Minutes - 11/16/2000 - Hotel Convention and Visitors CommitteeOak Brook Hotel, Convention & Visitors Committee
Minutes of Thursday, November 16, 2000 Meeting
Present: Chairman Mike Campa
John Merrill
Tony Mira
Kerry Mickelson
Ralph Maxson
Peggy Lucas
Absent: Chuck Fleming
Also Present: Assistant Village Manager Michael Crotty
Tricia Snyder- Lewis, BVK/McDonald, Inc.
Bridget Jones, BVK/McDonald, Inc.
Jennifer Donahue, BVK/McDonald, Inc.
Chris Remington, MarkNet Internet Services
Skip Stritmatter, DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau
Meeting was called to order at 5:10 p.m.
APPROVAL OF AUGUST 17, 2000 MEETING MINUTES
Motion by John Merrill and seconded by Peggy Lucas to approve the minutes of
the August 17, 2000 meeting as submitted. Motion approved 6 -0.
OLD BUSINESS
a. 2000 Marketing Campaign Update: Tricia Snyder -Lewis distributed an
update on the 2000 marketing campaign. It was reported that the direct
mail projects were doing better this year than last year, and that these
pieces have brought calls into the call center. It was also noted that the
number of unique visitors to the web site is increasing, and that the
average visitor session length is about 5 minutes.
NEW BUSINESS
a. Recommendation — 2001 Marketing Campaign: BVK/McDonald
presented the proposed 2001 marketing campaign. The proposed
campaign focuses on group meetings and away from leisure travelers. The
goals stated in the plan include building awareness with group planners to
increase traffic for area amenities /attractions and hotel bookings, increase
weekend leisure travel bookings through regional level advertising,
enhancing the web site for target audiences to increase interactivity, and to
expand tracking capabilities through expanded web site capabilities.
Page 1 of 2
Oak Brook Hotel Convention & Visitors Committee
Meeting Minutes: November 16, 2000
The Committee expressed concern about the amount of dollars committed
to the web site project. BVK/McDonald indicated that the site could be
more useful, intuitive and interactive for the user. The site could include
virtual tours of the properties and a means for users to book stays through
the site. Chairman Campa indicated that this would be redundant since all
of the hotels have individual web sites that provide these capabilities. He
also indicated that he did not want to create a monster that we would have
to feed with a good portion of the Hotel Tax budget. John Merrill
indicated that the Committee is not necessarily looking for an individual
site, but rather use the web site to get users to the hotel sites. Campa
indicated that while the Internet is exciting, it was not the Committee's
wish to chase it with the Hotel tax dollars. Assistant Village Manager
Crotty reminded the Committee and BVK /McDonald that the dollars are
definitely finite. Peggy Lucas suggested that the Committee not throw out
the web site completely. Merrill indicated that he agreed, but that the
Committee should look at whether the proposed direction consumes more
of our budget than the Committee wants to spend.
The Committee directed BVK/McDonald to meet again with the
Marketing Subcommittee to scale back the web site expansion and to
return to a more media driven campaign.
b. Release of Third Quarter Tax Receipts to DCVB: Motion by Ralph
Maxson, seconded by John Merrill, to approve the release of 20% of the
third quarter tax receipts to the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Motion approved 6 -0.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion by Tony Mira and seconded by Kerry Mickelson to adjourn the meeting at
6:35 p.m. Motion passed 6 -0.
ATTEST:
Michael A. Crotty
Assistant Village Manager
APPROVED:
March 8 ,2001
Page 2 of 2
Oak Brook Hotel Convention & Visitors Committee
Meeting Minutes: November 16, 2000