Nov 08, 2017 Economic Development Partnership Board on 2017-11-08 11:00 AM

Order at 11 o'clock a.m. Our first order of business is item number 17 - 0 5 9 receive a report and hold a discussion Regarding the Denton Chamber of Commerce Office of Economic Developments annual comprehensive marketing plan I'd like to invite Adam Gavoresky up to the podium Morning Adam and council members Today we are presenting the Chamber of Commerce's economic development comprehensive marketing plan In particular to the timeline for print digital ad buys maintenance and updates to dentonedp.com Platforms and schedule of social media and planned marketing trips We normally run two ads per year the first one being in site selection magazine It's their Texas wide open for business guide which features the state of Texas as the opening Advertisement and then start communities can advertise after that. So we run and we run this particular ad is what we did last year this publication is a Global publication goes out to site location consultants and sea level executives who have worked expansion products in the past We also do an ED directory listing in that same magazine site selection magazine This is their annual listing comes out once a year. It gives the Listings for all the communities within the state of Texas So we want to be sure and have a presence and our name in that so that people know to contact us The other ad that we run each year is the it's in the Dallas regional chambers economic development guide. This is strictly DFW locations and it's a regional guide on access to the Metroplex logistics transportation Education all the above we've run this we ran this particular ad last year Maintenance and updates to didn't need a P calm We spend a lot of time updating and maintaining our website It is the typically the first place that site location consultants and sea level executives would go a lot of times before they even contact Us so we spend a lot of time updating this monthly and annual Updates to the pages and every single link we are constantly checking out We have a we have a full two page checklist that we go through each and every month To update that and we keep we keep in current contact with it with the city and update all those pages We are currently doing a website update and facelift project Which will be completed by January 2018 This includes full-scale design refresh to bring and to bring the brand and feel of didn't need a P To life on your on our site upgrade upgrading the back- handed core systems behind the site integrating the new design into the new pro into new programming Optimize the site for mobile access or mobile across all platforms with responsive programming That will make it basically fit your your smartphones and tablets and things like that and it will adjust to the different size screens Upgrading all 80 suite tools to the newest versions add an agenda tool staff and board tool and a new map and resource center to the site We're also adding a floating header for easier navigation and user flow for visitors migrating the current content into the refreshed website and coordinate with didn't need a P To refresh the photography utilized on the site work to develop and plan to better utilize and understand the analytics attached to the site And work towards developing a proposed plan to increase the SEO and targeted marketing of the website over time It's been three years since the last time we did a full website Update and redesign so this is going to give us complete refresh and updating everything to the newest codes and standards Platforms and schedule of our social media activities linkedin we Update once or twice monthly depending on what events are happening that month. These are typically for For large events that take place Facebook. We update weekly Sometimes even bike weekly depending on what current what events are happening currently Facebook is to to notify and keep the residents and the people of Denton notified of what we're doing in economic development within the city LinkedIn is more geared towards marketing to the site selection community and sea level executives And then Twitter we update that weekly as well. Typically every time we update Facebook. We're updating Twitter plan marketing trips for 2017 and 2018. I know we went over this at a recent meeting, but here we go again We have two separate funds. We have an operations fund funded from the city of Denton and then the private development fund Which comes from our private investors? Operations funding funds professional development which I 'll get into after this. It's Texas economic development council meetings and International economic development meetings TDC and IDC and then private funding is strictly target marketing And operations does fund some of target marketing as well Once again operations funds TDC and IDC all professional development activities Along with target marketing. Here is a listing of the some of the target marketing that we cover through the operations account Team Texas we have two of those budgeted for team. Texas is the statewide Marketing initiative. It's a it's a pay-to-play type of organization There are 104 communities across across the state of Texas and they do Ten to twelve trade shows per year. They do marketing events in different major metro locations where they invite site selectors and They do different ballgame activities and things like that basically trying to bring as many site selection consultants and seal executives into those events and then