Category: TDC Meetings

Notes from the April 2, 2008 TDC/CVB Marketing Committee Meeting

9 of the 11 committee members were present. Absent was Debi Knight and Paul Wohlford.

Indian Summer Festival

  • Two organizations interested in taking over operation of the festival made presentations. Both proposals are for Columbus Day Weekend, October 10-12, 2008.
  • Jeffrey Wolfe, from Multimedia Publishing, Inc. (http://www.multimediapp.com), would like to provide a “Family oriented food and entertainment venue, which focuses on wholesome family fun.” The festival would remain at Frank Brown Park and retain the name Indian Summer Seafood Festival. Wolfe’s vision includes a cooking demonstration stage, a kid-oriented stage that would include the involvement of Bay County Schools, and a music stage. The music stage would have a unique music theme each day, such as margaritiville, country, and big band. Although the possibility of a Jimmy Buffett concert was subsequently reported by WJHG, it is my understanding that Wolfe is only proposing a margaritiville-style concert. Multimedia listed their affiliations with the Niceville Mullet Festival, the Seabreeze Jazz Festival, and Blue Angels events in Pensacola; however, I believe that they only provided services to these events rather than acting as event promoter. The presentation was silent as to what financial support they would be requesting from the TDC/CVB; however, their handout did refer to “seed money” being used for operations. Although and exception was made recently for the FSU Flying Circus, it is TDC/CVB policy to only provide advertising support to special events. Wolfe anticipates a total attendance of 18,000.

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TDC Meeting Agenda for 4/2/2008 – Indian Summer Festival

Here is the agenda for the TDC meeting scheduled for April 2, 2008. They will be covering the Indian Summer Festival and the Spring Jazz Festival proposals.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008 1:30 p.m. Board Room
Visitor Information Center

I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER

II. ROLL CALL

III. REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE COMMITTEE ON AGENDA ITEMS (3 Minutes)

IV. PROPOSAL ON INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL, Mr. Dan Rowe, President

V. PROPOSAL ON SPRING JAZZ FESTIVAL, Mr. Dan Rowe, President

VI. PRESIDENT’S REPORT, Mr. Dan Rowe, President

VII. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

VIII. ADJOURNMENT

The agenda is also available for print: TDC Meeting Agenda for 4/2/2008

Notes from the March 20, 2008 TDC/CVB Marketing Committee Meeting

Only 7 of the 11 members were present. Absent were Philip Griffits, Jr., John Hamati, Bill Spann, and Debi Knight.

2009 COLLEGE SPRING BREAK MARKETING CAMPAIGN

President Dan Rowe explained that he would like the Committee and Board to begin discussing their plans, if any, for this segment ahead of the upcoming budget process. Rowe also reported that he has had discussions with the CVB’s agency about completing additional research to determine what the year-round effect is of our spring break image. Image concerns were also expressed by a majority of the committee members present. Although no formal vote took place, the majority of the committee expressed an interest in either discontinuing funding completely or at least changing it to special event funding. If changed to special event funding, the CVB would only consider providing financial support after an organization or co-op made a formal request for financial support.

Click the “more” link for the others points covered in the meeting.

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Are Spring Breakers ruining our Beaches?

Spring Break is in full swing and along with that comes droves of college kids looking for a good time that mostly includes drinking endless amounts of alcohol, walking around our streets with open containers, and leaving their garbage all over the place.

Click the “more” link for pictures and a comment about how PCB is being ruined as a family spot.

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Notes and Comments from the TDC/CVB 3-11-08 Board Meeting

7 of the 9 board members were present. Absent were Marty McDaniel and Mayor Oberst.

SEA TURTLE LIGHTING ORDINANCE UPDATE

  • Doug Sale, the TDC/CVB’s legal counsel, updated the Board on what has occurred since the 12/21/07 meeting (http://www.pcbdaily.com/?p=108) when the Board passed the recommended turtle lighting ordinance. Sale advised that the Army Corps of Engineers asked the TDC to reconsider the portion of the recommended ordinance that deals with existing development. The Corps are not comfortable continuing with the 2008 beach renourishment due to the lack of approval from U.S. Fish & Wildlife. Sale reiterated his prior opinion that the TDC would eventually prevail if the TDC fought the Corps in court; however, this would likely stop all renourishment during what may be a long process.

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Is MTV Complying With the 2008 Spring Break Marketing Plan?

I just became aware of some additional information that I didn’t know when I wrote “A Review of the 2008 TDC/CVB Spring Break Marketing Plan” last week (see post). In addition to my original concerns, I now have doubt as to whether MTV is complying with the terms of the $200,000 contract with the TDC/CVB.

When the Plan was originally proposed to the TDC/CVB, it was explained that the MTV Networks were now going to mainly cover Spring Break via their mtvU network, not their flagship MTV channel as in years past. This explanation was consistent with the written proposal presented to the CVB Marketing Committee on October 3, 2007:

* “mtvU is the hub for everything and anything that represents Spring Break”
* “. . .and where we go, we bring our big brothers, MTV and MTV2.”

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A Review of the 2008 TDC/CVB Spring Break Marketing Plan

As I am writing this, our first group of college spring breakers are on the road heading to liven up our beach. No one knows whether the TDC/CVB’s College Spring Break Marketing Plan will end up being a success, a failure, or somewhere in between. Hopefully President Dan Rowe has a plan for calculating a reliable estimate of how many college students visit our destination during the four-week period this year and what the actual economic impact is to Bay County. Lately, I have heard the estimate being mentioned that 250,000 college students came here for Spring Break last year and that we are expecting the same or better this year. However, it is my understanding that the TDC/CVB has no data to actually support this 250,000 figure. I am pleased that the new TDC/CVB board has been very diligent in questioning the attendance and economic impact of other special events; however, I do not believe that they have had the same diligence in questioning College Spring Break. But regardless of how successful the MTV plan ends up being, it is clear that the plan has some major problems.

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Notes and Comments from the 2/12/08 TDC/CVB Board Meeting

8 of the 9 board members were present. Absent was Marty McDaniel. It was also reported that McDaniel is no longer employed by Royal American Hospitality. Since Mr. McDaniel has accepted employment with another collector, TDC/CVB Attorney Doug Sale advised that both he and the Bay County Attorney did not see any problem with McDaniel retaining his board seat.

After the “more” link, info on the bed tax collection, Coastal Vision 3000, and College Spring Break Co-Op.

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