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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013_06_05 CSE MinutesCSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 1 of 10 MINUTES: Town of Vail: Commission on Special Events Meeting Town Council Chambers __________________Wednesday, June 5, 2013 @ 8:30 a.m.______________ CSE Members Present: Jenn Bruno Bobby Bank Amy Cassidy Barry Davis Sonny Kerstiens Rayla Kundolf CSE Member Absent: Dave Chapin TOV Staff Present: Sybill Navas, CSE Coordinator Kathleen Halloran, Town of Vail Budget Director Others Present: Adam Sutner, MKT Vail/Strategic Consultant to the CSE Clare Hefferren, Callosum /CSE Event Liaison Consultant Margaret Rogers, Vail Town Council Brian Hall, Blue Creek Productions James Deighan, Missy Johnson, Jeff Brausch: Highline Brian Nolan, Group 970 Brian Rodine, Vail Resorts Marketing Sandra Perrig, Vail Valley Partnership Angela Mueller, Randall Martinez, Greg Moffet, Chris Chandler: Taste of Vail Kristin Yantis, T. Cook: Malen Yantis PR 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 • Approval of the Minutes of the CSE Meeting of May 1, 2013  Motion to approve the Minutes of the meeting of May 1, 2013, as presented. M/S/P: BB/BD/Unanimous • CSE Meeting on July 3: Check for quorum or reschedule? Barry can’t attend full meeting, all others indicated that they plan to attend. The meeting will be held as scheduled. CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 2 of 10 • Review Financial Status: Navas passed around a hard copy of the financial spreadsheet, stated that the balance of funds remaining for special event allocations was $16,850. No issues were raised. 2. Council Contributions: Revised Process, as approved by Vail Town Council: Kathleen Halloran (15 minutes) • Document shared and included in the packet – Tier level explanation was given, and amounts budgeted in each category reflect the allocations that were made in the current year’s budget. All Tier allocations will be expected to provide recaps to the CSE. I. Vail brand events (examples: Bravo!, Vail Intl. Dance Festival and Vail Jazz Festival) - $335,600 II. Extraordinary events (examples: Burton US Open, USA Pro Cycling Challenge, World Alpine Ski Championships) - $1.2M III. Services/expertise (support for TV5, Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens and Eagle Valley Childcare)- $294,620 IV. Life-Long Learning / New program development / Education (events that support the Council’s goal of Health and Well-being, but do not necessarily meet CSE criteria) – Proposed: $75K V. In-kind funding (Staff level approval- allocations include ice time or reduced rate at Dobson, Donovan Pavilion/Grand View or other TOV services) - $300k VI. CSE annual budget - $996,800 • Bank: Some Tier IV items were deemed not meeting CSE qualifications were not based on the proposed event itself, but on the qualifications/track record of the event producer. • Rogers: Explained the reasoning was to create a new pot of money for events that support the Health and Well-being goals, but have a hard time meeting the CSE qualifications, particularly with respect to destination guests. The Council has not assigned any money to this new Tier yet, and each applicant will still have to prove their value to the community. • Kundolf: Tier IV: Expressed her concern of funding events that don’t actually occur in Vail, such as the Vail Global Energy Forum. Rogers: TOVC is aware of this. • Navas: Will the annual application remain in place? 1. Tier I events are recommended for an application every two years 2. Tiers II and IV events will need to apply annually 3. Tier III events will not require an application and the support for these organizations will be incorporated at a set level into the annual proposed budget. • Rogers: Have we solved the issue surrounding year end events with funding decision for next year’s event before this year’s event has occurred? Ex. Snow Daze, Vail HoliDaze, and other end of year events. Navas: New events with no history are tough, but existing events don’t seem to be an issue. CSE has tried several alternatives and this seems to be the best format, as it maintains the ability to measure all of the events against each other and set strong criteria based annual budget. 