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Tourist Development Council Board Meeting
Minutes – August 5, 2008
Ocean Center Board Room

Call to Order:
Chairman Frank Bruno called the meeting to order at 9:06am.

Approval of Minutes of January 1, 2008:
Motion to approve the minutes was made by Jim Bazemore and seconded by Sharon Hughes.

Chairman Frank Bruno then introduced County Manager Jim Dinneen to the Board Members. Jim Dinneen informed the group of Rick Hamilton’s resignation at the end of the year and introduced the transition team; George Recktenwald – Acting Director who will be responsible for the management changes that will be made, George Baker – Acting Assistant Director in charge of Operations and Dona DeMarsh – Acting Assistant Director responsible for Administration. Everything is still on schedule, on time and within budget. Rick Hamilton will be working on construction issues and grand opening ceremonies and helping with the transition process until he retires at the end of the year.

Financial Report:
Donna DePeyster, Volusia County Finance Department, reviewed the Quarterly Financial Report (refer to pages 10-13 in Agenda Packet), which was distributed to the TDC Board Members. In this packet you have the financial report as of May 31, 2008. The beginning fund balance for the fiscal year, which began October 1st, 2007, is $4.731M; to date as of May 31st total revenue is $6.499M, operating expenditures are $2.751M; we have non operating expenditures (of which the majority of that is debt service payments) of $3.392M with the ending fund balance of $5.088M. The fund balance is broken up in two sections; one is our sinking fund for our bonds, which we are required to set aside funds ahead of time before those debt service payments are due ($2.373M) and then the remaining amount of $2.715M is for Ocean Center operations. The resort tax collections for June are tentatively down a bit from last year.

Jim Maniak, Ocean Center Finance Officer, proceeded to give the parking garage report (page 14) that shows the comparison of the budget through the actual receipts and our disbursement through June 30th. Looking at the revenues, what you will see towards the end of this year (3 months remaining in the fiscal year) is that there will probably be a shortage of approximately $230K. If you compare our current revenues to last year’s at the same time (June 30th) we are actually ahead by approximately $5K. In trying to make a projection as to where we’ll be towards the end of the year, when you net out the various plusses and minuses of the different revenue sources we could potentially be down from the budgeted side by about $230K. Looking at the operating expenses, for the most part we think we’ll be able to cover the over expenditures. There are several line items that we do not expect will have any cash outflow in this budget. We did budget some of those previously based on the VRPC having certain expenditures, such as liability insurance. The amount we have is as if the VRPC was going to buy insurance directly themselves, now being a part of the county we go through the Risk Management pool and the amount of insurance we have to pay is substantially reduced. Other items, such as the land lease, will not be paid (part of the VRPC budget), also the depreciation expense is not a cash item. This is an enterprise fund operation so it will be shown as an expense at the end of the year but it is not a cash flow item, so that will not be coming out. The net on the operating side will have about $250K, which will be a good thing. Matching that up with the revenues it will be very close. Because of construction, the Ocean Center schedule for the next several months is down which impacts the garage. Right now the Daytona Lagoon is still in operation, however in September they will cease daily operation and go into weekends only, which again will impact the garage.

Motion to approve the financial report was made by Tom Staed and seconded by Cassandra Reynolds.