at trade shows they'll have a Booth and a backdrop that says state of Texas and then we can go and Partner with them. We work the shows we get all the leads from the shows cultivated from the From the from the booth along with what we cultivate on our own walking the floor type 1 marketing trips These are where we go. I typically go by myself. We go to a large major metro location Chicago New York, New Jersey, Atlanta or LA and we meet with site selection consultants and to level executives And we kind of just we spread the the Ditten gospel Advanced manufacturing expo is in February in Anaheim, California Since advanced manufacturing is one of our target market industries. This is one of the best shows if not the best show For the entire year that we can do to to target this industry and it's a large trade show It's a broad category seven different trade shows under one roof all targeting advanced manufacturing The Southern Economic Development Council is Twice per year that's all the southern states we get together and they have They bring in a lot of site selection consultants from that cover all the major metros in the southern areas DFW marketing team is ran and hosted by the Dallas Regional Chamber And they will typically take five communities from the DFW marketing or from the DFW area With them and we'll go to a large major metro area and market ourselves as a region and then we have our own time to market Ourselves as a as a the city of Ditten as well The net car event North Texas commercial association of realtors is a conference held in downtown the downtown Dallas area once per year We have a booth presence So we have our own dent and backdrop and this it's basically all of the site selection consultants brokers and real estate people In the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex one of our better events for the entire year Moving on to private funding Which funds target marketing activities Strictly from from the private funds once again We typically will fund one of these through the operations funding and then one through target marketing Southern Economic Development Council we just covered Industrial Asset Management Council or I am see we do two of these either strictly funded from the private funds both of them per year One of the best trips we've done for pretty for the year is this event We recruited penske trucks from this particular marketing event. It's sea level executives It's site location consultants and it's also consultants that work within a large company That would not that's typically too large to hire of an outside consultant handle their site selection projects like a Pepsi Co or a Frito Lay or or one of those Another type one marketing trip to a major metro area where we market ourselves as dentin sightlink forum is a consultant forum and networking marketing event where they bring in Anywhere from 12 to 15 site location consultants that we have the opportunities over three day period to go and network with The site selectors guild is the same thing except for this one They bring in 42 of the top site location consultants from across the country Which I don't even know how many there are total. I would guess a thousand to two thousand. So they bring in the top 42 Across the country that are in those are typically the ones that work the larger projects in you know for the entire year area development consultants forum is another Consultant forum where they bring in sites electors and there's typically about 18 to 20 of those on that marketing trip Consultant connect economics forum same type of thing and other economic development and consultant Marketing event and then team Texas. We find two more out of the private funds as well That concludes my marketing presentation are there any questions Yes Sir, mr. McCoy February yes, sir. So we have really made significant str ides at UNT and building an advanced manufacturing facility And our materials research facility and we put together some Decent looking flyers now sure that would be something that you'd want to take to that meeting. Absolutely about yes Brand new state-of-the-art. It's a German company that makes a very fine 3d printing operation that we purchased and be installed in January of this year, right? So if you're looking at that sector and be good to let them know that we actually have that's probably one of our biggest fastest growing areas at UNT is in the whole advanced manufacturing 3d printing area perfect So I put you in touch with the two guys that are the key people that can brief you on what we have Okay, great. I'll make a note to get with you on that. Okay , so I'll get with you probably in early January. Sounds good Okay, thank you Mr. Baines you had a question Adam sir, could you flush out for me help me understand what the advanced manufacturing expo? Kind of who the population is and my other question had to do with the southern ed council Yes, help me to appreciate what we're talking about there Sure, the advanced the advanced manufacturing expo. It's it 's really seven conferences under one roof. It's it's a large It's they do it once per year. It's There's a green technology hall. There's an aerospace and aviation hall medical device design and manufacturing hall green technologies So it's it's really seven industries under one roof all under the advanced manufacturing umbrella and it is it's your standard trade show So, you know we go and we walk the floor. So it's your our cold. It's basically cold calling on different companies So we we go for a three-day