3. Vail - Beaver Creek Restaurant Week: Brian Nolan. Review full event proposal and provide feedback. (15 minutes) • Main event contact will be Ruthie at Group 970. They will not be hiring an event producer, as they believe this is a marketing venture not a typical event. CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 3 of 10 • Application: Waiting on funding details. Bulk of restaurants will be signed up by June 21, by which time they will have had the opportunity to address the larger group. • Marketing being done by: Vail Valley Foundation as a component of the Gerald Ford Amphitheater and Vilar Center marketing efforts, as well as the Vail Local Marketing District. • Budget: Most pieces are in-kind. Also waiting on reduced prices versus service price. • Navas: When will the official name of the event be determined? Nolan: June 14. • Rogers: Will Avon participate? Nolan: They can participate if they want to offer a $20.13 menu item, but they will not officially be included as part of the event. Laying a 2013 groundwork will help to determine if there is a need/wish to make it valley wide. • Bruno: Consider sending marketing to - VV Challenge Cup Soccer Tournament • Sutner: Create a rack card – distribute to all event producers for dissemination at this summer’s events • Kundolf: The brief includes little Vail and more BC – concerned about this. Nolan replies this is due to the decentralization of Vail Village and Lionshead restaurant association. 4. Blue Creek Productions: (20 minutes) o Lionshead Saturday Family Fun Club- update • Hall explained that the original footprint of LHFF has been chipped away over the years now leaving little space for the event to grow. The original area had included the grassy area within the ski yard and Arrabelle’s plaza- both of which are no longer available. Construction of the new fountain at Sun Dial Plaza has further limited the available area. • Hall distributed a flier explaining a broadened concept, “Vail Kids Adventure Club”, loosely based on the boy scouts “badge” program, which will provide incentives to go out into the community to earn “buttons” indicating the completion of a learning experience. (Program is similar to Boy Scouts). • 3 step plan: 1.) Creator button 2.) Cross market with other entities – Dance Festival, Nature Center, etc. Send kids there and they get buttons from the same brand. 3.) Challenge course – less related with time, more so with completion and/or competition • Rogers: Alignment complements well the development of Epic Discovery. Also, suggest talking with Molly Eppard of AIPP about kids painting the construction wall surrounding the Sun Dial Plaza project. Hall agrees and considers this a resource, referencing the program he implemented during the construction of Arrabelle. • Navas restated the compression of the space and Arrabelle’s concern with many children in the area in competition with their more formal events and weddings. • Kundolf: Loves the badge idea, adding that safety topics are big. Added, “Don’t forget what you do best- theater.” o Survivor Vail Casting Call: event activation plan • Currently scheduled for Aug 17, 10am-4pm. 75 currently signed up, with a maximum of 300. The site selected will be the east side of the International Bridge; cameras will get nice Vail view. There will be three 10x10 tents on the site: two for on camera interviews, plus one for registration. Candidates fort he audition will queue in a snaking line formation on the north side of the bridge up to, but not including Meadow Drive and will CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 4 of 10 provide a good line of sight for media and the alignment of the auditions and the Vail Family Adventure Challenge, which will take place in the Solaris Plaza. Hall recommends branding the queue ropes so logos are shown in TV/camera shots. TOV will need to provide barriers, tables and the three tents (these promised by Highline.) • Rogers suggested that, if any waivers are needed, Hall come to a Town Council meeting at 6pm, under Citizen Participation, describe the event and inform council why it’s important to get their support. Sutner and Hefferren can provide support at the presentation if needed. • Sutner stated that over 1,000 visitors are expected. A hotel deal associated with the event is locked for this last weekend before school begins. Google “Vail Survivor Casting Call’ results will pay for this initiative. Vail’s event is currently on the Survivor national web site. News crews will also be on site shooting b-roll. The Town of Vail will receive a limited number of preferential audition spots and will run a town employee sign-up and contest to apply for the guaranteed slots. • Navas: The Town will get an unpaid 30 days leave, should one of the employees be successful in securing a part in the final program. • Kristin Yantis: VLMD PR will prepare a press release to get people