HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Lodging Tax Advisory Committee - 04/25/2016 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee
April 25, 2016
Start Time 4:00 pm
Centennial Center Conference Room South
Committee Members Present: Tim Higgins, Brian Powell, Josh Bang, John Casey,
Andrew Hutchison, Bill Boyce
Others Present: Ben Wolters, Brian Hart, Steve Turcott, Dana Newts, Michelle
Wilmot, Andrew Corona, Andrea Kithon, Derek Matheson, Amy Waters, Mary Kae
Repp, Paxton McKinney
Chair Boyce called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm. Introductions were made.
Chair Boyce asked for any additions to the agenda. Seeing none, he called for
approval of the Minutes.
1. Approval of the February 22, 2016 Minutes. — Bill Boyce
Steve moved and Andrew Hutchinson seconded a motion to approve
the minutes of February 22, 2016. Motion passed unanimously.
2. Genesis Agreement Update — Mary Kae Repp
Ben Wolters, ECD Director, gives update regarding marketing and advertising
agreement. Ben discusses how we will continue to go full steam ahead while in
process of the RFP therefore we it was agreed upon to go ahead with the
$70,000 contract with Genesis. This contract will take us into the end of August.
This time frame gives enough time for Genesis to work with our other new
partners, The Seattle Thunderbird's on marketing material that they will be
pushing through to use for their 2016-17 season and also to work through a
possible transition from genesis to another company. Mary Kae from Genesis
spoke regarding organic search engines and updates to the website and blog.
Genesis will be submitting their plans for social media management on Google
Plus, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram a month at a time so that Ben, Andrew
and Michele can preview it and make changes as needed. Mary Kae states there
is data for the entire first quarter on the blog postings and moving into the rest
of the year not worrying about a signed contract. May's data is already
submitted and a plan has been set in place for it. Ben questions if we are caught
up on our invoices with them, they stated that we are not but we are close.
Mary Kae talks about how their official contract ends at the end of August but
they will continue to do some work through September, such as newsletters and
social media postings, to assure a smooth transition. She goes on to discuss the
social media game/contest they will be carrying out for this campaign. This
game/contest promotes what you can do in Kent and how much fun you can
have in Kent and also gives people the chance to win tickets such as Mariners,
Seahawks and Thunderbirds, in hopes of promoting the growth of tourism in
Kent and the ability to collect data to send out in a newsletter to everyone who
got online and participated. This marketing program will run from May 5th to
August 315t and will run in Portland, Lower Canada, Central Washington and
parts of Spokane. Mary Kae states they will be working with the T-Birds on
setting up the TV and radio commercials used inside that contract. Genesis
would like to have all of this set up with the T-birds prior to their contract ending
so they will be assured that the T-Birds will have everything they need for the
entire season. Ben states he spoke with the team from ShoWare center and they
are excited about the campaign Genesis has presented and look forward to
working on it with them. Bill Boyce states that he believes we are on the right
track and how it is a good thing that we continue moving forward.
3. Seattle Thunderbirds Marketing Agreement Update — Andrew Corona
Andrew Corona, Economic Development Analyst, states that right now we are
working on the formalities of the agreement and finalizing details of consultant
services agreement. Things like vendor set up, insurance certification,
formatting it to adjust with the city template we typically use. Andrew states he
is in constant communication with Jason from ShoWare gathering information so
we can get them checks as soon as possible. Bill Boyce asks if we are close to
coming to a resolution and Andrew states that we are very close and there are
no concerns with anything.
4. Appointment of New Lodging Tax Committee Position Bryan Powell,
Ramada GM — Ben Wolters
Ben states that Bryan comes with high recommendations by Jason and
committee member Andrea. Bryan states that he has been working in Kent since
2010. The first 4 years he did sales, marketing and revenue for the hotel after
the manager sold it he took on the general manager position. Bryan previously
served on a Lodging Tax Advisory Committee for 4 years in Port Orchard.
Andrew Corona states that they did a lot of work interviewing committee
members and other hoteliers and thinks Bryan is the most qualified for the
position and we are happy to have him, he also thanks Bryan for his
volunteering his time.
MOTION: John moved and Andrew seconded a move to approve the
appointment of Bryan Powell to the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.
Motion Passed.