Status Report on Expansion:
Kris Beatty, Ocean Center Assistant Director gave the status report on the expansion. We are well into the finishing stages; drywall is complete except for a few small areas, painting is complete, terrazzo floor is being installed, ground and polished, carpet is being installed in the second floor meeting rooms and the project is really moving along on schedule and on budget. We are looking at a substantial completion of September 15th; that will be the date we are projecting to take actual ownership of the building and start getting it ready for our first functions in October. This is all with the new construction. Much has happened with Phases 4 & 5, which is the renovation of the existing conference center and the new A1A façade. There is also now a Phase 6 which has been brought into the picture; with what is being called the E-Zone. This is a joint venture between the City and the County to give the entire Auditorium Blvd. and Earl Street a face lift to bring it up to the same standards as the new convention center. When we open for the first time in October, Auditorium Blvd. is going to look a bit rough but it’s going to be perfectly safe and very functional. A lot of the E-Zone deals with new pavements and brick pavers between the Peabody Auditorium and the Ocean Center, so that we end up with a very large gathering place when we do events. We have progressed around the east side of the building; the big barrel arches that used to be on the building are gone, they have the foundations poured for the steel structures that will begin to go up very quickly. We have one more large event in the building that will utilize the ballroom, once the ballroom is turned loose on August 25th, is when things will really start happening on the east side. Basically we are going to build the new up and over the existing so that everything is dry and secure from the weather. Once that is complete, we will remove all the barrel glass and the various facades in the east lobby so that we can begin rebuilding for the new look. All construction/renovation is scheduled to be completed by December 31st, so that we can be ready for our first event (Spirit Team – January 9-12, 2009) utilizing the entire building.

Frank Bruno mentioned that interest in the County and City’s working relationship had been brought up many times and he appreciated it being included in this report. Jim Dinneen added that the County is very pleased with the cooperative project between the City and County on the improvements being made on Auditorium. That will be brought before the County Council on Status Report on Expansion cont’d:
August 7th. The City of Daytona Beach is also trying to do some facelift work to the Peabody Auditorium because that is where the front door of the facility will overlook. Mr. Dinneen was also very pleased that both the County and City mutually agreed that this needed to be done at the same time as the building, which will also give us better pricing. The County will handle the construction portion of it for the City. We will take advantage of the space between the Ocean Center and Peabody to control traffic when we need to and to create an outdoor venue area between the two buildings. One of the pieces that we waited until the end to see if we could afford, and that was just authorized to go before County Council on Thursday, is to re-paint the arena so that the old part of the building matches the expansion.

Gilly Aguiar said he was glad to see the City and County working together because it’s very important for the surrounding area to look well. Also, on the RFP that we’ve got across the street, we really need to hold that together and Gilly thinks the County may need to get involved with that as far as helping the City to get the builders to bring in what we need like the parking garages and so forth.

Cassandra Reynolds commented that the entire City Commission is excited about the project and everything has been almost unanimous throughout and they are very much looking forward to the expansion completion and participating in the grand opening ceremonies. This will help the whole county and they really feel strongly about cooperative efforts.

Marketing and Sales Report:
Lori Hunter presented this report. Refer to the Marketing Activities Report – page 16. The Ocean Center Sales Staff attended the following tradeshows: ASAE SPRINGTIME EXPO was held in Washington, DC on April 3, 2008 and was attended by Joey Yelvington and Sally Gardiner (DBACVB). The show was attended by 2,300 meeting professionals from the greater Washington DC area. Four RFP’s were received, processed and follow-up has been completed. HCEA (HEALTH CARE EXHIBIT MANAGERS) took place in Salt Lake City, UT – June 21-24, 2008. Tim Buckley represented the Ocean Center at this conference. Attending this conference were more than 700 leaders in the healthcare industry, including The American Heart Association, Bayer Healthcare, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson. While exhibiting, our booth was visited by 10 potential clients, 4 of which are solid leads that have been followed up with and provided marketing kits and information about the Daytona Beach area. We also received a post conference mailing list of 700 attendees and a direct mail piece is being sent. NACS (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONSUMER SHOWS) was held in San Diego, CA – June 25-27, 2008 and Joey Yelvington attended this tradeshow for producers of consumer shows. He met with 15 show producers at the booth who expressed interest in the Daytona Beach area and issued follow up information to 43 targeted attendees. One RFP was received and responded to. FSAE (FLORIDA SOCIETY OF ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVES) was held in West Palm Beach, FL – July 16-19, 2008. Tim Buckley attended this show along with Tara Hamburger (DBACVB) and several other community representatives. This conference does not include any type of a tradeshow, it’s educational only but it does provide us with quality face time with decision makers from virtually every association within the state of Florida.

