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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-13-2015 PCC LRC2Tourism Business Improvement District Meeting Minutes Wednesday, April 8, 2015 10 am City Hall CALL TO ORDER: Chair Nipool Patel PRESENT: Patel, Pearce, Wilkins, Walker, Hutton, Phipps STAFF PRESENT: Molly Cano Call to Order at 10:01 am PUBLIC COMMENT Gamaliel Anguiano, City’s Transit Manager, introduced himself and shared a brief statement about the vision for the use of the trolley and other transportation modes within the City by visitors. He requested the opportunity to present to the TBID Board a more detailed presentation at a later date at the direction of the Board. The Board directed staff to agendize the topic within a future agenda as schedules allow. Chuck Davidson, Visit SLO County, informed the Board of the process delay based on a noticing error by the County. Due to this error a new public hearing has been scheduled for April 21st with the Board of Supervisors. The final public hearing is expected to be scheduled on June 10th but information would be shared once the dates were definite. APPOINTMENTS Kevin Phipps and Clint Pearce, appointed by the City Council on March 17, 2015, took the oath of office to serve on the TBID Board. CONSENT AGENDA ACTION: Moved by Hutton/Pearce to approve the consent agenda. Motion carried 6:0 PRESENTATIONS 1. MARKETING AGENCY MONTHLY UPDATE BCA & Studio Good staff summarized recent promotional activity during the previous quarter. Updates included mobile and desktop campaigns on sunset.com, bay area news group, LAtimes.com, google display, trip advisor and weekend Sherpa as well as social media on facebook & twitter. The RaceSLO arch was a major design focus as well as beginning the new digital asset production. SG noted recent #ShareSLO blog updates and highlighted web traffic increase across all stats. BCA Staff noted that the 2015-2016 marketing plan is under development with the marketing committee and working on promotions for events throughout the next quarter. 2. SLO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE QUARTERLY UPDATE Pam Roberts from the SLO Chamber presented the report to the Board. Roberts noted the most popular item in the Visitor Center is the tear off map which we produce and contract with the PCC. These maps were also distributed throughout the quarter to all hotel properties. A new feature of the Visitor Center is selling local made products so visitors can take a little memento home with them. Roberts highlighted that per the contract, the customer service and phone line is intended to support the TBID digital and print advertising. This quarter, 547 calls were received on the SLO Town number. They also highlighted that two weekends in February wee sell-out weekends for the hotels in SLO. DRAFT Tourism Board Improvement District Minutes Page 2 BUSINESS ITEMS 1. ADDITIONAL SAVOR BAG ORDER The Board discussed the amount of SAVOR bags and the cost associated with the bags. Staff presented the Board with information on ordering additional SAVOR bag for TBID specific use and promotions. Staff recommended ordering 5000 bags based on the figure to use around 3500 for tradeshows, 500 for FAM, media, and conference attendees in market, and having around 1000 to use for other promotional opportunities throughout the year. Based on the cost of $1.45 plus tax and freight the expense was estimated around 8000. ACTION: Moved by Pearce/Hutton to approve the order of 5000 extra SAVOR bags for the TBID’s promotional use. Motion carried 5:0 (Walker was absent during the vote) The Board directed staff to apply the estimated cost figure to the 2015-16 budget since payment for the bags would due in August. 2. ANNUAL PARTNERSHIP & FUNDING REQUESTS The Board received presentations on the annual partnership requests for 2015-16. The partnership requests were presented by: • SLO Wine Country Association- The full partnership request was for $30,000 for 2015-16. The breakdown of the costs included: $12,000 for annual membership for all TBID members, $3000 for PR/Media hosting, $7000 for targeted tradeshow & media funding, $8000 for web & social media advertising. • San Luis Obispo Chamber-of Commerce - the Chamber presented 2 proposals for the TBID’s consideration including the continuation of the TBID-Specific Telephone Fulfillment & Availability Assistance program and the addition of the PR services and media monitoring tool. The summary of the proposals was $31,000 for phone & availability program and about $88,000 ($80,000 for PR & $8000 monitoring service) for the complete the PR & media monitoring service. Within the proposal it was propsed for the TBID and PCC to share the PR contract expense equally at around $44,000 total each. After receiving the proposals the Board briefly discussed them. They noted the value of continued partnership with both organizations. Specially they discussed the addition of the PR contract to the TBID’s marketing mix and supported that direction. They directed the Management committee to review the proposal in depth and make recommendations back to the Board in May for the contracts and based on the budget allocations for 2015-16. 3. 2015-17 BUDGET DISCUSSION The Board discussed the general allocations for the 2015-16 budget for direction to the Management Committee. The marketing committee proposed the recommendation for $70,000 to be allocated for the redesign of the website. Hutton and Walker also discuss the consideration of exploring the concept of a Big Idea fund to position the TBID to support the changing environment of city and business community in SLO. Hutton also discussed with the Board the consideration to pursue looking into staff support for the tourism manager. 4. FINAL REVIEW OF COMMITTEE BYLAWS The Board reviewed amendments discussed during the March meeting to the bylaws for the Tourism Business Improvement District for approval to be submitted to the City Council. ACTION: Moved by Pearce/Walker to approved the bylaws as presented. Motion carried 6:0 Tourism Board Improvement District Minutes Page 3 5. TMD BOARD DESIGNATION The Management Committee presented the recommended approach for the selection of the SLO TBID representative to the TMD Board. The Board held the self-nomination period. Commissioners Phipps and Hutton nominated themselves. The Board discussed that while SLO was to hold only one designated, the other interested member would be encouraged to apply for one of the member at large seats. The Board discussed the importance of keeping continuity on the TMD Board from the transition committee. ACTION: Moved by Wilkins/Walker to appoint Kevin Phipps to the TMD Board and recommend Dean Hutton to apply for a member at large seat. Motion carried 6:0 6. HELIUM UPDATES The Management Committee presented an update on the next Helium deliverable. The Board discussed the list of reports, room and properties amenities for filtering, property information outreach, and deadlines. New reports included: geographical reports, booking snapshot reports, and day of the week booking report. The Management Committee also discussed that a fee might be required by most PMS systems to allow Helium to connect. 7. 2015-16 EVENT PROMOTION APPLICATION The Marketing Committee presented the proposed updates to the 2015-16 Event Promotion program application and process. ACTION: Moved by Pearce/Hutton to approve the letter as presented. Motion carried 6:0 8. CCTC PRESENTATION TO VISIT CALIFORNIA Staff presented the opportunity for the Board’s consideration to approve the participation and funding for the Tourism Manager’s involvement in the Central Coast Tourism Council (CCTC) presentation to Visit California staff in Sacramento on May 14, 2015. ACTION: Moved by Pearce/Wilkins to approve the Tourism Manager’s participation in the Visit California presentation with CCTC and allocate up to $1000 for expenses. Motion carried 6:0 COMMITTEE COMMUNICATION HOTELIER UPDATE None. MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE UPDATE Minutes were included. MARKETING COMMITTEE UPDATE Minutes were included. PCC UPDATE Minutes were included. TOURISM PROGRAM UPDATE No tourism update reported due to meeting length. Meeting adjourned at 12:07 pm