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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.min.121901 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2001 Vice-chair, Bill Dinsmoor called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. In attendance were Eric Cohen, Terry Butler, John Start, Andrew Kole and Charles Kennedy. Jon Busch was absent. MARKETING ASPEN - SPECIAL EVENTS Bill relayed that he had a conversation with Chris Nolen and Molly Campbell and he prefaced his conversation with regard to the Comedy Fest. Does the ACRA have an automatic mechanism in place ifa special event is or is not coming to town? Is there an organization or process proactive to contact them? The notion to promote groups is something that we all desire. The visitor tax is to put "heads" in lodges and that funding is different. It is not event production money. Molly said she is willing to have a discussion as to how the ACRA, CCLC can work more closely together as to what the CCLC goals might be and what the ACRA goals are. Molly said Bill Tomcich is president of SAS, Stay Aspen Snowmass. Com., which is the newly combined central reservation service that ~s jointly owned. It is a private company but jointly owned by the Aspen Lodges, Snowmass Resort Association and the Aspen Skiing Company. Terry asked Bill Tomcich what our role could be to help events come to town? Bill Tomcich said after Sept. ! lth everyone is cutting back and there are uncertainties surrounding the future of the economy. Tomcich gave an overview of the Comedy Fest. Brian Murphy and Joe Lang felt it would be prudent for them to consider relocation of the event to southern California where they could reduce their cost substantially especially with respect to air transportation because the majority of the attendees would not need transportation. They came forward to the community ro ask for help in salvaging the event. If we were to loose the Comedy Fest it would have hurt the entire community. The Comedy Fest COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2001 contacted individually a number of properties privately for housing and negotiated with them. Comedy Fest contracted rates with SAS discounted packages, which included air. SAS secured block seats that Comedy Fest's own agency could not acquire. United has increased their flights for this year into Aspen. Bill asked how do we negotiate to keep events coming and what is ou~ relationship with the City and ACRA and SAS to make this happen? [ Bill said the ACRA doesn't have dedicated funding for producing events. Molly Campbell said the ACRA produces three events, Winterskol and the 4th of July get corporate sponsors to help produce their event. ACRA is paid a fee by Food and Wine to produce that event which means permits, working with council and making arrangements for the tents. Food and Wine does all of the advertising and Bill's organization does all of the packaging. Food and Wine books their rooms. ACRA does a strategic business plan beginning May 1st. More special events, more public relations, more, advertising and more member services are issues considered in the strategic plan. Once we look at the actual dollars then we have to say what can we afford and what are the realities of the resources available. John Starr said this focuses his real questions: 1) Why isn't ACRA doing it 2) and if they are not doing it who should be doing it. He sees large special events as a big economic hit for Aspen. What can we do as a community to promote special events? Molly said she had conversations with retailers in the commercial core and they need day in day out traffic. We need people staying in town and lodges and shopping. There is a group called the Aspen sales directors association, which are the sales directors of all the properties in town. These sales directors go out and travel and often they are able to book a "city wide" which is a group larger than one hotel can hold. Molly is working close with sales directors and lodges to attract more "city wides". Molly relayed that most events start as grass roots efforts. It is the hope that the Outdoor Festival in August becomes a long-term opportunity. COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2001 Terry asked Molly to explain when the ACRA gets calls what is the process that occurs. Molly said the ACRA explains the process and points to the lodges, city or whatever entity is needed. There is not a point person that helps everyone. They do not have those resources. Andrew said what we don't have in town is an event and sponsorship development and we probably do not have anyone in town that has the experience to even be that person. IfACRA decided to spend some of the money out of the lodging money, that $400,000 to hire a person to do that it is not going to happen. They would be better off to go outside to an events sponsorship development company in LA or New York and explain what we are trying to do. One possibility would be to apply for some of the funding from the lodging through CCLC to go hire a development event company. Product placement companies what their product in certain towns. We would need to work with the city in applying for part of that funding to go hire someone. John Starr said Colorado used to have a film commission and Aspen used to have Dee Dee Brinkman on that committee and their job was to bring shoots to the valley. Clearly it means more money from some place and a home for that person. The logical place is the ACRA and their role could be expanded. The CCLC canbe a catalyst to make this happen but should not be any part of it other than that because we do not have the skills and we are a volunteer board. Bill Tomcich said numerous times we have visiting individuals that represent the cross section of the skiing company and the business community that come here to look what we have. He has learned in working with individuals we are perceived as a leader in terms of building and developing special events. He does not know of any other city that does it better. In terms of the idea on the table there is always a way to make it better. We are putting the cart before the horse by trying to hire that person before we even have an idea of what that person could do. The ski company has a special event department