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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4.1 2-22-2022 CGCVB Minutes COTTAGE GROVE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU MINUTES CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS February 22, 2022 A meeting of the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau was held on the 22nd day of February, 2022, at 7:30 a.m. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:30 a.m. by Chair Steve Dennis. ROLL CALL Assistant Mann called the roll: Members Present: Steve Dennis, Chair - Here Justin Olsen, Vice Chair - Here Christine Costello, Director - Here Laurie Levine, Director - Here Members Absent: Roshan Patel, Director Staff Present: Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator Gretchen Larson, Economic Development Director Jaime Mann, Assistant to the City Administrator Julie Prior-Miller, Marketing and Communication Specialist Dennis Neitz, River Oaks General Manager Brad Muckenhirn, Recreation Supervisor Others Present: Kailyn Johnson, St. Paul Saints Ticket Sales Executive 3.1 ADOPTION OF AGENDA Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to approve Adoption of the Agenda. The motion was seconded by Director Levine. The motion passed unanimously (4-0). APPROVAL OF MINUTES 4.1 Approval of Meeting Minutes CGCVB 11-23-2021 Approval of the November 23, 2021, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes. Director Levine made a motion to approve the meeting minutes from November 23, 2021. The motion was seconded by Director Costello. The motion passed unanimously (4-0). 4.2 Approval of Meeting Minutes CGCVB 01-18-2022 Approval of the January 18, 2022, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes. Director Costello made a motion to approve meeting minutes from January 18, 2022. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair Olsen. The motion passed unanimously (4-0). BUSINESS ITEMS 5.1 St. Paul Saints Promotional Opportunity Julie Prior-Miller, Marketing and Communication Specialist, introduced Kailyn Johnson, a representative for the St. Paul Saints, who will be speaking about a promotional opportunity for the Convention and Visitors Bureau. She made a City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau February 22, 2022 Page 2 of 5 connection with Ms. Johnson late last year, through Director Levine of the Chamber of Commerce, who thought it would be a great opportunity for Discover Cottage Grove. Some marketing that the St. Paul Saints are offering this summer as a new form of promotion really align with some of our strategic objectives. She asked Ms. Johnson to explain this a bit more. Chairman Dennis welcomed Ms. Johnson to the City of Cottage Grove. Ms. Johnson stated she works for the St. Paul Saints, in sales and marketing. She’s involved in day-to-day ticket sales and operations, but she’s also involved in coming up with creative ideas to sell tickets, to do something beyond selling a ticket; it’s to create a unique experience for people, communities, and organizations. She played a video that she felt showed who the St. Paul Saints truly are. She stated she felt the video showed that they’re not just a baseball team, but they’re something fun and exciting. Ms. Johnson stated COVID definitely impacted their attendance numbers, but they’re still doing really well. She stated they’re also very active in the community with mascot appearances, donations, and community organizations, which is why she’s here today. They sometimes have blood drives at their ballpark and do campaigns for things that support the overall wellness of the Twin Cities community. She displayed a heat map of where their ticket sales originate; it was important to show this because this is where the idea of Community Night came from. Obviously, our fan base is very focused in the Twin Cities area, but there are communities on the outskirts that in her opinion are a stronger fan base because they have to go the extra miles to support the Saints. For those who live in St. Paul, our ballpark is just around the corner; people who live in Cottage Grove, Apple Valley, or Eden Prairie have to drive extra miles to be a fan of the St. Paul Saints, which is something that’s very important. We want to find a way to thank that fan base and have us give them an opportunity to utilize the platform that we have. Saints’ fans range in age from very young to older, those with us since the beginning, at Midway Stadium. Ms. Johnson stated she’s here because of the Community Night; the idea came from other minor league baseball teams that do similar things. They give communities the opportunity to utilize their ballpark and their platforms, social media, whatever that might be, to promote whatever is important to that community. It made sense to work with Discover Cottage Grove because that is something that you’re looking to promote. We started out working with different businesses, Chambers, community organizations, and the cities themselves to be able to really grow what this Community Night could look like. She stated they’d seen growth when it came to working with different organizations that were part of a City organization and seen them grow into really exciting things; she could see that potentially happening with Discover Cottage Grove. Ms. Johnson stated to get fans to show up for the Community Night we need to actually get people to want to be involved with it. The biggest promotional idea they’ve used is a ticket package; it takes what could just be a regular ticket and adds elements that could be a giveaway or an activity, like doing something on the field pregame, like a parade. It could also have a donation element so being able to give back to an organization that people