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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013_05_01 CSE MinutesCSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 1 of 9 MINUTES: Town of Vail: Commission on Special Events Meeting Town Council Chambers __________________Wednesday, May 1, 2013 @ 8:30 a.m.______________ CSE Members Present: Jenn Bruno Sonny Kerstiens Rayla Kundolf Bobby Bank Barry Davis Amy Cassidy CSE Member Absent: Dave Chapin TOV Staff Present: Sybill Navas, CSE Coordinator Kelli McDonald, Economic Development Manager Others Present: Adam Sutner, MKT Vail/Strategic Consultant to the CSE Clare Hefferren, Callosum Creative/CSE Event Liaison Consultant Missy Johnson, Peggy Wolfe, Jeff Brausch, Highline Nick Sergeant, Ian W arda, Maria McNulty, Burton Cynthia Bruggeman, Speckled Hound Consulting Brian Nolan, Group 970 Scott Bluhm, Paul Abling and Mike Imhof, Vail Valley Foundation Scott Cross, Sean Cross, Vail Film Festival Sean Glackin, Alpine Quest Brian Rodine, Vail Resorts Marketing Chief Mark Miller and Fire Marshal Mike Vaughan: Vail Fire and Emergency Services Michael Holton and Christine Albertson, Vail Valley Medical Center Meggen Kirkham, Site Marketing Meeting Materials may be viewed at: http://www.vailgov.com/WebLink8/Browse.aspx?startid=48965&row=1&dbid=0 CSE Chair, Jenn Bruno, called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. 1. Administrative Items a. Approval of the Minutes of the CSE Meeting of April 3, 2013  Motion to approve the Minutes of the meeting of April 3, 2013, as presented. M/S/P: RK/BB/Unanimous b. Cancellation: US Youth National Fly Fishing Tournament, due to lack of entries. c. Review Financial Status i. Navas reported $27,500 remaining in event funds. Discussing today: CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 2 of 9 1. $650 for legal filing trademarking – Vail America Days, Oktoberfest 2. $2,000 Vail Whitewater Kayak Series 3. $15,000 Survivor Casting Call Proposal ii. Margaret Rogers: There is a typo on the financial spreadsheet. Noram Cup – Navas to correct. $19,500 = gross spend; column to left Incremental Sales and Lodging Tax: $1053. Per submitted in recap. 1. Rogers suggests adding a column for what event producer says vs. separate column for TOV ROI. Navas to clarify column titles, and add header indicating info as submitted by producer. 2. King of the Mountain: Final Plan (10 minutes) a. Adam Sutner presented on behalf of event producer, Leon Fell. Fell has secured professional athletes. Concept: The AVP All-stars featuring Kerri Walsh Jennings. Enhancement concept: Center court in athletic fields where the center courts acts as a mini stadium. Costs of stadium will be covered by AVP and event producer. Village activation: athlete meet & greets and autographs sessions Friday and Saturday while promoting Ford Park activities. Marketing leverage: VMLD, AVP. b. AVP to evaluate Vail as a tour stop in 2014. c. Cost summary: Hoping for trade for Lodging – Marriott; Vail Realty for condos; Transport: CME; Air alliance $3k vouchers. d. Big ideas: Brand alignment: Health & wellness. New audience. Demographics – aligned with Vail profile. e. Amy Cassidy: Suggests reaching out to Volleyball Club programs throughout the county to pull volunteers. Fell is speaking to these groups already. The amount of volunteers secured with is increased by the draw of professionals. f. Margaret: 1) Is Ford Park ready? Yes. TOV to be aware of construction. Navas to raise construction conversation at ERC with public works and set up express buses during the event. Sybill Navas: Concert in amphitheater Friday, Childrens’ Chorale. 2) Built in sound system at Ford? Fell owns a sound system. Solaris system will be provided by AVP – just need electricity. g. An additional $3,000 in funding for airline vouchers will be requested. Given that this request was not posted on the agenda, the CSE direction is to move forward based on timing. Fell must bring a proposal to CSE for vouchers for the CSE to vote on; an informal vote was unanimous in favor of additional funding. A formal vote will be taken at the June 5th CSE meeting. 3. Burton US Open Event Review: Jeff Brausch/Highline and Burton Representatives ( 20 minutes) a. Nick Sergeant – Global Strategic Director, Burton i. Presented the Burton recap. Financials not shared as Burton is private company. Sergeant presented round numbers as is willing to have an offline discussion if desired. Some final survey data is not yet available, and will be presented when it arrives. From a social media campaign brief, they were very happy with results. 