period and we we hit the floor and hit 300 booths however many we can hit while we're there and so it's it's a it's a cold calling mission Basically, it's a pretty good back and forth a lot of prospects a lot of opportunities Yes, absolutely. And I've I've been here four years. I've done it all four years that I've been here I did it for six years before that too. I've done it ten years straight. So it's It's it's it's proved to be good over the years Works out well a lot of prospects and a lot of people that we keep in contact with and you know These things aren't they don't always give you instant grat ification So we aren't run like a land a project immediately after a show But sometimes we you know, we keep keep touching base with these people and you know over time I think we you know, it will pan out something So southern ED council the southern ED council is it's really just geared for the the southern states And really for the southeast over to as far over as Texas for that matter. We all get together It's it's typically in Atlanta a central meeting location for all the southeast states and then they bring in Consultants and site location consultants that cover the our market. So a lot of them are from Dallas a lot of more from Atlanta You get some as far as far north as Richmond But they all kind of meet in one central location and they 'll you know, we get to network with them there's also panels where they get up and speak about the latest trends of what's happening in the southeast and what they're seeing in terms of Their clients and their prospects that they're working so our ultimate goal is to get in front of the sea level executives and the CEO but Second best is getting in front of these consultants who are working these global and national projects Sure Adam who do we work with the help with our website design? It's a company called Edie suite and it is who we used Three or four years ago and they specialize in just economic development websites There's a lot of coding and programming that goes into it that that they specialize in Basically for the you know the integration of the building insights components and making that a searchable feature and and things like that. So Mr. Hutz with Thank you a couple of questions as well So the initial initially in your slide you mentioned some magazines etc that you're advertising in do you? Disseminate those links. So for example if I wanted to put it on if I'm drafting an email of someone and I want to throw it at the bottom of the email like here's here's this opportunity look at this or Look at this. Is there do you the cement view? Email those out or those available somewhere where I could grab them and share them with people if not Absolutely, I guess I would request that annually if you'll sure whatever you send out so that I'll have that saved As a link that I could then Populate the email sure as needed and then I Was that the I'll give you the backdrop so I was at the air show and I went to a museum Trailer and so it's in Wisconsin and they attend the air show and they had something similar that we have where you could get the the virtual tour You know of their of their museum, but the other caveat and my question is Do we have anything for kids at our booth and I say that because the most interesting thing about that booth and made it Work the time spent was there's a gentleman there that has a little setup and he has he works with kids to make cookie cutters That may seem like a small thing to you But if I'm not wanting to look at the museum and I have my seven-year-old with me and she's off making a cookie cutter that we then have in perpetuity that we can that always References back to our experience at this museum that I've never heard of but I'll never forget, you know Then I think we should incorporate something and if it's a makerspace type thing Which is popular with kids that I would ask to look into that Is there something that we could do at our booth that and I 'm not saying there's kids always gonna be there and I'm not Saying it may not be relevant. I've never never attended one of events but I'll just tell you from my takeaway from that entire air show is I have a Hot air balloon shaped cookie cutter and I have a seven- year-old that lights up every time we see it and I'll never forget that acronym in that That place for that reason so it's great great marketing. We we do a handful of giveaways Most of these conferences that we do there are really no kids Definitely not below the age of 18 They do they do one day that has it's a seniors senior day for senior students But we do a lot of giveaways that people will come by and they'll give to their their kids and things like that But we're open to new suggestions. Also, we can we can really we can have anything Completed. Yeah, like I said, I wasn't I've never been so I 'm sure it's saying it's a fit I'm just that that was my experience so forever in a in an area that is a little maybe different Then some traditional trade show than that might be Something to entertain sure. Absolutely we can we can do that And many else have any questions or comments Yes, gesture For the site selection magazine for example or the Dallas regional chambers economic development guide Yes, I wonder if they ever tell us how many they dissemin ated they could probably tell us how many they produced but We have those we can get those numbers we do especially from site selection magazine I know the Dallas chamber will give us those numbers too Yeah, we can get those for if