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CASE Committee Meeting Minutes 4-13-23 FINALCASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023 HYBRID FORMAT IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL AND VIRTUALLY ON ZOOM CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 13 APRIL 2023 PAGE 1 | 4 1. ROLL CALL Present: Committee Member Calyn Rieger, Doug Jimenez, Justin Chesney, and Committee Chair Lisa Mattis Staff: Culture, Arts & Special Events Manager Danita Dempsey, Deputy Town Manager Patty McKenny, and Special Events Coordinator Chelsea Van Winkle Absent: Town Council Member Lindsay Hardy and Ruth Stanley and Committee Member Pedro Campos, Danielle McNair, and Thomas Walsh The meeting was called to order at 12:30 p.m. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comments were made. 3. MINUTES Committee Member Justin Chesney motioned to approve the minutes from March 16, 2023. Committee Member Doug Jimenez seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Committee Chair Lisa Mattis joined the meeting at 12:34 p.m. 4. STAFF UPDATE CASE Manager Dempsey provided a recap of the March 16, 2023, CASE Committee meeting. She reiterated that there is a ton of data in the peer communities research but as the committee discussed in March, we thought it would be more effective to put together the “flavor” and who the communities are instead of data in a spreadsheet to bring to the CASE and Council Joint Work Session on April 25th. CASE Manager Dempsey then explained what the flow of the April 25th meeting will look like. She stated, we will have one hour in front of Council, and it will entail, (1) Dave Dressman from the Vail Valley Foundation and Gerald Ford Amphitheater who will talk about what it takes to produce a ticketed model and what the struggles are explaining it is more of an art not a science. (2) Mike O’Brien from Peak Performances is going to talk about the types of music that fit with the Avon brand and what we should look at as we grow. He may also speak about the opportunities that are starting to be presented to us, where we don’t take the risk and he will wrap up his portion speaking to where we have come with AvonLIVE!. (3) CASE Manager Dempsey and Town Manager Heil will talk about the 10-Year Vision of the CASE Committee. (4) CASE Committee will lead the conversation with Council about our goals, 10-Year Vision, struggles, etc. She explained that there will probably not be enough time to dive into the peer community research, but it will be in the staff report. Overall, we are seeking direction from Council regarding approval of the concepts outlined in the 10-Year Vision. Peer Community Research CASE Manager Dempsey dove into the Peer Community Research that herself and Chelsea worked on compiling. Below are the communities that staff further researched, and the slides represent the saliant points that we felt best described each community. She posed the questions, “does CASE think this is the right information to present to council?” and “does CASE agree budget, venue, and staffing are the most important points?” CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023 HYBRID FORMAT IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL AND VIRTUALLY ON ZOOM CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 13 APRIL 2023 PAGE 2 | 4 1. Beaver Creek Resort Company: When we look at Beaver Creek, the thing to note is the events and activations are year-round with significant budget to produce and market to destination guests. They produce their own events as well as contract out to create a diverse array of events. Their budget is large and is obtained from fees and association dues. 2. Town of Vail: Vail’s budget of $2.6MM; $2MM goes to 3rd party and $600,000 goes to producing their own events. It shows one staff person, but this person is farming the 281 events out and not producing them all. Vail has a large number of events because they have month long activations. Vail’s focus is completely different than ours as it is heads in beds. 3. Town of Breckenridge: GO Breck receives all funding from Town of Breckenridge to produce events and market for the town. The Town also gives money to Breck Creates to help with the operations of their facilities. Their focus is similar to Vails which is increasing destination guests. They spend a large investment in their creative districts and areas. 4. Town of Dillon: Most events are produced by the town and 3rd parties receive some support. They are different in that they heavily focus on the Dillon Amphitheater and their capacity is less than ours in Nottingham Park. They have a lot more staff than us and majority is focused on the Dillon Amphitheater. Their focus is activations that have long lasting social and economic engagement. 5. Town of Silverthorne: Over the past 5 years, they have really built up their town and created more of a Main Street feel with a Downtown development. They are now heavily invested in arts and culture and their First Fridays is their main event once a month and is focused on community. 6. Town of Frisco: Has year-round activations and focuses on history and community. They produce all their own events, in partner with the recreation department. Their budget includes only their current department, not recreation as well, which makes up a large portion of their events. 