CASE Committee Minutes 11-14-19NOVEMBER 14, 2019 - CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES PAGE 1 | 5
CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019
AVON TOWN HALL, 100 MIKAELA WAY, AVON, CO
1. ROLL C ALL
CASE Committee member Timothy Haley called the meeting to order. The time was 12:04 p.m.
Present:
Committee Members - Chris Cofelice, Pedro Campos, Ruth Stanley, Kathy Ryan, and Timothy
Haley. Committee chairperson Lisa Mattis called in for the meeting.
Avon Town Council - Amy Phillips
Town Staff - Eric Heil, Preston Neill, Danita Dempsey, Mikaela Liewer and Ineke de Jong
Absent:
Committee Members - Jason Denhart
Avon Town Council - Jake Wolf
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Chris Cofelice moved to approve the minutes from the October 14, 2019 CASE Committee meeting.
Kathy Ryan seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.
3. PUBLIC COMMENT
No public comments were made.
4. CID PRESENTS
Danita provided a recap of the phone call that she and Eric had with CID presents. Danita outlined
some of the background/services that this company offers and some of the festivals they produce.
Staff than went over a list of challenges / concerns identified most of which apply specifically to
Avon:
A. Ability to bring in infrastructure and build out venue
B. Avon Stage may not be large enough or provide adequate weather protection for type of
talent hosted at other CID produced events
C. 5,000 to 7,000 people in venue and ability to curate intimate experience
D. Transportation and distance from airport related to guest experience
E. Accommodations and quality, quantity and room night (2,000 rooms in total)
F. Dining and options available in Avon; restaurants may get crushed all at once
G. Excursions and ability to organize and manage
H. Talent and competition with AEG Live and Live Nation
Staff explained that for something like this to work in Avon, it would need to be an adjusted or
blended model as their typical business model would not work in Avon. The committee agreed that
the typical model is great but wouldn’t per se work for Avon.
A. CID hasn’t done mountain town events yet, but it’s a desire to start that
B. Challenging with transportation and excursions.
C. The committee suggests getting creative with airport transfers and/or work on getting a
couple charter flights into Eagle Airport.
D. The committee would encourage flexibility in packaging and encourage CID to consider to
also market to second homeowners with non-lodging types of tickets.
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Danita and Eric did not discuss financial numbers with CID Presents but imagine that the town
subsidy would be somewhere between $200,000 and $500,000. CID hasn’t come to the table with
an official proposal and this call was more about opening the dialogue.
The committee inquired where the conversation with CID was left. Danita and Eric explained they
sent over ADR and occupancy data after the call. It was simply a conversation and staff are asking if
the CASE Committee is interested in continuing the conversation? CID has indicated they are still
interested and would adjust their model to fit Avon. The Committee is supportive to continue
conversations. Councilor Phillips suggested avoiding the June 16 to August 16 period. Committee
member Tim suggested to consider all times including peak summer times where it could drive ADR.
Town staff will continue the dialogue.
5. 2020 EVENT PROGRAM & OPPORTUNITY FOR ECONOMIC GAIN
The Committee agreed it is hard to spend large amounts of taxpayer money on signature events if
there is no economic boost to the town. The committee inquired what we see, revenue wise,
during the Salute to the USA Events. When looking at lodging information, Avon is at high
occupancy throughout the summer. The economic gain is not viable to drive occupancy once
hotels are at full capacity; however the economic gain can come from driving higher ADR.
Staff presented a chart to show occupancy in the summer:
The committee inquired
A. “…how do you take what we already have and expand that occupancy by pushing forward
their arrival date and pushing back their departure date…”
B. “… families tend to end up on weekend. Would it be worthwhile to consider types of events
that are retiree oriented to offset weekend/family oriented stays and fill occupancy gaps on
Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays...”?
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C. “… the boomers are retiring now, and they are active… what about Senior Olympics…”
D. “… look at events that are not weather dependent…”
E. “… look at events that fill the shoulder months spring & fall…”
F. “… a car show may lend itself to the off season and retirees and is not weather dependent…”
G. “… perhaps create events on Thursdays that attract children and families so they would come
up on Thursday instead of Friday to attend that and at the same time they can avoid Denver
traffic…”
Staff presented a chart to show occupancy in the winter:
There was discussion about doing some type of event/activation at the end of the ski season during
the Beaver Creek closing weekend.