you want us to send I can talk to you offline about it. Okay, and we idea to include in the marketing report is if we're doing a magazine some Okay, where those go and how many folks are seeing that they look great. Thank you. Thank you We have asked those questions to those magazines as well. Okay. Thank you This is Briggs. Yes, ma'am For other locations when you have an event here locally, how do you get the word out? Do you do Facebook invites? I mean it do you just use social media? Do you have other ways of marketing your your events? Are you talking about like the economic development investor? Receptions and things. Yeah. Yeah, I mean you guys have yeah those we invite typically just our investors and willing about the council members So we'll send out Email notices while in advance. I think you got the invite to our one that's coming up on Monday night The thrive didn't is run run by that chamber of the chambers staff, which I know I'm the chamber staff, but it 's run by Strictly the chamber staff. That's not something that economic development department is doing But if we were doing something locally, we would absolutely post it on Facebook And run social media and send out emails and word of mouth I Asked Mr. Carpenter Clarify when you talked about the actual individuals that you're hoping to have face time with you referenced a sea level executive Yes, but what is who were you talking to see? What is your expectation when you meet with? Because CEO is gonna make the decision but you've targeted this I think you refer to it as a sea level executive sea level executives or Upper level management that would have an influence on the decision-making process a lot of times We'll deal with just the CFO believe it or not Because they're done with all the you know the financial operations, but CEOs who we try to get in front of CFOs CEO's a lot of times. It's the the VPs and a lot of times they have a facilities director You know a lot of times we'll go and we'll try to meet with the gym flexes of Peter Biltz out there You know that are the running the plants and operations But anybody who can control that ultimate decision-making process or has some kind of influence in it All right, thanks All right, we'll move on to our next order of business which is item 17 - 0 6 0 Receive a report and hold discussion regarding the economic development program shop here on purpose and the shop small Saturday event I'd like to welcome Christina Davis to the podium Hold your applause Okay, really quick I just wanted to update you that and some of our activities for the shop didn't Recently we worked with the DTV folks to create a short video that We hope creates an instant connection between Shopping local and supporting public services and so real quick. I just like to show you that video We do have it hosted on our shop in Texas the Facebook page , and you can also find it on this DTV City of Denton DTV YouTube page I Don't believe we'll get any sound I See it's just showing our different services and for those you don't know this is the 3d printer at the library So the idea behind the video is just to help people have a visual of what it means when you shop locally How your money's used the tax so hopefully we can create a little aha moment for people for that Something we're also working on is Every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving There's a small business Saturday shop day the concept behind this is to Draw attention to small businesses and help create new customers and new Shopping adventures as we like to say for those businesses So what we do to help the businesses is every year for the past four years We've had a shop small selfie contest and what we do for that contest is we ask shoppers to go out shop small Take a selfie and tag the business where they're shopping by tagging the business it helps create some interaction between the business and the shoppers and Just a little more fun for your shopping day, so For the selfie contest we will have Some prizes we're going to have a eye watch as a prize for the shopper with the most Shopping selfie tags and we use social media analytics to track those Something else we're also doing is we'll have a door prize and reason the door prize is a way to capture zip codes So we can track zip codes and see where shoppers are coming from and that also helps people that aren't savvy with social media To feel like they're part of the day and the excitement Something new this year also is that we're going to have some welcome stations will have five There'll be one in the downtown Denton Welcome Center The Denton Community Market for the first time fry Street district is also participating We'll have someone at the Golden Triangle Mall and again at Unicorn Lake The the premise behind the welcome center is to help shop pers Feel involved and to point them to the stores that are participating So that's it just short and sweet Sir any questions Sting are the video are we that we sent that out to some of the small businesses so that they can put it on their Facebook pages or get that out to their customers to help spread the word We've shared it with the City Council and with the Main Street Association And then I also have it here on the website and they can share it there as well But I am encouraging everyone who is responding back as wanting to participate with shops on Saturday To share the video as well right now. I have close to 50 businesses. It said they're interested in participating Christina I've shared it with the CBB staff