really want to support. She stated that’s going to be something that they promote to their database of fans from Cottage Grove; she thinks there have been tens of thousands of people who have come from Cottage Grove to support the Saints, so we want to offer this ticket package to them to be able to support their Community Night. Businesses and organizations become involved as it gives them the opportunity to sponsor their Community Night. Most of our partnerships are season-long investments, which is a big thing to jump into for just a one-night event. We want to give businesses the opportunity to have that one-night sponsorship and a taste of what a partnership could look like with the Saints. The idea is to have them sponsor ticket giveaways that could be given back to their clients, their staff members, their community members, etc. They may also get to sponsor those tickets themselves, so it will read, This ticket is presented by Discover Cottage Grove, and you’ll be able to give those away to whomever you wish. There will also be P.A. recognition for sponsors, to be able to shout out that these organizations are sponsoring their community for the night. We’ll also have an in-park display, which gives people the opportunity to engage with the fans who either are the community members from Cottage Grove or just our regular fan base; either way is a great opportunity to be able to get your name out into the ballpark. Ms. Johnson stated what she’s put together for Discover Cottage Grove is the ticket sponsorship; we’ll have 35 outfield reserved tickets and 30 general admission tickets. You’ll be able to utilize those any way you see fit. We’ll also do the P.A. recognition, which will most likely be something that happens pregame, saying, “We’d like to thank Discover Cottage Grove for sponsoring the Cottage Grove Community Night this evening,” or whatever you’d choose to advertise Discover Cottage Grove. We’ll also do the in-park display for you. This is always how we put together our partnerships; we take into consideration what’s important to Cottage Grove, what’s going to be most beneficial, and we package it all together, and create something that works best for you. Chairman Dennis thanked Ms. Johnson for the very nice presentation. He stated the video she showed was very engaging. He asked the Board Members if they had any questions for Ms. Johnson. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau February 22, 2022 Page 3 of 5 Vice Chair Olsen thanked Ms. Johnson for being here. With respect to the Cottage Grove Community Night, he felt she encapsulated our role in that pretty well. If it’s a Cottage Grove Community Night, he asked if there were other businesses or entities within Cottage Grove that could also participate; he asked if she’d been working with any of them and if she was able to share any of that information. Ms. Johnson replied she didn’t have any specific names; she stated she and Director Levine have been working with the Chamber to be able to give the same sponsorship opportunities to the businesses that are part of the Chamber. It’s completely up to the businesses if they want to invest in that sponsorship, and it’s not necessary for all of the businesses to be involved. She personally intends to reach out to Cottage Grove businesses, to be able to offer this sponsorship opportunity; there’s definitely room to grow as this event will happen in June. Vice Chair Olsen stated he’s been to many Saints games, and when he listens to Ms. Johnson talk about this event, it really feels like a great opportunity to celebrate Cottage Grove. If we’re going to call it Cottage Grove Community Night, he’s hopeful that we can get all sorts of participation from around our community; we have a pretty robust Business Park that has previously been generous with donations for different events. He appreciated her clueing us in as to the role we can play, but he was hoping to hear that it’s going to be a big night for Cottage Grove, not just Discover Cottage Grove. Director Levine stated when she first started talking with Ms. Johnson, it was a Chamber type conversation; right away, she pulled Specialist Prior-Miller into our next conversation because she thought what a perfect fit for this organization. With that being said, she’d definitely have the Chamber still involved; to send out the invites, and even potentially do some type of networking event before then, more like a business-after-hours gathering. We want to be able to use the Chamber database, the City database, your database; we could really just have a great large event represented by a lot of Cottage Grove residents and businesses. Chairman Dennis commented the more the merrier, and stated that he liked it. Ms. Johnson stated a way to have promotions be the most successful was when there are a lot of layers to it and a lot of moving parts; while that can be a lot to juggle at times, it makes it the most exciting nights to have. Ideally, Discover Cottage Grove is just one of those layers, but we’d like to obviously add more and more things to it. Recommendation: Approve the St. Paul Saints’ proposal of the Cottage Grove Community Night on June 11, 2022, at CHS Field for $900. Director Levine made a motion to approve Community Night at CHS Field for $900. The motion was seconded by Vice Chair Olsen. The motion passed unanimously (4-0). 5.2 2021 Q4 Revenue Reporting Assistant Jaime Mann gave a quick recap of revenue collections for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2021. We used conservative estimates of 40% occupancy rate for all of our quarters in 2021. In Q4, we collected $14,763 in Lodging Tax revenue, which is about 33% over our estimated revenue; that brought our total 2021 Revenue to $59,987, which is 35.6% over our estimated revenue for 2021. 