Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau Advisory Board
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Attending Board Members: Kate Kelly, David Longhurst, Michael Moore, David Johnston, Derek Felch, Bob Schumm and Karen Christilles
Not attending: Perry Martin, Doug Holiday, Brad Kemp, Maria Martin, Constance Wolfe and Lisa Patterson
Attending Staff: Judy Billings, Bob Sanner, Debbie White and Ashlee Roll-Gregory
Financial Report
Accounts receivable for Visitor Guide have been billed for second half and the CVB has received some payments from them. This year payments are being received must faster than in previous years. Currently, there are not many outstanding balances for Visitor Guide advertisements.
This time of year, the CVB adjusts the budget depending on bed tax collections. For instance, the $3,000 budgeted in Co-op money so we will not meet the projected income in this line item because there are currently not a lot of Co-op opportunities. Online hotel booking will not meet projections; however, staff and hotels have met and a report on an enhanced program later in the meeting will clarify this.
The line item for professional development is being utilized by Susan Henderson and Ashlee Roll-Gregory, who are attending the CenStates TTRA conference. Also, in October the staff is attending the TIAK Conference in Dodge City. There are still some Holiday advertising commitments. The Old East Lawrence brochure was completed and has still not come out of the budget in the special projects category. Visitor Guide and direct mail will appear in next month’s report.
The transient guest tax worksheet has been adjusted to make better sense and be more up to date. To date the CVB is up 8.92%, month to month there has been a lot of up and down in the numbers.
Old Business
Roll-Gregory began the discussion regarding the new online hotel booking and direct mail opportunities. There had been a meeting with the CVB staff and hoteliers about the Smartlinks advertising opportunity as well as new options for online booking. During that meeting hotels recommended that the LCVB offer three options to hotels; Smartlinks, standard online booking and the ability to link from our website to their own. Smartlinks would be handled through Doug Gamble, who owns and sells the opportunity. If a property wants a corporate online booking link with the CVB website there would be a charge of $2 per room for that service. Existing online booking options would continue. As of the meeting, no hotels had opted in for the linking option. The billing for the new linking service will be billed quarterly.
New Business
Kansas Tourism Initiative is a public and private initiative that has been started with the help of Senator Nick Jordan. Billings is serving on the steering committee. The idea is to build the future of Kansas tourism, with the help of the government and private support. The goal is that eventually the Kansas plan will become a national standard. One of the partners in this initiative will be a company like Ernst & Young that can provide statistics. Currently, KTI has contracted with Kruzic Communications to help document the strategy. The timeline is to have something together by next summer so the legislature can take it on as an interim study in order to refine the proposal and present it for funding in the 2008 legislative session. The Board passed a proposal for the LCVB to invest $5,000 in KTI project.
Staff is beginning to develop budget and plan for 2007 and asked the board for input on what they would like to see the LCVB do that it isn’t doing, what they would like to see more of and what they would like to see less of. There was a good discussion and information provided for staff in the planning process. A preliminary budget will be ready for the next board meeting.
Staff Updates of involvement
Bob Sanner
Get Down Town update from Bob Sanner. Sanner presented a layout of 8th street between New Hampshire and Mass where the event will take place. A listing of all sponsors and event information is now available on the visitlawrence.com website. Sanner summarized the event and the options of beer and food vendors that will be present.
Susan Henderson
Henderson made note of some the marketing efforts for Get Down Town, including the website, outdoor banners, print advertising, radio advertising, posters and Journal World Online.
Judy Billings
In Heritage Area news, Billings noted that the bill is still in the Senate and being held up with other Energy bills by one Senator. Billings is carefully following progress with the hope it will pass before Congress recess.
Ashlee Roll-Gregory
Roll-Gregory has been working on the update to the online booking system and the 2006 visitors guide mailing. In regards to online information, the user-sessions for visitlawrence.com are continually going up, although online booking numbers are down for the month.
Meeting Adjourned
Future Meetings
Tuesday October 24th - Visitors Center