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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01. CSE Minutes 04-01-2020 (2) COMMISSION ON SPECIAL EVENTS MEETING Wednesday, April 1st, 2020 @ 8:30a.m.-10:00a.m. MINUTES AGENDA: Meeting materials can be accessed at the following link: April Meeting Materials CSE Roll Call: Alison Wadey, Barry Davis, Samantha Biszantz, Jill Lau, Kim Rediker, Mark Gordon, Marco Valenti Staff: Jeremy Gross, Mia Vlaar, Liz Gladitsch Attendance: Austin Gavlak, Skip Thurnaur (VLMDAC), Meghan Scallen, Mark Foster, Amanda Blevins, Amy Lewis, Angela Mueller, Becca Aliber, Beth Pantzer, Beth Papas, Chris Huntington, Danielle Salinksy, Eddie, Eric Manthey, Jason, Katie Coakley, Kip Tingle, Kris Sabel, Laurie Asmussen, Mark Christie, Mike McCormack, Nanette Kuich, RP, Sarah Frank, Townsend 1. @ 8:30a.m.: Administrative Items (5 minutes) a. Minutes from the CSE Meeting on 3/4/2020 • Motion to approve the minutes Valenti/Rediker/Unanimous b. Upcoming Meeting Reminders • May 6, 2020 2. 8:35 a.m.: Recaps (15 Minutes) a. Project Funway (15 minutes) • Opened up bleacher seats and it made a big difference and brought in a lot more funding. There were unforeseen costs with this but it was still very beneficial. • Increased fundraising by 27% and attendance by 17% • Added 3 new art mural activations • Motion to approve final funding for Project Funway Rediker/Valenti/Unanimous 3. 8:50 a.m.: COVID-19 Update – (30 minutes) a. Event Cancellations and Postponements Update • All events in March and through the end of the ski season have been canceled • Pink Vail and Superhero ski day are looking at options to host a non skiing event in the future. • Taste of Vail is evaluating some July dates but will likely hold off until September and make the fall event bigger. • Powabunga is postponing until closing weekend 2021. There are some opportunities to use the deposits paid to talent later this year for one off concerts, not the full festival though. • Spring Back to Vail is working with staff on some date options later in the year. • Early summer (June) events are all considering postponing to later in the summer. Many will make the final decision in May delaying the decision as long as possible. This includes Art Fest, Burger Battle and Craft Beer Classic, Farmers Market (looking at virtual market to start the season), Vail Whitewater Races, etc. b. Reallocation of funds/Town Council Event Policy Update Rediker – This year may not be the year to fund large events. What might seem safe at the beginning of June may not be safe come end of September if there is a second wave of COVID- 19. Those funds may be better utilized in other ways. Want to make sure we are being fiscally responsible as we can AND safely and responsibly Vlaar – A memo on how we are funding large events was presented at Council meeting on 3/31 explaining what our overall philosophy is: 1. priority is to keep people healthy and safe 2. Special events are a key driver to our economy c. Rescheduling events – Calendar Review • We need to determine with individual producers what their drop dead date to have approval to hold an event and the event date • How are we going to reimburse people who have already spent the money? • What is Econ Dev Staff doing moving forward with Events: • Biggest concern is if and when we are able to start gathering again, what do those events look like. How do you modify the event within whatever the public health guidelines are. • We’ve recognized that there is going to be compression toward the end of the summer • Need clarity from CSE and Council – What about weekdays vs. Weekends? Ie: Bluegrass on Wednesdays. • We have shifted our primary focus for VLMDAC marketing dollars to Front Range / drive market • As we reschedule events and Econ. Dev sees that it may not be beneficial to the community as a whole, that is when that specific event will be brought before CSE for review, feedback, funding options. • Rediker - Can you give an example – Powabunga – I know they spent a lot of money already getting ready for that event. For them and for future events how are we handling that? Are we paying them in full or just paying them for what they already spent? • Events we’ve paid some funds to already: a. Powabunga received first payment. They’ve received 1/3 of their funding. They can show us what expenses they can’t roll to next year and what can be. Ie: Some marketing that has already been spent. They don’t need to re-apply in the fall. We will re-evaluate what we are funding them, knowing there is already working capital they have. • Davis - We need to reconvene for a funding meeting when everything settles. There are going to be producers that suffer loss. We need to also look at what remaining calendar is left and we shouldn’t stack events that aren’t seasonally accurate. • Gordon – Is it the right decision for us to be hosting any events this summer? We need to worry that Vail having an event may be seen as negative. It MAY be that the best and right move is a campaign saying there are wide open spaces - come up here and relax. Events may be a negative. Concerned that we might be jumping the gun. We need to have broader discussion with CSE, experts, and we make a recommendation to Council on what is the path forward for summer, fall, and next winter. • Wadey – Vail America Days – How do we mitigate that many people in town? 4. 9:20 a.m.: Public Comment/Event Producer Open Discussion (30 Minutes) Event Producers Comments - Angela Mueller, Farmers market o We are looking into holding a virtual farmers market o Taste of Vail Update: We have taken time to work with wineries and vendors to keep them in the loop. We are looking at July and September date options. - Vail Symposium did hold 14 of their 21 and are holding two of their upcoming events virtually - Austin Gavlak, Powabunga: o We are trying to figure out best way to pivot. We are trying to use “postpone” not “cancel” because we are in a position where we have a lot of money out and we are in a position where vendors don’t necessarily want to re-fund. Initial thought – would be really hard to do in the summer or early winter. It’s a springtime skiing event, pond skimming, etc. We have top tier talent signed on and they are interested in doing something early winter. Mid- December. Have opportunities to do lodging deals with Arrabelle, Evergreen, Antlers, etc. Consensus of shift in industry is more value focused and we want to shift there. We need to offer great value to get people back up to Vail to celebrate return of ski season. If you’re a powabunga ticket holder, your ticket rolls over to 2020 early winter season plus more value but we will need to work quickly to do that to give our audience and customers  Wadey – You’ll need to submit a plan to Jeremy and Mia to review to see if that is something that is feasible.  Biszantz – can we provide a template/process for producers?  Gross – Yes, we can also produce a mid-cycle funding process for funding that may be coming back to us if money is made available by council.  Biszantz – What does it look like if COVID comes back in December for you, Austin  Gavlak - There are some safety nets we can put in but there are a lot of expenses that we can’t recoup.  Gavlak - Are you interested in funding events in August? What are need times now? We have a couple ideas. Should we be looking to spend any energy on certain dates?  Vlaar – we aren’t at that point yet because it’s so fluid. We don’t have actual data points that allow us to shift our approach and know when we can even start inviting people back to Vail.  Wadey – If you do have any ideas, get them on paper so we have ideas and we can be nimble when we do get the go-ahead. Ie: art installation or something that may set us apart from other communities that is less of a cost and smaller gathering. - Mark Foster, Vail LAX shootout: o Our attendees need to be able to enjoy restaurants and hotels so it will need to be a wait and see if people can participate within the town. o Wadey - Do you see teams withdrawing? o Foster - We have 50% people traveling out of state. Virginia has a stay at home until late June. It is individual family by family - Sarah Frank, VVF: Thank you Mia and Jeremy for all your work to move Mountain Games. We are taking our event and the circumstances very seriously o Statement to group: Be sensitive to the message we are getting out there and how we want to represent Vail. Keep event producers informed so we are all sending the same message on how we invite people back up to Vail. - Mike McCormack, Outlier: o Just a note: We hold Breck Epic in late August – 35% international and 35% Destination and we haven’t seen a swell in refund requests that we thought we might so there is reason for optimism o USFS had put an immediate halt on all applications until 2021 so we will have to cancel 100 Gravel Race portion of Vail Outlier because of that. o Going to continue the MTB portion and all other portions of the event 5. @ 9:50 .a.m.: New Business (10 minutes) Motion to adjourn – Valenti/Biszantz/Unanimous Adjournment @10:00 a.m.