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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-02-05 CSE MinutesTOV/CSE Minutes: February 5, 2014 Page 1 of 6 MINUTES: Town of Vail: COMMISSION ON SPECIAL EVENTS MEETING Vail Town Council Chambers Wednesday, February 5, 2014 @ 8:30 a.m. CSE Members Present: Jeff Andrews (@ 8:35 a.m.) Bobby Bank Amy Cassidy Barry Davis Mark Gordon Rayla Kundolf Nicole Whitaker Town of Vail Staff Present: Kelli McDonald, Economic Development Manager Sybill Navas, CSE Coordinator Tammy Nagel, Acting Town Clerk Molly Eppard, Art in Public Places Others Present: Laura Waniuk, CSE/VLMD Event Liaison Margaret Rogers, Vail Town Council Mike Imhof, Scott Bluhm, Vail Valley Foundation Missy Johnson, Peggy Wolfe and Jeff Brausch: Highline Brian Hall, Blue Creek Productions Jon Boord and Cati Miller, Solaris Davy Ratchford, Vail Resorts Marketing Meeting Materials may be viewed at: http://www.vailgov.com/WebLink8/Browse.aspx?startid=34151&row=1&dbid=0 CSE Chair, Barry Davis, called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. • Administrative Items • Acting Town Clerk, Tammy Nagel, swore in newly appointed CSE member, Mark Gordon, who was appointed by the Town Council on December 17, 2013 to serve the remainder of the term vacated by Dave Chapin expiring on December 31, 2014. • Approval of the Minutes of the CSE’s Special Meeting of January 15, 2014  Motion to approve the Minutes of the CSE Special Meeting of January 15, 2014, as presented. M/S/P: Kundolf/Cassidy/Unanimous – The motion passed 6-0. Andrews had not yet arrived. TOV/CSE Minutes: February 5, 2014 Page 2 of 6 • Revised Meeting Schedule for 2014 – Vail Brand Presentation and joint meeting with VLMDAC on April 17, replaces the joint meeting originally scheduled for June 19. All local event producers will be encouraged to attend. • Review Financial Status and acceptances of funding allocations Sybill Navas reviewed the contract status and noted that the late year contracts will be sent out later for reasons of needing further information. • Council Goals*: Margaret Rogers (This item was moved forward in the agenda, since Bluhm and Imhof had not yet arrived.) Rogers referred to a three pronged approach: please see slide with graphic in packet materials. Continue to have Vail be the best place to be, foster economic growth to enable continued funding for commissions, like CSE. Three goals focus. Economic impact is almost 2 to 1 in terms of revenue for the town. We need to do a better job of communicating that Special Events are a revenue generator, events grow the vitality. Positive return on investment. CSE may want to communicate more clearly to the council. Showcase the ROI and benefit financially from events. Elevate the experience of both the guest and the second homeowner. Enhance the experience, helps encourage the people to stay here, spend money. This includes school quality, town services. It’s an overall living experience in Vail. Grow Vail’s community in a balanced manner, try to retain the full time residents in Vail, she stated that, “we don’t want to be a resort, we want to be a community.” Tricky thing to support sales of housing, make housing as affordable as the TOV can. Chamonix property will be developed and funded by the town, with first consideration given to people who work full time in Vail. Develop a base of families and single couples. Demographics are - people from Denver and others from all over the country who will retire here and stay here. There is an older demographic here, they have more money and they support the community. There will be another community survey with indepth questions about special events. Identify what are the intrinsic benefits of events including financial impact on hotels and restaurants, branding of events coupled with the TOV, millions of media impressions. Trying to compare our community impacts. People are not considering the international impact. More criteria, capture media impressions, need to make sure the numbers are accurate. How are they measuring the event media impressions? Need to understand this. List of media outlets and impressions, break it down and include it as an attachment. CSE is charged with putting together an action plan based on the TOV Goals. • GoPro Mountain Games: Mike Imhof, Scott Bluhm, Vail Valley Foundation- Request approval to have SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) event on Nottingham Lake in Avon Bluhm began by stating that they are looking for input on how to proceed if they want to add additional events that may lie outside the TOV boundaries. Recognize TOV as the sponsor and don’t want to diminish that impact. They have not approached Avon yet to use Nottingham Lake, want to discuss with CSE and TOV first. The games feature 23-25 events, 90% located in Vail. Presently the only outside events are the Fly Fishing finals and the TOV/CSE Minutes: February 5, 2014 Page 3 of 6 Whitewater Kayak race at Homestake Creek.There are SUP events on whitewater, but the SUP on flat water is more appealing to locals. Want to hold it on Sunday. Vail pools, lakes and reservoirs are too small to hold the event; an appropriate physical location doesn’t exist in Vail. Spectators will still consider the TOV as the hub of the events, they will return to Vail after the event. No intent to ask Avon for funding for this event. SUP is a natural fit for the Mountain Games. could grow registration fees. If vendors would want to participate and be at the SUP event, it would be a secondary location, primary would stay in Vail. The event would last one or two hours. Bank noted that the CSE had been requesting a venue in Lionshead for the last 6 years, and now was questioning the addition of an Avon venue. CSE members agreed by