Upcoming tradeshows the Ocean Center will participate in: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVES in San Diego, CA – August 16-19, 2008. Lori Hunter will be attending this annual convention along with Sally Gardiner (DBACVB). This show will be attended by over 6,000 individuals. Attendees include CEO’s and staff specialists from large to small associations at international, national, state and local associations.

INCENTIVE TRAVEL & MEETING EXECUTIVES in Chicago, IL - September 23-25, 2008. Lori Hunter will attend this annual tradeshow with representatives from the DBACVB, Hilton Resort, Plaza Resort & Spa, Ocean Walk Resort and the Daytona 500 Experience. Over 7,500 attendees are anticipated to attend this Motivation Show with executives from sales and marketing, human resources and the meeting and event planning community. TEAMS 2008 in Pittsburgh, PA – October 21-25, 2008. Tim Buckley will be attending this unique one-on-one appointment show which provides quality face time with sports event organizers. Over 1,300 attendees are expected at this show. IAEE (INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EXHIBITS & EVENTS in Miami, FL – December 9-11, 2008. Joey Yelvington will represent the Ocean Center at this annual conference and tradeshow along with a representative from the DBACVB. This is the first year that we will actually have two booths for this show, so it will enable other members of the community to attend as well. Approximately 2,500 attendees that are directly involved in the planning of exhibits and/or tradeshows will be in attendance.

Other promotional efforts: The fourth piece of the Desk Top Construction Site has been mailed out to potential and existing clients along with photos and a newsletter updating the progress of the expansion.

A site visit was conducted with the Coastal and Estuarine Research Foundation and we are happy to announce that Daytona Beach was selected as the meeting destination for 2011. Contracts are in process. Other site visits included Billy Graham Evangelical Association, Fastenal and AmVets.

Cassandra Reynolds wanted to know the status of the software program Ocean Center was using to track the shows we attend. Lori Hunter explained to the Board Members that we are currently using the EMS Software, however we are noticing a few problems which we’re trying to address. Some of the attendance figures tend to be a little over inflated and we need to sit down with a trainer and figure out what is happening there. Our IT person is working on setting up a training session with the EMS Software Company.

Refer to the Marketing Activities Report – page 19. Fifteen lease agreements were executed during the four month period from the last meeting, of those contracts there are three that Lori brought attention to. The first is HT Hackney, a new piece of business for the Ocean Center. HT Hackney is a food distributor to convenience stores, they are expecting to bring 1,000 attendees into the Daytona Beach area and have signed a two year contract. Secondly, the Motor Trend Auto Shows, which is another new piece of business, and will be utilizing the entire facility during the month of April 2009. This is a consumer expo that showcases new model automobiles to the community and hopefully this will also develop into an annual event. Lastly, Grapplers Quest; a tournament and mixed martial arts expo renting the arena and ballroom and bringing approximately 1,000 competitors and family members into the Daytona Beach area.

The Estimated Economic Impact Report (page 20) is a report requested by Chuck Bray and one of the reports Lori is having a problem with, as far as numbers being over inflated. There may be a wrong formula number plugged in to compute the economic impact and Lori has requested some time to tweak the numbers. The next section of the Marketing Report lists the bookings at the Ocean Center through April 1, 2015. This particular report breaks down all of the business into group types and then tells you how many bookings they have and their estimated attendance for all of those bookings. This is another software problem that needs to be addressed. The program addresses a booking as a room, for example if a group is renting the exhibit hall, arena and the ballroom – it looks at it as three separate bookings. Lastly, the largest part of the report Marketing and Sales Report cont’d
is an actual day-by-day calendar of both contracted and tentative events through 2013. There is no distinction between contracted and tentative dates. Lori plans to address this during the meeting with the EMS trainer.

