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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1.a. 2014-09_03 CSE Minutes DRAFT Final MINUTES: COMMISSION ON SPECIAL EVENTS MEETING Vail Town Council Chambers Wednesday, September 3, 2014 @ 8:30 a.m. CSE Members Present: Jeff Andrews Bobby Bank @ 8:50 a.m. Amy Cassidy Barry Davis Rayla Kundolf Nicole Whitaker CSE Member Absent: Mark Gordon Town of Vail Staff Present: Sybill Navas, CSE Coordinator Kelli McDonald, Economic Development Manager Others Present: Laura Waniuk, Event Liaison Margaret Rogers, Vail Town Council Missy Johnson, Highline Clare Hefferren, Callosum Joel Rabinowitz, VRD (Vail Recreation District) Bill Mattison, Kids Adventure Games Helene Mattison, Kids Adventure Games Beth Pappas, VRD Cynthia Bruggeman, Speckled Hound Racing Carl Bruggeman, Speckled Hound Racing Davy Ratchford, VLMDAC (Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council) Beth Slifer, VLMDAC Skip Thurnauer, VLMDAC Dale Bugby, VLMDAC Michael Holton, VLMDAC Lauren Mullen, VLMDAC Jamie Gunion, VLMDAC Meeting Materials can be accessed at: http://www.vailgov.com/WebLink8/0/fol/309851/Row1.aspx CSE Chair, Barry Davis , called the meeting to order at 8:33 a.m. Administrative Items • Approval of the Minutes of the CSE Regular Meeting of August 6, 2014  Motion to approve the minutes of the CSE meeting of August 6, 2014, as presented. M/S/P: Kundolf/Andrews/Unanimous- The motion passed 5-0. Bank had not yet arrived. • Review Financial Status • Vail PD/Vail Fire: Potential for Obstacle Course competition w/neighboring community first responders • Reminder: Joint Meeting with VEAC: September 9th, 8:00 a.m. at Antlers Update on marketing efforts for summer events: Laura Waniuk Overview presented updates about Vail Oktoberfest and Vail’s Top Shelf Harvest marketing efforts. Clare Hefferren spoke briefly regarding Top Shelf Harvest and stated that they had hired a Front Range PR firm. Please see presentation for further information. Event Recaps FEAST!: Highline/Missy Johnson Hitting its stride in this second year; sponsorships and the intimate setting, improved PR with the focus on local chefs made it a great event. Enhanced programming helped make the event more interesting and diverse. Whitaker questioned the data showing the high cost of rooms. Johnson stated that the $340/night was pulled from the survey. Kundolf asked about P&L and lack of sponsorship and how to grow the sponsorship for future years. Andrews stated that the Friday night event was very well attended and the chefs from Denver were an added benefit. Johnson said that initial planning includes assessing the chef’s social media success. Andrews also questioned the number of room nights and it seemed incorrect, too high. Johnson mentioned that they follow the survey results, but are not lodging experts. Highline would like to work together with the CSE to get more specific hotel room night numbers. Cassidy stated that the event was very intimate and it was a good atmosphere to talk and interact with people. The competition also helped the atmosphere. Whitaker had a question regarding where the stats were for Highline’s Feast! website, particularly for the number of unique visitors. Johnson will check into this. Vail America Days: Highline Recap rescheduled for the October CSE meeting. Kids Adventure Games: Vail Recreation District/Beth Pappas accompanied by Helene and Bill Mattison Pappas began by reading a positive email received from one of the parents. She stated that “Vail is on the map for family events”. The event was 5 days long and was sold out. Intercept study and survey was overall positive. There were a few comments to improve the courses and the schedule for the little kids. The addition of the mud run provided opportunity for greater participation from families and out of town guests. Area for improvement is the dirty fountains, next time there will be a solution for other ways for competitors clean up. Potential idea for next year could be the slip n’ slide would help with the cleaning. Andrews mentioned that next year’s event could also extend into Lionshead; activation starts and finishes. Kundolf stated that the event was super successful and the challenges can be overcome for next year. Rogers stated that this event is a very significant event for Gen-X’ers, their families and the groups we are trying to attract. Navas noted that traffic and safety issues on Sunday between the buses and the Farmers’ Market and the event interface need to be addressed as part of next year’s planning. Ideas include coning lanes, having more volunteers and tweaking the timing of some of the race elements. Bank stated that the CSE expects that the event will continue to be elevated in quality every year. The event has grown significantly. Pappas stated that Jason Roberts, Intercept Insight, provided the survey service. Vail Valor Races: Speckled Hound Racing/Cynthia and Carl Bruggeman This was the second year of the race. The local promoters reached out to FEAST! for co- promotion opportunities. CSE funding was used for advertising and race day staging. It was a great community event, and very meaningful for the runners, and showed 20% growth vs. last year. For the next year they are planning to partner with another hotel. The event donated $1500 to the local Vail Veterans program. The Bruggemans’ would like to see this event be marketed better, and next year they would like expand that effort outside of Colorado. They also feel that they can attract a much larger out of state crowd. For 2015 they are reaching out to sponsors. Kundolf encouraged them to report their sponsors that provided in-kind contributions. Bruggeman stated that the inclusion of dogs was popular and they plan to have a similar “Yappy Hour” event next year. There is a story to be told in the combination of the first responders’ event, dog run and half marathon on Memorial Day weekend.  Motion to approve the recap for FEAST! Highline and release the final funding disbursement.* M/S/P: Andrews/Cassidy/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0.  