100,000 instagrams: record # of users compared to Xgames 30,000. Biggest social media campaign for Burton ever. ii. Bruno: Thoughts on expanding to Sunday? Sergeant: A lot of date selection was based on TV. He stated that Burton learned that people come to Vail to CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 3 of 9 ski/board, not watch an event during the day. They will adjust into after school hours and evenings in the future. iii. Kundolf: There was a real feeling of a festival, “Burton is in town!” – Incredible, great effort to embrace the community. Youth interaction with athletes was amazing and encourages growth in this market. iv. Sutner: How do you feel the winter Olympics will affect US Open? US Open will be the first global event after Olympics. It will create a much larger PR & TV/network opportunity, as the competition will be heightened as athletes look to challenge the Olympic medal winners. Historically Burton is a much larger event when it falls on tails of the Olympics. v. McDonald: The behind the scenes coordination was tremendous and really well coordinated. vi. Barry Davis: The Riglet Park was a sticky event for those watching – this encapsulated the event and gained great social media opportunities.  Motion: To recommend to Town Council the release of balance of the funding allocation as yet unpaid to Highline for Burton event production. M/S/P: RK/AC/Unanimous 4. FEAST! Vail: Highline- Present Final Schedule (5 minutes) a. Peggy Wolfe presented update. The web site launches today and Front Range VLMD push begins today as well. Saturday and Sunday main components are the chef seminars. A price structure ranging from $25 up to $150 based on programming allows all to participate. b. Bruno: She spoke to a restauranteur who wasn’t aware of the event. Wolfe advised the 2013 schedule is full for this year and with a limited amount of seminars, not every restaurant can participate. 2013 is an awareness and growth year with opportunity for the future. Bruno requests giving the restaurant group a heads up. Kundolf: Witnessing canvassing of merchants with fliers. Nice job. 5. Vail America Days: Highline- Full event plan, layout and discussion to determine the Fireworks format and location (15 minutes) a. Peggy Wolfe presented status update. Web site launches today and the parade application is live today as well. Live music will be held at Solaris Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon to 10pm. Stars & Stripes zones will be family activity zones in the Lionshead ski yard and on the Gore creek promenade. Fireworks will be close proximity from the top of the Vail Village structure with musical entertainment leading up to the display, and the fireworks choreographed to music. Highline hopes to have KZYR broadcast live during show. The fireworks show will be shortened slightly to create a more dense display that will create a “W ow!” factor by managing public expectations to a heightened level, as in the 50th Anniversary display. i. Barry Davis: Responsible choice based on fire, plus integrates the festivities into the village ii. Chief Mark Miller: More advantages of close-proximity iii. McDonald: Described testing of close-proximity- good viewing from most areas in the village iv. Bank: In the demo, everything was closer and didn’t feel at all diminished CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 4 of 9 v. Bruno: Stress in the marketing that Vail is choosing the close-proximity display due to fire danger responsibility. Highline to work with Suzanne Silverthorn and the VLMD PR group to educate, especially with local schools/locals via “Smokey the bear.”  Motion: To approve the use of close proximity fireworks on the 4th of July, in order to promote fire safety awareness and to bring people into the village for a more personal experience of the celebration. M/S/P: BD/RK/Unanimous 6. Vail Holidaze Update (15 minutes) a. Brian Rodine, representing Vail Resorts Marketing, gave an update. Vail Marketing is currently in budget planning mode at high level discussions. They intend to decrease Holidaze funding, but dollar amount is not yet known. Although the NPS score shows little correlation with the ambient event and Vail Mountain does not see direct ROI from event, they supported it as a means of increasing the overall NPS. Looking at the calendar, marketing dollars will more likely be focused for the week prior to Christmas, based on school calendars. They are presenting budgets to Broomfield on Monday, May 6, and will return to CSE at the July 2013 meeting to discuss. i. McDonald: Queried whether SnowDaze and Holidaze 2013 allocations were set aside together to be revisited once 2012 recaps are in. Bank stated that this has been done in previous years, but in 2012 the allocation was determined at during the regular funding process. Currently the allocation is $50,000 each for Snow Daze and HoliDaze, with an additional $10,000 for NYE. Highline and Vail resorts are in discussion currently. ii. Bobby Bank: Requests that the CSE consider SnowDaze, Holidaze and NYE together. 