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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Lodging Tax Advisory Committee - 03/27/2014 Special Meeting Lodging Tax Advisory Committee March 27, 2014 Start Time 4:00 pm Centennial North & South Conference Rooms Committee Members Present: Bill Boyce, Andrew Hutchison, Barbara Smith, Blane Webber, John Casey Others present: Ben Wolters, Julie Pulliam, Andrea Keikkala, Kathy Hardey, Steve Turcotte, and Steve Hunter, Mary Kae Repp, Michelle Wilmot Chair Jamie Bill Boyce called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm, Introductions were done. Chair asked for any additions to the agenda, none were offered. A correction to the minutes was noted; correction on page 2, Derek Speck is from Tukwila not Des Moines. A motion to approve the minutes from the meeting held on February 13, 2014 with the changes was made by John Casey then second by David Kwok. Motion passes. Budget No report was available will be presented at the April 17, 2014 meeting. Old Business Branding/Marketing: Wolters introduced and thanked everyone who participated in the various focus groups done by Arnett Muldrow which lead to a branding presentation that was done at ShoWare Center on Wednesday evening, February 26, 2014 and then an additional presentation at the KDP breakfast on Friday morning, February 28, 2014. The presentations were well received and there is a lot of excitement on how they captured the essence of Kent and created a foundation to build a branding identify and a marketing presence. City Council also had a workshop on the topic and the Council basically gave their approval to move ahead to develop plans and strategy to build off of the material that has been developed by Arnett Muldrow. Wolters communicated back to the Council the work of this committee would be a major thrust of creating a tourism marketing campaign. Mary Kae will be talking to the committee about the next steps and the feedback she needs to move forward. Also the other element is to develop a broader strategy for a broader adoption within the community and ways the City can support the use of this brand by other organizations. Wolters feels this is another conversation that will have to happen and he is looking to the KDP and the Kent Chamber as significant partners in doing so. The City Council is very egger not to lose momentum coming out of the branding exercise. Wolters feel Council would be very supportive in the Lodging Tax Committee moving ahead to Develop this. We will need to coordinate our efforts to get the most bangs for our buck as we try to grow and establish a positive brand for the community at large. We have determined at the city level it is very important to move quickly to develop uses of the brand particularly the logo and tag line in order to establish copyright and trademark protection. They way within the law that happens is you start using it. We have retained legal counsel with the Curran Group and have one of their attorney guide us through the registration. His advice is to develop 4 physical examples of its use. The website is 1 big and very important one, there are some others that we will be beginning to work toward. It is also important for the City as the owner of the brand and logo be seen as putting it out there. There is already use of the tag line but it is not in this region. It is used as a title of a book, part of a marketing piece for a company in the Midwest. Before I turn it over to Mary Kae are there any questions? Barbara Smith asked with all the samples they have gave us how soon can we sit down and so KDP can understand what the City is going to use, that would be helpful so KDP can do some planning also so when the City is ready to launch KDP is also. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of March 27, 2014 Page: 2 Wolters suggested we sit down together now and have a collaborative conversation. Michelle Wilmot agreed with Wolters. Michelle as the Communication & Public Affairs Manager for the City will be taking a leading role in helping guide this effort. Chair Boyce responded this should apply to Kent Chamber as well. Wolters agreed. When is a good time for Chamber? Keikkala agreed after she has finished with the Chamber event she will be available. If no further questions Wolters will turn to Mary Kae Repp from Genesis. Genesis is working with Arnett Muldrow also on other campaigns. The first step is to decide the colors, the font style, the logo and the tourism portion of it how is that going to be rolled into KDP, how is it going to be used by the Chamber, how is it going to be used by the City plays a big role on how we decide to look on line and social media - how would your signs look. Step #1 get the website live, we can create the facebook, twitter, google plus page and all the social media pages right away. You should have the final version of the logo from Arnett Muldrow or should soon. Wilmot replied she does not have it yet. Smith stated that she thought we had to let them know if they were ok then Arnett Muldrow would send them. Wolters just expected them to just send it Wolters will touch base with Arnett Muldrow. Today Mary Kae was hoping to get input on a couple of things. #1 in preparation for today's meeting you should have received a couple of sheets that list the URL's we have bought these all for a protective measure to have our name connected to the titles. Mary Kae asked the group for their number 1 and number 2 choices for the main URL that you would like to see used for tourism. The only