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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Hotel and Signature Events Committee 04/05/2017 i 3 PALM DESERT MINUTES PALM DESERT HOTEL AND SIGNATURE EVENTS COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, April 5, 2017 —4 p.m. North Wing Conference Room — Palm Desert Civic Center 73510 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92260 I. CALL TO ORDER Vice Chairman White called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Present: Absent: Mayor Pro Tem Sabby Jonathan Mayor Jan Harnik Member Arnold Kirschenbaum Member Jim Moran Vice Chairman Scott White Staff/Others Present: Lauri Aylaian, City Manager Martin Alvarez, Director of Economic Development Ryan Stendell, Director of Community Development Ruth Ann Moore, Economic Development Manager Amy Lawrence, Management Analyst Franchesca Forrer, Marketing Director, Westfield Warren Jones, CEO, The Jones Group Brianne Lawson, Recording Secretary III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None MINUTES REGULAR PALM DESERT HOTEL & SIGNATURE EVENTS COMMITTEE MEETING April 5, 2017 IV. CONSENT CALENDAR A. MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF OCTOBER 12, 2016 Member Kirschenbaum moved, by Minute Motion, to approve the minutes of the October 12, 2016, meeting as presented. Motion was seconded by Member Moran and carried by 4-0 (AYES: Jonathan, Kirschenbaum, Moran, and White; NOES: None; ABSENT: Harnik). V. CONSENT ITEMS HELD OVER None VI. NEW BUSINESS A. UPDATE ON "STREET" EVENT Mr. Alvarez introduced Ms. Forrer, Marketing Director of Westfield of Palm Desert. Ms. Forrer began her overview of the last "STREET" event, held in November of 2016 as the featured First Weekend event. After giving a brief history of "STREET", Ms. Forrer provided some highlights of the event, including: • For the first event in 2015, 1,500 people attended, there were five music acts, two food trucks, and four retail vendors. • KMIR partnered with Westfield for the 2016 event, which is believed to have helped increase the second year attendance to 4,000 people. • The 2016 event had over twenty retail vendors, local brand pop- ups, seven commissioned artworks, an interactive craft area, four live murals, Toyota temporary car graffiti, ten musical performance acts, six food trucks, fashion, local artists, a children's area, a skateboard half-pipe with professional skaters, a projection wall that utilized both sound and light, an interactive poetry wall, and a display of cars from the Coachella Latino Classic Car Club. • Over the course of the evening, each of the six food trucks sold out. Also, the Stuft Pizza pop-up increased their sales by 50% from the previous year. Mayor Pro Tern Jonathan inquired on the security process involved with bringing in car and motorcycle groups for future events. Ms. Forrer responded that these clubs have to go through all of the same procedures that a vendor would, including providing a proof of insurance. In relation to 2 MINUTES REGULAR PALM DESERT HOTEL & SIGNATURE EVENTS COMMITTEE MEETING April 5, 2017 advertising of the event, Ms. Forrer stated that they had coverage in CV Weekly, The Desert Sun, and on television with KMIR. For the 2017 event, Ms. Forrer announced that Ginger Jeffries will be giving the weather forecast the night before "STREET" from the location of the event on the third level of the Westfield parking structure. KMIR will also be doing a whole series of stories focusing on "STREET", leading up to the night of the 2017 event. Following this information, Ms. Forrer described the goal for future "STREET" events to bring more attendees in from within the drive market. Specifically, she noted the attraction of a musical act that individuals would be willing to drive into the Coachella Valley to see perform live. Due to this, one of the main goals of 2017 is to obtain a well-known musical act, which would motivate attendees to come to Palm Desert and spend the night (or weekend) at a hotel. A connection has been made with Goldenvoice, in an effort to obtain a key musical act— potentially one with a large following that has performed at one of the smaller Coachella stages. The 2017 goal for attendance of "STREET" is 6,000. In addition to the hope for a largely recognizable band, there will also be an inclusion of a full range basketball court that will also exist as a piece of art. Also, there will be a massive (200-250 ft.) wall, which will be an interactive exhibit involving buttons. This piece will form a mural, which can be re-used for future events, and