7. Event Recaps a. Winter Mountain Games: Scott Bluhm, Vail Valley Foundation (15 minutes) with Update on 2013 GoPro Mountain Games highlights: Paul Abling (5 minutes) o Scott Bluhm, VVF presented the Stakeholders Report. Room for improvements to make in future years include the Thursday night DJ concert, a test which was not received well, winter mountain bike championships, TV packages and decreased number of climbers. Highlights include estimated attendance of 16,509 (a 65% increase over 2012); a 52% increase in overall Economic Impact, an overall satisfaction rating 4.5; and average stays of 5.6 nights in Vail. o Paul Abling, VVF marketing, reviewed marketing and media summary o Bruno: Dates for 2014?  Mike Imhof, VVF: Winter Mountain Games will take a 2 year hiatus based on inability to co-exist with Ski Championships in 2015 and to free-up the marketing and sales efforts to deliver the most successful 2015’s possible. This has been communicated to Vail Town Council, and will be followed with an aggressive relaunch in February 2016. Strategically they are looking at the Championships with a clear 3-5 year vision to follow. Imhof emphasized that they remain committed to the long-term.  Bruno: Appreciates this focus for 2015 and remarked on the summer games’ tremendous family focus. For 2016, she suggests finding a hook to bring more families for Winter Mountain Games. CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 5 of 9  McDonald: Sponsorship is reliant on critical mass which is difficult in the winter months because winter focus is on the mountain. Imhof confirmed eight key stakeholders understand the 2014/15 hiatus and agree to relaunch in 2016. o Paul Abling, VVF – GoPro Summer Mountain Games Update  A large focus on the event will be on video and social media, thanks to the new Title Sponsor, GoPro. The national TV platform includes feature of 3 hours on NBC sports & Universal Sports which carries 70 million potential households. Highlights to include: World championship of slack line & World Cup bouldering. 3500 amateur athletes are expected and 3 nightly concerts to be held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. A new activation will be presented with geo-fenced areas through a mobile app which allows guests to engage with merchants, expo and offers. VVF will launch a Front Range Scavenger Hunt the 1st weekend in June and also create in-store promotions with Eddie Bauer retailers. b. PINK Vail!: Michael Holton, Vail Valley Medical Center (10 minutes) Citing the event as the “world’s biggest ski day to conquer cancer by far!” Holton stated that improvements for 2014 include will include a request for Front Range marketing assistance and a solution to outgrowing the Lionshead space. Fundraising brought a nice viral component based on participants reaching outside of Vail for support. 52% of fundraising came from outside of Colorado. NPS score was 78, which surprised VVMC as being a bit low. Most of the score was based on snowy weather, road closures and over-crowding. VVMC would like to ramp up marketing with additional assisted funding from CSE and VR. The got great traction through viral photo campaigns via Facebook and EpicMix. o Kundolf: CSE funded $10,000 for one day. Suggestions: Increased out of town hotel stays – lodging partners; increase concert space an visibility; Reach out to national ski clubs for marketing; Media pulls expand out via social media & Sutter spokesperson; Engage more of the restaurants with Pink Ale. Emphasize “all pink all Vail;” and create an invite for locals to send out to non-locals. o Sutner: Thought about a summer event? Holton: Yes, they have considered a prostate event, H&W, but have nothing confirmed to date. o Davis: Regarding venue outgrowth, where is next venue? Holton: Golden Peak, Arrabelle – both increase overhead significantly. Working with TOV and VR currently, and some are wanting to stay in Lionshead. o Cassidy: Local exposure phenomenal. Crowding at the end of the event forced crowds to disperse into restaurants and bars, which is good for local economy. o Bruno: Activated many locals. Suggest: Continue to activate locals, and increase front range and national potential o Kerstiens: From a lodging standpoint it is the busiest weekend of the season and was booked out a month ahead. Holton: Will consider moving it into a more open weekend. o Sutner: Oprah comes? Holton: Sure o McDonald: Good template for smaller events to have a big impact with minimal funding. o Hefferren: Grades VVMC as the best event producer to comply with new marketing checklist, be proactive, listened to CSE board suggestions and communicated frequently. Excellent execution based on funding. c. Vail Film Festival: Sean and Scott Cross (15 minutes) CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 6 of 9 o Scott Cross: Excited about 10 years! For 2014 they have secured a Virgin partnership; Baja Film Festival is a unique opportunity to