8. ADJOURNMENT IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND THIS SPECIAL PUBLIC MEETING AND YOU 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 13TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 2017 BY 5:00 P.M. IP V Li +y Bell Assistant to th; Executive Director State of Texas County of Tarrant City of Grapevine MINUTES The Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Directors met in Regular Session on Thursday, October 19, 2017 at 8:00 a.m. at the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau, 636 South Main Street, Grapevine, Texas with the following persons in attendance: Jim Quinn Board Member Dan Weinberger Board Member Mark Terpening Board Member Debi Meek Alternate Board Member Constituting a quorum, with the following liaisons and staff members present: Becky Hummer Heritage Foundation Liaison Theresa Mason Chamber of Commerce Liaison Paul W. McCallum Executive Director Paula Newman Managing Director, Administration/Operations Brady Glasson Managing Director, Sales/Marketing Lindy Bell Assistant to the Executive Director Absent: Joe Szymaszek Board Member - Chair Cynthia Blankenship Board Member Keith Spinden Board Member Iain Scouller Board Member Sharron Spencer Council Liaison CALL TO ORDER Acting on behalf of Board Chair, Joe Szymaszek, Board Member Mark Terpening called the meeting to order at 8:04 a.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion was made by Dan Weinberger, seconded by Jim Quinn to approve minutes from the September 21 st, 2017 meeting. Motion prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Terpening, Meek, Weinberger and Quinn Nays: None Board of Directors Meeting October 19, 2017 Page 2 of 7 LIAISON UPDATES Heritage Foundation Activities Becky Hummer reported final edits are being completed on the 2018 Grapevine Heritage Foundation calendar and final touches are being made on the 2017 Candlelight Tour of Homes scheduled for Saturday, November 4th. Docents for the Candlelight Tour are still needed if anyone knows someone interested. A special thank you was expressed to Debi Meek for her volunteerism. The Foundation's Annual Meeting for the membership will be Thursday, November 91h, at Nash Farm. The 2017 National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference will be in Chicago and several Foundation and Preservation Commission members will be attending. Nash Farm Ms. Hummer reported the Second Annual Barn Dance was a sell out and great success. The Fall Round -Up was the following day, Saturday, and hosted approximately 2,300 guests. The Round Up was an agricultural fair -themed event. The last butterfly release of Butterfly Flutterby was held at the Farm. A special thank you was extended to the event's generous sponsors. Bewitched by the Barn storytelling will take place Saturday, October 21st. Cider and popcorn will be served. First Friday at the Farm will be held November 3rd and will feature "campfire cooking." The Campfire Cooking Heritage Workshop will be November 4th, from 10:00 a.m. — 2:00 p.m. with a registration fee of $35 per person. December 18t will be the First Friday Christmas decorating workshop. Victorian Christmas will be Saturday, December 2nd where guests will experience traditional Christmas celebrations. Parlor sociables will be held December 14th featuring parlor games and conversation with light refreshments. Chamber of Commerce Theresa Mason reported on several Chamber activities and upcoming events. The current week has been declared Chamber of Commerce Week by Texas Governor Abbott. Several events have been held highlighting the Chamber's involvement and contributions. The Chamber's monthly Membership Luncheon is scheduled for this date with Matt Feryan of the Grapevine Fire Department speaking on business emergency preparedness in case of natural disasters. State Representative Giovanni Capriglioni will be speaking at the Legislative Breakfast scheduled for Friday, October 20th. The Alumni group has an event scheduled at the Flag Plaza from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. this date. Board of Directors Meeting October 19, 2017 Page 3 of 7 The North Texas Job Fair is scheduled for Wednesday, October 251h• The 251h annual Chamber Chili Cook -Off is scheduled for November 14th at Classic Chevrolet. Plans are still in the works for the Grapevine Chamber to adopt a South Texas Chamber in lieu of Hurricane Harvey. Ms. Hummer and Ms. Mason both left the meeting at 8:15 a.m SALES & MARKETING REPORT Mr. Closson reported that for October, the convention and leisure sales team had 75 sales leads with 112,000 potential room nights and a potential economic impact of $54 million. 