back to county council home page

Tourist Development Council Meeting
Minutes
April 12, 2005
Ocean Center

Call to Order:
Chairman Frank Bruno called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m.

Approval of Minutes of February 15, 2005:
Motion to approve the minutes was made by Darlene Yordon and seconded by Tom Staed.

Status Report on Expansion:
Matt Greeson, Assistant County Manager distributed a written status report, which he went over in detail. The Part B Construction Contract with Hardin/Peck was negotiated, and approved by County Council on 3/10/05. Matt reiterated that the South Parking Lot must be completed before the rest of the project. Project is being divided into three phases - 1st Phase – South Parking Lot; 2nd Phase – All civil and site work completed; and 3rd Phase would be the super structure (vertical construction). See Inter-Office Memorandum dated 4/12/05 for specific details.

Directors Report:
Rick Hamilton, Ocean Center Director, presented this report. A calendar of upcoming events from April through August 2005, with the convention bookings was available. At the last meeting, Mr. Bazemore requested a more formal convention bookings report be given, due to Rick’s illness in October and the facility going into the busy season things just got behind and the detailed report was not available for this meeting. As of last week, it was mutually agreed with the County Staff that the marketing and advertising portions would be bid out. Bid specifications are almost complete. Final specifications will go to the County Staff for approval and Rick hopes to get out on the street within the next 2-3 weeks, there will be a 2 week time period for companies to get their responses back. Last Thursday, the County Council approved 2 new full time County of Volusia Ocean Center Sales Manager positions. Originally, these positions were in the budget as contract employees, when talking to possible candidates, 90% wanted more money than county government pays, or full time benefits. Positions will be advertised this weekend (4/16-17). Bookings Report: We re-signed contracts with the National Cheerleaders Assn for next year, signed contracts with National Watch & Clock Collectors to be with us 2007 through 2009 and U.S. Cheer, Inc. will be here the end of this year. There was discussion regarding Strategic Alliance Group to do sponsorship opportunities for the new facility. Rick’s final item for discussion was the escalator. The escalator will be in the rotunda area located in the new main entrance on the south side. This is our new entrance and due to the design of the escalator this is now where the concierge desk, information desk and the Volusia County Welcome Center will all be located in the area under the escalator on the main level in that main entrance. Signage will be placed on A1A to direct public to main entrance.

Update From Partners:
There was no report for Hotel-Motel. CVB reported they are on target with the budget, moving forward very nicely. CVB spent 4 days in Washington, DC (week of 4/11/05), Sally Gardiner reported they have continually worked that market segment for many years, but last week she really felt that they had turned the corner. They had a luncheon in Alexandria and one in downtown DC that targeted planners that they had bid books on, prospective ones that could use this expansion that they had been talking to for years and telling them about the plan. In between luncheons, the people that couldn’t come to the luncheons invited CVB to come to their offices and meet with them. Sally was very encouraged with the trip. Sally will be bringing new ad campaign to show HAAA on 4/20/05. Once they get the new Ocean Center drawings, they will lay out the Meeting Planners Guide to follow the same theme.

Public Participation:
There was public discussion regarding condominium issues, management and renovation of the Peabody Auditorium and security cameras in the new Ocean Center expansion. Sharon Mock said that she and Rick met last week and discussed the fact that more and more buildings are coming on line all over the country and there are hotels right next door in Orlando much bigger than the Ocean Center is going to be. They have also seen a trend in some cities where by, they are beginning to give the building gratis when the economic impact is high enough. When we get the plans for the building and start looking at setting the rates we probably need to look at some criteria by which we decide whether or not a piece of business is strong enough that we would want to make those kinds of decisions, whether it be reduced room rate, or free rental rate, or whatever it may be we need to be competitive with those other facilities. Sharon is going to have Sally’s staff research this for TDC and see what some of our competing cities are doing. Some discussion ensued about the bed tax. As of this meeting, Lori Campbell Baker said the Society of American Travel Writers were in town for a board meeting in Daytona Beach. They are an elite group of writers and the CVB is taking them all over Daytona Beach and showing them the highlights of everything in the city.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:20 a.m.

back to county council home page

 

Comments or questions?
E-mail the