HomeMy WebLinkAboutRecap of Input from COUNCIL MEETING JULY 20 2010
MEMORANDUM: To: Commission on Special Events From: Sybill Navas, Coordinator, Commission on Special Events (CSE) Date: August 4, 2010 RE: Review of the feedback received from the Town
Council at their work session on July 20, 2010, with respect to the following policies that have been developed to assist in the annual allocation of special event funding. Council Members
Present: Dick Cleveland, Andy Daly, Kevin Foley, Kim Newbury and Susie Tjossem. Kerry Donovan and Margaret Rogers were not present. Representing the CSE: Bobby Bank, Rayla Kundolf and
Sybill Navas, Coordinator. The mission of the Vail Commission on Special Events (CSE) is to support and assess a diverse collection of special events, both large and small, which promote
Vail's economic vitality, sense of community, and increase the quality of the experience for guests and residents year-round. 1. Evaluation Criteria: Should the CSE put more weight on
events that put “heads in beds” and that provide opportunities for leveraging outside sponsorships? · At the request of the VLMDAC, the CSE has changed the weighting of the categories
on the Special Event Rating Grid that is used as a tool to rank event funding applications, in order place a heavier value on these types of events. A copy of the “Criteria for Allocation
of CSE Funds” is attached. · The CSE also added to their mission statement the word “economic,” so as to read “… which promote Vail’s economic vitality…” Council members agreed that,
while they recognize the important role that ambient activities and community events play, the CSE’s primary focus should be destination events. Additionally, the following re-wording
of the mission was suggested for clarifying the intent of the statement: “……and increase the quality of the experience year-round for guests and residents.” 2. Should the CSE allocate
a portion of their budget to contract for independent, 3rd party intercept surveys at special events that receive public funding? · The CSE is unanimous in their opinion that monies
for intercept surveys at special events should not be taken from the total event funding budget. The cost of contracting the surveys would be equal to the support of at least one
major event, and most of the larger events are already contracting for these types of surveys in order to satisfy their sponsorship recruitment needs. There was also agreement on the
question of surveys. Council members all felt, as the CSE does, that the information from surveys would be beneficial, but not at the expense of one or two events. There was direction
to develop a survey template and have the VLMD contract for intercept surveys at all events receiving more than $20,000 in public funds. Andy Daly suggested that the CSE continue to
work at encouraging existing events to build outside sponsorships and be weaned from public funding once they are up and running-in order to free up the dollars to bring in new events.
3. How important is it to insure that event funding and/or event siting is equally distributed across the varying commercial districts in the Town of Vail, i.e. Vail Village, LionsHead,
Meadow Drive, Ford Park? · The CSE has worked to balance events across the community and believes that that each event should be measured on its own merits. The attached spreadsheet
shows the distribution of events and funding across the various venues in Vail. Council members agreed unanimously that events should be sited where they will have the most opportunity
for success. Kevin Foley expressed that the LionsHead business community continues to request that the TEVA Mountain Games hold some of the event’s activities in LionsHead. Navas assured
the Council that this issue has been discussed with the Vail Valley Foundation and that they have been strongly encouraged to consider how to grow the event into the LionsHead area,
without diluting the success of the event.