engaged. A Houston reporter from NBC is interested in participating. Should we agree to allocate one of the guaranteed auditions to him, he’ll run press on the event. o Associated Family Event: “Vail Family Adventure Challenge” in Solaris. A physical challenge completion, featuring hourly special activities/events – examples: gummy worm eating contest, water balloon toss, kids challenge pieces and a scavenger hunt which may be completed at any time during the day across the village. Programming will include a big family event, which if completed; the participants will receive a certificate signed by the mayor. The event will be promoted alongside the Survivor event, but have its own unique signage & logo. 5. FEAST! Vail: Event De-brief to provide 1st impression comments and feedback. James Deighan represented Highline. • Bruno: Find a way to increase the # of tickets for 2014. Diegan: 2013 was to lay a foundation, now will build event out. • Rogers: Town Council reaction was relatively positive. She stated that the Sunday activities focused too much on drinking and not enough on eating, and suggested that there should be more food available with the alcohol. Concern was expressed from some members about the quality of wines and that for the amount of money ($85,000) given to the event, they expected more. She advised that a loss of money be shown in the event recap. The challenge, both good and bad, is that expectations are very high for an event when Highline is the producer. • Diegan: They were unable to secure a wine sponsorship with such short lead time. Highline lost money on the event, considered Feast! Vail a marketing initiative for 2013 with optimism for years to come. A financial accounting will be provided in the recap. Culinary niche today is “boutique events”. • Bruno: Questioned where did all of the funding go? And added that it set a wonderful foundation for Memorial Day into the future and that in 2014 there need to be more seminars, more restaurant participation, more financial sponsors. • Navas: Commented that the funding allocated was significant because the CSE realized that the event had a short planning time frame, and that we were starting from scratch on a CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 5 of 10 weekend that historically has had no activity at all. Adequate funding was necessitated by the late planning time frame, and recognizing that this was an investment in the long term goal of establishing a quality event for the holiday weekend. Everyone anticipates that less funding will be required into the future as Highline ramps up. • Sutner: Overriding insight research was for an intimate culinary event. Strategy was delivered for a strategic investment. An intercept study was conducted. Growth strategy may be sideways, i.e. more of the intimate pockets of programming. • Bank: Remarked on the role reversal of the weekend, with Beaver Creek offering a “free” event and Vail hosting a ticketed event on the Memorial Day weekend. Why are we having a debrief in addition to the recap? Was weather planned for? Deighan: Yes. Bruno replied that the debrief was scheduled since this weekend was the most important event investment in 2013 based on the calendar. Rogers: Town Council took a risk to promote a weekend we’ve never promoted before. Bring TV shows into veteran idea / Discovery? • Kundolf: Restaurateurs and chefs liked event. Personally enjoyed the boutique feel. Wants more food in seminars. Logo: Too similar to Taste of Vail – Highline crowd-sourced logos, 80% of culinary have forks. Friday’s event: 325 attendance – show us comp vs. sold. Idea from Chopped TV show: Marine, Army, Navy, etc. – create military chef competition. • Cassidy: Liked tie-in to the Monday Valor Half Marathon. Diegan: Highline’s original Monday activity plan was cut due to lack of restaurant participation & budget, and timing didn’t allow it to happen. Sutner: Valor Half Marathon had 250 participants, more than double the anticipated number, and has developed support from the Vail Veterans program. Deighan: Collaborated – event has legs. Suggested developing some components in addition that feature Veteran chefs and athletes. Navas: Veteran tie-in is a strong opportunity to bring focus and authenticity to the underlying meaning of Memorial Day. 6. Event Liaison Update to the CSE. Clare Hefferren (20 minutes) • Vail Whitewater Series - update • GoPro Mountain Games • Vail Rocks! • King of the Mountain • Lionshead Family Fun Club • Hot Summer Nights • Farmer’s Market and Art Festival • Vail Jazz Fest • Vail Arts Festival • Vail Lacrosse