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Home My WebLink About2024-03-25 - Minutes -Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes March 25th, 2024 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Present: Commissioners Absent: Staff: Chair Chrissy Sanderson, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Mike Wiederkehr, City Council Representative Katherine Kinney, Tourism & Hospitality Representative *Virtual Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative Elvis Moya, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Todd Martin, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at-large Molly Rawn, CEO; Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance, Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications I. Chair Sanderson called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm and declared a quorum. II. Old Business A. Chair Sanderson presented the February minutes and hearing no additions or corrections, she stated that the minutes stood approved as presented. B. Roll call attendance reflected that Commissioner Kinney is attending virtually and all other commissioners are present in person. III. New Business A. CEO Report CEO Rawn began by updating the commission on the Master Tourism Plan, stating that the Resident Survey is ongoing until April 8th, asking everyone to take it. In regard to our renovation work at Experience Fayetteville, we now anticipate work to begin in July. We wrapped up a terrific Fayetteville Restaurant Week with 80 participating restaurants. We will have a more detailed presentation of FRW (Fayetteville Restaurant Week) at the end of this meeting. Experience Fayetteville branded Solar Eclipse glasses have arrived – all hotels have them and we are distributing them free of charge in the Visitors Center. We should see newly designed light pole banners on Dickson this spring and damaged light poles have been repaired. The Visitors Center attendance and income for February were both down compared to last year. Rawn then shared that Sales has secured a two-year Women’s Conference to take place this summer and summer of 2025, in partnership with the town center. She also shared a listing of incentive funds we’ve distributed thus far in 2024. In marketing updates, Rawn shared that we are seeing the most web visitors from arkansasrazorbacks.com, but they are staying on our website for the shortest amount of time, so Ashley Cane and Outright are redesigning a landing page for those viewers. We have implemented Wista, a new video platform that delivers a superior experience over YouTube. We are currenting pursuing these earned media stories: the Eclipse, Women in the outdoor and International Puppy Day as Fayetteville is seen as very dog friendly. Commissioner Prysby asked that with all the success Tina Archer Cope is having with Experience Fayetteville’s LinkedIn posts, do we want to create a strategy around LinkedIn to ensure we are featuring all we need? Rawn said she would ask team to talk about this. Rawn stated that the town center has hosted 21 events since the last commission meeting and that the roof replacement project has been kicked off. She then stated that Downtown Fayetteville Coalition will host its State of Downtown and Annual Meeting April 29th 2-4pm at the town center and all are welcome. The First Thursday season kicks off May 2nd and we will be hosting 5 events this season; we will not be hosting First Thursday on Thursday, July 4th. Downtown Fayetteville Coalition will host a Strawberry Festival on Sunday, May 19th with local restaurants participating and perhaps also the brewers guild will be there in addition to vendors. Kelly Rich is still seeking sponsors for this event, if you know of anyone, please pass them on to either Molly or Kelly. B. Financials VP of Finance Jennifer Walker presented February financial statement. At the end of February our target is 17% for both revenue and expenses. We show revenue at 13% and expenses at 15%. Our Year to Date HMR is $732,325, almost 4% below seasonally adjusted budget. Our net operating loss is approximately $120,000 with cash and investments holding steady at $4.9 Million. Unearned revenue is approximately $300,000 with the town center bookings looking really good. C. Vote. Recommendation to appoint Chrissy Sanderson for a second full term. Rawn stated that we don’t have to do this vote as the city council has already ratified it. The commissioners decided to not vote and Rawn congratulated Chair Sanderson and stated that while we did receive several applicants, Sanderson was the only applicant who met the qualification for this open position of being an owner/manager of a hotel, motel or restaurant. D. Vote. Forge Production Contract for First Thursday. Rawn stated that the First Thursday team contracts with several vendors to produce First Thursday. Forge Production is the vendor we utilized last year with great results. Rawn asked if there were any questions. Commissioner Moya asked if the Crowne Group supplied a quote. While Rawn wasn’t able to confirm if we had secured a quote from Crowne, she did state that Forge Production was the preferred vendor due to its hydraulics system. Commissioner Martin asked if our sponsorship dollars would cover this expense and it was stated that sponsorship dollars would cover almost all of the expense but that First Thursday never makes money or pays for itself entirely. Rawn also stated that Community Engagement Manager Chloe Bell will now transition to serve on the Downtown Fayetteville Coalition’s team and be working with Kelly Rich. With no more questions, Chair Sanderson asked for a motion to approve the Forge Production agreement totaling $30,000 with the motion was made by Commissioner Martin and seconded by Commissioner Moya. It passed unanimously via roll call vote. E. Vote. Copier Lease Renewal. Rawn stated that Amy Stockton secured four proposals and is recommending that we continue with TDSIT due to favorable experience and excellent pricing. With no questions, Commissioner Wiederkehr made the motion for the commission to authorize the CEO to sign the two lease agreements with TDSIT via GreatAmerica Financial Services Corporation for a total of $23,407.80 for 60 months. Both Commissioners Moya and Prysby seconded and it was approved unanimously via a roll call vote. F. Fayetteville Restaurant Week A wrap up of this successful week was presented by Molly Rawn and Ashley Cane. Rawn noted that while Sarah King and Julie Pennington were not available to be present, they both did a great job with this project, as well as several members of the team. We were proud that we had 80 restaurants this year and our social media interactions doubled during Fayetteville Restaurant Week. We had some new and enhanced connections with the University of Arkansas with this project. A survey has been distributed to the participants which will help guide next year’s event. Ashley spoke about the ads developed by Outright; she was must excited because we introduced motion with these ads. She also stated that this is just a taste of the bigger projects that Outright is working on. Some of the stats from the project include 1.6 million impressions. Rawn gave a special shout out to Radio Station personalities Jon and Deek for creating a song that included every single restaurant in FRW. We concluded by sharing a video from the U of A students featuring Rymelone’s Pies, whose owner was very appreciative of Fayetteville Restaurant Week and the advertising that it gives her as a small business owner. The video ends with the official jingle and was produced by U of A’s School of Journalism. After this presentation, Commissioner Moya asked Rawn for her thoughts on what the postponement of the Joe Martin Stage Race would mean for Fayetteville and the race. Much discussion ensued, with Rawn clarifying that Experience Fayetteville had served as a sponsor and was hopeful for a 2025 event. With no further business, Chair Sanderson asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting and Commissioner Martin made a motion with Commissioner Wiederkehr seconding it to adjourn the meeting Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville