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Home My WebLink About06-09-2021 TBID Minutes Minutes – Tourism Business Improvement District Board Meeting of 6/9/2021 Pg. 1 Minutes TOURISM BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT BOARD Wednesday, June 9, 2021 Regular Meeting of the Tourism Business Improvement District Board CALL TO ORDER The regular teleconference meeting of the San Luis Obispo Tourism Business Improvement District Board was called to order on June 9, 2021 at 10:02 a.m. held via teleconference by Chair John Conner. ROLL CALL Present: Chair John Conner, Vice Chair LeBren Harris and members, Pragna Patel-Mueller (arrived 10:17 a.m.), David Smith (arrived at 10:13 a.m.) Natalie Ward, Stephanie Bolles and Matt Wilkins Absent: none. Staff: Tourism Manager Molly Cano and Tourism Coordinator Chantal Stewart PUBLIC COMMENT ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA None. --End of Public Comment-- CONSENT ITEMS ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER HARRIS SECONDED BY BOARD VICE CHAIR BOLLES, CARRIED 5-0-2 (SMITH AND PATEL-MUELLER ABSENT) TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS 1 THRU 9. C.1 Minutes of Meeting on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 C.2 Minutes of Special Meeting on Thursday, May 13, 2021 C.3 Smith Travel Report C.4 Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) Report C.5 Chamber Public Relations Monthly Report C.6 Chamber Guest Services Monthly Report C.7 Noble Studios & DCI Marketing Monthly Report C.8 Marketing Committee: Co-Op Program Commitments Report C.9 SLO TBID Resilience Assessment Report BUSINESS ITEMS 1. SLO CAL EVENTS AND FESTIVALS STRATEGY Melissa Murray, Destination Management Project Manager from Visit SLO CAL presented the Experience SLO CAL 2050 Events and Festivals Strategy project scope. Highlighted components included the development and implementation of a county-wide event calendar with a plug-in to VisitSLO.com with work planned to begin in October 2021. The Board had no questions or discussion on a recommendation for City’s support and participation in the process. Minutes – Tourism Business Improvement District Board Meeting of 6/9/2021 Pg. 2 Public Comment None. --End of Public Comment-- ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER YOUNG-HARRIS SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER BOLLES, CARRIED 7-0-0 to move forward with supporting the Visit SLO CAL Events and Festival Strategy MOU as a recommendation to City for support and participation in the process. 2. SLO TBID BRAND ASSET PRODUCTION Tourism Manager Cano presented the recommendation from the Marketing Committee to allocate up to $50k from the FY 20-21 contingency budget for SLO TBID photography and videography production through Noble Studios. The Board had no questions or discussion. Public Comment None. --End of Public Comment-- ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER WILKINS SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER WARD, CARRIED 7-0-0 to move forward with the Marketing Committee recommendation as is to allocate up to $50K from the FY 2020-21 contingency budget line item for photography and videography production managed by Noble Studios. 3. FY 2021-22 TBID PROGRAM BUDGET Tourism Manager Cano presented the recommended FY 2021-22 TBID program operating budget allocations for Board approval and recommendation to City Council. Highlighted changes to the 21- 22 budget as recommended by the Management Committee are the agency contract increasing from $500K to $650K ($275K towards the media spend and $375K for standard agency fees) and the development of a sales strategy pulled from the research and program development line item. Board members discussed the option of increasing the paid media amount up to $375 to be pulled from this FY 2020-21 contingency line item to prepay for some services and contracts. By consensus, members agreed that it makes sense to free up budget for the summer months and that it could be useful to have additional paid media budget available as and if needed. Public Comment None. --End of Public Comment-- ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER HARRIS SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER BOLLES, CARRIED 7-0-0 to increase the proposed paid media budget by $100K for a total of up to $375K increasing the overall agency contract to $750K for the FY 2021-22 and to prepay the Cal Poly Athletics Contract, Media Monitoring Services and CrowdRiff renewal from the current contingency budget line item. ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER SMITH SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER HARRIS, CARRIED 7-0-0 to approve the FY 2021-22 TBID program budget as recommended with the discussed budget adjustments and to recommend to City Council for approval. 4. TBID CONTRACT CONSIDERATIONS Tourism Manager Cano presented the recommended TBID contract commitments to Cal Poly Athletics for a two-year term, the amendment to the second year of the two-year contract with Noble Studios to $750K and the Chamber of Commerce’s Public Relations and Guest Services contracts as presented for Board approval. Minutes – Tourism Business Improvement District Board Meeting of 6/9/2021 Pg. 3 Public Comment None. --End of Public Comment-- ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER WILKINS SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER SMITH, CARRIED 6-0-1 (HARRIS RECUSED FROM Cal Poly Athletics and Chamber of Commerce contract recommendations due to conflicts of interest) to move forward with the contracts as recommended by the Management Committee. 5. CONTENT MARKETING SERVICES RFP Staff presented the draft RFP for Content Marketing Services for Board discussion and recommendation to City Council. There were no suggested edits to the presented RFP or timeline. Board members formed a taskforce including members Smith, Ward and Patel-Mueller to review proposals and to recommend suggested contractors to the TBID Board for final interviews. Public Comment None. --End of Public Comment-- ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER WARD SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER SMITH, CARRIED 7-0-0 to move forward with the Content Marketing Services RFP as presented. 6. BRAND EQUITY RESEARCH CONSIDERATION The Board received additional information and clarification from marketing members and agency representatives on the proposed Brand Equity research. The Marketing Committee recommended the proposed project for up to $65K and to be funded from the FY 20-21 contingency budget. Public Comment None. --End of Public Comment-- ACTION: MOTION BY BOARD MEMBER WILKINS SECONDED BY BOARD MEMBER SMITH, CARRIED 7-0-0 to move forward with the proposed Brand Equity Research for up to $65K and to be funded from the FY 20-21 contingency budget line item. TBID LIAISON REPORTS AND COMMUNICATION 1. HOTELIER UPDATE – a. Dusty Colyer-Worth reported that most properties are sold out for graduation weekend. Conner reported that many current visitors are trying to reserve not knowing that it is graduation weekend and Harris reported that she is receiving bookings for next year’s CP graduation. b. Harris reported meeting with Sandy Wirick the new Area Director of Sales & Marketing for Embassy Suites 2. MARKETING COMMITTEE UPDATE – None. 3. MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE UPDATE – None. 4. PCC UPDATE – Chair Conner reported on activities such as banners, neighborhood map and contractor proposals. Minutes – Tourism Business Improvement District Board Meeting of 6/9/2021 Pg. 4 5. VISIT SLO CAL UPDATE – Tourism Manager Cano reported and highlighted that Cathy Tull is the new COO and will be relocating to SLO CAL and is leading the efforts for the month of July while Chuck Davison will be on sabbatical. Additionally, VSC has started a hospitality jobs board. 6. TOURISM PROGRAM UPDATE – Staff reported and highlighted the below: a. COVID-19 update – San Luis Obispo County is now in the yellow tier as of this morning b. Google Destination Co-op continues and Tourism Coordinator Stewart has seen positive progress in the destination’s google photos. Collectively the TBID has over seven million views on uploaded photos and will be participating in the VSC photo shoot on June 21st, 2021 due to completing priority buy-in items. c. Dates to remember – i. July 6, 2021 is the Council Meeting where the TBID budget will be reviewed ii. July 7, 2021 10 am Marketing Meeting iii. July Management Meeting is cancelled iv. July 14, 2021 10 am Board Meeting ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 11:39 a.m. The next Tourism Business Improvement District Board meeting will be a special meetin and is scheduled for Thursday, July 14, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. held remotely and via teleconference. APPROVED BY THE TOURISM BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT BOARD: 07/14/2021