consensus that they are not in support of the request. Andrews noted that the secondary venues for the whitewater and flyfishing events are not in developed communities. Adding this component in Avon would dilute the energy of the event in Vail on the final day. Davis summarized that the CSE would be “fiercely protective” of keeping this event in Vail. Keen Vail Kids Adventure RaceMcDonald, Davis and Navas reported on separate meetings they had with the Vail Recreation District (VRD) and Grand Traverse Adventures. The Mattisons want to expand the event and have secured a significant sponsorship to enable them to take the event to a national level this summer, for a total of six games, each in a separate state. The local event will go on as usual, however the VRD has opted not to be part of the national tour until next year, in order to allow the event to grow and establish itself and to accommodate their sponsorship commitment to Keen. • Vail Summer Bluegrass Series Status Report: Ariel Rosemberg Email provided for review; Ariel will attend next meeting for briefing. Earlier this week he secured an opening act, which will be formally announced once the contract is signed. Event would most likely be held at 6:00 p.m., the same time (hour) as the Jazz Festival. • Event Recaps: • December 2013 Events: Jeff Brausch, Highline  Vail Snow Daze  Vail Holidaze  Vail NYE • Vail Snow Daze Brief highlights, marketing, PR and results. Full week of activities. Over 20 million media impressions. ROI calculations were done by Vail Resorts. ROI based on sales and lodging,excluding lift revenue. Further details on occupancy and revenue will be provided. During the review of demographic profiles questions arose regarding the data. Brausch stated that the ROI was reduced down to Vail guests, based on maze survey statistics. Request for the CSE to receive the data broken out by location and/or venue. Highline will research the data further and break out the numbers. The different indendent producers use various methodology to get to the numbers required. Andrews commented that the data must be conservative, as well as realistic. TOV/CSE Minutes: February 5, 2014 Page 4 of 6 Whitaker complimented Highline for attracting an older demographic with Big Head Todd and Matisyahu. Highline did a good job and it was a much larger, better event than in the previous year. Construction zone at Ford Park was a challenge for the venue side. McDonald noted that the fields were torn up; both Town of Vail and Vail Resorts had hoped that there would be a better aesthetic. Highline did a great job working around the obsatcles. • Vail Holidaze Brausch described the event as “not a reason people come, but an enhancement to their stay,”, resulting in the highest weekly net promoter score for the year. Skating show was spectacular, some are Olympic competitors. All programming was free for the visitor. Budgets were significantly reduced last year due to the loss of sponsorship by Vail Resorts, and further reduced for 2014. The skating shows may not be able to be funded from the existing funding next year. CSE needs to have a very specific idea of what their expectations are for the event. Skating shows are very well received. Seeking potential supplemental funding for both the New Year’s Eve fireworks and the skating components was an option that was discussed. There was general agreement that the revised programming for the Tree Lighting Ceremony and the partnership with the Art in Public Places program was very well received. Molly Eppard, director of Vail’s Art in Public Places program spoke about their partnership with Holidaze in the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremonies, which incorporated the “Logan Luminescence” ice sculpture installation in Slifer Fountain and a series of paper lantern workshops in partnership with the Vail Public Library. Although citing some challenges with the new location, she thanked the Public Works Department for their help with the installation, and thanked the Logans for their generous contribution to the ice sculpture project and Doe Browning for her contribution to the Paper Lantern workshops.Paper lantern participation exceeded 100 in the workshop with a demographic spread from five years old to eighty years old. Worked with Red Sandstone and Girl Scouts. The kids would like a more formal, structured parade of lights next year. Do we bring Santa Claus in next year? Great location for ice sculptures, added to the ambience of the Vail Village, night and day. Need to get those events on the calendar now, tree lighting, etc. Good partnership with Highline. Add the Boy Scouts to the event next year. Solidify the kid’s parade and make it a focus. Rogers added, “If you can get a ‘star’ skater, come to Council with the request.” • Vail NYE All at Dobson. The event didn’t do well financially. It is a challenge to hold events at Dobson and make a profit, lots of extra costs. Vail Rec District runs Dobson and has taken over the F&B making it more difficult for a promoter from a revenue opportunity perspective. It’s hard to turn a profit there without F&B. Price of tickets and talent, is cost prohibitive. Suggestions from Highline: There need to be exceptions, where the producer might be entitiled to a portion of the F&B. Perhaps waive fees for that venue. Still trying to figure out if they will produce the event in 2014. They are 50/50 on bidding for it. Will let the CSE know as soon as possible. TOV/CSE Minutes: February 5, 2014 Page 5 of 6 Davis remarked that he had not heard great feedback on the event; no champagne toast, sound wasn’t great. What if the event would be smaller, more expensive tickets? Should the events be more family focused next year? Whitaker shared feedback from their guests who were looking for something more Latin and family focused. What about providing an event for kids under 21? The outdoors is too cold to hold an event.  Motion to approve the recaps and final funding disbursements for Vail Snow Daze, Vail Holidaze, Vail NYE M/S/P: Kundolf/Bank//Unanimous The motion passed 7-0. • Noram Cup- Dec 15-20- cf: Euginnia Manseau, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail* (Moved to follow Highline recaps, since Euginnia Manseau had not yet arrived.) This race is one step below the World Cup. Feedback received from the race crews and skiers indicated it to be “the best race all season.” Athletes who come to Vail to train in November, stay for a month, and into the race series, which was moved to earlier in the season to follow the World Cup. The Event Producer doesn’t choose the dates, it’s up to the national governing body. If event is held in Vail again in 2015, then it would also have to be in December. Need good snow conditions to put on a great race experience for the competitors. Host main operations out of Manor Vail. People do stay at other facilities. Event Producer works directly with Manor Vail. • Vail America Days Planning Discussion: Peggy Wolfe, Highline Wolfe explained the bare bones budget for the event that reflects the $70,000 allocation, and reminded the CSE that last year’s allocation, with the $35,000 for the fireworks credited included, was $75,000. Due to the high cost of insurance (nearly $20,000) and the enhancements to the parade, Highline lost money on the event. The new budget cuts advertising by $5k, reduced signage and cancelling the publication of the parade guide to save $$. Event operations reduced by $9,600 by removing some sound equipment, security, entertainment. There will be only one grandstand location for announcements. Fireworks reduced by $21,000 to $14,000- adequate for a 7-8 minute show off the mountain.In closing, she stated, “It will be a much different event.” Could there be a subsidy from the Vail Daily to print the parade guide? Highline provided all the content. The number that Vail Daily would print and produce is based on ad sales. They want to get into different hotels, but the Vail Daily does different print runs for different locations. There are local organizations that could provide more entertainment instead of sitting on floats? Challenges are creating large gaps in the parade because of groups stopping to do performances, that’s why it’s better to have bands. What part of the admin expenses are insurance costs? Insurance line item is the same as it was in December. Administrative fees – consist of staffing, permit fees, insurance (~$15k). Insurance covers participants, spectators and the Highline staff. Could the fireworks have a name sponsor? Or should we go back to the Council to see if there can be additional funding. Seven minutes is not enough time for a fireworks show. TOV/CSE Minutes: February 5, 2014 Page 6 of 6 Wolfe explained that Highline came back as requested by the CSE to present a revised budget on what they can do to make the event happen within the budget. Highline has not started actively looking for sponsors. Fireworks show is a major concern, based on length of show. Highline to provide options to the council on what the choices are for the show. Rogers advised that communication with the council regarding what the ramifications of the fireworks are, as it would not be wise to surprise them. There was consensus among CSE members that the Council would be disappointed by the short length of the show. If we’re going to ask for more $, then the discussion should happen in March, prior to the due date for supplemental requests. Wolfe asked if, since it is a Town of Vail “owned” event, are there some addtional services that can be provided in-kind? Budget and costs broken out, could their be more town support? Jon Boord, representing Solaris, gave a brief overview of their planned activation for the 4th of July. Use Bol and Matsuhisa to provide food, beverages and entertainment. Have not contacted CineBistro and Yeti’s yet. Bring in music through the afternoon, work with Matsuhisa and military bands. Make it appropriate for the 4th of July and the location. PinkMonkey to add some decorations. Create some games for the kids and family to stay and play and then move on to other activities elsewhere. Use the lawn for both dining and a kids zone for games. • Discussion of the “Vail Brand” and how it is represented in events: Davy Ratchford, Vail Resorts Context of how the brand is used and positioned. How does the brand relate to the event strategy? See presentation for additional information. Lodging properties are buying the same keywords thus spending a lot of revenue across all lodging locations. How can more cooperation between lodges, CSE and VLDMAC help the situation. How are events that provide value to the community but don’t drive destination visitation evaluated? There were specific promotions and ads for specific events run by the VLMDAC last year, primarily in the Front Range. This is not likely to occur this summer. Perhaps there needs to be a work session between CSE and VLDMAC to discuss strategies and tactics and the marketing spend. It’s up to the CSE to put together the numbers and make recommendations based on event analytics as to which events are driving destination visitation. Approach events differently? Fewer events that are more iconic. Need to keep with the CSE’s mission of providing a balanced calendar of events. • New Business and Community Input: There was none.  Motion to adjourn @ 11:40 a.m. M/S/P: Cassidy/Kundolf/Unanimous- The motion passed 7-0 Next Regular CSE Meeting: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 @ 8:30 a.m. Vail Town Council Chambers