also taken apart for travel and transport. Finally, Westfield will be partnering with a laser artist, who will create projections onto the night sky. The event will remain within the 5-10 p.m. time slot. Mr. Alvarez asked about benefits of the event taking place on Friday rather than Saturday. Ms. Forrer replied that while Saturday would be the preferred day, the date of the 2017 event is once again in competition with Dia de los Muertos run in Coachella. Westfield feels that the audience for the run is similar to the audience for "STREET", so the competition would be too great to have both events on the same night. Ms. Moore added that having the event on Friday created a strong crowd of people attending after they got off of work. Member Kirschenbaum commented that Saturday is much better than Friday to attract the drive market, to which Ms. Forrer responded that the only thing at this point that might encourage a change to Saturday night would be the obtainment of a notable music act. After a short discussion regarding the contributing factors to holding the event on Friday rather than Saturday, it was concluded that the key music act would be the deciding factor. Member Moran stated that social media could be utilized to reach the drive market, and to encourage them to come and stay the night. Ms. 3 MINUTES REGULAR PALM DESERT HOTEL & SIGNATURE EVENTS COMMITTEE MEETING April 5, 2017 Forrer replied that Westfield has a new ad agency working with them nationally, which has shifted the Westfield focus to veterans, children's health, and the arts. This shift comes as an advantage for "STREET", as the national agency's arts focus on the arts brings more attention to the Palm Desert location. Additionally, the national agency has a wider social media reach than that of the individual shopping center locations. Vice Chairman White offered digital billboard space for "STREET", which would further the reach of event advertising to the Orange County area. This would be done 30 days out, with the digital slide lasting for 8 seconds on the billboards. Ms. Moore commented that the City is happy to see how "STREET" expanded for its second year, and added that the sponsorship for the 2017 event has been included in next year's budget, which will be put forward to the City Council for approval. In concluding comments, Ms. Forrer added that Donna MacMillan has been invited to attend the 2017 event. She had heard about the event last year, and is reported to have expressed a feeling that she missed out on something. Her attendance in 2017 opens the doors to invite her to become involved with the "STREET" event in a greater capacity. Additionally, more sponsorship opportunities for the event are being explored, and three new proposals for sponsorship have been sent out. Finally, Hot Purple Energy will be returning for 2017, and they will be creating a piece that will receive a solar charge during the day — then run during the evening of the event. B. BIGHORN BEHIND A MIRACLE (BAM) —WARREN JONES, THE JONES GROUP Mr. Jones announced that there were 3,000 people in attendance of the 2016 Behind a Miracle event, and the stores in the participating area of El Paseo made close to $400,000 in sales that night. Nearly $38,000 was also made in event ticket sales, with ticket revenue going directly back to Bighorn BAM. Last year, Mr. Jones asked for a sponsorship of $15,000 from the City of Palm Desert, which went toward bringing in the band Berlin to perform. As BAM has been expanded to Sage, new features are needed to fill the additional space. For 2017, the Ferris wheel and zip-line will be returning, and there will be the addition of a pop-up roller skating rink. Also, there will be more hands-on activities, including graffiti art. 4 MINUTES REGULAR PALM DESERT HOTEL & SIGNATURE EVENTS COMMITTEE MEETING April 5, 2017 C. SPRING EVENT ON EL PASEO — WARREN JONES, THE JONES GROUP Following his summary of the 2016 Behind a Miracle, and the upcoming event for 2017, Mr. Jones stated that he now needs to come up with a new spring event for El Paseo. He has several potential concepts for this event, including a car show. The car show would take place over a weekend, and take up two to three blocks on El Paseo. Revenue would be raised through participation application fees. The second concept for a spring event is a flower and fragrance festival, potentially taking place over the first weekend of April. Personalized fragrances, solar panel features, and live music are all possible features for the event. If the chosen event ends up being the car show, it