The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2016-05-04 CSE Meeting MinutesCSE Minutes May 4, 2016 Page 1 of 6 DRAFT COMMISSION ON SPECIAL EVENTS MEETING Vail Town Council Chambers Wednesday, May 4 , 2016 @ 8:30am CSE Members Present: Barry Davis Mark Christie Mark Gordon Kim Newbury Rediker Shenna Richardson – departed at 10:30am Marco Valenti Alison Wadey Town of Vail Staff Present: Sybill Navas, CSE Coordinator Kelli McDonald, Economic Development Manager Laura Waniuk, Event Marketing Liaison Suzanne Silverthorn, Director of Communications Others Present: Brooke Skjonsby, Vail Resorts Sandra Perrig, Vail Valley Partnership Ashley Cawthorn, Vail Symposium Morgan Landers, CanDo MS Rachel Lahti, CanDo MS Clare Hefferren, Callosum Alan Himelfarb, Starting Hearts Michael Holton, Vail Valley Medical Center Corinne Hara, Vail Centre Scott Cross, Vail Film Festival Sean Cross, Vail Film Festival Dale Mosier, Vail Symposium Rob Levine, Vail Symposium, Antlers Whitney Heingartner, Burton Cam Craighead, Burton Marc Murphy, Burton Ian Warda, Burton Euginnia Manseau, Ski & Snowboard Club Vail James Deighan, Highline AGENDA: Meeting materials can be accessed after April 29th at the following link: http://65.38.144.10/weblink/0/fol/346299/Row1.aspx CSE Minutes May 4, 2016 Page 2 of 6 CSE Vice-Chair, Mark Gordon, called the meeting to order at 8:38 am. CSE Chair, Barry Davis, arrived immediately following and picked up the role of chairing the meeting. Administrative Items a. Approval of the Minutes of the CSE Regular Meeting on April 6, 2016  Motion to approve the minutes of the CSE Meeting, April 6, 2016 as presented. M/S/P: Christie/Valenti/Unanimous The motion passed 7-0 b. Review Financials: Navas noted that the survey information had been added to the spreadsheet. No questions were asked. Event Liaison Marketing Update Please see presentation for further details. Recap: Burton US Open of Snowboarding, Feb. 29-March 5: Marc Murphy, Director of Partner Marketing, accompanied by Ian Warda and Whitney Heingartner It’s the 35th year for the event, it’s been held for 4 years in Vail. There is no plan to go anywhere else but Vail. Murphy said that they are a premium brand and Vail is a premium town, so it’s a great fit. This year they extended the event, starting Tuesday with Junior Jam and added an extra night of concerts. Broomball in Solaris came into its own, and was a big hit. The autograph signing with Shaun White was tremendous. Red Bull became a sponsor and showed great results in their media. They plan to expand on the youth programs for next year. Burton will also expand and extend marketing reach earlier in the season. They also see opportunity to provide a high end experience to celebrity clientele and are investigating this. Burton is looking to find better ways to accommodate families with children at the venue. The RRC survey numbers could be considered conservative. There is a good mix of visitor type, 52% were overnight guests. Economic impact ratio was $9.81. They hired a third party PR agency this year which resulted in great coverage. They have a strong focus on sustainability efforts, such as composting and repurposed event signage. They have brought in new partners and sponsors in different categories for next year. Christie asked if continuing ADR increases will affect attendance negatively, Murphy stated he wasn’t sure, but didn’t think so. They will take a look at announcing bands earlier next year. Please see presentation for further information.  Motion to approve the final funding distribution for Burton USO of Snowboarding. M/S/P: Newbury-Rediker/Richardson/Unanimous The motion passed 7-0 CSE Minutes May 4, 2016 Page 3 of 6 Event Recaps – Please see presentations for further information. *motion to release final funding disbursement required a. CarniVail* Feb. 6-9: Highline/James Deighan It’s been exciting to have the event return; Vail Mountain marketing supported the event. The event creates great ambiance for families. The parade was a big hit and there were a lot of people from all over the world watching it. The King and Queen contest and parade competition provided a fun atmosphere. The enthusiasm and passion showed through in the creativity of the floats. The social media response through photos was very successful. Navas noted that the Town of Vail Landscape crew won the “Best Float” award. Highline said they would like to see 30-35 floats next year. b. Starting