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Home My WebLink About04-08-2015 PCC MinutesPromotional Coordinating Committee Meeting Minutes Wednesday, April 8, 2015 5:30 pm at Embassy Suites CALL TO ORDER: Chair Sasha Palazzo PRESENT: Pearce, LeMieux, Palazzo, Roberson, Lewis STAFF PRESENT: Molly Cano, Tourism Manager Meeting to order at 5:36 pm PUBLIC COMMENT None. APPOINTMENTS Deborah Lewis and Stephanie Roberson were sworn in to the PCC by Molly Cano. CONSENT AGENDA ACTION: Moved by LeMieux/Lewis to approve the consent agenda. Motion carried 5:0 PRESENTATIONS 1. SLO HAPPENINGS QUARTERLY UPDATE Christiana Newcomb from Verdin presented the quarterly activity report for the SLO Happenings program. Quarter highlights included: the app metrics of 813 total app downloads, 4,989 app sessions, and 3,633 page views. The media summary noted the new ad artwork launched for Facebook in late January that have been very successful at boosting engagement and driving traffic to both the Facebook page and Splash page. 2. SLO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE QUARTERLY UPDATE Molly Kern from the SLO Chamber presented the quarterly report for the Chamber contracts with the PCC. Highlights included: that all GIA groups have been served to-date; the event sheets have been updated; outstanding PR mentions for GIA and regular press efforts have been achieved from international, national, regional, and statewide level. To date this quarter over 12 journalists have been hosted in the City of San Luis Obispo. Since January the visitor center traffic is up to nearly 18,000 visitors into the center, over 1300 calls, and 400 emails. Promotional Coordinating Committee Minutes Page 2 BUSINESS ITEMS 1. SAN LUIS OBISPO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Ermina Karim and Molly Kern from the Chamber of Commerce presented the future contract opportunities and funding requests for the consideration of the committee. The requests included: - Visitor Center Operations: In-person visitor traffic is up 19 percent during the two-year contract period. The increase in traffic is driving increased staffing to adequately meet the needs of the visitors. The Chamber proposed that the City continue its historic support level of 44 percent of total ongoing costs for a contract of $103,000. - Public Relations: The Chamber has served as the contractor for public relations services over the past years. Contract elements include: pitching to media, bringing in media, coordinating media trips, following up with media, sending out media releases, responding to natural media inquiries, use of the Chamber’s photography library for media requests and press releases, planning and executing press trips and developing media kits. The Chamber proposed aligning the public relations efforts with TBID marketing to amplify impact of overall messaging, extend the reach of our targeted proactive efforts and share costs between PCC and TBID. The proposed contract amount for the PCC $40,000 a year for PR Services and $3,975 for Media Monitoring Services. - GIA Support: Chamber has provided event promotion and public relations support to the grants- in-aid recipients. This contract has been aimed at driving attendance and support by residents and visitors to events in the city. The Chamber proposed enhancing the existing scope by providing the same in-kind public relations support to events that meet the same requirements for GIA support but have ‘graduated’ the sustainability track. The proposed contract amount of $28,000. - Tear-off Map: The Chamber proposed another print run of 150,000 to keep up with the demand for distribution. The requested amount was $8,500 for 150,000 maps with minor edits. The committee asked a few questions that related to the requests and the media monitoring systems. In addition the Chamber presented the concept of iBeacons to the committee for future consideration to add gamification, new content and extended use of the apps ability to inform users of things to do in San Luis Obispo. 2. SCIENCE AFTER DARK Event representative, Dawn Hitchman presented the Science After Dark request to retain the remaining 2013-14 GIA funding for promotional use in 2014-15 & 2015-16 years. Hitchman acknowledged that Science After Dark hadn’t realized that they were outside the contract for the use of the funds beyond the granting year. She presented the results of the events and showed how the funding has been used and the plan to use it for promotional efforts into 2015-16. She shared that $617 of the remaining funds had been used for 2014-15 and that $564 was planned to be used for 2015-16. The committee agreed that the funds were being used appropriately but they were in violation of the contract. The committee agreed to