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Minutes - 08/11/2011 - Hotel Convention and Visitors CommitteeMINUTES OF THE AUGUST 11, 2011 MEETING OF THE OAK BROOK HOTEL, CONVENTION AND VISITORS COMMITTEE OF THE VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK APPROVED AS WRITTEN ON OCTOBER 13, 2011. CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting of the Oak Brook Hotel, Convention & Visitors Committee of the Village of Oak Brook was held in the Upper Level Conference Room of the Butler Government Center and officially called to order by Chairman Norm Canfield at 10:15 a.m. ROLL CALL: Chairman Norm Canfield called the roll with the following persons: PRESENT: Martin Schooley, Norm Canfield, Tracy Mulqueen, Linda Hunt, and Richard Allison. ABSENT: Keith Hess, Chuck Fleming and Gail Long IN ATTENDANCE: David Niemeyer, Village Manager, Sharon Dangles, Village Finance Director, Donna Bettin, Executive Secretary, Lisa Landers, DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Krystal Glispie, Hyatt Lodge. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. May 12, 2011 Meeting. M. Schooley motioned to approve the May 12, 2011 meeting minutes. T. Mulqueen seconded. VOICE VOTE. Motion carried. UNFINISHED BUSINESS — None NEW BUSINESS A. Ratification of Release of Funds to the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau - 2011 Second Quarter Hotel Tax Receipts - $14,795.66. M. Schooley motioned. R. Allison seconded. VOICE VOTE. Motion carried. B. 2011 Budget — slight review combined with Item 5.C. C. 2012 Budget Discussion - Manager Niemeyer explained the calendar timeline for the 2012 budget. Because.there are new members on the Committee, Manager Niemeyer explained the two parts to the Hotel budget; a I% fund and a 2% fund. The I% fund is the money that is traditionally set aside for the Hotels and the marketing program and has also paid for some of the Chamber expenses related to the overnight stays and economic development, also the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as some of the expenses for the website. The 2% fund is mostly used for the Beautification program that was established in 2007 or 2008. The Village went to a referendum and the residents approved these funds as primarily going towards beautification. The Village had a beautification plan approved a few years ago and began some of the projects. With the downturn of the economy and changes in from the election, the Board decided to pull back on the beautification projects for the time being. As a result, that fund balance has gone up. The Village is going to be spending a portion of this money approximately, $140K — 150K matching funds for the upcoming beautification project from Spring Road to Salt Creek which the Village received grant money for. We will see some of that money go in the spring of 2012 when this project is finalized. This is one issue will come up as some of the newly elected officials would like to see us spend some of that a little more aggressively. We certainly will get your input as we make those decisions. We also started a couple of years ago, a program to put more police resources in the OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 1 of 5 Mtg. of August 11, 2011 hotel/shopping mall district. It was done partially because we were having some challenges trying to fund the police beat program using the general fund due to the big downturn in our sales tax revenues. We have been allocating $300K towards the police beat for the last two years. This year we are going to look at trying to reduce that amount. Traditionally, we ask for input from the Committee on the next year's budget and at the meeting in October we will have some specific recommendations for the Committee to review. This year some of the elected officials have requested to receive a review of services provided by the DCVB. Skip Strittmatter will do a presentation at a Village Board meeting in October. Revenue projections. Finance Director Sharon Dangles explained the initial projections for 2011 /2012. The fund started out this year with a revenue projection of $833,000. If the Renaissance Hotel would have remained open, we would have probably exceeded that number a little bit. Due to the Hotel closing, the projections will be approximately $13,000 under budget ($820,000). When you look at the 2012 revenue, we excluded the Renaissance, and figured in a revenue reduction to approximately $780,000. Which is both for the 1% and the 2% funds. Discussion ensued. Beautification Plan. Manager Niemeyer explained that the grant the Village received allocated funds for a beautification project from Spring Road to Salt Creek. Part of the plan also includes funding it farther west towards Rt 83. There's also a part of the plan to fund part of the RT 83 improvements. A couple of years ago there was a plan to put a welcome sign at the corner of York and 22d Street by the Golf Course. Discussion ensued. Budget process. In November, Finance Director Dangles and Manager Niemeyer present a budget to the Board which will include the Hotel Committee budget with