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HomeMy WebLinkAbout 2015-05-06 CSE Meeting Minutes CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: May 6, 2015 Page 1 of 5 COMMISSION ON SPECIAL EVENTS MEETING Vail Town Council Chambers Wednesday, May 6 , 2015 @ 8:30 a.m. CSE Members Present: Barry Davis Mark Gordon Rayla Kundolf Shenna Richardson (left at 10:40am) Marco Valenti CSE Members Absent: Jeff Andrews Allison Wadey Town of Vail Staff Present: Sybill Navas, CSE Coordinator Kelli McDonald, Economic Development Manager Mark Novak, Fire Department Mike Vaughan, Fire Department Others Present: Laura Waniuk, Event Liaison Margaret Rogers, Vail Town Council Bobby Bank, Welcome Center Beth Pappas, VRD Jim Kellen, Vail Resorts Michael Holton, Vail Valley Medical Center Sean Cross, Vail Film Festival Scott Cross, Vail Film Festival Tracey Flower, Vail Symposium Ross Iverson, Vail Leadership Institute Todd Wallis, Vail Leadership Institute AGENDA: Meeting materials can be accessed after April 30 at the following link: http://65.38.144.10/WebLink8/0/fol/321726/Row1.aspx CSE Chair, Barry Davis, called the meeting to order at 8:32am Administrative Items • Approval of the Minutes of the CSE’s Meeting on April 1, 2015  Motion to approve the minutes of the CSE Meeting, April 1, 2014, as presented. M/S/P: Kundolf/Valenti /Unanimous The motion passed 5-0 CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: May 6, 2015 Page 2 of 5 • Financial/Contract Overview CSE Invites: Please add to your schedule: • May 19: Burton USO Recap at Town Council Evening Meeting: Time TBD • June 3rd: Joint meeting with VLMDAC at CSE- Vail Town Council Chambers • **Tuesday, August 11 @ 8:00 a.m.: Joint Meeting with the VEAC Presentation explaining Vail Resorts strategic planning and timing criteria for events and promotions. Kelli McDonald/Jim Kellen Kellen presented a review of events and how event strategy impacts the lulls in hotel occupancy during the winter season. Discussion of off-peak times where there is an opportunity for additional events. February is a key month that could use a boost, specifically before President’s Day weekend. Mid-week period is when events need to fill hotels and the town. Kellen discussed Vail Snow Daze and the event’s positive reputation. In 2014 the event was stretched to 2 weekends, which was still successful, but with only a small increase in room nights. For 2015 the plan is most likely to move the event to one weekend, December 11-13. Events provide the strategic alliance partners and sponsors with great opportunities to gain exposure. Spring Back to Vail is a popular event, but does provide challenges with the number of different demographic groups in town. Update event format to deliver the same impact but lower budget. The 2015 event had issues because of the conduct of the younger guests. Rogers mentioned that the council is trying to figure out what the end of ski season celebration should be. Navas said that last year, and in the several years previous, the concerts were held at Ford Park, so the associated impacts were removed from the village. The Ford Park fields have been removed as a concert venue option as of this year. Kellen stated that it is time to reimagine the goal and the format of the event. Gordon stated that his experience during Spring Back to Vail was positive; there were families in attendance and it was festive. Gordon said that the end of season party is popular with the local and seasonal workers. Kundolf stated that there need to be activities that appeal to varieties of groups. Kellen re-stated that the goal is not to cancel Spring Back to Vail; it’s to reallocate funds to fill other potential need periods. Event Recaps • PINK Vail: Michael Holton, Vail Valley Medical Center The event experienced a great attendance increase, approximately 50%. The 2016 event is planned for April 2. Event is very inclusive, wide age range. About half of the donations came from outside Colorado. Fundraising jumped 49% in 2015. Objective for next year is how to get information from partners and get out earlier with information. Next year in 2016, the event will be held the same weekend as Taste of Vail. Growth is tough to predict for the event, there is a lot to consider from an operational perspective. The date for next year is the week after Easter. Holton stated that they canvas the hotel CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: May 6, 2015 Page 3 of 5 properties to give a heads up for their guests. Davis mentioned that this type of event needs more attention, perhaps from other funding sources. McDonald said that she went to the Lionshead Merchants Association and discussed opportunities to participate more actively in Pink Vail. For future Pink Vail events, need to engage all businesses. Navas mentioned that perhaps the event can continue to grow by flowing into the town, and engage town attendees as well as skiers. • Vail Film Festival: Scott & Sean Cross Cross stated that it was the largest program thus far; they had about 30% additional programming. Larger quantity of film submissions were received from around the world. The event was more active in social media. Festival logistically went well. Weaknesses included sponsorships, the agency in Boulder helped, but it was a challenge to finalize the sponsorship deals, as the “ask” was too high. The advertising would be extended to the Front Range. They would like to see attendance from more film makers, and are considering moving the dates up, as the hotel rates in March are high. Davis asked about the dates for 2016. Tentatively they are planning for April 7-10. Vail Mountain closes on April 10. CSE discussion proceeded about timing, including possible consideration of Memorial Day