continue to support the events extension of the funds but did not want the event to have the ability to receive any GIA funding in 2015-16. ACTION: Moved by LeMiuex/Pearce to amend the contract with Science After Dark to allow the remaining GIA funds in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Any remaining funds after June 2016 must be returned. Motion carried 5:0 3. SLO HAPPENINGS TECHNOLOGY UPDATE GFL Systems presented the update on the SLO Happenings technology enhancement project. GFL has reached an agreement to source the event listing content from the SLO Chamber site to the SLO Promotional Coordinating Committee Minutes Page 3 Happenings app. They presented a wireframe for the listings, submission tool, and event management. The committee discussed with GFL that there should not be a webpage that would show the calendar of events like a listing. The information should only be displayed in the app then drive back to an existing web page for the calendar of events. They also discussed the ability to have a spreadsheet of events, like a season. Imported instead of added manually by the event organizer. GFL would be able to create that form with predetermined fields. The committee also discussed the area that would be allowed to be in the app and determined that it could be managed by zip-codes. Cal Poly events and events in Edna Valley would be allowed in the app but not any non-City funded events outside the City limits. The committee also received the proposal for on-going technology services for the committee’s consideration for the SLO Happenings app beginning in fiscal year 2015-16. The cost for the technology of the app would be $16,000 which would include hosting and minimal maintenance of the app at $200 per month and the cost for the content feed through the SLO Chamber. 4. 2015-17 BUDGET PROCESS The committee received the general budget update from staff and began to discuss the initial allocations for the 2015-17 Community Promotions budget. Staff informed the committee that the SOPC was not recommended to City Council however adjustments were made to the budget to provide a minimal $10,000 increase per year starting in 2016-17 to account for increase in cost of business for contracts and staffing expenses by the PCC. Based on this information the PCC’s initial budget would be $396,029 in 2015-16 and $401,930 in 2016-17. The committee began general discussion for budget allocations for 2015-16 based on the information and requests they had received to date. 5. SLO HAPPENINGS PROMOTIONAL SERVICES RFP The taskforce will presented the draft RFP document for the committee’s review and approval. The committee discussed allocating $28,300 from the 2015-16 budget for the promotional plan and services RFP. ACTION: Moved by Roberson/Lewis to approve the RFP document and recommend the release of the RFP to City Council. Motion carried 5:0 6. 2015-16 EVENT PROMOTION APPLICATION The Events subcommittee presented the proposed updates to the 2015-16 Event Promotion program application and process. The ACTION: Moved by Pearce/LeMieux to approve the 2015-16 Event Promotion application. Motion carried 5:0 7. SUBCOMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS The committee reviewed the assignments of the new committee members to the PCC’s Events Promotion subcommittee and GIA subcommittee. The committee discussed the assignments and the responsibilities of the committees. COMMITTEE COMMUNICATION GIA Report: Sasha Palazzo reached out to Children’s Day in the Plaza coming up next weekend to check-in. EVENTS SUBCOMMITTEE Report: Jill LeMieux reported on the Events Subcommittee. Promotional Coordinating Committee Minutes Page 4 TBID Report: Pearce reported on the TBID updates. Tourism Program Update: Molly Cano presented the Tourism Program update: - April is a busy Event Month o Eroica this weekend o Cal Poly open House next weekend o Sixel conference week of April 21-23 o SLO Marathon April 24-26 o Roll Out the Barrels- happening now, Barrels in the Plaza on April 30 and the media FAM on 29-30 - FAM o IGLTA Media FAM o April 12-15- coming to SLO April 14 o 4 travel journalists - CCTC o Board retreat in March in Ventura o Great strategic planning led by Carl Ribaudo and presentation by Lynn Carpenter VC o Focusing efforts on the international visitor and promotion of Hwy 1 and the Original Road Trip o I have been asked by the incoming Board Chair to considering Vice Chair role o Bring the annual retreat to SLO - Interviews for the Board seats o End of April applications due o May interview o June new committee member Key Dates: o Advisory Body work shop on April 30 5:30 RSVP to City Clerk GIA 2015-16 • 25 events applied (28 last year) • $172,000 in requested funds ($166,000) Meeting adjourned at 8:09 pm