7. Town of Salida: Salida is a unique, small town and is on the national registration of historic places which capitalize on that in their events, arts, and culture. Salida was one of the first creative districts in the state and the Salida Creative District is run by the city as well as the Steam Plant. Their events and arts & culture have two separate budgets. The Committee commented/inquired: A. One thing that stuck out to me was Beaver Creek had a year-over-year budget increase that is different from Avon. 30% from 2022 to 2023 as well as a larger number of staff. B. Is there a master role up of budget vs. event days and how much they spend per event? C. Which end of the spectrum do you want to be on BCRC or Vail? D. Are you trying to show Council that every town is completely different, and we don’t need to mirror anyone? E. You need to start with saying “we are not the same and this is what the peer communities research shows”. F. What is differentiating is it is guest focused vs. community focused. Breck, Vail, Beaver Creek, etc. That differentiates us from some, right off the bat. Also, their towns are built around guests unlike ours. G. Is the direction we want to go more events and another staff person? H. With the new Council members, would it create a new momentum for Cultural, Art and Special Events? I. What does it mean that they are built and de-constructed? It shows the staffing needs. J. Could we come up with some sort of plan to bid out to have someone help us produce events at the Avon Performance Pavilion? CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023 HYBRID FORMAT IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL AND VIRTUALLY ON ZOOM CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 13 APRIL 2023 PAGE 3 | 4 K. There is a spectrum of how these communities all work, there is 3rd party and give them funding or the town produces everything. L. You are selling an invisible product. M. I think you (Danita and Chelsea) should decide on what model we want and what we need. Make it well known what your vision is for it. I think it needs to be vocalized. N. CASE has gone in with a recommendation to Council in the past and Council usually does not go in our favor. Our approach is “what we are struggling with”. Our community told us we want more events, and we have a budget that does not support that. We know what we want, and we are wrestling with this. O. Our outcome is we want growth, but the growth did was not supported in the budget. And there is also growth in the community. P. There is no recommendation per’ say, but there is what we are wrestling with. Q. Something that speaks to me is that a lot of these have a year-round event schedule, but for Avon to do that, you are going to need additional staff. R. What stands out to me significantly is that in all these communities the staffing is higher than the number of events on the schedule than the Town of Avon. I don’t think arts and culture is going to get another staff person, I think it is events that will get it done. Council listens to what people want and there are changes in the town and we are struggling with how to keep up. S. They said they want a year-round calendar that includes signature events, we want that too, and we are wrestling with this…. T. The reason I would lead with the data is that it is factual, and it encompasses the vision. CASE Manager Dempsey responded for a “master role up”, it is a good metric to have but I don’t want to change the course of Council if we were to present that. Maybe instead the last bullet on each slide needs to be more detailed out. CASE Manager Dempsey explained that what we are going to Council for is we are trying to get a better feeling if they want to move forward with the vision or if they stay where we are, status quo. If moving forward, we want a thumbs up on Best of the West and Heart of Soul as well as maturing the arts portfolio and beginning a culture portfolio. That being said, if they want any more than we are currently doing, we need another staff person. They could say just stay where we are for another 2-3 years and that’s fine. We have taken larger talent budget = bigger crowds, ticketed concepts, to Council 4-5 times since 2019, and Council has not been supportive so at what time do we stop asking and just keep doing what we are doing? Town Manager Heil posed a question when I asked him this question and he asked me, “Do you think the Avon community wants more events?” He continued, that the answer is yes so, we have to keep trying. He also shared that we need to offer Council a tradeoff which is more staff equals more events and arts and culture. Deputy Town Manager McKenny stated that she thinks part of the conversation is the opportunities that are zero risk that were presented to Council this winter. She continued that another part of the conversation is what is giving Council heartburn…money, activations, risk, etc.? One of the goals she sees at the work session is to walk out with clarity if more events are funded by Avon or 3rd party. The position to Council is all these answers helps CASE get to where they want to go so the team can map out a budget and program for 2024. Then explaining we will be back before you to get what you are thinking so it can percolate with them. She wrapped up expressing, we are growing and need to grow a program that speaks to a growing Avon to guests and locals. CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023 HYBRID FORMAT IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL AND VIRTUALLY ON ZOOM CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 13 APRIL 2023 PAGE 4 | 4 CASE Manager Dempsey answered to contracting out AvonLIVE! and explained that in 2015, the Town of Avon approached with the Vail Valley Foundation to produce AvonLIVE! and there was no interest at the time, but it was before the brand had traction. She also mentioned that she is curious if Council would be interested in investigating becoming a designated creative district. CASE Manager Dempsey wrapped up the conversation that Council needs to hear from members of CASE! Deputy Town Manager McKenny continued saying each Committee member needs to take a little 3-minute platform on where they stand. She continued that it is a joint meeting for CASE to share what is on their mind. 10-Year Vision Updates CASE Manager Dempsey presented the 10-Year Vision that will be presented to Council and explained that the Strategic Plan will be brought forward again in the fall. She stated that Town Manager Heil wants us to lead with the vision and where we think we are going to be in 10 years. 5. CLOSING COMMENTS CASE Manager Dempsey said that the May CASE committee meeting will be in the green room and on the Terrace so we can talk about the calendar, experience the indoor and outdoor space, in a less formal environment. Committee Chair Lisa Mattis then explained that the CASE Committee is headed for a change in leadership and at May’s meeting we will take a vote on who is going to take the Chair’s role as well as a co-Chair. 6. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 1:47 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: Chelsea Van Winkle Special Events Coordinator