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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-21-2008CITY OF CIUBURN WASHINGTON AUBURN TOURISM BOARD Meeting Notes February 21, 2008 Location: Northwest Aviation College: 50623 Id St. NE 2:00-3:30 p.m. Members Present: Board: Chair Sue Singer, Nancy Wyatt, Bob Dunn, Jamelle Garcia, Susie Sourwine, Ronnie Roberts, Renee Bochnovich Staff: Debbie Luce, Kirsten Reynolds, Jeremy Chevalier and Julie Brewer Opening: Chair Sue Singer called the Auburn Tourism Board meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. on February 21, 2008, at the Northwest Aviation College. • Housekeeping o Introductions of Members and Guests - one new representative, Renee Bochnovich from the Supermall was in attendance. o Approval of Minutes - January 17, 2008 Nancy Wyatt moved to approve the minutes from the January 17, 2008 meeting as submitted; seconded by Jamelle Garcia. All were in agreement, the minutes were approved. Action Items - was moved to the top of agenda o Discover Auburn Week: ? Design - Bob Dunn designed and presented an 8'/2 x 11 mock up of the passport insert that will be placed in the Auburn Reporter for Discover Auburn Week. The front displayed a real passport look and feel, inside were the instructions and 15 spaces to collect stamps. Several free ads for ATB members will be placed throughout the passport. The back inside cover will have a calendar of events and more information on the Auburn Tourism Board. ? Distribution and Printing Prices: Debbie reported on printing quotes for the passports; the distribution of 47,000 inserts would be included in the Auburn Reporter (distributed to the Sumner and Lake Tapps area) it will cost $2,495. plus an extra free run was promised. In efforts to stay with a local Auburn printing company Bob announced he would get another quote from a local printer. Another printer would need to compare to approximately 50,000 passport inserts. Prizes will be advertised along with instructions on how to submit for the contest. Chair Singer suggested forming a sub-committee to work on the passport and poster details for printing/advertising. Members volunteering for the sub- Committee were: Debbie Luce, Jeremy Chevalier, Julie Brewer, Susie Sourwine, Sue Singer and Bob Dunn. ? Participating Destination Stops: The dates for the event have been determined for May 9th through May 16th. The events include but are not limited to: Chambers Golf Tournament on May 9th, Senior Center Art on May 9th, City Hall Art Show on May 14th, the Chamber After Hours Mixer", Emerald Downs coffee function on May 15th and a Supermall event on May 10th in conjunction with a Mother's Day flower potting event. Other venues that may participate include: the White River Amphitheatre, Gosanko's, the Golf Course and the Airport. Other suggestions for possible event locations included parks; Julie Brewer will look into possibilities i.e. Bocce Ball and Disk Golf. The posters, banners and other signage will be worked out via the subcommittee. At the least signage will be used for directions and a minimum of 100 posters will be printed, not to exceed $20,000. ($12,000. for printing and inserting). The Committee talked about event branding being vital for making the events successful. Advertising will include Channel 21, posters around town and use of the display cases at Sounder Station Updates o Alaska Airlines Advertising: The group discussed the possibility of advertising in the Alaska Air magazine. Auburn could attach to the "Destination Seattle" page at $1,500. If the ad was placed as a stand alone it would cost over $3,000. There was discussion about our target market and how expensive the publication was for advertising. Because Auburn's target for this year is to focus on local education the Committee decided not to pursue this advertisement arrangement. o Tourism Handout -Update: The ATB ad was reviewed in the Washington State Visitor's Guide. It was a very sharp full page image in color. o Airport Kiosk - Update: It has been confirmed that the ATB brochures have been distributed to all six kiosk locations at the airport. o Brochure Distribution - Update: Debbie reported she has been keeping up on the replenishment of brochures and postcards at various locations. It was reported there were no good quotes on the post- its; they were overpriced and in small quantities. Debbie will check one last time with Costco for printing post-its. Ronnie talked about the ability to put the ATB logo on chocolate bars and could easily make up 1,000 bars for distribution for the group. Susie Sourwine suggested using the $500 originally set aside for post-it to off-set the cost of the chocolate bars to include the Tourism Board information and logo on the wrapper and logo in