CVB Meeting: Turtle Ordinance, Grand Lagoon National Tournament

Surprisingly, 8 of the 9 board members were present. Absent was Yonnie Patronis. Board member attendance at the 8 meetings, including the 2 strategic planning sessions, held during the first half of 2008 has been quite poor. 3 members have attendance records of 50% or less and only 3 members have missed no more than one meeting. The worst was at the strategic planning session held two weeks ago when only 2 board members were in attendance. I understand that board members are not compensated, but people should not agree to serve unless their schedule allows regular attendance. Hopefully the City Council and County Commission will consider ability to attend meetings when considering future appointments.

Turtle Protection Ordinance

Based on recent reports in the News Herald, I understood prior to the meeting that a compromise had been reached between Staff, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the local property owners for a new draft ordinance to replace the one approved by the board in December. As expected, the prior draft ordinance was rejected by USF&W and effectively put any future beach nourishment on hold. Both the USF&W and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were in attendance at this meeting to complete the process. Based on the News Herald reports, I expected the new draft ordinance to be approved by the board ending the standoff between PCB and the Federal Government. I sure was wrong.

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Panama City Beach in Southern Living

There is an article about Panama City Beach in the latest issue of Southern Living, and they are raving about us.

“It’s time to return to Panama City Beach. If your memories revolve around crowded T-shirt shacks and gritty mom-and-pop motels, you’re in for a big surprise. This vacation magnet (your grandparents may have met here!) now sports a fresh style. It’s nudged the beach bum culture aside for upscale hotels and condos, good restaurants, a fabulous new shopping district, and sparkling high-rises.”

“Don’t worry. You can still relax in flip-flops and cutoff jeans in most places. The oyster bars, beach bands, and miniature golf courses with dinosaurs still thrive. Meanwhile polished businesses have opened that show a better look. Here’s our guide to the best.”

Read the entire article.

Bay County TDC Panama City Beach CVB Meeting Agenda

AGENDA

COMBINED BOARD MEETING
Bay County Tourist Development Council
Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.
Panama City Beach
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:00 a.m. Council Room, PCB City Hall

I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER

II. ROLL CALL

A. Invocation
B. Pledge of Allegiance
C. Approve Minutes From the May 13, 2008 Meeting

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

IV. UPDATE ON BED TAX COLLECTIONS, Mr. Dan Rowe, President

V. PRESENTATIONS TO THE BOARD

A. Update on Summer White Sale, Ms. Janet Ray, YPartnership
B. Presentation on Partnership Opportunity with the Grand Lagoon National, Mr. Bill Spann

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The FSU Flying Circus is almost ready to go – video!

The FSU Flying High Circus has come to Panama City Beach. They’ve got a ten-year contract with the city to be at Frank Brown Park. They put the tent up a couple of weeks ago and started rehearsal this week. The show will start next Friday.

All of the performers are students, some full time, some not, but all totally dedicated. Nate Stapp said the FSU Flying Circus has been performing for 62 years, the whole time in Callaway Gardens in Georgia.

In the next couple of weeks, it will turn into a “little city” with RV’s all around, concession stands, and a fence. The performers are staying at Seahaven and will be here all summer.

Check out the video after the break.

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Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort Wins 2008 Gold Tee Award

Panama City Beach, Fla. (April 24, 2008) – Meetings & Conventions (M&C) magazine recently announced its 2008 Gold Tee competition winners, and the Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort was chosen as one of the best hotels for playing golf and holding meetings. The Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort is now a 5 time winner of this prestigious award. This highly respected award is given annually to outstanding golf/meeting properties worldwide. Winners of the Gold Tee Award were nominated and selected by the readers of M&C based on each property’s overall excellence.

“The meeting industry’s most well-regarded critics, the readers of M&C, have made their selection for the best in the world. M&C’s core readership of over 70,000 corporate, incentive, and association meeting planners know quality when they experience it. They have made their votes count, selecting the golf properties they believed to be outstanding,” states Bernard W. Schraer, Meetings & Conventions Group Publisher.

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FSU Flying Circus on Panama City Beach – Update

The tent is up, the a/c is cranking and the stage is being set for performances to begin next Friday, June 13th at 7pm.

The tent consists of 10 pieces with a total weight of over 10,000 lbs. Each one of six “straights” weight around 900 lbs and each of the four “rounds” weight around 1200 lbs. The “straights” are the middle peices and the “rounds” are the ends.

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Fight Club on Panama City Beach

Just east of Joan Avenue on south Thomas Drive a cage has been erected with a sign on it that says Fight Club. MMA cage fighting is being advertised: “Come watch the pro’s and Spar with your Bro’s.”

As if we didn’t have enough image problems, now we’ve got “cage fighting” right on Thomas Drive where all the tourists can see as they drive by.

And, to top it all off, a bikini bull riding contest.

PCB White Sale Campaign update – with stats

YPartnership’s PCBWhiteSale launched on May 5 2008 with PR and strategic ad placements hitting all the major feeder markets to our area. Besides the creative being weak at best on their “coupon” web site, the actual campaign numbers don’t look that bad.

Part of what I do at my day job is analyze web stats, so this is right up my alley.

The report, available for download below, defines “total hits” and “user sessions” and reports from May 4 to May 23. Based on what Peter Yesawich of YPartnership was saying at the strategy workshop I can only assume in the web stat world, “user sessions” would have to mean unique visitors. Seeing as total pageviews is defined, I would say this is correct.

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Lifeguards on Panama City Beach

The long and short of it is: Should we have lifeguards on our beaches in Panama City Beach? And, if so, why and how will we pay for it?

This comes up almost every year after drownings, and after the tragic deaths of two swimmers over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, it has come up again.

Do we need lifeguards? Could we have prevented the deaths over the weekend if a lifeguard system was in place?

I was listening to the Burnie Thompson Show the other morning and they were discussing that all the beach attendants/vendors are required to be lifeguard certified as part of the permitting process with them running a beach business. It was reported that many of them performed successful rescues over the weekend.

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Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival

When Jeffrey Wolfe’s Multi-Media and Beach Events both showed no interest in promoting this year’s Indian Summer Music Festival, a group headed by Marketing Committee member, Jack Bishop, stepped forward to take of the event. They are wanting to rebrand it as the Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival.

Wondering the history of the name “Indian Summer Music Festival” – I actually like the idea of rebranding it to the Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival.

The two things that keep my wife and I from these festivals is the food and the cost. We used to love going to these things, but every time we’d go we’d pay a fortune for crappy food. It sounds like with this, we may still pay a fortune to get in, but at least the food will be good (hopefully).

Check after the break for the full presentation document.

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