TDC/CVB Approves $60,000 October Festival Funding

The CVB Board voted 5-0 on 7/1/08 to approve a request for $60,000.00 in funding for the Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival to be held October 10-12, 2008 (Columbus Day Weekend) at Frank Brown Park. Absent were Mayor Oberst, Yonnie Patronis, Rick Russell, and Buddy Wilkes. Mike Nelson voted via telephone. The festival will be promoted by a group including Jack Bishop, C.J. Ryan, and Steve Pizza. All board members involved in the discussion seemed very supportive of the festival and funding request.

Although the festival schedule is still tentative, the promoters currently anticipate the following festival elements:

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Agenda for Tuesday's TDC Meeting – Spring Break, PCBWhiteSale

Below is the agenda for the TDC meeting on Tuesday:

AGENDA

COMBINED BOARD MEETING
Bay County Tourist Development Council
Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.
Panama City Beach
Tuesday, May 13, 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 April 8, 2008 Meeting

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4/18/08 CVB/TDC Marketing Committee Meeting – Smr 2008 Mrktng, Indian Summer Festival

9 of the 11 committee members were present. Absent were Debi Knight and Russ Smith.

President Dan Rowe and Peter Yesawich announced that Y Partnership has removed Barry Lott from the Summer Marketing Campaign assignment. Mr. Yesawich also apologize on behalf of the agency for the inappropriate derogatory name directed at audience member Charles Mason by Mr. Lott at last week’s Board meeting. It was not made clear whether Mr. Lott has been removed from all CVB business or just the current campaign.

Summer Marketing Campaign Changes

Mr. Yesawich presented the committee with the options available for the changes to the Summer Marketing Campaign approved by the Board at their last meeting. The program targets our traditional drive markets of Georgia, Alabama, and Nashville/Chattanooga for a 12 week period beginning May 4^th and has three elements. The first is newspaper ads in 12 newspapers throughout Georgia (but not the AJC due to high-costs), the Nashville Tennessean, and 4 papers in Alabama.

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TDC/CVB Marketing Committee Actions 4/18/08

A complete recap will follow, but here are the actions taken by the TDC/CVB Marketing Committee at their meeting today.

Changes to Summer Marketing Campaign

The committee voted 7-2 to approve the theme “Summer White Sale” along with an accompanying estimated savings statement such as “Save up to $1000”. The exact amount of estimated savings to be included in the advertisements will be determined by staff and Y Partnership after the tourist-related businesses submit their discount offers. The motion also directed staff and Chairman Phillips to develop a co-op plan so that sufficient funds can be raised to upgrade the newspaper advertising to color.

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Notes and Comments from the TDC/CVB Board Meeting 4/8/08

Only 5 of the 9 board members were present. Absent were Mike Nelson, Mayor Oberst, Yonnie Patronis, and Rick Russell.

College Spring Break Marketing

Although President Dan Rowe previously advised the Board that he would be asking them to consider their plans for 2009 at this meeting, he is now suggesting that the subject be postponed until the May meeting. Rowe explained that he would like to wait until the research and bed tax data is available for March.

While I understand Rowe’s reasoning, there is now a problem. Some Board and Marketing Committee members have previously suggested that the TDC/CVB should, at a minimum, discontinue direct funding of a College Spring Break marketing program. If implemented, this would still allow a co-op to request special event advertising support from the Board. However, the CVB’s Special Events Advertising Policy and Procedure requires that an application be filed by June 1, 2008. It would be difficult for an application to be prepared between the May 13th Board meeting and the June 1st deadline. I had hoped that the Board would have officially voted to give notice that 2009 College Spring Break funding might be discontinued at this meeting. As it stands now, the College Spring Break interests could claim that they had insufficient time to prepare a potential Special Event funding request.

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