weekend, “off peak” dates in January or February, and June. A partnership with Vail Mountain to assist with sponsorship dollars was also suggested. • Vail Symposium This year had solid marketing, speakers and programming. There were a couple of programs that were scheduled into April where attendance fell off, so they are planning to cap the last program on March 31 in the future. Flower was pleased with the visitor type. Next year they will be working with all of their partners/presenters to raise the bar on the presentation aspect. The audience demographic usually ends up around 55-60 years old. Perhaps that’s because the Millennials do not answer the surveys. Next year there will be a program targeted at a younger age group, high school, college. The participation of the speakers interacting with local schools is a plus for the program. The solid partnership with Eagle County Schools will continue. Holding all programs in Vail helped with overnight stays. Flower said that the program will be taken to the next level by coaching the speakers prior to their presentations next year, as survey comments reflected the need for all speakers to “nail” their presentations. Plans for 2016 are already in place, and they hope to take advantage of the long lead time in order to attract sponsors for the individual events. Starting with podcasts and YouTube and then continuing to increase their online exposure. Next winter they are planning for 20 programs in a more concentrated period of time. They are forging new partnerships with local business and event producers, for example Vail Film Festival. CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: May 6, 2015 Page 4 of 5  Motion to approve the final funding disbursement for the Vail Film Festival. M/S/P: Valenti /Gordon /Unanimous The motion passed 5-0  Motion to approve the final funding disbursement for the Vail Symposium. M/S/P: Valenti /Gordon /Unanimous The motion passed 5-0 Fireworks Split: $50,000 total. How would the CSE like to distribute the budget between Vail America Days™ and Vail Holidaze/New Year’s Eve? Vaughan discussed the different types of firework displays, live fireworks vs. proximal. The decision for 2015 was that live fireworks were preferred by the public and that we should commit to go with the live fireworks and cancel if the weather conditions are not favorable. Novak stated that there is a chance that the fireworks could be canceled due to the dry weather and the investment in fireworks could be lost if they are canceled. However, the unused fireworks could be rolled over to the New Years Eve or 2016 4th of July fireworks display if that happens.  Motion to purchase the traditional, live fireworks for 4th of July M/S/P: Kundolf /Richardson /Unanimous The motion passed 5-0  Motion to split firework funding in this manner: $32,000 for 4th of July fireworks and $18,000 to New Years Eve fireworks M/S/P: Kundolf /Gordon /Valenti opposed, stating he felt more weight should be given to the 4th of July. The motion passed 4-1 Mark Gordon took over as Chair at approximately 10:00am Event Liaison Report: Laura Waniuk • Event Marketing Report – please see presentation • Competitive Resort Event Calendar Overview – please see presentation Event Funding Category Revisions and allocation of remaining 2015 “Tier IV” funds: Review input from Town Council presentation on April 21. Discuss re- opening a funding opportunity for the organizations that provide Education and Enrichment programming who had applied for and received “Tier IV” funds for 2015 and allocate the remaining $6,000 to the single entity that presents the option best fitting the new criteria. Could be scheduled for the June 3rd CSE meeting, with a submittal deadline of May 26. Navas explained the funding situation. This would be the first time the new criteria will be used to evaluate candidates. This plan was agreed to by consensus of the commission. CSE follow-up discussion as to how Vail Resorts strategic planning and timing, and Event Funding Category Revisions fit into the 2016 RFP development. Give direction on development of discussion items for the joint meeting with the VLMDAC on June 3rd. Some possibilities: alignment, strategy and brand fit. Davis touched on Spring Back to Vail strategy for the event. Gordon asked to get the VLMDAC perspective on the overall event calendar. McDonald suggested a discussion CSE Minutes Regular Meeting: May 6, 2015 Page 5 of 5 of what the Marketing board’ research is saying. For next month’s meeting, the discussion with the VLMDAC will include review of the RFP, timing of events, and the revisions of criteria that were recently approved by the Town Council. Gordon asked if it’s possible for the VLMDAC to provide a presentation of their strategy to the CSE at the next meeting. New Business and Community Input Iverson and Wallis from the Vail Leadership Institute discussed a new strategy/program, “Vail Centre”, vailcentre.org. There is an opportunity to produce a Vail-Mexico Forum event for 2016; current status is they are working on branding. It will most likely be a two day event. They want to roll out the marketing for the event in December. Wallis discussed the trip to the Banff Center, which has been around for 80 years. Banff has a focused environment, higher learning, similar to VLI. The VLI is partnering with Cornell for short courses and certificates. The VLI also has close relationships with CU Boulder, Duke, and Kellogg at Northwestern. There may be a chance to run a NAFTA focused program here in Vail. They are planning to approach CEO-level donors for support.  Motion to adjourn at 11:06am M/S/P: Kundolf /Valenti /Unanimous The motion passed 4-0 Next CSE Meeting: Wednesday, June 3, 2015 @ 8:30 a.m.- Vail Town Council Chambers