all other departmental budgets. Since October is the Hotel Committee's last meeting before the budget is presented to the Village Board, we are going to come to you with all the information you have given to us that is important to the Hotel Committee and will have actual numbers to you in October. The goal at the end of that October meeting will be for the Committee to make their recommendation on this budget to the Village Board. Manager Niemeyer reiterated what he is hearing from the Village Board regarding their interest to spend more on beautification and the Board's questions about some of the money in the I% fund that are allocated to some of the other agencies. Specifically the DCVB. The Village Board is going to ask you for guidance on some of those calls. Manager Niemeyer recommended that one or two of the Hotel Committee members meet with Finance Director Dangles and himself to discuss the 2012 budget recommendations prior to the next Hotel Committee meeting. Chairman Norm Canfield, Krystal Glispie and Marry Schooley volunteered to meet. D. Oak Brook International Initiative Discussion - Richard Allison distributed a handout. He stated when he joined the Committee he learned that the occupancy rate information he received from the General Managers was about 52% which was a disaster for all hotels. He works in the international arena and he thought the channel of marketing hadn't been officially declared in Oak Brook, he is calling this program the International Initiative. He meets with trade delegations constantly that come into the Chicago area, primarily the McCormick Place. They have large foreign delegations. An idea would be there to introduce our Community, have them come out here, perhaps a little package where they stay at the Hotels and some money in the restaurants, take a tour. That's initial cash flow. The longer term would be to see if we can get branch offices to establish residence in our local office community. That was his initial goal. He began this a year ago, he approached President Craig at the time and Manager Niemeyer, they didn't feel the Oak Brook Village was a proper OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 2 of 5 Mtg. of August 11, 2011 venue to attempt to do this and subsequently suggested that he meet with the Chamber of Commerce and Tracy Mulqueen. He has had numerous meetings with her and there is a link on their website referencing an international initiative. He is hoping to, on a volunteer basis, bump this program along. He has met with numerous people, the DCVB, the Chamber, Presidents of the surrounding communities, and the World Trade Center. The Chicago World Trade Center operates under a license from the New York entity called the World Trade Center and they license out entities from around the world. They now have 300 venue locations. Serendipitously the Indonesian Consulate is conducting a trade mission in late August. The Consulate General from Indonesia will be here Richard thought it would be an excellent opportunity for Oak Brook to get their feet wet. Once the contact is made there certainly an opportunity to interest them in spending money in investing in an office here. That is the prime promotion that he is trying to convey to the Committee. The Chamber, with his help put together a data base of a couple of thousand entities around the world. He is asking the Committee to consider, one; a sponsor hotel or a meeting room, projector /screen, about 1000 square feet to accommodate what he would expect to be around 30 people. World Trade Center will provide all the marketing (although he plans on doing some of his own) and will set up the room. Right now he is looking for a commitment and some help from any of the hotels. Chairman Canfield and Mary Schooley volunteered the use of their hotels for his event. Two; what he is looking for from the Hotel Committee is to cover incidentals, lunch or modest expenses that he might incur in meeting these delegations. He is donating his company's time. If the Committee offers $500.00 a month and the Chamber offers $500.00 a month he thinks that would cover it. He has to be cautious in that his company is not considered as an employee of the Chamber so Allison and Associates would perform a service for whatever organization is interested. He thanked the Committee for any consideration they can give him. Discussion ensued. Distributor Service — Manager Niemeyer distributed a power point presentation that was done at the last Village Board meeting. Background: about 6 years ago, the Village was receiving some input from some of our larger businesses. Concerns that while we have great highway access here, we don't have good train access and was there a way to start a program that would bring Oak Brook employees from local trains, Hinsdale/Elmhurst to local businesses. There was grant money available at that time, we applied and the Village was fortunate to receive about $960,000 for this program. Manager Niemeyer continued to explain the process and Committee progress and various bus route options and expense in initiating the Distributor program. After