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Executive Directors Report Laurie Paolicelli shared that there would be a news conference later in the morning at the Robert and Pearl Seymour Senior Center announcing Orange County’s receipt of a $900,000 Alzheimers Disease Initiative Specialized Support Services grant, which will be administered over the next three years. She recognized the great job Marlene Barbera is doing with strategic planning in determining gaps. The biggest myth in tourism is that “people are going to come anyway.” They come here, but they may not necessarily stay here and that is what we are focused on, letting people know what is available here to keep them here. In Mark Sherburne’s absence he ask her to share that he is working with Karen McCall at the medical school to get her looped in and send their consultants our way to keep the business in Chapel Hill/Orange County and not send them to Durham. Nitin Khanna is not with us today as he is in India. He would like to see us host a Diwali event (celebration of lights and the New Year). We are in the process of looking at occupancy rates for the past ten years to see what months we need to fill and working with these groups to bring them in during those months. We are also looking at how business in our contiguous counties is affecting us. We have sponsored table this coming Saturday at Equality NC, an important state convention. We are committed to LGBT travel and are seeing an uptick. The nominating committee is working on new appointments to the board and will report at the January meeting. Budget Update Penny Rich, Finance Chair, needed to leave the meeting early so Laurie Paolicelli provided the update. At the board’s request we are drawing down $250,000 in fund balance, the majority of which will go to marketing. Our ad agency will attend our January meeting to talk about the market research they have done which revealed that when people arrive at Raleigh Durham International Airport, they really don’t know much about Orange County. They are going. Reverend Robert Seymour would like to see a Civil Rights and Historical Museum combined with the Visitors Center at that location. Discussions will continue in the next several years and Rich will keep the Visitors Bureau board updated. Going forward there is still a need for a Visitors Center to provide live customer service. Sales Report Marlene Barbera reported that the Visitors Bureau has hired Cyndi Golden as a Sales Specialist on a contract basis for six months starting November 30, 2015. Marlene has arranged a Director of Sales meeting with the county’s hoteliers followed by a day of site tours. Marlene has completed a hotel demand survey having received feedback from nine out of fourteen hotels. She found that 77% of hotels do between 11% and 30% group business; their top four markets are (from greatest to least) Social, Educational, Corporate and Sports; top four months of need are December, July, August, and January; Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday are the top need days of the week in almost all months; almost 40% of hotels need weekend business all year; there are distinct differences on need based on market mix of hotels. She has launched holiday promotions running from November 21 through January 3 by asking hotels to send in their holiday promotions that we can put on the Visitors Bureau website. Marlene shared that the feedback she has received from planners is that they want meeting space for 300 to 400 attendees with room for breakout meetings with a hotel attached. Right now we do not have that space in the county. Ms. Paolicelli stated that it is the goal of the upcoming RFP, to determine what space we need from an Economic Development perspective. We hope to work will HVS, who has done work for Durham and Wake Counties. We need empirical data to see what the county’s needs are going forward. Rosemary Waldorf suggested keeping local elected officials in the loop so that no one is taken off guard by a recommendation. We need people ready to receive news of the report by building a culture. Chair Carey recommended getting this before Town Council and Commissioners as they are looking at other projects already. 2 | Page CHOCVB BOD Meeting November 18, 2015