enhance marketing and visibility for VFF. They have begun a Spanish screenings initiative. o Sean: Partnership St. Jude for 2013 was very successful with 100K funds rose. Challenges included space seating and plan to grow 2014 venues. Cadillac was a reduced sponsor due to severing with Vail Resorts. VFF won Cadillac back on their own, but with less funding. New partnership has been developed with CAA in LA for assistance in securing sponsors for 2014. o Kundolf: Lines are a good problem to have. The event was run smoothly. She did miss the festival feeling due to lack of Sebastian venue. o Bruno: There was a bigger presence of badges this year. o Sutner: Mini activation during Burton was the largest activation Vail has seen. Perhaps consider approaching Mini? Cross: Will consider.  Motion: To approve release of final funding allocations for Winter Mountain Games, PINK! Vail and the Vail Film Festival. M/S/P: RK/SK/Unanimous 8. Vail - Beaver Creek Restaurant Week: Confirm proposed dates: Sept 27- Oct 6 (5 minutes) a. Brian Nolan confirmed the dates and shared that a few restaurants may fall out due to entry into October as they close in October. We will know in a few weeks. He is looking to secure an event producer in next 3-4 weeks. The May push will be for restaurateur signup. Nolan believes Feast! Vail will be a catalyst to bring more restaurants operators into to Vail fold based on Highline efforts. The combination of the two events of engagement will expand the conversation of restaurant group and is good for the long term cohesiveness. b. Side comment regarding Pink Vail: Oprah: There are direct local contacts that know Oprah – would likely come for Pink Vail. Let Nolan know if interested. c. Banks: During travels, saw a National Restaurant W eek promotions which included a “Where the locals eat award” and suggested for programming into the Vail event. d. Bruno: Hotel representation: Hyatt, Levine – will be a package during event. e. Sutner: Community lodging meeting in June and he will pitch Restaurant Week at that meeting. 9. Review of funding proposal to bring the “Survivor Vail Challenge” to Vail, August 17- 18. Adam Sutner (15 minutes) a. Presented expanded concept. #1 rated realty show. Over 20 years old. Vail is 1 of 4 casting locations nationally. The casting interviews may go into Sunday depending on how scheduling goes and if so, will plan to work around Farmer’s Market. He is requesting that Vail people may apply to casting call. The visibility is as high as the Survivor franchise, which is phenomenal exposure. Costs will include hosting CBS Survivor staff; cast applicants will pay for themselves and will most likely stay in Vail. Great weekend, just before back to school as an opportunity to pitch “your last adventure.” Funding will be used to develop an associated activation in Solaris Plaza, i.e. Vail Family Adventure Challenge. Navas confirmed that she had spoken with Brian Hall, Blue Creek Productions, and that he is very interested in doing the local production end. b. Bruno: Screening handled ahead of time by CBS? Sutner: yes CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 7 of 9 c. Meggen Kirkham / Site Marketing: There is a lot of opportunity to provide lodging to contestants and families for family adventure. d. Kundolf: Can’t use name “Survivor”? Sutner: Correct: Named Vail Family Adventure Challenge e. Navas: Venue not available on Sunday. If overflow TV into Sunday, we’ll need to plan for a contingency based on Farmer’s Market. McDonald: Idea to bring interviews up on 2nd level to allow for Sunday venue. f. Bruno: Potential to bring back in the future? Sutner: It is all based on ratings. If that’s of interest, CSE should send CBS a buy in. 2013 was brought to Vail based on 3 media agencies competing for Vail’s brand as added value to us. CBS won. g. Bruno: Can we consider adding a Friday component – judges, casting call. Perhaps 5 Vail finalists, then Survivor judges pick 1 of the 5 for Saturday’s casting call?  Motion: To approve $15,000 funding for the Vail Survivor Casting Call and the associated Vail Family Adventure Challenge, August 17 & 18 M/S/P: RK/AC/Unanimous 10. Review and vote to approve or deny the revised event plan for the Vail Whitewater Kayak Demos and the associated $2000 incremental funding proposal: Alpine Kayak/Sean Glackin (10 minutes) a. Glackin presented a refined plan which was hand-delivered to the board. The event is newly named. “Vail Whitewater Kayak Series” and proposed the addition of a competitive series including prize money for the first three places, which will give the event more energy and participation. b. Bruno: What is your comfort level on transition from demo to competition? Glackin: He is involving the community as he can’t do this on his own. They include: Joe Blair of Fall Creek Branding (one of the founders of the Teva Mountain Games) who