Cassandra Reynolds asked if Ocean Center’s contracted events were included on the Chamber of Commerce master calendar? Sharon Mock said the DBACVB maintains a master calendar that is on their website and includes Ocean Center events as well as other area events. The DBACVB and Ocean Center work together on a daily basis. Sharon said the Chamber of Commerce does not have a master calendar however, she thought they were linked to the News Journal’s calendar. Bob Davis said the Chamber does have a new website that includes a sports calendar. It was agreed that the DBACVB is where the calendar should originate as an all inclusive community calendar. Sharon Mock said the biggest problem is getting promoters to submit their information for inclusion to the calendar. Tom Staed suggested, in the near future, all of the players (Ocean Center, News Journal, DBACVB, etc.) meet and decide how to better organize the master calendar. Dave Byron will also be included in the organization of the calendar. Frank Bruno wanted Lori Hunter to know that although the report was not as accurate as it should be, this is the information the Board has been looking for and it was appreciated. Gilly Aguiar requested attendance figures be added to the Marketing Activities Report.

Update from Partners:
Hotel/Motel Partners

• Bob Davis thanked Jim Dinneen for getting the entire county together and starting the Tourism Consortium. It’s working magnificently with all of the county players from DeLand to New Smyrna Beach to Daytona Beach. We have a sub-committee, which is a sports committee with approximately 35 board members. The sports committee is doing phenomenal. The Chamber of Commerce has built a website for sports. The committee is looking at dates that are not special event dates, dates that are not busy in Daytona Beach and dates that we need to help produce something. All of the colleges have joined in as well.

• There have now been three sub-committees formed under the Tourism Consortium. The Sports Committee, Airport Committee and now the Development Sub-Committee headed by Tim Stockman with Ocean Waters Development. This sub committee was formed to explore some of the obstacles developers run in to while trying to bring more hotels in to this area. The first meeting’s turnout was small but consisted of people that had developed actual projects in Daytona Beach. They talked about the lengthy process in Daytona Beach, some of the roadblocks they hit along the way and some organizational issues that developers need to keep in mind if they try to do business in the City of Daytona Beach. This group will try to create a master game plan; what developers are facing now? How we can work with the City to possibly speed the process up? As many of you know, the process takes a lot longer in Daytona Beach from concept to turning dirt than it does in many other cities our size. Another subject talked about is with the Ocean Center, isolating the needs and wants of this facility as we open the expansion. What are the needs outside of the actual facility as far as how many hotels do we need to build? Where can we put these hotels? Have we spoken to the neighborhood groups about what their willing to negotiate? Restaurants? How many? Where are we going to put them? If we have a very detailed plan of what we want then the City and County will be able to go forward and pick those developers with projects that fit into our plan instead of moving our plan to fit the developers plan. Cassandra Reynolds commented that the City of Daytona Beach is aware of the lengthy process developers have to go through and they are currently looking at ways to make the process more user friendly and move things along. Cassandra requested the Development Sub-Committee’s input be passed along to the City. Tim Stockman invited Cassandra to their next meeting.

• Bob Davis wanted to know if there was a better way to get a true honest figure on bed tax collections? The figures are not matching up to what the County collects. Donna DePeyster said the data is available to view.

• Gilly Aguiar wanted to know if we were still working with the Central Florida Sports Commission. Bob Davis said we still work very strongly with them.

CVB/Ad Authority

• Sally Gardiner reported the national association market out of Washington, DC was really pursued for the Coastal Estuarine Research Federation Group booked in November 2011. They considered 10 destinations and it came down to Daytona Beach and Montreal and we got it. They could not have met here without the expansion.

• The month of July was extremely busy with lots of repeat business. Student Life, a religious youth group, came right after the race, this is their 5th year with 6,200 attendees and were in 30 hotels. They have signed contracts for 2009, 2010 & 2011. The Baton Twirlers have been so loyal to us, this has been their 5th time in Daytona Beach and they are looking at another 3 years – attendance for this year was 2,000pp. Youth Quest International has been with us in the even number years since 2000 and had 2,000pp at their event. This has been the 2nd year for Big Stuf, another religious youth group, with an attendance of 3,000pp, and they have signed for another 3 years.

• We’re also developing our new co-op media plan; a new ad, a new look and we’re testing it next week with Evelyn Fine in Washington, DC with 2 focus groups.

• Halifax Advertising Agency had nothing to report.