Hearts- Feb. 18: Alan Himelfarb This year was the 4th annual Heart Expo, held with great support from the community. The title sponsor is Vail Valley Medical Center; Town of Vail was a presenting sponsor. They save lives of cardiac arrest victims, educate CPR and defibrillator use, put defibrillators in Eagle County, and do prevention work and focus on heart health. Their goal is to have every citizen in Eagle County trained in AED use. They were able to reduce the cost to $49 and increase their screenings by 50% for this event. They also provided scholarships to local students and seniors for the screening. c. Vertical Express- Feb. 27: CanDo MS- Morgan Landers Landers said thank you for the increased funding to $4000 instead of the regular $1000. This event is held at 7 mountains, this is the only national ski event that couples skiing and Multiple Sclerosis. They use the Vail event as a highlight, it’s a key location and the grand prize for the top fundraiser. They received great national exposure this year and reached 19 million impressions for the event. They had 130 participants in the event this year, a 23% increase. d. UC16 Junior Championships- Mar. 11-17: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV)- Euginnia Manseau The event is a good fit for the community, club and the families. SSCV took a 2 year hiatus due to the 2015 Championships. It’s been a challenge figuring out dates due to Burton USO. They had 187 athletes on the list. 42 skiers from Ski and Snowboard Club Vail qualified for the event. The participants were here for approximately 7 days with families and coaches. There were social events and awards each day. They plan to hold the event in 2017 as well. e. PINK Vail- Apr. 2 : Michael Holton Holton provided highlights; this was the 5th year for the event. They had about 3000 “official” participants. They continue to modify the event every year based on previous learnings. PINK Vail appeals to females and builds loyalty. About 26% were overnight visitors. Their NPS was 75 and they would like to improve CSE Minutes May 4, 2016 Page 4 of 6 upon it. The event in 2017 will be on March 25; they see some jumps in participation and fundraising when they hold the event in March. They are probably moving the event down to Golden Peak for 2017 based on the number of participants. They want the event to be family friendly. Gordon asked what the CSE funding was used for. Holton replied that it was to market out of region. They saw an increase in participation from out of region and ROI spend increased. f. Vail Film Festival* Apr.7-10: Sean and Scott Cross They had challenges with the festival being later this year, attendance was down, but they had more film makers in attendance. The film festival continues to grow and has a great reputation among the industry. They had submissions from over 30 countries. They had great social media reach and marketing through their partnership with Virgin America. More local marketing than usual was done. Many people from the Front Range didn’t make it due to the “end of season” date. The Virtual Reality tent was a success. Because the hotel prices were less expensive, film makers were able to come in, but because the film festival was so close to the Tribeca film festival this year (three days), there was a loss of film industry participants. They plan to grow the Virtual Reality tent next year, and to seek out a major sponsor for that component. Christie stated that the Welcome Center did not get the marketing collateral, programs and schedules until the day before the event. The Cross brothers stated that they would try to better in that regard next year. They are looking for large sponsors to underwrite the film festival and/or virtual reality. They are in conversations with companies that are already in that category. Cross said they want to better integrate the presence of the virtual reality into the festival. g. Vail Symposium Winter Programming*: Ashley Cawthorn The Vail Symposium produced 22 programs. They wrapped up the season on March 28 with the Consciousness Series. The Adventure Series was a hit and sold out. The diversity of the programming was extensive. Estimated attendance was 1500, next year they are going to extend the length of the schedule. They are looking at 22-28 programs for 2017. They had a bit of attendee fatigue due to the tight schedule and are extending their winter season to allow for more time. They plan to host some weekend programs which will increase overnight visitation. Their NPS score went up 27% this year.  