32 groups have been booked representing 50,000 room nights with an economic impact of $29 million. There were 6 site inspections representing approximately 7,000 room nights and $2.5 million potential economic impact. The Visitor Information Center, Settlement to City and Depot welcomed 42,635 guests. Over 219,000 brochures were distributed locally, statewide and nationally. Destination Services assisted 10 groups representing 9,000 attendees with an economic impact of over $9 million. Grapevine visitor shuttle ridership for September was approximately 4,400 with an economic impact of $4.6 million annual economic impact. The Convention Center, Palace Arts Center and Concourse hosted a combined 56 events and booked 52 new definites with an economic impact of $937,000. The website welcomed almost 271,000 unique visitors in September. Top pages visited were GrapeFest with 78,000 sessions, GrapeFest Information with 31,000 sessions, GrapeFest Purchase Page with 15,700 sessions and CCOT/North Pole Express with 13,500 sessions. The Grapevine Vintage Railroad had a total of 26 excursions for a September ridership of over 3,600. For marketing, there were six print trade publication insertions. Print consumer publications had 17 insertions representing 2.2 million circulating impressions. There were 3,769 TV and radio spots representing 31 hours and 29 minutes' promotion of GrapeFest. Board of Directors Meeting October 19, 2017 Page 4 of 7 Online advertising realized 120,000 impressions. Online consumer advertising realized over 9 million impressions. Communications generated 14 press releases No action was taken by the Board. GrapeFest Sales Fams Mr. Closson reported a total of five meeting planners and guests participated in the GrapeFest sales fams. As a result, two programs are being worked as potential bookings: the National Guard Association and Pike Leadership. In addition, five guests from China attended an international sales fam including a representative from East/ West China who assisted in making posts and translating. They are known as "KOL's" (Key Opinion Leaders) in China. While in Grapevine, attendees were able to experience many facets of not just GrapeFest but other Grapevine venues. With use of WE Chat, the equivalent of Facebook, they were able post from Grapevine about their experiences and received a total of 5.7 million views. All expressed an interest in returning to Grapevine. Metrics will continue to be up -dated as numbers are available. 2018 Sales Missions/Trade Shows Mr. Closson informed the Board of planned sales missions and trade shows to multiple destinations including Austin, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Colorado Springs, Nashville and Minneapolis. The West Coast will be the geographic area highlighted this year. Board members were asked to save the dates of March 16th -18th for the 30th Annual St. Patrick's Day sales mission focusing on the New York/New Jersey market. Travel will be Thursday and returning Sunday. The focus of the event is mainly a trade show with participating hotels providing an exhibit promoting their venue. Hotel general managers and one or more sales managers typically attend. With the 17th falling on a Saturday this year, it enables meeting planners to bring their family to the event. This gives exhibiting hotels access to families otherwise not available. Those wishing to go earlier to accompany sales team members on sales calls in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey sales calls were invited to attend. Sister City Missions Mr. Closson announced that that the West Lothian Sister City mission will be July 30th _ August 6th and the mission to Parras de la Fuente will be August 8th —11th 2018 Board members were asked to let Naomi Saenz know of their interest to participate in either or both missions. Board of Directors Meeting October 19, 2017 Page 5 of 7 OLD BUSINESS GrapeFest Mr. McCallum reported on the 31St Annual GrapeFest — A Wine Experience, presented by Bank of the West. Festival attendees totaled 268,197. Featured winery regions were Finger Lakes, New York and Niagara -on -the -Lake, Canada. Both region's wines were extremely popular with new records set in the amount of wine served. Several pre -Festival events were hosted included four tasting events at various restaurants The GrapeFest Golf Classic hosted 76 golfers with proceeds benefiting the A.J. Harper Scholarship Fund for area students. The 14th Annual ItalianCarFest attracted 2,500 Visitors; proceeds will benefit Nash Farm. The Texas Wine Tribute was held Saturday, September 8th. Lost Oak Winery and Brennan Vineyard were this year's Tall in Texas