and Veronica is helping me to post to push that out through there. I Think that's a good point though Most all small businesses Mr. Reigns Business we have what's called a bop Or best an optimistic and a pessimistic. Yes I didn't know if you have kind of an idea what you were anticipating for this initiative Last year we had about 60 businesses participate My goal is to increase that by 10 businesses So far right now, like I said, I'm at 50. We still have a couple weeks to go. So I'm optimistic that I'll reach that goal Last year as far as hashtags or tags for shop Shop small Denton. We had just under 12,000 I'm hoping to increase that to 15,000. I mean, I'm sorry not thousand fifteen hundred. So eleven hundred Yes, I know It was eleven hundred last year and so we hope to make it up to fifteen hundred this year Other questions or comments All right that concludes our work session we'll now move into our Regular meeting at 1127 a.m. And the first order of business is to approve our minutes from our October 11th 2017 board meeting Take a motion We have a motion by Jim and second by Carol Anne Any discussion All those in favor say aye Any opposed? The motion is unanimously approved And our next item is some staff reports item 17 - 0 6 1 we've got the chamber activity report the stand report which are previously disseminated via email and Eric are you going to talk about the TIF? We have the downtown TIF staff report You have additional information in your packet I was just going to highlight the high points on October 24 th The council held a work session on the downtown TIF The majority of the council opted to continue the downtown TIF and directed staff to begin funding the downtown reinvestment grant program at a TIF fund for fiscal year 18 19 And to convene a meeting of the TIF board to recommend immediate uses of the funds for capital projects the TIF board meeting is being scheduled for November 17th right now and Following the board TIF board meeting staff will present another work session to the council and this is planned for December 5th All right, how about an update on Stoke-Denton? Also on October 24th council agreed unanimously to accept H ickory and rail ventures proposal for management services for Stoke-Denton Entrepreneur Center and directed staff to modify the contract and to bring it back to council for a vote at a later date The item will be on the council's November 14th agenda for a vote Hickory and rail ventures is set to assume management responsibilities on December 1st of 2017 And this is in response to the RFP that went out September 12 Mr. Hitchcock Thank you, sir. Just outside the numbers in between the the next few meetings I would encourage everyone to look at look this group is very Has me very excited They're local and and the person that spearheaded developing the Hickory rail group is is a Marshall Culpepper I think his last name, but he works for Works with cubos established that company, but he's been the encouraging part for me is he's had to go through the process He he and his company went out to Silicon Valley and earned one point six million dollars in funding So he's kind of gone through the process and the other great thing is they're they're Targeting and bringing in angel investors. So now it's not just we hope we we develop a company It's if you develop the right company, there's people willing and able to to fund those companies And so I think Stoke is is going to be It's going to thrive and he's looking at some different things and one of the suggestions that came out the man may not be In the numbers is to build more office spaces and eliminate some of the walk-in spaces and so if you go in the stoke you have this giant open area in the center if we Condense some of that to more walled offices. We think we can Continue to grow it and have a better Better Representation of tech companies in there and so I'm hoping we can help them and support them in doing that But I'm really excited about this group and what they're going to do to kind of get this thing Going in a great direction Anybody have any questions or comments on any of the staff reports Juster Yes, that seems unusual is that unusual I can't speak for what normally occurs perhaps Someone here will interject but there were actually they was sent to four they had a pre-bid meeting and for attended one of them actually supported the hickory and rail ventures but as far as that being normal, maybe Brian Lane Lee might be else, but I I personally don't know I Mean competition is generally good Not that they don't sound outstanding right now absolutely We we always like to get more than one proposal and fortunately only got one in this particular case But we did take a lot of steps to try to get the word out to the community It's kind of a narrow niche market of people who do these kinds of services with we think that's part of the issue But this was an innovative proposal which will reduce the cost of the city over time and provide great services So we're really excited about that partnership and looking to see how they're going to perform And whomever was managing it before did they submit they did not where they approached they were they were and they didn't they chose Not to submit a proposal Thanks for the information. All right, you're welcome. Thanks, Brian Any other comments or questions? Does anybody have any thing for the concluding items announcements or agenda items for next meeting? All right, it's 1133 and we'll there's no other business the regular meeting is adjourned