Shootout • Vail America Days • Kick-It 3v3 Soccer • Vail International Dance Festival • Kick-It 3v3 Soccer • Keen Kids Adventure Race • US Pro Challenge o Hefferren briefed the board and staff on the progress of each event in terms of marketing gate compliance, branding alignment and elevation, and “star students” who have embraced and utilized the new marketing process as part of the CSE-funding allocations. CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 6 of 10 o Hefferren to discuss getting regional press clippings from VLMD partner, Kristin Yantis of Malen Yantis PR. Hefferren to fix a few event date typos on Keen Kids Adventure Race and report to Laserfiche. o Kundolf: Thinks the Jazz Fest collateral is nice and would like to see rack cards distributed to village merchants. Hefferren to advise event producer. Rogers and Bruno thanked Hefferen for greatly improved event branding, especially noting Vail Jazz Fest and King of the Mountain / AVP. 7. Event Recaps (30 minutes) o Taste of Vail: Angela Mueller, Greg Moffet, Kristin Yantis. Mueller provided overview of event and was supported by team as listed below. • Recognized challenges and inadequate staffing: commitment to outsourcing Lamb Cook-off recycling/trash in 2014 and beyond. • Generated $1.2M revenue to the Town of Vail • Added 2 new programs: Nordic Wine Tour and Taste of Vail Restaurant Night • Based on revenue this year, they will be hiring staff: Sponsorship coordinator and assistant to Angela Mueller • Content for 2014 event already in the works and the wineries have been notified Moffat: Highlights- 4 “gems” from the survey data: • NPS 71% promoters score up 35% (from 44 in 2011 to 57 in 2012) in one season. • Increase in revenue came from ticket sales versus from sponsorship. CSE’s increased funding “saved out bacon,” as it enabled the organization to “hit the ground running” after a difficult year in 2012. • 47% of attendees with income over $200K • 87% expressed likely to return, and 81% of returning attendees likely to return again. • 1st time attendees were up 31% Yantis: Press Release: • Evolution of brand included new logo and brand image. • Marketing effort has become year round. • Area of opportunity: Attended restaurant community who asked for more publicity, but then the restaurants didn’t participate, despite communications directed at them. • Ramped communication: 56,000 on database. Facebook page: doubled followers and engagement. Video/photos: 3 days of video posted online. • International VR press reach brought a Mexican press group to event. • Forbes.com: listed as one of the “top spring festivals” Comments: • Bruno: Noted 58% attendees from Colorado, how many were locals? Reply: 39% of attendees were locals • Kundolf: Didn’t hear about wine. Mountain Top picnic was nearly sold out. Nordic wine tour was talked about and engaged community (sold out). Lamb Cookoff: Felt that Lamb event was too spread out, although crowded, didn’t seem to have “continuity.” • Davis: Restaurant community was thrilled with Lamb Cookoff. CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 7 of 10 • Bank: Lamb cook-off was great – expanded, more people. Is it too crowded? This is a similar problem to Farmer’s Market as it shows success, but does it serve goals? How do you handle food running out? Mueller: Jana Morgan is investigating solutions. • Bruno: Loved the enthusiasm that the restaurants had for the event this year. o Spring Back to Vail: Highline, Jeff Brausch • Reinforced a very successful Spring event with 40,000 + attendance at the restored “free concert model” and was supported by strong sponsorship, particularly from Vail Resorts • Additional sponsors included: Rolling Stone, Red Bull, Pepsi, GoPro, and the Bud Light Hotel. • Media PR: 7 million impressions – TV, print, radio, social, digital • Budget: $700,000. CSE $37,500. Highline runs on a break even budget. Town funds are not ear-marked. ROI 15:1. • Research highlights: Quality of the bands and of the snow were cited as reasons for a NPS that was up significantly. Band awareness at all time high. Out of state respondents were the largest category. Comments: • Bank: Great event. Great timing. • Rayla. Keep it up. • Navas: Anticipate Bud Light Hotel coming back? Brausch: Probably not. National attention for the Bud Light Hotel was tremendous. • Survey data? Missy to provide updated PowerPoint with newest data. • Sutner: Sees a trend based on lodging community meeting discussion – the main driver is event customer experience. April events are solid. Navas: 4 off-peak need times were identified- April is not on the list. Vail Resorts provided a fresh insight to seasonality. • Bruno: In light of another late season Easter holiday, is there discussion of 2 weeks of SBTV in 2014? Brausch: No  Motion to approve release of the remainder of the CSE 2013 funding allocations for the Taste of Vail and Spring Back to Vail. M/S/P: Bank/Davis/Unanimous 8. King of the Mountain: Vote to approve $3,000 allocation for Pro-Athlete travel vouchers, per the agreement for their participation in the event.  