HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013_01_09 CSE Minutes CSE/Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 1 of 5
MINUTES:
Town of Vail: Commission on Special Events Meeting
The Grand View
Wednesday, January 9 @ 8:30 a.m.
CSE Members Present: Jenn Bruno
Amy Cassidy
Dave Chapin
Barry Davis
Sonny Kerstiens
Rayla Kundolf (**left at 9:45 a.m.)
CSE Member Absent: Bobby Bank (participated by telephone, did not vote)
TOV Staff Present: Sybill Navas, CSE Coordinator
Kelli McDonald, Economic Development Dept. Director
Lorelei Donaldson, Town Clerk
Matt Mire, Vail Town Attorney
Others Present: Adam Sutner, MKT Vail, LLC and Strategic Consultant to the CSE
Clare Hefferren, Callosum Creative, Ltd., and Economic
Development Assistant/Event-Marketing Liaison
Margaret Rogers, Vail Town Council Member
Andy Nulman, Just for Laughs
Robin Litt, Vail Jazz Festival
James Deighan and Missy Johnson, Highline
Mike Imhof and Scott Bluhm, Vail Valley Foundation
Cynthia Bruggeman, Speckled Hound Consulting
____________________________________________________________________
Presiding CSE Chair, Jenn Bruno, called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m.
1. Administrative Items
a. Vail Town Clerk, Lorelei Donaldson, swore in returning CSE members, Dave
Chapin and Barry Davis, and new member, Amy Cassidy, who were appointed
by the Town Council on December 18th for terms to expire December 31, 2014.
b. Election of CSE Chair and Vice-Chair
Kundolf nominated Jenn Bruno as CSE Chair.
There were no additional nominations.
CSE/Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 2 of 5
M/S/P: Kundolf/Davis/Unanimous
Chapin nominated Sonny Kerstiens as Vice-Chair of the CSE.
There were no additional nominations.
M/S/P: Kerstiens/Davis/Unanimous
c. Approval of the Minutes:
Motion to approve the Minutes of the CSE Meeting of December 5,
2012, as presented.
M/S/P: Chapin/Davis/Unanimous
d. Navas reviewed the revised 2013 Meeting Schedule, noting that the date of the
November presentation of the CSE’s 2014 funding decision to the VLMDAC
would be November 21st , not the 14th as indicated on the previous version.
e. Navas reviewed the revised CSE 2013 Budget, which incorporates the additional
allocations made by the Vail Town Council at their meeting on December 4,
2012. The revised total CSE budget available is $996,810, with $878,500
earmarked for event funding and $118,310 for administrative uses. The
additional funding from the Town Council was directed as follows:
$50,000 for an Intercept Study to develop a metric to more accurately
determine attendance at Special Events
$25,000 to go to DiscoverWell, for the Vail Living Well Summit
“Up to” $85,000 to develop and fund a Memorial Day event
Council members suggested that the $15,000 request from the CSE to
fund a contract for an Event-Marketing Liaison be funded by the VLMD.
f. Navas explained that, due to July 4th falling on Thursday this summer, there are a
large number of overlapping opportunities being discussed to develop a full 4 day
weekend of events and entertainment. She asked that two CSE members
volunteer to be on a committee with all of the potential event “players” to develop
an optimized schedule for the holiday weekend and come back to the CSE with a
proposal for their discussion and approval on February 6th. Davis and Kerstiens
agreed to serve as representatives of the CSE at the preliminary discussions.
Navas will schedule a meeting within the next two weeks.
2. CIRSA (Colorado Insurance Risk Sharing Agency) Board Member Training: Vail
Town Attorney, Matt Mire, briefed the CSE on their roles and responsibilities as
appointed members of a governmental board and the importance of maintaining
appropriate behavior and decision making protocol in compliance with Colorado
statures and in order to preserve their liability insurance as public servants.
3. CSE members reviewed the proposed Scope of Work for the 2013 Strategic Planning
Consultant Contract with MKT Vail, LLC and the 2013 Event Liaison Contract with
Callosum Creative, Ltd. Following brief discussion, the following decisions were made:
Motion to accept the Scope of Work for the 2013 Strategic Planning
Consultant Contract with MKT Vail, LLC, as written.
CSE/Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 3 of 5
M/S/P: Davis/Chapin/Unanimous
Motion to accept the 2013 Event-Marketing Liaison Contract with
Callosum Creative, Ltd., as written.
M/S/P: Kerstiens/Davis/Unanimous
4. Event Funding Agreements and Tier Designations: CSE members approved the
proposed funding agreement templates and event tier designations, as presented, with
the following adjustments:
a. Winter Mountain Games: designated a Tier 2 event to provide opportunity to
improve tonality and brand alignment.
b. Vail New Year’s Eve: designated a Tier 2 event, as CSE members agreed that all
events receiving funding for the first time would be designated as Tier 2, unless
funding allocated is $5,000 or less.
c. The America Cup and the US Youth Fly Fishing National Championships were
designated as Tier 2, in order to better take advantage of potential PR
opportunities.
Additionally, it was affirmed that all events receiving funding from the Town Council
would be held to the same agreements as other publicly funded events and will be
expected to provide information requested on the Marketing Checklist, as well as full
event recaps to the CSE. Finally, it was agreed that a sub-committee of Davis, Chapin
and McDonald be formed to provide suggestions for addressing Town of Vail issues that
arose on New Year’s Eve.