2022 Revenue Estimates are based on 60% occupancy rate; looking at these numbers, we feel that we’re right on track for our projections for 2022. Chairman Dennis asked if we needed to do anything else, aside from receiving the report; City Administrator Jennifer Levitt replied that there was no specific action required by the Board. 5.3 Annual Report Specialist Prior-Miller spoke about the 2021 Annual Report for the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Annual Report included highlights and accomplishments from 2021, in addition to some goal setting for 2022. She noted a few things from the report: In 2021, we had a lot of changing faces and things going on; she noted the departure of Assistant Matt Wolf, who played a very large role in the creation and formation of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. With our current staff, we are very well positioned for growth in the future. Specialist Prior-Miller noted her top five 2021 highlights: 1) Her favorite highlight for 2021 was creation of the Marketing and Communication Specialist position. 2) We exceeded our budget revenue projections for 2021. Not only does that bode well for us as a Convention and Visitors Bureau, but it also tells her that the travel and tourism industry is beginning to rebound from the pandemic that still exists. 3) Creation of the Cottage Grove Visitors Guide, something physical that can be handed out to people to show them what we’re all about. 4) Looking through the Annual Report, she wanted to note how many communication channels we’ve really opened up to expand our reach and our audience to our target markets. We started with Facebook and we City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau February 22, 2022 Page 4 of 5 added Instagram and Twitter, and our website really got up and running in 2021. We added our calendars on the website and the Explore Minnesota calendar to really reach the maximum number of people possible. We send out a monthly, constant contact to over 500 subscribers. We’re partnering with the SWCTC to do promotional videos with us. She’s really proud of all of these different avenues that we’re creating for people for Discover Cottage Grove; they say people have to see something seven times for them to remember it, so, this is part of that methodology. 5) With the partnerships that we established when we were working on the Visitors Guide, she’s proud to say that it would not be as effective as it is right now had we not reached out to local businesses, advertisers, and source some of this information. For fiscal year 2022, we will continue to create an impact for marketing; we’ll be at the Spring Showcase in April, the St. Paul Saints Community Night in June, and have a presence at the Strawberry Fest, Cottage Grove’s largest event. Being of service to local businesses is really important; she previously mentioned a monthly email, which is to inform local businesses of upcoming, large-scale events. So, if they thought it could potentially impact them, they could take the necessary steps to do that; it’s already in place, and it’s been well received. Something we’re working on right now is reaching out to inform businesses that we are here to help them. So, if they have large-scale activities or events going on, we want to help market those if they’re in line with our strategic objectives and to help them get the promotion out there in ways that we’re able to do that for them. In November, we’d like to create a thoughtful marketing plan around Small Business Saturday to help promote our local businesses here in Cottage Grove and to showcase them. Continue growth and refinement in our communications and marketing outreach efforts. She really believes we put things out there on the communication channels, we come back and analyze if it’s working or not, readjust, and keep doing that to grow stronger and create the best possible presence that we can to our audiences. Chairman Dennis thanked Specialist Prior-Miller for her presentation. He stated there are a lot of really great things that the City of Cottage Grove does; we’re a very forward city and, in many instances, we’re a city that others look to as an example of our work processes and our business. He recalled where this started: He and Mayor Bailey had gone to Las Vegas to promote our City for a number of years; potential hotel and business investors there had asked if we had a lodging tax, which we did not, but we learned it’s a user fee that’s encouraged by these types of investors. They collect money from their clients and then, in turn, help to provide this as a funding mechanism for exactly what we’re doing right here. We’ve come from that simple point of connection with investors to actually putting together a full-blown program, including this beautiful Visitors Guide; it’s amazing. It’s his opinion that of all of the things we do, this might be the most positive across the City because we’re promoting and showing people what a great place Cottage Grove is. He cannot say enough about the great work that’s been done, and is also excited about the fact that we are going back to ICSC in a couple months. You can bet that we’ll be utilizing this process as a tool to help bring more investment here to Cottage Grove. He thanked Specialist Prior-Miller for her work. Vice Chair Olsen thanked Specialist Prior-Miller for the very nice recap that she did; he felt she did a good job encapsulating some of the big wins. To piggyback on what Chairman Dennis just said, the Visitors Guide was a wonderful accomplishment; looking back at 2021, that’s what stands out to him. Specialist Prior-Miller deserves a lot of credit for that, and he thanked her. Vice Chair Olsen stated one thing Specialist Prior-Miller had mentioned was working hand in hand with Strawberry Fest. Strawberry Fest is a big deal; it’s been missed terribly for the last couple of years. As a former president of that organization, he can say with absolute certainty that there are hundreds of opportunities to partner in various ways with the group. We just agreed to a $900 sponsorship with the St. Paul Saints for Community Night, so we might want to consider looking at Strawberry Fest to see if there’s something within the scope of that event that we want to sponsor. They have individual sponsors for lots of different events, and then they have global sponsors for the event as a whole. He asked if that conversation had taken place between Strawberry Fest and Discover Cottage Grove, or if we’ve had any dialogue with them. Specialist Prior-Miller stated internally we’ve had some conversations; she has been connected with Lori from the Strawberry Fest. She’s planning to attend their next meeting, just as a newer member of the staff and new to the community, to introduce herself and start making those introductions and conversations. Vice Chair Olsen stated Lori is a great resource, as she succeeded him as president; he encouraged a conversation with Council Member Thiede, who is on the Strawberry Fest committee. He knows the Cottage Grove Lions Club also sponsors the Strawberry Fest, and it’s proven to be a very valuable opportunity to engage with the public. It’s really a good chance for us to get our name out there; to explain who we are, what we do, and it’s also just an opportunity to be amongst the people at the event. Convention and Visitors Bureau staff can be present to answer questions and just increase our profile to some degree. He personally encouraged us to look at that. City of Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau February 22, 2022 Page 5 of 5 Director Levine agreed with what had previously been said, and stated that she’s in love with this Visitors Guide, it’s just awesome. She congratulated Specialist Prior-Miller for her work on it, as it’s just beautifully done. Director Costello stated she agreed with everything that’s been said. She stated the Visitors Guide is really great, and this was a long time coming; she thanked Specialist Prior-Miller for being able to put it together, as it’s really wonderful. OTHER BUSINESS 6.1 CGCVB Comments Chairman Dennis stated that both he and Vice Chair Olsen are involved with Beyond the Yellow Ribbon; they recently upgraded that organization by getting some new shirts and jackets made with our logo on them. He wondered if the Board would provide direction so we can get some shirts made. We’ve got a wonderful logo, so would like to get that put on shirts; he also make a recommendation that we go with a local company. We just had Advanced Sportswear do ours at Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, and they did a fantastic job. We could at least look for a cost estimate to get that done, and it would be one for each of the Board members and for an appropriate number of staff members. Vice Chair Olsen stated if we’re going to pursue that through Advanced, one other thought would be to plan for Strawberry Fest. Oftentimes, we have giveaways, so, if we’re going to set up a tent/table in the business area of Strawberry Fest, we might want to also consider, in addition to shirts, some small trinkets as giveaways; he knew that Advanced could help us with that. He stated it’s just another thing to think about, especially because Advanced has struggled to some degree over the course of the last several months with supply-chain issues with their materials, inks, etc. He felt the sooner the better for getting out in front of that. Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to pursue having shirts and trinkets with the Discover Cottage Grove logo made by Advanced Sportswear. The motion was seconded by Director Costello. Motion passed unanimously (4-0). Chairman Dennis stated since this group only meets quarterly, so we’d probably want to take action on this soon; with the supply chain issues, all of the products would need to be ordered for us. Director Levine stated she loved both of those ideas; she’s working with other businesses within the Chamber, looking ahead to have enough items for the community showcase and the Strawberry Fest because of the shortages out there. She recommended doing it all at once. Vice Chair Olsen stated the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon team is a State-level organization so we have some advantages. In this case, we’re self contained, so that’s good advice from Director Levine. 6.2 Response to Previous CGCVB Comments - None. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Dennis stated our next meeting is on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, at 7:30 a.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers; he noted some of us are going to be in Las Vegas at that time. Vice Chair Olsen asked if it would make sense to postpone the meeting; Chairman Dennis replied we could either move it up a week or take it back a week. Administrator Levitt stated she would encourage them to potentially meet the Tuesday before we depart; it would be great to obviously keep as many staff and Board Members here to have the synergy that you’ve already built upon. Chairman Dennis stated the next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at 7:30 a.m., in the Council Chambers. Vice Chair Olsen made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:08 a.m. The motion was seconded by Director Levine. Motion passed unanimously (4-0). Respectfully submitted, _______________________________________ Jaime Mann, Assistant to the City Administrator /jag