HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-08_06 CSE MinutesCSE Minutes Regular Meeting: August 6, 2014 Page 1 of 5
MINUTES:
COMMISSION ON SPECIAL EVENTS MEETING
Vail Town Council Chambers
Wednesday, August 6, 2014 @ 8:30 a.m.
CSE Members Present: Jeff Andrews
Bobby Bank
Amy Cassidy
Mark Gordon
Rayla Kundolf
Nicole Whitaker
CSE Member Absent: Barry Davis
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
Terri Hanley Reichert, Vail Resorts/Arrabelle
Davy Ratchford, Vail Resorts
Brooke Macke, Vail Resorts
Cabal Yarne, Lionshead Merchant Association/Vail Chamber
Clare Hefferren, Callosum
Sarah Franke, Group 970/LHMA
Mackenzie Abely, Group 970/LHMA
Mike Imhof, Vail Valley Foundation
Paul Abling, Vail Valley Foundation
Ernest Saeger, Vail Valley Foundation
Leon Fell, King of the Mountain Volleyball
Laurie Asmussen, Eagle Valley Events
Ahmad Akkad, Lionshead Merchant Association
Jeff Brausch, Highline
Meeting Materials can be accessed at:
http://www.vailgov.com/WebLink8/0/fol/309851/Row1.aspx
CSE Vice-Chair, Bobby Bank, called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.
CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: August 6, 2014 Page 2 of 5
Administrative Items:
Approval of the Minutes of the CSE Regular Meeting of July 2, 2014
Motion to approve the minutes of the CSE meeting of July 2, 2014, as
presented.
M/S/P: Kundolf/Andrews/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0.
Review Financial Status
Please see document, no updates.
ERC Meeting Reminder
CSE and LLA invited to ERC Meeting at The Grand View, Thursday, August 14 from 1pm-
3pm.
Competitive Assessment Report - RRC
Competitive Assessment Report from Chris Cares to the Vail Town Council at their work
session on Tuesday, August 19. CSE members are encouraged to attend. Time: TBD. Please
see attached presentation.
Update on marketing efforts for summer events: Laura Waniuk
Discussion about America Cup, Gourmet on Gore, Vail*Beaver Creek Restaurant week,
update on Farmers’ Market. Please see presentation for further information.
Update on evolution of plans for Snow Daze and Vail Holidaze:
Davy Ratchford, Brooke Macke, Vail Resorts and Jeff Brausch, Highline
In the interest of mitigating the historical Snow Daze early December “spike” followed by a fall
back in economic activity the following week, they recommended to move Snow Daze event
back a week to draw more people here to fill in that weekend of Dec 18th and 19th. Kick off with
a smaller event the weekend of December 12th, cap it off with a bigger event on Dec 18th and
19th. Host some events at Solaris and possibly place something at Lionshead, with the
purpose being to get people to come earlier and stay longer.
The changes are recommended given the slight change to demographic and to become more
family friendly. Events will be in town, as opposed to Ford Park, and in conjunction with
Holidaze. First weekend is come and go weekend, kids have to go back to school, visitors from
the Front Range. The second week caters to destination guest who stays longer. Andrews
discussed how the event weekend “bridge” effect will help drive a little more weekday business
at the lodging locations.
Ratchford stated that the whole concept is under discussion and more research will be
pursued. Jeff from Highline discussed how the current budget for Vail Holidaze will not be able
to sustain the ice skating shows; show costs will be an additional $40k-$50k. The current plan
is to hold the tree lighting, ski down, New Years Eve fireworks and roving animation
characters. Rogers stated that s a large portion of the event budgets are fireworks, McDonald
stated that there is a memo out to the town council for the town to fund all fireworks for events
CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: August 6, 2014 Page 3 of 5
in 2015. Gordon mentioned that perhaps the VVF might be able to sponsor one night of
skating, and maybe there are other entities that could sponsor the skating show. Andrews
stated the CSE would like to see the skating performances kept in the event, so a private
donor option might be a good way to provide the necessary funds. Ratchford stated they were
working with Highline now to discuss how the event will be produced and will bring a plan to
the CSE.
Event Recaps
GoPro Mountain Games: Vail Valley Foundation, Mike Imhof, Paul Abling
Mike Imhof stated that demographics are evolving, and that they have seen change in terms of
who is coming and who is participating in the games. Media coverage has skyrocketed with
GoPro being the sponsor for the second year. There is a lot of interest from brands wanting to
be part of the project, the number of vendors has increased from 83 to 104 over two years.
Gender split is 50/50 with an increase in families. Imhof discussed how the event needs to
evolve to starting earlier to accommodate a broader schedule. Thursday had huge attendance.
They changed the television coverage to 2.5 hours on NBC Sports with a 90 minute show and
60 minute show. Lionshead had some activations, which worked out well but there are
challenges there. The Bad Ass Dash event went well, but was a financial loss. Comments
indicated that the Mud Run, which has historically attracted the largest number of competitors,
was missed. For next year, there are questions about which race will occur in Lionshead. With
the right band playing on Thursday, 22% of people stayed for the concert. People attended
more days this year. Family went from 10% to 24% of attendees.
Motion to approve the recap for GoPro Mountain Games and release the final
funding disbursement.*
M/S/P: Andrews/Cassidy/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0.
King of the Mountain Volleyball Tournament: King of the Mountain Volleyball, Leon Fell
The tournament increased in participation from 612 to 643 teams, proving that Eagle Vail can
support this kind of event. There was also growth in the number of people who traveled with
the players to the event. Whitaker said that he did a great job on keeping the lodging in Vail,
given that much of the event had to be held in Eagle-Vail due to the ongoing construction in
Ford Park. Andrews stated that he was glad to hear that the junior portion of tournament will
continue to grow. Navas stated that if Leon had done a separate attendance survey, that would
have shown an increase his numbers. The tournament received the honor of being named one
of the Top 5 grassroots Volleyball tournaments by Volleyball Magazine.
Motion to approve the recap for King of the Mountain Volleyball Tournament
and release the funding disbursement.
M/S/P: Cassidy/Kundolf/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0.
Vail Arts Festival: Eagle Valley Events, Laurie Asmussen
Survey data indicated attendance at 14,722, with 72% of the attendees staying in Vail for the
Arts Festival. She clarified that the construction on the Lionshead Parking Structure made in
difficult to calculate the attendance, as parking counts provide significant information to
CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: August 6, 2014 Page 4 of 5
substantiate the calculations. There were 80 artists participating in this year. Asmussen stated
that she had made an investment in hiring event professionals to improve the marketing and
“activation.” They worked closely with the Fire Department to make sure that safety issues
were addressed. Asmussen added that they now have 5 years of survey data and noted that
the demographic is aging; the average age of visitor this year was 52, last year the average
age was 48.
Motion to approve the recap for Vail Arts Festival and release the final funding
disbursement.*
M/S/P: Whitaker/Andrews/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0.
*Final funding disbursements for the Vail Arts Festival and Go Pro Mountain Games will be
held until all vendors licensed for the event have submitted their sale tax remittances.
Update on plan for “Top Shelf Harvest,” (funding approved as “Lionshead Fall Wine
Festival”) September 26-27: Laurie Asmussen, Eagle Valley Events
The plan for the inaugural event for this fall is to hold it in Lionshead, leading up to Vail-Beaver
Creek Restaurant Week. Currently there are 15 distilleries signed up to participate. They
would like to hold the event for one day only, on Friday, September 26. The event would run
from 2pm-7pm. Originally proposed as a 2-day event, they are keeping in mind the impact on
Arrabelle operations, thus the change in number of days.
Cabal Yarne and Sarah Franke, representing the Lionshead Merchants Association, noted that
it has been a struggle to get the liquor license situation sorted out. The Lionshead Merchant
Association requested that Laurie to make it a one day event, since they will be accepting the
liability for the liquor sales. Franke noted that all groups have been working together
extensively and would like to partner with Laurie to create a phenomenal event with great
attendance.
CSE members expressed concern that a Friday afternoon event is not as likely to attract out of
town guests as one that is held on Saturday. Terri Hanley Reichert from the Arrabelle stated
that the growing Arrabelle business is the reason that they have selected Friday instead of
Saturday. Andrews mentioned that the agreements between all the partners could be a great
model for Lionshead events in the future. Even though the outcome for the event is slightly
different that what was originally proposed, it is still important in order to create relationships
and operational solutions for events like this into the future.
Lionshead Merchant Association will receive the funds from liquor sales. Reichert said she will
go back and discuss with her team at the Arrabelle to find out if the event can be moved to
Saturday instead of Friday.
Motion to approve the proposed one day plan for the event newly titled Vail’s
Top Shelf Harvest, and to maintain the original funding allocation of $20,000.
M/S/P: Gordon/Kundolf/ The motion passed 4-0, with Andrews recusing himself
since he is an active member of the Lionshead Merchants Association, and Whitaker
abstaining.
CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: August 6, 2014 Page 5 of 5
Update from Lionshead Merchants regarding enhancements to the Colorado Grand:
Sarah Franke, representing the Lionshead Merchants Association
The Colorado Grand route this year has a “return to Vail” day on Tuesday of the tour. The
merchants association is currently working on getting the restaurants to offer some type of
promotion for the drivers to drive economic activity in Lionshead. They are also reaching out to
car clubs to come up and stay the weekend. Navas confirmed that The Colorado Grand event
permit has been approved.
2014 Work Plan Action Items
• Finalize Survey requirements and process to gather appropriate data
o Link to the presentation on Competitive Assessment presented to the Vail Town
Council by RRC on July 15: https://vail.sharefile.com/d/s1428e9c816a43b59
• Identify calendar opportunities and any other particular focus for RFP
• Review Draft RFP and provide input. Final document will be scheduled for approval at
the September 3rd CSE meeting.
Motion to approve the CSE RFP event survey requirements and event tier
descriptions as presented.
M/S/P: Cassidy/Whitaker/Bank opposed. The motion passed 5-1.
Motion to approve the RFP as presented with final decision on “focus dates”
to be determined following the event recaps scheduled for the September 3rd
CSE meeting.
M/S/P: Andrews/Cassidy/Unanimous
New Business and Community Input
Andrews noted that the USA Pro Challenge official website and the Vail Valley Foundation are
lacking lodging information. This is a missed opportunity.
Motion to adjourn at: 10:54 a.m.
M/S/P: Andrews/Cassidy/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0.
Next CSE Meeting:
Including Joint Meeting with VLMD
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 @ 8:30 a.m.
Vail Town Council Chambers