5. Memorial Day Event Discussion: Sutner presented a detailed description of the
results of the Memorial Day event research project, which indicated a strong preference
for a high level and multi-facetted culinary event. Stating that precedence for working
with a pre-selected, local event producer to develop a specific event with a particular
theme in mind has been set by the CSE with such successful results as Spring Back to
Vail and Gourmet on Gore, Sutner informed the board that Highline has expressed their
willingness to work with the CSE on the development of an event for Memorial Day
weekend which fits the criteria favored by the research results. James Deighan,
representing Highline, provided a conceptual description of what the proposed event
might look like over a four day schedule. Sutner added that the Vail Restaurant Group,
represented by Brian Nolan and Matt Morgan, had been consulted, and that they are in
support of the proposed concept. The CSE discussed whether or not restaurants that
were not located in Vail could participant, and agreed by consensus to keep the event
“Vail only,” at least for the first year. Deighan was asked to come back with a more
specific proposal for the CSE to evaluate at their February 6 th meeting.
Motion to work with Highline to move forward with the Memorial Day
culinary event proposal, as described by Deighan and in
consideration of the Town Council’s direction to develop an event
that will drive destination visitation over the Holiday Weekend.
M/S/P: Kerstiens/Davis/Unanimous**
CSE/Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 4 of 5
6. Winter Mountain Games: (Since representatives of the event arrived early, this item
was moved ahead of the scheduled discussion of an event attendance research
initiative.) Imhof and Scott Bluhm, representing the Vail Valley Foundation, gave an
overview of the proposed layout of the venues for the event, explaining that the decision
to consolidate the expo village in Golden Peak had come at the request of their
corporate partners, who felt that being part of the energy at the competition venue was
a critical component to their participation. They explained that the atmosphere in Vail
Village is much different in the winter, when most visitors are in town for the skiing, than
in the summer when almost all of the visitors are in Vail specifically to attend the
Mountain Games. Activation in Vail Village will include:
Two free concerts, on Thursday and Friday evenings, at Checkpoint Charlie
Use of the Logan Ice Theater in the Gore Creek Promenade for the Ou tdoor
Reels film series
Event info booth at the Covered Bridge, including some sponsor activation
Slackline demos, possibly over Gore Creek at the Covered Bridge “zip line”
location (still tentative)
Fat tire snow bike display and demos at Slifer Square
Directional sign package throughout the village
Imhof added that the marketing timeline remains the same as last year, and includes
Outside Magazine presence, posters (which he admitted have been a bit delayed in
production) and Front Range marketing. The official event title will be “Winter Mountain
Games, Presented by Eddie Bauer,” as the new title sponsor negotiations are still in
process. Sutner commented that he was very impressed last year with the critical mass
that was achieved from a first year event.
7. Event Attendance Research: Sutner provided a summary evaluation of the results
from the 2012 event calendar Economic Impact Research, explaining that the
information gleaned was helpful in terms of the allocation process for 2013 with respect
to ranking and relative performance, but did not solve the on -going issue of the key
variable of event attendance that continues to rely on estimates and data supplied by
the event producers themselves. He stated that it seems a logical extension of the
contract with RRC, who performed the original intercept survey research, to work with
them on commissioning a continued research initiative aimed at securing reliable and
comparable event attendance data for all of the events receiving public funding in 2013.
The proposal is to classify the events into three categories, in similar alignment with the
three marketing tiers previously determined, as follows:
Tier 3: Major 1st year events: full 360 evaluation; will pursue complete survey
data to determine economic impact and attendance calculations. These will
include Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships, the new Memorial Day
event, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, The Winter Games, and any other first
year event.
CSE/Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 5 of 5
Tier 2: Attendance research project will attempt to determine accurate
attendance numbers at all returning events that were measured as to their
economic impact in 2012, with the exception of those receiving $5,000 or less in
public funding or selected other 'ambient' events.
Tier 1: Small events, generally receiving less than $5,000 allocation, RRC will
provide a template and ask the event producer to fill in an estimated attendance
number based on their own assessment.
Although precise accuracy of the attendance counts may still elusive, the important
factor is the use of a similar methodology over time, with a budget goal of funding the
initiative every other year. The intent is to have the new methodology “in the field” for
the Winter Mountain Games, February 7-10, 2012
CSE members agreed by consensus to direct staff to negotiate with RRC and proceed
as described.
8. New Business and Community Input:
Rogers gave an overview of the discussion at the Town Council retreat, which took
place on Tuesday, January 8, 2013. She explained that there was a good deal of
conversation, and a variety of opinions, regarding how to optimize the procedure for
public funding of special events and from what sources the funds should be drawn.
Cynthia Bruggeman, Speckled Hound Consulting, informed the CSE that they will be
producing the “Vail Valor Half-Marathon, 5-Mile Run/Walk & 1 Mile Family Run” on
Monday of Memorial Day weekend. She stated that they anticipate the race will become
a "must do" spring event on every athlete's calendar resulting in substantial room nights
and visitor dollars for TOV businesses, that they are already receiving registrations, and
that they believe this will be a strong alternative to the Boulder Bolder that provides
additional incentive for guests to come to Vail for a full 4 day holiday weekend.
Bruggeman also described some additional concepts that they are exploring for future
races with an “urban adventure” theme.
Adjournment:
Motion to Adjourn @ 11:40 a.m.
M/S/P: Kerstiens/Davis/Unanimous**
Next CSE Meeting:
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 @ 8:30 a.m.
Vail Town Council Chambers