the chocolate bar instead of the post-its. Ronnie recommended making the bars the size of a business card so Debbie could insert her card when doing outreach; the wrappers could change colors with events and/or seasons. There was discussion about unique ways for cross marketing and tagging event/items with and for the Auburn Tourism Board. The Board will explore these ideas in more depth after the Discover Auburn Week. o Special Groups - Update: The following groups have been confirmed and/or sent information about local hotels and group rates. The Miss Auburn pageant, the Skate Connection - figure skating international, the NW Speed Sports Stacking on March 15th, Jazz Festival on March 1 and sports groups who have booked space at the Auburn Parks. The group rates have been listed on the Sports Commission website for the upcoming aquatics center events. o Seattle Travel Show - Update: Debbie attended this show to see if it is worth our participation. The travel show had terrible attendance and booths were sparse; Tacoma wasn't even there. The booth fees were $800. It was determined this would be a waste of time to participate in the future. o Tacoma Visitor Guide: The group determined that the Tacoma Visitor was too expensive to advertise in. o Participating with Auburn Airport at the 25th annual Northwest Aviation Conference and Trade Show: Jamell Garcia talked about the upcoming trade show, 60% of the attendees are plane owners, and 67% are buyers. Debbie Luce will attend and promote the Discover Auburn week. She would like to be able to promote a "Fly in and Golf package" by doing a drawing for a free round of golf and dinner. The group decided it would be good to have a sign/picture of the golf course and new restaurant to help promote the idea behind flying, dining and golfing. Susie Sourwine offered to lend a drawing box and send Debbie the template for the drawing form. Jeremy will do the sign/picture for the box. o Display Case at Sounder Train Station: There are currently two display cases at the Sounder Station. One case is being used by the museum and the adjoining one will be available for the Tourism Board to use; Debbie Luce, Julie Brewer and Jeremy Chevalier will put a display together. The display is approximately 4'x4'. Debbie Luce will maintain it by changing the materials every month. There is a smaller display case in the B Street Plaza that can be used in the future. o Update on missing Lodging Signs going North on 167: Chair Singer talked about the missing lodging signs along North Hwy. 167. Chair Singer has written letters to Paula Hamon about the hotel signage missing since May. Chair Singer received a-mails and phone calls apologizing about the situation. David Kwok asked for a Wayfinding sign to be located on 15th Street NW for lodging. The Hotels are willing to help pay for this sign. Sue is getting more information on costs and procedures from the city. Airport and Emerald Downs signs are up on south bound 167. • Information Sharing o Ronnie Roberts announced they are getting ready to paint the outside of the Gosanko Chocolate Art building. Because the Sprint store has moved out of the adjoining building Gosanko's will be making a classroom out of the space. This will allow for community classes and educational experiences. Susie Sourwine talked about a marketing and partnership opportunity to transport people from a little morning shopping, afternoon of chocolate and evening with the ponies. o The Supermall has confirmed a new Kay Jewelers opening in March. Gymboree, Victoria Secrets, Bath and Body Works, J. Alexander (men's store) will also open in March. The new play area has been open and very busy with traffic. The year has been tough for mall leases in general so getting all these new stores is really good in the shopping mall industry. o New Restaurants included: Fields and Company at the Sounder garage and the Copper Falls at the Auburn Golf Course. o Chair Singer announced the formation of the new Downtown Committee chaired by Councilmember Lynn Norman; members on the Committee are Sue Singer and Gene Cerino. The group will be talking about development agreements coming into Auburn. o Jamell Garcia talked about the aviation trade show and the changing market. o Tavern Row demolition is scheduled spring 2008. o Cavanaugh's Ace Hardware store is going out of business. o Susie Sourwine talked about Emerald Downs starting a new fund for pedigree horses. If owners of horses pledge at least $1 Emerald Downs will match the $1 and donate the money to rehabilitation agencies working with unwanted horses. Next Meeting o Next meeting - Ronnie Roberts agreed to host the next meeting on March 20, 2008 at Gosanko's from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Adjournment at 3:38 p.m.