A. Timing. The committee agreed hosting a music festival during beaver creek closing weekend
makes sense. Doing it a weekend earlier would compete with the Vail Film Festival and Taste
of Vail. Offering live music on Saturday may drive overnight stays. It is also Spring Back to Vail
that weekend and those concerts are at night so perhaps this could be an Après event with
music just after people are done skiing.
B. Name/Branding. Ideas to call it “Avon Live Après Edition”. This would tie in well with the Avon
Live brand that the town has been building.
C. Audience. One act, Saturday après, people from the front range or who is here. There may be
a more captive audience at that time and local families may have left town for spring break. It
could be a great weekend to attract the Denver crowds to come up to Avon to use their pass
one last time and then stay to join the event.
D. Location. Discussion about the location, doing something in the town core. Maybe the parking
lot of Sun & Ski. The town owns that space and there would be no need to worry about
mud/snow. Or another option could be possibilities plaza where we hosted après events in
the past.
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Ideas to bring back “the great race”. Councilor Phillips explained the elements that were
included in that event.
The committee discussed we might not be able to quantify/measure the real economic impact
of 2019 events or proposed 2020 events program. Examples are homeowners who decide to
buy a (second) home because of all the programming that Avon offers. Or maybe families
didn’t come for the event itself, but they have such a great experience that they maybe decide
to return next year.
Staff commented that we will scope out some type of event/activation at the end of the ski
season and put budget numbers together to bring back to the committee.
6. STRATEGIC CULTURAL PLAN
a. REVISE THE DRAFT DOCU MENT
Lisa discussed the process that the committee went through to develop the current draft
strategic cultural plan. That work has taken place out of order and in an ad hoc way. She then
inquired what we want to do with the current draft document in front of us. What are the
current priorities and what questions/topics to discuss with town council in January?
i. Eric added that the committee has expanded from the Ad Hoc Committee by adding on
Culture & Arts. Creative Arts need to be incorporate in this document/plan.
ii. The Committee agreed that the document no longer fits what the current committee is.
The committee has changed as a group. Staff suggests revising it by coming up with
some ‘core’ bullet points and to than format those into a guiding document.
iii. Perhaps include what additional signature events may look like and when they would fit
in? Maybe fit one or two more, start small and grow them over time. Include the
interest expressed in theater, writing, speakers etc.
iv. The Committee agreed that we need to revise the document as it is “too specific” and
should be kept broader with more space for wiggle room. It is “too detailed” and “too
wordy” and needs to be simplified, focused and aligned with what council thinks.
v. Staff will draft a starting plan which will be a staff-led process that Lisa will be looped
back in once drafted and then will be presented to the committee for vetting,
comments and edits. It must read well and translate to all parties:
i. The Committee
ii. Town Council
iii. The Public
iv. (Potential) Producers
b. HOUSES FOR HOUNDS
Danita explained that this project is like the playhouses project 2 years ago and the benches
project on possibilities plaza last year. The project is moving forward in 2020 and sponsorship is
coming from the community grant program. Maybe in future years this could live with the CASE
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committee. The Committee showed great enthusiasm and commented that people seemed to
really enjoy the benches.
c. P LAYABLE M USIC P LAYGROUND
Danita asked to table this topic for this meeting and rather wait on councilor Wolf to discuss
this. The Planning & Zoning Commission looked at possible location(s). Councilor Wolf is going to
funnel some further information to Danita and staff will do some research on what instruments
may work well.
d. CALL Y OURSELF CREATIVE – INITIATIVE OF COLORADO CREATIVE INDUSTRIES (DIY STEPS AND RESOURCE)
Danita commented that due to the time, she will send out the link to the Call Yourself Creative
to the committee. This is a program of the Colorado Creative Industries to peruse at the
committee’s leisure. If we on our own want to call ourselves creative, we can get that done.
Danita welcomes any comments and said that maybe this is something that can be incorporated
in the strategic plan.
7. ADJOURNMENT
Timothy Haley moved to adjourn the CASE Committee meeting. Ruth Stanley seconded the
motion and the motion passed unanimously. The time was 1:34 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by:
Ineke de Jong
Executive Assistant to the Town Manager