recipients. Auction proceeds benefited MetroPort Meals on Wheels. Featured wine regions of Finger Lakes and Niagara -on -the -Lake participated in the international wine tasting pavilion while the People's Choice Wine Tasting Classic had a participation from 39 Texas wineries. Over 7,380 tickets were sold for the People's Choice event. The lower number was a result of the temporary relocation to the CVB parking lot due to ongoing TEX Rail construction. KidsWorld, LEGOLand experienced a substantial number of festival participants. The Mayoral Grape Stomp consisted of 15 teams with the winning duo coming from Wilmer, TX producing 38.5 ounces of juice. The GrapeStomp overall winners were three -time husband and wife defending champions from Dallas. The GrapeFest Tennis Classic had 350 registered participants. The Champagne Cork Shoot had 54 participants; winning distance was 109'. Grapevine Mills Main Stage featured many popular acts as well as the 11 -member Folk Music Group from West Lothian, Scotland. 32 civic and service groups volunteered for the Festival and checks totaling more than $250,000 will be presented to each organization. No action was taken by the Board. Legends of Grapevine Tourism & Hospitality Award Mr. McCallum presented the criteria for eligibility for the award. The names of Jerry Delaney and Cathee Livingood were submitted to the Board for consideration as 2018 inductees. Discussion regarding eligibility for each candidate was heard by the Board Motion was made by Dan Weinberger, seconded by Debi Meek to accept the names of Jerry Delaney and Cathee Livingood as presented. Motion prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Terpening, Meek, Weinberger and Quinn Nayes: None Board of Directors Meeting October 19, 2017 Page 6 of 7 Storage Track Status Report Mr. McCallum reported that the TEXRail storage track is 80% complete. It is not connected to the main line per Federal Railroad Authority guidelines. 700' of track is required for delivery of the new TEXRail cars being manufactured by Stadler. Schematic drawings of the plaza, station, parking garage and hotel project approved by the City Council were shown to the Board. The garage will open in 2018 as well as acceptance of the first paying TEXRail customers. The hotel and station are planned to open June 2019. The hotel will be a Marriott Autograph level hotel. The Convention and Visitors Bureau will control the scheduling of the Plaza as well as entry to the 150' tower. Construction on Dallas Road is based on a $3.5 million grant from the Council of Governments. Completion will lag behind the rest of the construction project. NEW BUSINESS Grants In Aid Request The End of the Runway Players submitted a request for a grant in the amount of $25,000 for their 2017-2018 production season. Discussion was held by the Board regarding the significant contributions the theater makes to Grapevine. Motion was made by Jim Quinn and seconded by Debi Meek to approve the request. Ayes: Quinn, Meek, Weinberger and Terpening Nays: None Debi Meek left the meeting at 9:30 a.m. HOTELS/ATTRACTIONS ACTIVITIES Mr. Closson reported, as mentioned previously, the hotel, station and parking garage will be completed mid -2019. CVENT, a supplier platform where RFP's are submitted electronically, lists the top 50 meeting destinations by request. Grapevine is in the number 23 spot among the top 50 for 2017. Ranking is based on 5,000 sleeping rooms in CVENT which puts Grapevine among the top destinations competing with larger destinations of 15,000 to 20,000 rooms. Mr. Closson pointed out the new collateral pieces provided for the Board including GVRR's Witch's Brew train on October 27th, Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown exhibit in the Tower Gallery from November 11th — 16th, as well as the CCOT rack card. Jim Quinn up -dated the Board on the expansion at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center. 100 rooms will come on-line May 1st, 2018, 200 rooms May 22nd, and the full facility will be open June 12th. It's a total additional 303 rooms. Board of Directors Meeting October 19, 2017 Page 7 of 7 ADJOURNMENT Next meeting of the Board will be November 16th. There being no further business to come before the Board, a motion was made by Dan Weinberger and seconded by Jim Quinn to adjourn the meeting at 9:39 a.m. Motion prevailed by the following vote: Ayes: Quinn, Meek, Weinberger and Terpening Nays: None PASSED AND APPROVED BY THE GRAPEVINE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CITY OF GRAPEVINE, TEXAS ON THIS 16TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 2017. ATTEST: Lindy Bell Assistant to the Mecutive Director