CHOCVB Board Meeting Minutes 051921

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DocuSign Envelope ID:502009F3-4D5D-4553-94B6-17FCBFF12415 within our capabilities. Mr. Chair, I would like to request a task force that analyzes how we can focus on mid-week and possibly shifting marketing funds to a mid-week marketing program. o Mark Sherburne agreed that corporate travel is still down; both for the individual traveler as well as corporate-related groups, and those would be the mid-week demand. That demand probably won't return until 2022. Mark agreed a task force is a great idea. o Chair Carey said he would put the task force together of hoteliers from amongst the three towns, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough adding that he would like to include the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough and see if we can get some of the market share in the north-west part of the county from Alamance County. - The Sheraton is slated to reopen on August 2, 2021 so we have 168 rooms and nearly 20,000 square feet of space coming on the market in ninety days. - Visitors Bureau relocation to 308 E. Franklin—When the construction contractor started removing walls as part of the renovation, they found mold in the walls around the bathroom so now the County needs to remediate the mold before the renovations can proceed. The Board of County Commissioners just approved the funds to fix the mold. o James Taylor exhibit update—We are working with NanoLumens out of Atlanta to create the wall-to-wall digital video display of James Taylor and his band singing "Carolina in My Mind" and a welcome to Chapel Hill message. We will go a little over budget with this exhibit but I am meeting with Senator Foushee this afternoon and I am hoping, since this is also a state attraction, we can get some support from the state in the form of ARPA funds from the state. - Clean Design, our advertising agency, is reaching out to the local economic boosters to see if we can do a tourism campaign around this area under the title of"You've Got a Friend";you've got a friend in Chapel Hill,you've got a friend in Carrboro, you've got a friend in Hillsborough. The data shows that many people come here because they know someone or love someone or they love their experience here. That will tie in to the James Taylor exhibition as well. - The County Manager has asked that we not open to the public yet because she is concerned about the variants and the health and safety of staff. However, during commencement this past weekend Kristen Smith Young, Director, UNC Community Relations who also couldn't open UNC Visitors Center for the same concerns,joined me in opening the Visitors Bureau. We had about 100 people. - Laurie motioned to nominate Anthony Carey to continue to serve on this advisory board in the open Orange County Lodging seat recently vacated by Sam Vadgama and the Colonial Inn is nominated for the At Large seat vacated by Libbie Hough. Mayor Pam Hemminger seconded. With all members in favor, Anthony Carey and the Colonial Inn are nominated to serve on the advisory board upon approval by the Board of County Commissioners. Presentations Rick Steinbacher,Senior Associate A.D.,Capital Projects and Facilities, NC Athletic Dept.gave an update on Carolina athletics. Mr. Steinbacher shared he thinks it has been their best year ever because of how they reacted to the pandemic. They began communicating with their athletes more regularly,first as the athletic department and then the ACC schools started communication more with each other. That higher degree of communication brought the most collaboration we have ever had. Our coaches and student athletes did a great job of focusing on what matters and completely tuning out everything else and that made us stronger in many of ways. 2 1 P a g e CHOCVB B 0 D Meeting May 19 , 2021