Motion to approve the recap for Kids Adventure Games and release the final funding disbursement.* M/S/P: Andrews/Cassidy/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0.  Motion to approve the recap for Vail Valor Races and release the final funding disbursement.* M/S/P: Andrews/Cassidy/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0. JOINT MEETING WITH THE VLMDAC Review Competitive Assessment Report and “Sustaining Vail’s Economic Health” presentation to Town Council on August 19 by Chris Cares from RRC: Margaret Rogers to lead discussion. Rogers reviewed overall topics, demographics, challenges, event venues, redevelopment plans and potentially free up the land to potentially build a new facility. Look to the future but not forget the Baby Boomers. We are not really sure what Millennials want. The focus can be on specific characteristics. Slifer mentioned in the RRC research that the word “resort” sounds old and stodgy. It was also mentioned that there is an opportunity to become the town with the “best connected” technology. Ratchford said that he thinks that we’re all aligned in adding the Millennial target to our existing demographics. Davis talks about the horizontal appeal to Millennials and the vertical marketing opportunity. Kundolf discussed the needs and experiences for the Millennials and how they have not evolved as much as the previous generations. Ratchford stated that some type of strategy and measurement needs to be developed. What are our goals and objectives in shifting our minds to Millennials and Gen-Xers? What are our goals, for example: types of events, more quantity of events, what stats, deliverables and results do we want? Vail Resorts data is skewing towards younger groups, which is the reverse of a lot of other resorts. Example is last year’s “Decimo” event at the 10th. Vail Resorts created nightlife where there was a need, and will expand upon it in the upcoming season. Andrews stated that we have a very affluent core currently; we should work on building the future core group of people. Focus on the Millennials or Gen-Xers who are already on their way to being that demographic. Ratchford stated that there are some issues that come with these events. This specific group for Spring Back was invited and they attended. The town has to be prepared for the impacts of these specific events. Spring Back event was a phenomenal event, town was packed, and revenue was received. Is there a high end version of the “Spring Back” event? Ratchford stated that there are intellectual events that are very popular, such as “TeD”. Slifer mentioned that events drive vibrancy in the town and the CSE program has grown and is successful. Ratchford stated that we have events that are cross-generational right now. McDonald mentioned that there may be some town requirements that need to be discussed to enable nightlife to be more robust. Based on our guest profile, the town restaurants need to stay open later. Davis mentioned that there is a question about “who do we want to be?” How should the Vail brand represented. Andrews mentioned that there aren’t a lot of après activities. Slifer mentioned that nightlife has to have a place and a balance. Thurnaeur stated that there exists opportunity for after event activities, for example after Bravo concert. Mullen stated that we have to be careful not to get caught up in “chasing” a new audience. How does the CSE understand which events are a good fit for Vail? CSE members do consider all the various research in making decisions to make sure they stay the course. We are not going to completely change our focus from the core principles and offerings that Vail possesses. Bugby stated that the common denominator is the active and affluent quality of Millennials and Gen-Xers. Slifer stated that we are trying to add a layer of approaching the event for different and additional targets Town Council focus based on RRC research: 1) Adding event infrastructure 2) EGE airport 3) Mitigate I-70 issue Bugby stated that there could be potential for creating or utilizing a specific space to create more night life. He mentioned that it might have been good to start the Bluegrass concerts later in the evening. Holton mentioned that a lot of our events are “me” focused. One answer is to change the focus to be more group-focused or cause related. It might be interesting to adopt the morals and qualities of the target group. For example, social issues, community growth and crowdsourcing are ways to increase our market share and appeal. Review and approve final RFP for posting on September 5 Discuss: Focus for dates, particular type of event or specific target as identified in the previous discussion Introduction by Navas of the RFP Information Letter: What type of events do we want to target, given what we want to target right now? • Ratchford said that it’s too narrow of a focus. Open it up to where promoters feel comfortable to present new ideas • The basics: Drive overnight attendance and add the younger demographic. • Remove health and well being bullet from info Ratchford said the event pool is too small; we need to go out to the world, open it up and get some unique, fresh ideas. It’s healthy to look at those repeat events and figure out how much we fund them. Bugby stated that we need to take a look at other towns and what their successful events are. Slifer mentioned that we need to reach out and recruit. Consider how to grow events to become an iconic level. Andrews suggested a re-write of the RFP intro paragraph and sent it to Navas for updating the introduction attachment. Snowdaze & Holidaze planning details are in progress.  Motion to approve the RFP for distribution on Friday, September 5. M/S/P: Andrews/Cassidy/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0. New Business and Community Input None Adjournment @ 11:00 a.m.  Motion to adjourn meeting M/S/P: Andrews/Kundolf/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0. Upcoming Meetings: Joint meeting with VEAC Tuesday, September 9 @ 8:00 a.m. CSE Regular Meeting: Wednesday, October 1 @ 8:30 a.m. Vail Town Council Chambers