CASE Council Joint Work Session 01-28-20JANUARY 28 CASE JOINT WORK SESSION WITH COUNCIL PAGE 1 | 3
CASE COMMITTEE JOINT WORK SESSION WITH COUNCIL
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2020
AVON TOWN HALL, 100 MIKAELA WAY, AVON, CO
1. ROLL C ALL. The Culture, Arts & Special Events (CASE) Committee members joined the Town Council
for a joint work session. There was a round of introductions.
Present:
Committee Members - Lisa Mattis, Ruth Stanley, Kathy Ryan, Chris Cofelice, Pedro Campos and
Jason Denhart
Avon Town Council - Mayor Sarah Smith Hymes, Jennie Fancher, Amy Phillips, Tamra
Underwood, Jake Wolf, Chico Thuon and Scott Prince.
Town Staff - Eric Heil, Danita Dempsey, Mikaela Liewer, Brenda Torres and Ineke de Jong
Absent:
Committee Member - Timothy Haley
2. JOINT WORK SESSION
Staff took everyone through the Power Point presentation they had prepared. Council and
committee members than went around the table for comments:
A. “…both the advertising and announcements for the Avon egg hunt should be bi-lingual…”
B. “… community sticks out and is a good focus. Events should be boutique, local, niche...”
C. “… idea to host some sort of ‘Hispanic celebration’ day…”
D. “… a fun/vibrant community with community-based events is also attractive for visitors…”
E. “… support new event concepts outlined in Power Point Presentation…”
F. “… loved the storytelling festival that Avon used to host and we should perhaps consider
reintroducing this festival/event…”
G. “… enjoy Athletic/Sports events…”
H. “… events should focus on what is unique in Avon including the riverfront, the lake, the
beach, the walking distance to our bed base and take advantage of that…”
I. “… diversity of events reaches more parts of the community…”
J. “… would love to see a dog related event or event with dog elements…”
K. “… supportive to start events small and build them into something bigger over time…”
L. “… art events are done everywhere in Colorado and are not unique. We need to make ours
different and maybe create our own art/craft event where the public gets involved…”
M. “… we need a holiday/Christmas/winter event and offer some kind of activation in December
or January…”
N. “… idea to host a Cinco de mayo event…”
O. “… idea to host a car show. Avon Staff member, Vern, has info on how this is done in
Leadville. This could be something unique and appealing to different community members …”
P. “… we should compare our events budget to peer communities. It seems that peer
communities lump special events & marketing into one budget…”
Q. “… appreciate affordable events. Concerned over the events budget and workload for
ancillary services including police, public works, cleaning etc. Not just during the event itself
but during the days/hours leading up to the event and after the event.…”
R. “… events are moving in the right direction. Keep doors open to ideas but do not sacrifice
quantity over quality…”
S. “… idea for ice sculpture event, like Breckenridge. Seems very simple and effective.
Something can be done, simple, maybe an artwalk…”
T. “… idea to host a SUP Silent Disco event and use our lake assets…”
JANUARY 28 CASE JOINT WORK SESSION WITH COUNCIL PAGE 2 | 3
U. “… idea to host an event with dogs at the lake…”
V. “… events have definitely evolved. Multi-day festivals haven’t worked. Most events are
community-focused which is great but athletic/sporting events are the ones that are the
largest economic driving events that we have in Avon. Value all events but sporting events
are very valuable from a lodging/retail perspective. It also helps attract the next generation
of skiers/athletes and have them discover Avon…”
W. “… idea to light the athletic fields in future to help grow Avon’s athletic/sporting events…”
X. “… liked having the Avon market combined with AvonLIVE! on Wednesday nights …”
Y. “… would like to see a good mix of events…”
Z. “… community-events are great but cannot come at the sacrifice of economic drivers…”
AA. “… would like to see use of Avon’s assets and would like to see a winter signature event…”
BB. “… would like to see an idea for an event that combines storytelling, fireside, winter event…”
CC. “… this is the maturation of Avon as a community and as a place. Advocate to add culture,
arts, sports, lifestyle and diversify events. Connect the dots of our assets and our
infrastructure and thereby elevate the community…”
DD. “… extremely fortunate with our event staff. Can produce events in-house and it’s a great
idea to continue growing our events ourselves in-house and this will eventually attract
outside producers to take these over and we then have leverage. Continue to rely on
expertise in-house. …”
EE. “… need to be budget conscious and decide on hard priorities…”
FF. “… supportive of leveraging our unique assets and amenities…”
GG. “… return on investment (ROI) is not strictly financial…”
HH. “… we need to nurture our events…”
II. “… idea to host the car show and combine that with other possible spin-off events…”
JJ. “… would like to see an event with dogs at the lake…”
KK. “… raised an idea of a poetry slam…”
LL. “… raised an idea of the Minneapolis Milk Carton boat race…”
MM.“… would like to see a community event in the winter as there is less to do in the winter than
in the summer…”
NN. “… the first phase of the CASE committee’s work is done. The next phase is starting, and the
focus will be on all the criteria mentioned above. How to nurture the events, how to balance
the calendar, looking at the financial investment and the 10-year horizon. Looking at
signature events and what does signature mean…”
OO. “… would like to endorse staff to move forward with 2020 new event concepts…”
Staff continues to work on data that measures economic impact. Staff will also work on collecting
data from intercept surveys. Staff will talk to Colorado Classic to see if we can host them every
other year, without saying no to 2020 with the consequence to lose them forever to another city.
Staff is comfortable with managing the liquor sales in-house. The group is supportive of staff
taking this on. The sales at Salute to the USA should perhaps be looked at separately as the Eagle
Valley Humane Society has been running this event for years and this is their big fundraiser event
for the year.
Staff will have another look at security and the best way to manage that.
JANUARY 28 CASE JOINT WORK SESSION WITH COUNCIL PAGE 3 | 3
Staff will have another look at dogs at events and the best way to manage that. The group did not
come to an agreement and directed staff/leadership to make a judgement call and perhaps assess
event by event.
Staff will come back to council with an update on the budget once they speak to Colorado Classic
and have a better understanding of their expectations in 2020.
3. PUBLIC COMMENT
No public comments were made.
Respectfully submitted by:
Ineke de Jong
Executive Assistant to the Town Manager