is creating a checklist and Ken Hovey of TV8, who is a big player in the local kayaking community and an MC as well. Glackin has spoken to Paul Abling of Vail Valley Foundation to align with the Mountain Games. He has spoken to restaurants/bars for after-events including Mountain Standard and Vendetta’s. It was suggested he speak to all the restaurants lining the creek including Tavern on the Gore and Up The Creek. c. Davis: Impressive to pull this together with such short notice. d. Bank: Coors rep is looking for Sean. Phone numbers were exchanged. e. McDonald: Noted that the event was originally initiated as a way to showcase the town’s whitewater park, and that this new initiative will “step it up a notch.” f. Glackin: Schedule of race format was developed to best take advantage of the most opportune “flow” periods. g. Hefferren: Glackin to work with Hefferren to quickly gain Vail exposure  Motion: To approve funding in the amount of $2,000 to Alpine Kayak for the purpose of M/S/P: BD/BB/Unanimous 11. Request for approval of funds to cover legal fees to trademark the names: Vail America Days and Vail Oktoberfest. Vail Town Manager, Stan Zemler, has agreed to cover the Town Attorney’s time out of the town’s legal budget, but is requesting that the CSE cover the filing CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 8 of 9 fees of $325 per event, for a total of $650. Once the filing has been submitted, the trademark is considered as recognized, although final paperwork may take up to one year to complete. (5 minutes) a. Historical: Laurie Asmussen 10-15 years ago – Amy Cassidy. Seeking examples on how  Motion: To approve funding in the amount of $650 from the CSE Event budget to cover filing fees for trademarking the event names: Vail America Days and Vail Oktoberfest. M/S/P: BB/RK/Unanimous A discussion followed regarding the reference made earlier by Adam Sutner, requesting $3,000 in funding to pay for travel vouchers for the pro-players to attend the King of the Mountain Volleyball Tournament. Because no formal request was either submitted or posted on the agenda, and Leon Fell was not present, CSE members agreed to a “good faith go-ahead” with a written proposal to be presented and voted upon at the June 5th CSE meeting. 12. Event Liaison Update to the CSE. Clare Hefferren (20 minutes) a. Hefferren presented briefs on each event listing gate compliance, highlights of upcoming events and tone of communications with each event producer. The events included: i. Vail Whitewater park Kayak Demos (On agenda) ii. Feast! Vail (On agenda: Final schedule). Highline is significantly behind schedule and Hefferren anticipates aggressive catch-up in the next few weeks. iii. GoPro Mountain Games (On agenda: highlights) iv. Hot Summer Nights - Council funded v. Vail Rocks! vi. King of the Mountain (On agenda: Final plan) 1. Event producer, Leon Fell, is applauded for bringing a 600 team event to Vail for many years. The steps the CSE has asked Fell to take operationally and marketing wise is a big leap for all. McDonald shared 2013 is a learning year and we will need to debrief heavily. vii. Lionshead Family Fun Club viii. Farmer’s Market and Art Festival ix. Vail America Days (On agenda). CSE and Hefferren have a close eye on event, more so than others based on the transfer of event producer and TOV involvement. Highline is behind schedule; however Hefferren anticipates aggressive catch-up in the next few weeks. x. Vail Jazz Fest – Council funded, Tier 1 event. xi. Vail Arts Festival xii. Vail Lacrosse Shootout xiii. Keen Kids Adventure Race xiv. Additional highlights: America Cup – World Fly Fishing Championship in 2016 13. New Business and Community Input (10 minutes) a. Cynthia Bruggeman of Speckled Hound / Vail Valor Half Marathon (Monday, May 27) has 40 confirmed racers from a goal of 100. Six states are currently represented. She highlighted the family 1 mile run which is $25 to register with a no profit business model. CSE/Meeting Minutes May 1, 2013 Page 9 of 9 The event is hosted at Manor Vail Lodge. She has distributed 1,200 postcards at the Cherry Creek Sneak, along with other mostly grassroots marketing initiatives. i. Kundolf: Requested a flier for school district and suggested outreach to Kansas City as they have many family runs. ii. Navas: Confirmed Valor is contributing to the veterans group and encouraged discussing cross promoting with Highline. Bruggeman: Confirmed she has conveyed information to Highline but has no firm cross-promotions. iii. Cassidy: Is she aware of Eagle Outside Festival? Bruggeman: Yes it is 2 weeks prior with identical race. Cassidy suggested attending the event May 11-12 to market. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn @ 11:41 a.m. M/S/P: BB/RK/Unanimous* Kerstiens left at 11:35 a.m. Next CSE Meeting: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 @ 8:30 a.m.