• West Volusia – Sharon Hughes reported the ad authority is going into the final phase for the Heritage Corridor and getting that actually designated. A new Questing Program has just been started; you get your directions and can use your GPS. They are trying to showcase the historic part of DeLand, so the first one will begin in downtown DeLand. They are really trying to bring people in, not only for ECHO, but the historic side of the county.

• SE Volusia – New Smyrna Beach reported running several events. The big one they are looking forward to is scheduled for October and is a wine and fine food festival. They are hoping to draw national and international attention.

Old Business:

Jim Bazemore requested an update regarding the sponsors for the grand opening. Frank Bruno and Jim Dinneen have met with all the chambers of commerce and some folks from the Central Florida Partnership. They were given a tour of the facility, and informed about the grand opening event (big grand opening on February 28th). Frank will be spending the month of August looking for sponsorships. A sample sponsorship packet will be given to the TDC Board Members. Letters will be going out to a number of corporations, with follow up to those folks as well as the ad authorities. Frank would like to get the private sector funds going into the grand opening rather than using tax dollars. It’s a great opportunity to showcase this facility. It’s something not only for the Daytona Beach and Volusia County area but it’s a regional thing as well. Frank would like to get regional as well as national sponsorships. Jim Dinneen reported that if the private sector wanted to showcase what the community is about – this is the opportunity to make a new first impression.

Jim Dinneen said he thinks, from his perspective, a lot of people do not appreciate or understand what a beautiful area this is and what a fine facility this will be and people’s eyes need to be opened as to what the new facility is like and the way to do that is a grand opening that is befitting to the facility that we have. We need to do this with private money so that there are no issues in terms of public expenditures. They talked about having a grand opening, with approximately 1,000 sponsorships that would then be tied into a concert with the remaining seats available for purchase to the public. They have also discussed having a grand opening that is free to the public that would be at the same time as the News Journal’s Home Show. The plan is to have 2 grand openings; 1 will be private and the other open to the general public.

New Business:

Chuck Bray sent his apologies, through Tim Stockman, for not being able to attend this meeting. Tim has been working on an issue that Mr. Bray wanted brought to the TDC Board Members attention; and that would be the possibility of private management of the Ocean Center. They believe an exploratory committee should be formed to look at the possibilities of sending out RFP’s to the private management companies. Mr. Jim Dinneen commented that he appreciated the point of view and welcomed the input, however the County Council has responsibility for the facility and it ultimately would come down to them making any kind of decision. The idea would be presented to the County Council for review.

Gilly Aguiar has had two meetings with the Main Street Merchants regarding the special weekend events they have had in the past and what it’s going to be like in six months when our front entrance will be opening out one block from Main Street. Gilly is working with them on upgrading the Main Street properties and being prepared to take care of the people who will be attending the different events at the Ocean Center.

Public Participation:

Big John had several questions/comments.

Is Dave Byron and Charlene Weaver a part of the transition team? Jim Dinneen answered that they are a part of the transition team, however at a distance. The transition management at the Ocean Center will report to Charlene and Dave Byron will be taking some responsibility as well. The Ocean Center has a very good system for marketing and promotions and what Dave is going to do is try to lock in better to make sure that everyone is in concert from the County standpoint.

Big John requested a report on security cameras in the garage? Kris Beatty answered that we are proceeding with the installation of security cameras in the garage. All of the conduit and wire have been installed, the cameras are at the programmers right now and we hope to have them up and running in approximately a month. The Patron Services Staff would be monitoring the cameras.

He wanted to know if anyone had informed the Ocean Center’s long term clients of the changes that were recently made. Lori Hunter answered that the clients had been told of the changes that were in place.

Big John shared his concerns about upgrading the neighborhood and bringing in more things to do in this area. He also hoped that looking at private management would be considered, and wanted to know if the TDC Members would have a role in either the selection of a management firm or replacing Rick Hamilton? Mr. Dinneen said that would be at the discretion of the County Council and after they have any discussions about whether they want to go in a new direction.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:18am.

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