thing with this vote is the last two, one is $60 and one is $500 Welcome to Kent and Visit Kent.com those are in a Go Daddy bidding war so one is locked up till May and the other possibility till June meaning the biding won't close till then. Wolters asked if we know who owns them. Mary Kae said she can get that information. Mary Kae asked if those two Visit Kent and Welcome to Kent are the two favorites. Barbara Smith said visit Kent is her first choice as a tourism tool. The group agreed. Next piece is the website you received to take a look at. Mary Kae is looking at what the Committee likes, what do you really want to see on the tourism website. With that direction Mary Kae can direct her design team. Final piece is how is going to be the core group that Genesis will be interacting with? As long as there is a team of people that is communicating timely and effectively we will be able to keep our time line which is approximately 5 week. Andrew Hutchinson looked at the website and likes the Los Angles where they picked high profile people where they listed places that they liked and recommended to go. Hutchinson liked that because it focused on the visitor. They also had photos used as icons for events and when you moussed over the information for the event would show then when you clicked on it would Hutchinson also liked the suitcase on the Charleston website. As you go through the website if you saw something you want to do or see you could put it in your suitcase and that is where you could keep all the things you wanted to see or do. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of March 27, 2014 Page: 3 John Casey said he felt NYC was very confusing and too much on the site. To busy. Casey thought the photography on visit Portland.com was incredible. Bill Boyce liked NewYork.com the tag line, attractions, events coming up and things to do. Barbara Smith likes if there is a search that you can put in the address you are staying and ask for a restaurant close to where you are staying it will give you a list. Mary Kae thanked the group for their direction. Barbara asked for Mary Kae's email 2000mkrCcagmail.com Will we use the smaller team for communication to work with Mary Kae. Wolters stated the core team is; Ben Wolters, Michelle Wilmot, Barbara Smith, Julie Pulliam, Andrea Keikkala. Wolters will keep the whole committee informed of what is going on but the core team will be working closely with Mary Kae. Wolters suggests the committee is the team and the subgroup will be engaged with Mary Kae and we are moving to keep up with her as she moves forward to get something established. The sub group will be; Ben Wolters, Barbara Smith, Michelle Wilmot, Andrea Keikkala, Bill, Andrew Hutchinson, David Kwok. This will be the working subgroup. Mary Kae asked the subgroup take a look at these websites and that everyone get all their likes to Mary Kae by Monday April 7th. Dead line will be a week from Friday. New Business Lodging Tax ASKS: Steve Turcotte presented the committee with his ask this year for $5,000 for the ShoWare Shootout and the High School Basketball tournaments events. Wolters noted we would like to look at monitoring more closely the stays for high school tournaments and on the 3 on 3 tournaments. In 2014 the new state law does allow funding for community events, this is how Wolters view the funding for this event. It is also creating room nights for us as well. David Kwok asked about the motion passed last year about any organization giving us money has to provide recap after the event. The trend being seen in a lot of the tournaments is you have to stay in the area you play. Steve Turcotte said he does provide the team with a list of hotels in the area and has also given dollars off to stay in the hotels on the list. Chair Boyce asked if Turcotte steers the coaches and team to the Kent Hotels. Turcotte stated he does tell them where they can stay in Kent. Wolters asked we make it as smooth and easy for them to stay in a Kent Hotel as possible. So they will want to stay in Kent. Turcotte also has a brochure with all the hotels in Kent that he puts in all the packets he hands out. Hutchinson wanted to clarify this is not just the 3 on 3 tournament it is for the whole program? Turcotte responded it is for everything. Hutchinson said ideally it will become an event where you will have a lot of teams from out of town. Hutchinson stated that the last Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of March 27, 2014 Page: 4 weekend in July is the busy time and there is a lot going on so hotels may not have a lot of available rooms. Webber responded he likes the idea of supporting this as a community event. Honestly his hotel will probably won't see a lot of business from the event in July. But any event Turcotte would hold in December or January would be helpful when the hotels are not as busy as in the summer months. Motion to approve $5,000 to help support the ShoWare Shootout and High School tournament, Andrew Hutchinson moved to fund the event, Blane Webber seconded. Chair asked for decision, No decision, Motion passes. Steve Turcotte thanked the committee for their support. Kent Downtown Report - Nothing Chamber Report - Nothing Good of the order - Nothing Assignments for next meeting - None Next Regular Meeting Date - (Committee will meet every other month on the 3rd Thursday of the month 4 pm.) Next regular meeting will be 6/19/14 Adiournment - The meeting was adjourned by Chair Boyce at 5:00 pm Jitted byPulliam,ng Tax Secretary Minutes approved at meeting of April 17, 2014 ��l