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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-09-25 - Minutes -Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes September 25, 2023 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Present: Commissioners Absent: Staff: Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at-large Mike Wiederkehr, City Council Representative Chrissy Sanderson, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Katherine Kinney, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative Elvis Moya, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Todd Martin, Chair Tourism & Hospitality Representative Molly Rawn, CEO; Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance; Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications I. Commissioner Sanderson called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm and declared a quorum. II. Old Business A. Commissioner Sanderson presented the August minutes and hearing no additions or corrections, a motion was made by Commissioner Kinney and seconded by Commissioner Bunch, to approve them as presented. III. New Business A. CEO Report. Rawn began by stating that we will be recommending Coraggio Group to lead our Master Tourism Plan and we will talk about it more in depth during this meeting. We do not have an Agency of Record decision to share with you today but will for the October meeting; we appreciate Commissioner Prysby for helping with this project. Also in October, you will see a preview of the 2024 budget which we will vote on in November. The preview is a big picture overview of our spending and revenue with the detailed voting document to be received well in advance of the November meeting. Rawn then gave an update on TheatreSquared stating that she has met with Shannon Jones, who recently began serving as the Executive Director of T2 and stated that it was a very productive meeting. In Tourism, she stated that the sales team has already began booking for 2024 and has two conferences booked with projected Economic Impact of close to $600,000 and she appreciated the partnership with the Graduate and the town center. She shared that we also staffed the U of A New Faculty Orientation and had a lot of engagement. Additionally, Griffin and Tina attended Connect Marketplace and met with 27 organizations which resulted in 10 solid leads. In the Visitors Center – attendance was 1,079 with visitors from Germany, Mexico, Canada, England and Scotland. Six Ale Trail passports were completed. We are continuing our partnership with Fayetteville Menstrual Dignity Program through the end of the year by serving as a drop off point. Community Engagement – the season’s last First Thursday is next week, Down the Rabbit Hole. Also, Lights of the Ozarks sponsorships are available if you know of an organization who would be interested, please contact either Chloe or Molly. Cycling updates – Brannon Pack recently hosted the 5th Bicycle Bootcamp with good attendance. She also spoke about the first Ozark Randonnuer which is an endurance gravel cycling event drawing participants from 9 different states. This upcoming weekend is the Fayetteville Tandem Rally which involves 50 couples on tandem bikes, including a parade. Rawn also shared updates from the Fayetteville Town Center. Since we last met, it has hosted 16 events with a high booking rate, particularly for midweek dates. Also this weekend, we hosted the Touge Con event which is a car show and a partnership between Experience Fayetteville and the town center. The event was very successful with over 3,000 people on the square on Friday night and an estimated 1,500 people at the Saturday event. Thank you to the U of A for allowing the organizers to park some of event trailers at the Baum Stadium parking lot. Rawn also offered congratulations to the town center as they have landed a contract to host a national True Crime Podcast convention, previously held in a neighboring city. Additionally, the town center team is working with Startup Junkie to host the Startup Crawl. Looking forward, we will be hosting the Chili Pepper on Saturday and this Sunday Falltoberfest on Dickson Street. Rawn is also talking this Saturday at the National Town Builders Assocation Convention at the Graduate and will also be a panelist at the Music Cities Convention in Huntsville AL. Finally, Lights of the Ozarks is coming up with Light Night on Friday, November 17th. B. Financial Report. Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance VP Walker stated that the financial report is in the packet with a P&L through August and a Balance Sheet. The target revenue and expense percentage is 67% and our revenue is at 65% with expenditures at 61%. Both of those are below target with our expenditures more under target, so we are in great shape. Our total revenue is about $3.7 million and our YTD HMR tax collections are on target at 1% above the seasonally adjusted budget. Our net operating income is $444,000 Year to Date. On the balance sheets, our cash and investments remain approximately $4.7 million. Unearned revenue for the town center is $262,000 for events still to be held in 2023. C. Marketing Report. Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications King reviewed some of the current ads we are running. We opted to run some ads in our opposing team’s hometown so visitors could see some of our activities to catch while they were in town for football games. She shared some preliminary Arrivalist data with insights into 2022-day trips. She then shared website traffic by metro area and overnight stays in the last year (August 2022 to July 2023) King pointed out the interesting note of those who are visiting our website but not necessarily visiting in person. Rawn stated that it’s helpful to be able to not have to guess the conversion rate between visits to the website to visits to our area and is excited that Arrivalist will help with that. Many commissioners and staff had good comments about the data being shared and we are looking forward to getting more data each month from the Arrivalist tool. Rawn thanked the commission for approving this investment. King ended with sharing an article that was in the New York Times last week about Fayetteville being one of 5 cities to trial a program about bike safety which recommends safety measures to keep cyclists safer. King pointed out the quote from Brannon Pack, our Director of Cycling Tourism and a link to Experience Fayetteville’s website in the article. Rawn also gave a thank you to our city leadership who invested time to implement this safety program. Commissioner Bunch asked if we are considering the large number of retirees in the social media advertising we are doing, i.e. does the advertising match the demographics we want to reach? Rawn mentioned that our Tag a Long series might be a great, accessible product to use to feature retirees. D. Vote. Bikepacking Roots Agreement Rawn stated that this is an advertising spend, albeit a nontraditional one. This would be a digital route and resource product that is printable. The total cost is $30,000. Rawn proposes to fund this through the Cyclocross Legacy Fund, which currently has a balance of $686,664. We had earmarked $40,500 in this year’s budget for projects and this is a good fit for the purpose of those funds. It was mentioned that we know people are going to be bikepacking and not necessarily staying in a hotel in Fayetteville but that many activities that bikepackers engage in do involve spending money in the local economy. Commissioner Moya asked questions concerning the specific deliverables listed. Rawn and Cope shared information to address these questions such as the assets to be gained - professional photographs and bikepacking guide/route development. Commissioner Moya asked if they would be able to come in and make a presentation to the commission summer of 2024 when they would be in town and Rawn said she could certainly talk with Brannon Pack about that. With no further questions, Commissioner Bunch made a motion to authorize the CEO to sign the $30,000 agreement with Bikepacking Roots to develop a bikepacking route to establish Fayetteville as a premier destination for bikepackers. Commissioner Kinney seconded this motion and it was approved unanimously via a roll call vote. E. Vote. BOK Financial Retirement Solutions. Rawn stated that we currently have a SIMPLE IRA which maxes out at a 3% employer match. We plan to switch to a 457b and 401 a in January which will allow us more flexibility in the employer match portion. The contract we are asking to sign is to pay the plan fee which is a projected budget impact of $12,000. This will start January 1, 2024. VP Walker spoke about the regulations placed on government retirement funds and that they will be highly protected. Commissioner Sanderson asked for a motion to give the CEO authority to accept and sign a proposal from BOK Financial for $12,000. Commissioner Kinney made this motion with Commissioner Sanderson seconding it and it was approved unanimously. F. Vote. Master Tourism Plan Rawn stated that discussions about a Master Tourism Plan started in 2019 and we are glad to be at this point after a delay. Rawn read from the memo to describe the process and goal of doing a Master Tourism Plan. She stated that we received 4 qualified proposals and in working with staff and Commissioner Martin, we decided to recommend the Coraggio Group. We were impressed with their professionalism, their diversification of staff and the breadth of their proposal. One of the most impressive pieces was that Coraggio Group is very data driven. They will also utilize data and opinions from residents to understand the impact and any pain points tourism has on residents. Rawn pointed out the implementation coaching piece which she thinks will be invaluable to making the plan happen. She stated that this would have a budget impact of $17,000 for 2023 and an impact of $186,000 in 2024. Discussion and questions from commissioners ensued including the long-term benefits of doing the proposed residents’ sentiment survey. With the comments of how large NWA will be in 20 years, the benefits of knowing residents’ sentiments will be very helpful as we position ourselves to handle that growth. The commissioners asked about references for Coraggio Group and specific cities were listed and discussed. Other logistics of the proposal were discussed including the process of selecting Coraggio Group to present to the Commission, which included presentations from all four proposals which led to two proposals being selected for follow up and finally Coraggio Group being recommended. With no other questions, Commissioner Sanderson asked for a motion to authorize the CEO to sign a contract with Coraggio Group for a Tourism Master Plan for $203,613. Commissioner Weiderkehr made the motion which Commissioner Kinney seconded and it passed unanimously. E. Announcements With no other business or announcements, Commissioner Sanderson asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Kinney made the motion to adjourn, with Commissioner Sanderson seconding. The meeting was adjourned at 3:37 pm. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville