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Home My WebLink AboutCHOC Visitors Bureau minutes 101619 November 20, 2019 Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Board of Directors Meeting October 16, 2019 The Chapel/Orange County Visitors Bureau met at The Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill -Carrboro, 104 S . Estes Dr. , Chapel Hill Board Members Present : Pam Hemminger, David Brooks, Tanya Moore, Anthony Carey, Matthew Wilkins ( in Kayla' s place ) , Mark Bell , Shannan Campbell, Sam Vadgama , Lydia Lavelle, Mark Sherburne, Tim Hoke, Spring Council, Annette Stone, Matt Gladdek, Libbie Hough, Penny Rich, and Katie Murray . Not Present : Jeff Strickler and Dixon Pitt , Staff Attendance : Laurie Paolicelli , Marlene Barbera , Tina Fuller, Leslie Wilcox Also present : Clean, Inc . — Joanna Choma, Glen Felman, Zak Thompson, Stephanie Perri, and Niki Bell . Aaron Nelson, The Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill -Carrboro . Sarah Parris, Alliance for a Historic Hillsborough . Call to Order Chair Anthony Carey called the meeting to order at 8 : 11 . Introductions were given by all . Aaron Nelson welcomed everyone to The Chamber and gave an overview of The Chamber and discussed the Big Bold Ideas program . Approval of Minutes Chair Carey requested a motion to approve the September 18, 2019 minutes . Shannan Campbell so moved and David Brooks seconded the motion . With all members in favor, the minutes were approved as submitted . Finance Report Executive/ Directors Report Commissioner Rich reported we are in the second quarter of the budget and it is on target . 14 . 4% of occupancy tax revenues, remembering we are two month ' s in arrears . In addition to tracking traditional lodging occupancy tax revenues we are also tracking AirBnB occupancy tax revenues through AirDNA and those revenues are up . Supply was 1, 994, which is 24 % over August . 10, 294 more unit nights were available for sale . Therefore, demand is high . August seemed to be an okay month for lodging, a little down from last year but it does seem like the demand keeps coming . Overall , we are looking good but the goal is to keep watch on the AirBnBs because percentage-wise they are growing and growing, as the hotels are staying steady . We want to ensure we are collecting the occupancy tax from the AirBnBs . Visitors Bureau is healthy . We spend a large portion of our budget on advertising and our new advertising agency is Clean Design . If you have been watching our advertising campaign online and through social media , Clean Design is doing a wonderful job . Fund balance is a little high right now at about $ 300, 000 so we want to be sure to utilize that . Tim Hoke inquired about Visitors Bureau relocation . Commissioner Rich explained that there is a business interested in the building now occupied by the Visitors Bureau and that selling it would put the property, valued at about $ 5M , back on the tax role which would be good for Orange County overall . Laurie Paolicelli explained the process for relocating and that she is working with Orange County Asset Management to identify offices that meet the Visitors Bureau needs in terms of size, space, and location and then Asset Management will move forward with evaluating, negotiating, and eventual leasing of space . Laurie shared information on some spaces she has already visited and evaluated but stressed it is still early in the process . She meets with the County Manager on Monday and hopes to have more details and offer an in -depth report during our November board meeting . Guest Presentation Clean Design presentation . "Just Do You " campaign update and newest documentary-style video , performance results for digital display tactics and social media , and latest research findings . More detail will be shared on November 4th at the Carolina Inn . Pdf of presentation attached . New Business / Roundtable • Sarah Parris shared Outlandish Hillsborough event had great turnout, well over 1, 000 on both days , even with the rain on Sunday . She thanked Laurie and the Visitors Bureau for being such a key sponsor . • Shannon Campbell shared that this coming weekend , Saturday, October 19th is Hillsborough ' s River Park Concert , an all - day music and arts festival that drew 5 - 6k people last year . Lastly, the Town of Hillsborough and the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce have teamed - up for "Shop Small Saturday" . They are going to do a campaign around "Shop Small Business" month and try to promote shopping small business for the month of November. • Libbie Hough shared the library' s participation in Outlandish Hillsborough . They held two events , one was a discussion about the local genealogy and the second they screened the film " Braveheart" . Facebook posts related to these two events were the biggest hits since Libbie has been with the library . The library has gotten more Facebook followers by being a part of Outlandish Hillsborough . It was fun to be part of the community- wide effort Hillsborough put forth for Outlandish Hillsborough . • David Brooks brought in a copy of the National Polo magazine featuring the team wearing their "Visit Chapel Hill " jerseys . The other clubs have been giving our team a lot of exposure on social media as well . • Annette Stone shared that the Carrboro Music Festival was the last weekend in September and was a huge success . This weekend , beginning October 161h is the Poetry Festival . Carrboro Cheer in collaboration with the Carrboro Business Alliance is getting ready to kick-off and will be doing some things with Chapel Hill , hopefully luminaries at the same time, small business Saturday, tree lightings, children ' s choirs, and those type of things, collectively . • Tanya Moore shared that they had a great University Day last Saturday, October 12th . There are 90 faculty headed out on three buses this morning across the state to various North Carolina communities seeing how UNC can and is making a difference . Football is still exciting ! Anthony Carey added that UNC Chapel Hill is one of only nine schools whose home football games are sold out ! • Katie Murray shared that the Orange County Arts Commission got out their Arts Grants last night . Because our budget under tourism has grown , we were able to take some of our State grant funding that we have used for other programs in the past, absorb those into our own budget, and use that money to give out more grants . We had our Paint it Orange Plein Air Paint-out & Wet Paint Sale September 25th- 271n Fifty- eight artists from four states participated . The show is on display through November at C- 3 in Hillsborough . There are one - hundred pieces of beautiful, wonderful art depicting local places . " How to Get Signed ( and does it even matter? )" event for local musicians this coming Monday, October 21' . There is an awesome panel of music industry executives , musicians , signed and not signed , at Local 506 at 7 : 00 p . m . The big news is the Orange County Arts Commission has formed a relationship with the developer who owns the Eno Mill in Hillsborough and started working with them about six months ago to try to activate many of their vacant spaces through the arts . So we have a three - phase, multi -year plan in place . Last year, took it to the BOCC for approval on the first phase , which is thirteen artist studios and a formal office space in the mill . We had overwhelming support . We are approved to start that . • Matt Gladdek shared that Festifall was a great success . Matt credited Susan Brown and her staff for the redo of Festifall this year. No food trucks this year . Instead , local restaurants provided the food , which was a huge success for local businesses . The businesses that Matt has inquired with indicate a 30% increase, at least . Some additional changes in the arts , like " Little Green Pig" , that performed roving art . Several businesses that are normally closed during the day opened . New public art in downtown because of Festifall . They had a Raleigh artist live paint a mural on the glass window of the old bookshop ( actually plastic was first put up and then painted on so if the building is leased it is easy to remove the plastic ) . Coming up on October 20' is "Cash Crop" an art installation by Durham artist Stephen Hayes, located at the pop- up space at 109 E . Franklin Street . This is 2 Page CHOCVB BOD Meeting August 21 , 2019 a very powerful sculpture show to mark 400 years of slavery in America put on in conjunction with UNC Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, NAACP , Town Arts & Culture, University Arts Everywhere, and The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership . Looking to start doing more pop ups and to that is a new website going live soon ChapelHillPopups . com . November 12th is trivia night at The Crunkleton . Chapel Hill - idays in the planning . Matt shared that they have petitioned the Town to restripe West Franklin Street and the Town seems amiable to it . This led to further discussion of traffic issues on both West Franklin and in Carrboro, including the recent fatal accident on West Franklin Street . • Mayor Hemminger shared that FilmFest 919 was held October 9th- 13th . It was sold out and they had to hold some extra showings . Great reviews . People came from all over for this event . Next year they would like to expand it to more places and do more things . Pickleball tournament was this past weekend , October 11th . They had to close registration early because all their spots filled so quickly . West End parking deck is on the Council agenda for November 11th . Mayor Hemminger asked the board to think about how we can incorporate art and make it a fun place rather than just a utilitarian place . Mayor Hemminger discussed Chapel Hill parking in general . How to make it a better experience for visitors to Chapel Hill . The last Terra Vita is this weekend . • Commissioner Rich shared the Orange County Summit where County Commissioners , staff, and other community leaders will discuss issues of importance to Orange County residents, including transportation , affordable housing, economic development and education . The event is open to the public and will be broadcast live on WCHL . Commissioner Rich has petitioned the Orange County Board of County Commissioners to "take their show on the road " and possibly hold a few meetings in other places around the County . • Matthew Wilkins with NCHSAA shared they are looking into some digital marketing to push ticket sales . The last couple years ticket sales have been down but that can very much be attributable to weather. Next meeting : Wednesday, November 20th at The Hilton Inn Express, Hillsborough . Meeting adjourned at 9 : 43 a Minutes-reviewed by : Laurie Paolicelli , Execut ve Dir ctor Dates Minutes accepte by : Anthony Carey, Chairman t2- � ad f I � Date 3 Page CHOCVB BOD Meeting August 21 , 2019