some fact finding, open houses and surveys it was determined there was not a lot of interest in the initial business bus routes and the price tags of the options were very expensive. With the Grant money, the Village still has to fund 20% of the program until it expires. After that, additional funding would have to be sought to fund the program. PACE actually came to us and made a proposal. On top of that they were willing to give us a program where we would just lease the buses from them plus we would have to do maintenance and contract with whoever would be willing to operate the buses. A recommendation was made to the Village Board on a preferred route from a transfer station at the Mall to select business areas at various times of the day. The hope would be by the time the grant money is done the route would be established, be running well, and that the businesses around would be willing to participate but that's questionable. The Village Board requested the input from the business community be solicited. We will work with the Chamber to accomplish this. Manager Niemeyer asked the Hotel General Managers if this service is something that may help them or their staff out. Chairman Canfield stated from a daytime standpoint either employees or guests that go from retail back to the various facilities or a multi hotel group potentially. OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 3 of 5 Mtg. of August 11, 2011 Martin Schooley explained that additional options for transportation are always great but from an impact just on his business, he thinks would be little during the week. Folks that stay in his hotel are not going to be using the bus routes during the day. The weekend customers are a little bit different. But really they are there for the center which is right across the street. Linda Hunt also mentioned that this service is not a huge push. They have a van service that takes guests around. She does not have a lot of employees that would utilize it. Discussion ensued. DUPAGE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU. — Lisa Landers recapped. End of year numbers; increased their generated leads from the group sales perspective by over 60 from last year. Estimated economic impact was a little over al 00 million possible dollars. Booked room nights equaled about 25,000 room nights. Ryder Cup, continues to have a lot of activities /inquiries regarding rooms and event space. The leisure site that went up at the end of April beginning of May, they have over 500 reservations that have already been made on that site. The actual lottery has not taken place as yet. If you have ever gone to the website, DuPage Hotels comes up first. Group sales continue to grow. Over 15,000 rooms have been contracted through PGA and the DCVB continues to see leads. The PGA event director continues to forward groups to DCVB that need sleeping rooms and they are now seeing a lot of the vendors making reservations. Most of the Hotels do not have rooms left, but they continue to push it out there. September is their one year out event which is kind of their Taste of the Ryder Cup. DCVB will be doing presentations to their sponsors and their corporate organizers and will also be touring the PGA organizers and talking to the Hotels about their contracts and how that pick up looks. Since the last meeting, attended 7 trade shows, conducted 2 Fain tours and 1 regional trip during that time frame. Host to the Illinois Society Association Executives. A nice group of Springfield Association planners with them. Fam tour coming up at the end of August. Several Oak Brook Hotels are on that itinerary. The highlight to this Fain tour is 22 meeting planners and the conclusion "Hour Glass Night' will be held at the Oakbrook Center with a progressive dinner at the restaurants there. September. BMW coming into town. A lot of local traffic. Does not handle a lot of overnight rooms with that. Also working with the organizer of the Oak Brook %: Marathon, putting together bags for the event. Trade Show booth promotions. They have Starbucks cards to giveaway to generate interest and increase booth traffic. Leisure campaign, summer campaign from April to July 50,000 total inquiries, 926 travel here or are referrals and a little over 48,000 website unique referrals. GREATER OAK BROOK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Tracy Mulqueen reported that things are going well. There are 3 pending large companies coming to Oak Brook. She had already distributed an 8 page report prior to the meeting and before the next Hotel Committee meeting for the 2 "d half of the year she will have another outline and proposal next year. They are also having some upcoming building fairs. OTHER BUSINESS -None ADJOURNMENT Motion by M. Schooley, seconded by R. Allison to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Hotel OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 4 of 5 Mtg. of August 11, 2011 Convention and Visitors Committee at 11:26 a.m. ATTEST: David J. Niemeyer Village Manager Date OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 5 of 5 Mtg. of August 11, 2011