Motion to approve the final funding distribution for CarniVail, Vail Film Festival and Vail Symposium Winter Programming. M/S/P: Valenti/Christie/Unanimous The motion passed 7-0 Shenna Richardson excuses herself from the meeting at 10:30am. Expansion of uses of Welcome Centers: Suzanne Silverthorn Silverthorn has been gathering ideas on what is missing at the Welcome Centers and how can they be used as or added to the event venue inventory possibilities. CSE Minutes May 4, 2016 Page 5 of 6 Event registration pick-up is a possible service that could be offered as well. CSE members encouraged the concept of broadening the uses of the venues, particularly the Lionshead Welcome Center, but cautioned about potential negative impact to information services. Input from Council at work session on May 3rd: How to apply to the RFP Criteria for 2017 events? Does the current list of 2016 funded events meet or not meet those criteria? Gordon stated that he tried to get input from the council and reviewed strategy with the new members. The biggest takeaway comment was to lessen the focus on the idea about reducing the amount of events and focusing on quality. No one supported reducing events, unless the quality was diminished. In the council meeting, Bruno suggested using the scorecards to rank the events when the recaps are presented in order to compare whether the event had lived up to the original expectations. Wadey thought that is a good idea. The other key message was about events and their evolution. How can the CSE get the word about the RFP out to a wider base? Gordon suggested purchasing advertising targeted to event promoters from other areas. Davis mentioned that any new producers would need to be helped through the process of hosting events in Vail. There are many conditions within the permit, but it is accessible online to make it easier to understand the requirements and to complete the document. Wadey asked if it’s possible to get information from the producers on what are the challenging parts of the permit process. The Council is interested in what’s next. How will events evolve? How does the CSE make this happen? Waniuk will compile the competitive event analysis with mountain resorts and beach resorts as directed by CSE. Proposed discussion Item for the June 1st Joint Meeting w/VLMDAC: Development of revised RFP criteria using Council input? McDonald reviewed that there are three topics for discussion: 2017 CSE RFP criteria, and if anything has changed with the VLMDAC goals and strategy that they would like to see incorporated. The second topic is the summer 2016 marketing campaign. And third, the topic of bringing and developing new event opportunities will be added. New Business and Community Input o Colorado Cup event will not be bringing a Bundesliga team to Vail. They will be hosting soccer camps run by Bundesliga team coaches. o CSE Chair Barry Davis informed the group that he would not be able to be present at the allocation meetings in November due to a family commitment that had recently come up, and asked the CSE if they would be willing to consider changing the dates. Navas presented two alternatives, and the CSE CSE Minutes May 4, 2016 Page 6 of 6 voted unanimously to accept the revised schedule as shown below. The new dates are highlighted in BOLD type: • Wednesday, August 3: Regular monthly CSE Meeting • Friday, August 5: Post 2017 RFP • Tuesday, August 9: Joint Meeting with Vail Economic Advisory Council • Wednesday, September 7: Regular monthly CSE Meeting • Monday, October 3: 2017 RFP Submittal Deadline • Wednesday, October 5: Regular monthly CSE Meeting- final opportunity for fall event recaps • Wednesday, October 19: CSE Special Meeting: 2017 RFP Presentations reviewed • Wednesday, October 26: CSE Special Meeting to determine 2017 Funding Allocations • Wednesday, November 2: Regular monthly CSE Meeting • Thursday, November 17: Joint Meeting w/VLMDAC- Present Funding Decisions • Tuesday, Dec. 6: Present 2017 CSE Regular monthly CSE Meeting  Motion to adopt revised RFP process dates. M/S/P: Valenti/Wadey/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0 (Richardson absent)  Motion to Adjourn at 11:25am M/S/P: Valenti/Wadey/Unanimous The motion passed 6-0 (Richardson absent) Next CSE Meeting: Wednesday, June 1, 2016 @ 8:30am And Joint Meeting with VLMDAC Vail Town Council Chambers