would end Sunday with awards, followed by a live musical act. Car awards would include the City of Palm Desert Award and the Mayor's Award. As this would be an event occurring over an entire weekend, it would bring people to Palm Desert hotels. Mr. Jones noted that by the time this spring event occurs, the hotel on El Paseo will be open. Boutique hotels are of particular interest to car clubs, which would put the City of Palm Desert at an advantage. Mr. Jones then announced his next idea for these event concepts, which is the creation of the City of Palm Desert concert stage. This stage could be used repeatedly for events on El Paseo, with the name of the City prominently displayed. Mr. Jones then explained that the creation of this stage would depend on a sponsorship from the City, in order to maintain the stage and pay for musical acts. He added that the City's sponsorship of Behind a Miracle for 2016 was $15,000, which would be good to have again — and that the amount requested for the City of Palm Desert concert stage would be $50,000 over the course of a year. If the City provides sponsorship, all musical acts would be advertised as performing on the "City of Palm Desert Stage". Ms. Moore then requested feedback from the committee, regarding their thoughts on different types of potential events for spring of 2018. Following this, there was a short discussion relating to possible events, especially focusing on car shows. From this point, conversation shifted to the subject of the possible flower and fragrance festival. In response to Ms. Aylaian's question regarding what a flower show would involve; Mr. Jones responded that the concept involves both solar energy and native desert flowers. The combination of solar energy and desert plant-life would then work toward how to incorporate specific desert fragrances into your home. Fresh cut flowers would be offered by local florists, and a 5 MINUTES REGULAR PALM DESERT HOTEL & SIGNATURE EVENTS COMMITTEE MEETING April 5, 2017 flower truck. Ms. Lawrence questioned where the fragrance show would be held, to which Mr. Jones responded that it would take place behind the Daily Grill. If the event eventually grew, this would lead to closing down sections of El Paseo. Member Jim Moran suggested that local restaurants could also be involved with a fragrance event, as the farm-to-fork movement has become very popular. This could add a theme, and a culinary aspect to the event. Mayor Pro Tem Jonathan returned to the subject of car shows and racing with the questions: • Are there car clubs where people race their cars? • Are there companies that put on the races? • Do these races draw big crowds? Mr. Jones responded yes to all three questions, but noted that his concept is for a very traditional car show. Mayor Pro Tem Jonathan said that he understood this, but that he is intrigued by the possibility of having a race event. After some discussion about the popularity of races occurring in other locations, it was noted that race events are very expensive to put on. Mr. Stendell also pointed out that there is the issue of safety. Mr. Jones added that noise is also a concern, but that the benefits might outweigh the negative aspects, since the event would have such a huge draw. Vice Chairman White asked what the next steps in the process for planning the event would be, to which Ms. Moore responded that now feedback has been received, more research will need to be carried out. VII. CONTINUED BUSINESS None VIII. OLD BUSINESS None IX. REPORTS FROM CITY COUNCIL LIAISONS None X. REPORTS AND REMARKS A. Chairman 6 MINUTES REGULAR PALM DESERT HOTEL & SIGNATURE EVENTS COMMITTEE MEETING April 5, 2017 None B. Committee Members Vice Chairman White reminded the committee that they are still looking for a Chairman. C. Staff Ms. Moore announced that it is being put before Council to have an expert in retail urban planning look at the design of El Paseo. This expert will look at retailers, restaurants, and their needs, as well as multiple ideas regarding whether the street should be shrunken down to one lane on each side. Mr. Alvarez concluded this with the statement that there will be more to come on this item. Ms. Moore then stated that the debriefings for the 2017 Fashion Week have begun, and these will be presented at the next meeting in June. Xl. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS None XII. NEXT MEETING DATE —June 7, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. XIII. ADJOURNMENT With Committee concurrence, the meeting was adjourned at 5:13 p.m. Brianne Law n, Recording Secretary 7