Motion to approve $3,000 allocation for AVP Athlete travel vouchers. M/S/P: Kundolf/Davis/Unanimous Additional conversation ensued: • Sutner: Added $600 in travel vouchers were added for Walsh family travel. CSE to absorb. • Sutner: Welcome reception with AVP, CSE, and TOVC at Sonnenalp which comped AVP staff lodging. Cassidy to provide a quote for the event. CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 8 of 10 • Hefferren: Marketing needs include new brand King of the Mountain /AVP sandwich boards, schedule signage for AVP tent, overhead banner for Lionshead Village site. Hefferren to manage design and production. • Bruno: How will we gauge attendance results of AVP? Sutner: Lodging data, attendance intercept study. King of the Mountain tournament attendance has been fairly flat. Can look at past Mtrip reports to compare. • Cassidy: AVP looking at Vail for an official AVP stop. • Rogers: This AVP piece is the type of activation that moves an event from a stage 3 to stage 1 under new TOVC tiers. AVP needs 3 extra courts if decide to make a tour stop in Vail. If location is to be Ford Park, MUST speak up now while the Master Plan discussions are underway. . Sutner recommends 3 temporary sand courts in the village for better activation – i.e. Solaris, Mtn Plaza, etc.  Motion to approve an additional funding up to $3,000 to support the King of the Mountain/AVP All-stars event with additional marketing materials, two additional travel vouchers for Walsh family ($600) and host a reception for AVP representatives to meet TOV dignitaries. M/S/P:Davis/Bank/Unanimous 9. Joint Meeting: CSE and VLMDAC on Thursday, June 20 @ 8:30 a.m., Manor Vail. Discussion of possible topics for agenda: • Criteria for funding/Scorecard adjustments? CSE members felt this was not necessary, as great effort had gone into developing the current criteria and that a full year of events has not yet occurred, so judging the results is premature. • Jenn: Update on CSE events to date (allow 10 minutes) • Clare: update on marketing liaison progress (allow 10 minutes)  Explain the framework of the position, and how it has evolved from experience since the position was created. Highlight the “Star students,” the event liaison updates provided in the meeting packets and the sharing of press clippings. • Additional suggestions o Sutner: Consideration of items presented by Vail Resorts Marketing at the Community Partners/Lodging meeting:  Focus on the Off-peak time frames as presented, and how this may affect the Snow Daze and Vail HoliDaze funding, bringing back CarniVail or exploring other new events in alignment with the VRI strategy  Presentation on the development of Epic Adventure by Vail Resorts staff o Kundolf/Sutner: Strategic brainstorming the development of an umbrella brand incorporating the 4 major culinary events: This suggestion received the most support from members of the CSE.  Bank: Tell vs. ask Event Producers to combine their marketing?  Sutner suggestion: With strategic consultant direction and a mediator leading a conversation between the CSE, VLMD, event producers, and restaurant merchants, tell event producers an arching brand will be developed. They can participate or lose CSE funding. CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 9 of 10  Hefferren: This is a branding project similar to what Callosum would undertake for a client. Not asking event producers to change their events, but more to brand and market them under an overarching umbrella. o Navas: Will need to request an increase time from 20 minutes to 1 hour 10. New Business and Community Input • Rayla: Soul Fest is coming back in 2014, as posted by Rhonda Jackson on Facebook. • Sutner: GoPro is being covered by the high profile Mexican magazine, “Estilo DF,” the “People Magazine of Mexico”. A $25K investment, Solaris funding.  Motion to adjourn @ 11:13 a.m. M/S/P: Kundolf/Cassidy/Unanimous UPCOMING MEETINGS: VLMDAC/CSE Joint Meeting Thursday, June 20 @ 8:30 a.m. Manor Vail Lodge Next CSE Meeting: Wednesday, July 3 @ 8:30 a.m. Vail Town Council Chambe CSE/Meeting Minutes June 5, 2013 Page 10 of 10