already. The X-games will bolster our economy and it is guaranteed for two years. From thanksgiving to April the Chamber focuses on events. COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2001 Bill said it is his opinion that you cannot just hire a person until you determine what kind of special events are needed in the City of Aspen. A prudent course of action would be to study other cities and see what they do. John suggested that Bill Tomcich invite other members of the community who are concerned about this and sit down and strategize about this. Andrew said he doesn't see the ACRA changing their tune now because historically for the last year a sponsorship development was not the priority, and PRACO was chosen to advertise in two cities. Molly said the tax is only paid by lodges. The purpose of the fund and lodging sales tax is to generate lodge revenues for the entire community. The tax is sustainable by more and more people staying in the lodges. The marketing committee is made up of 20 individuals and they made the dec~sion that their plan was to go for increasing lodge occupancies. Molly said the ACRA is going to discuss next years plan and it ~s appropriate to continue the conversation with a small group of the CCLC and the planning committee. Molly said through a thought process we can only get better. Andrew said Comedy Fest is coming in March and who and when is someone from the city going to sit down with Brian Murphy and discuss a three-year deal. How do we negotiate that and who does that? It has to be someone's role to get Comedy Fest here. Molly said the St. Regis is the host hotel and they negotiated the Comedy Fest. Bill Dinsmoor said HBO and other events are driven by a lodging decision and that is the engine that drives this thing. Once the lodging arrangements are made that they can live with then Aspen Reservations helps them with air fair. Andrew said the best way to get money is through sponsors. People like the name Aspen and like to be associated with Aspen. 4 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2001 Molly said the skiing company goes out and gets sponsorship. Jane Poss worked on the World Cup. The International outdoor festival got their o(vn sponsors. Aspen Music Festival gets their own sponsors. HBO needs to go out and find their own sponsorship. Sponsorship right now is really hard. Bill said Aspen has value and we are looking for people who want to partner up and then for us to find events that they can support. Terry said she was a member of the ACRA until this year and she does not have a big advertising budget but she gets people to come through direct contacts and her longevity here. Charles said it is his understanding that we can find third parties that we pay a fee too, to help attract sponsors to marry with events that we may want to get. Eric said his concern is that Wagner Park becomes Proctor & Gamble Park at Aspen. That is what corporate sponsorship is. WAGNER PARK - FIRE PIT Bill said the notion of the fire pit was brought up and there was a caveat that there could be a special fire pit. In the winter the fire pit had a visual interest. Ed Saddler said he looked into the fire pit and everywhere he mined he was told why it wasn't a good idea. Is it to be a wood burning or natural gas and what hours will it be operated and with what events etc. Does it turn offand on at 10:00 p.m.? He searched for a pit that you can just buy and install but couldn't find anything. You would have to build the one you want and Environmental Health said they do not approve fireplaces anymore. Our risk manager told us about the insurance ramifications, which is why so many numerous mountain towns have discontinued the use of a fire pit due to liability. Ed said he looked at other places to put the fire pit. He looked at the information booth area to actually sink one and then grate it over and have the kiosk over it in the summer. That seemed to be a better place for it rather than Wagner Park but it still has the same issues. COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2001 John said Risk Management said it has more risk but did they actually go out and find out how much more it would cost the city for insurance to do the fire pit. There needs to be more exploring as to the reasons why it won't work. The City staff has been negative without any real reason. John said he is not hearing the answer back, that gives him comfort that the situation has been explored to make it happen. Terry said her thought was something level to the ground with a small flame? At the ends of the malls people like to gather. We need to come up with some kind of solution and then we connect to the gas. Ed said he was never quite sure as to what everyone had in mind. Terry said we use railings all over town, around the flowerbeds etc~ and that should not be that difficult to design. Terry said the fire pits in Europe were four or five feet wide. John said we had professional designers with the Wagner Park effort but we never say any come back with a design. We just saw the final plans and it wasn't there. We never gotto the level of trying to make it happen. Ed said maybe this just needs to be flushed out more, how big, above or below grown etc. Terry said the size should not interrupt traffic and possible be four or five feet wide for five to twelve people to hang around. It would be a gathering place. Terry said the board didn't make it clear what the concept should be. Charles said he likes the new location and it is similar in size to one of the fountains. Bill said he would be glad to discuss with Rich Kinder funding the fire it. Eric said risk management needs to find out how high the fence should be in order to keep the rates at a minimal. Is the liability the pit or the fire? COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2001 Ed said if we have a clear idea of what we want then it is easier for him to deal with. Presently we do not have anyone on board that does gas work. Eric said the fire pit should be on a timer from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. with a railing around it to reduce the liability. MOTION: Bill moved to adjourn; second by Eric. All in favor, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m. Kathleen J. Strickland, Chief Deputy Clerk