S. Ask- New Space Conference, June 2016 - Andrew Corona
Andrew Speaks on the upcoming New Space Conference. This conference will be
held in Seattle for the first time ever, June 21-23. It is the only conference
where there will be 3 tiers, the start-ups, established companies and
governmental agencies. This conference is highly attended. He speaks on the
importance of the emerging industry in the Kent area and states that Economic
Development staff believes financial support for the conference and the inclusion
of Kent bringing world home is important for creating partnerships with
companies such as Blue Origin who have expanded their employees to over 300
new full time employees in Kent for a total of 750. These types of companies are
already bringing travel revenue to the City. Participation in this conference will
set the community up for being hosts of PNW reginal hype events and other
promotional meetings as well as putting Kent company presence on the national
stage. This will open up opportunities to host future conferences that will bring
space industry travelers to Kent. With the $3,000 contribution from the
committee and a match of $3,000 From Economic and Community
Development, we would be at the sponsor level of Lower Orbit. With the $6,000
contribution we would get a hyper link on the home and sponsor's page of the
conference website, 2 conference passes including the awards gala with
reserved sponsor seating, name included in the conference press releases,
company inserts in the conference attendee bags, room key branding with the
Visit Kent" logo would be on the room key of the attendees. In 2015 there were
over 520 paid attendees, 103 space start-ups, 23 private investment firms and
15 articles in tier one publications such as Forbes Magazine, Space News and
others. Ben speaks on how he believes it would help with promoting and
marketing Kent. Some committee members are concerned that this is a Seattle
event and wouldn't bring attendees to stay in hotels in Kent. Andrew reiterates
the fact that this sponsorship would be helpful in bringing future events to the
City of Kent. Andrea believes it is good so that we can expand our branding
beyond just Kent for those who don't know who we are. Ben speaks of the
constant balancing act of the committee regarding what resources we want to
put towards driving hotel stays vs how much do we want to dedicate towards
brand awareness in the visit Kent website. Bill states that his focus is always to
put heads in beds but also thinks it's good to think long term and focusing on
bringing future events to Kent. David asks about our ability to set up a booth
and Andrew states we will be setting something up.
MOTION: Steve moved and Bill seconded a move to approve the request
for $3,000 for sponsorship of the June, 2016 New Space Conference.
Motion Passed.
6. Ask- ShoWare 3 on 3, July 2016 & High School Basketball events,
December 2016 — Steve Turcotte and Tim Higgins
Steve with ShoWare is there to ask for sponsorship to help with the cost of the
7 basketball events that he will be hosting, 4 of which will be at the ShoWare
Center. Steve states that they have several teams from out of town that come
to the events and stay in hotels and Bryan and Andrew have been lots of help to
him and all the families have been happy with their accommodations. Dana
states that they can get information out on the blog and social media in regards
to places in Kent to stay. Steve states that he generally promotes the hotels
with flyers that include a list of local hotels.
MOTION: Andrew moved and John seconded a move to approve the
request for $5,000 for sponsorship of the 2016 ShoWare 3 on 3 and
High School Basketball events. Motion Passed.
7. Ask - 28th Anniversary Pacific Northwest Historic Vintage Auto Races,
July 1-3 — Jennifer Workman
Jennifer Workman is asking for a sponsorship of $5,000. She states that this
race is Pacific raceways 2nd largest event of the year and draws in about 200
racers from all up and down the coast, anywhere from 5,000-7,500 spectators
and over a 100 volunteers. The $5,000 they are asking for would go to
offsetting the cost of the event, and directly all of the income goes to Children's
hospital. Estimated budget for the project is roughly $291,000. They grossed
roughly $420,000 last year. For the $5,000 sponsorship we would receive a
vendor booth at the event, 1/2 page add, banner placement at the track,
complimentary event tickets and dinner tickets. Jennifer stated she could add
list of Hotels to the event website and links to the hotels with promo codes. She
also stated that if we wanted a full page add we could trade for the
complimentary tickets or something else. Committee members don't have any
data on whether this event creates heads in beds and are concerned that the
$5,000 sponsorship role may not be worth it. Mary Kae asks if Genesis could do
the add and connect it with the game on the visit kent.com website. Ben agrees
that would be fine, if the motion passes. Jennifer states that there are 3 events
at the raceways and she agrees she could send out the hotel link to all the
events web pages. She also states that it would be possible to get
advertisement on iHeart radio, Komo Am and other radio and TV stations they
advertise on. Committee member ask if they can buy just a full page add in the
program for $950. Jennifer states she need to talk to the printers regarding
that.
MOTION: Andrew moved and No one seconded a move to approve the
request for $5,000 for sponsorship of the 28th anniversary Pacific
Northwest Historic Vintage Auto Races held July 1-3. Motion Died.
S. UPDATE IN THE BUDGET
The City adopted the budget without all the current information. The adopted
budget had us at $210,000 total revenue, $188,000 in expenditures which are
numbers finance put in without any direction from the committee. So what Ben
is asking to be approved is an amended budget of $275,000 in projected
revenue, and expenditure budget of $271,000 for a net balance of $3,500 that
would be left in the reserve. This included the $5,000 for robotics and the
basketball tournaments that were just approved. We have $70,000 in there for
Genesis, $39,000 in the for the T-Birds which leaves about $70,000 so that
gives a lot of leeway.
MOTION: David moved and John seconded a move to approve the the
amended budget. Motion Passed.
9. RFP - Andrew Corona
Andrew states they looked at other RFP examples from different areas of the
state. He says they would like to release in the next week to the public. Andrew
states that the proposed selection date will be July 13th. Michelle states that
they are trying to make the process as seamless as possible and the committee
seems to agree. Andrew states that this needs pushed out the door and would
like to see a May 27th deadline for proposals and providing a list of the 2-3
finalist at the City Council meeting on June 27th. Bill Boyce says RFP looks good,
options of 1 year contract with renewal options looks good. Michelle assures the
committee that they will do the hard leg work of reviewing the RFP.
MOTION: David moved and Tim seconded a move to approve the RFP
process. Motion Passed.
Adiournment - The meeting was adjourned by Chair Bill Boyce, at 5:35PM
Submitted Amy Waters