Alright, so we are going to jump right in.
Thank you for the corner, man.
Get your box, get some lunch, just in case you don't want to, I can eat it.
[Laughter]
Alright, five.
[Laughter]
Sorry, sorry.
Alright, can we, may we?
I think we can.
Alright, well thank you so much for being here today at the City of Denton's Economic Development Partnership meeting.
It is Wednesday, June 14th, 2023, and we now call this meeting to order.
I want to start by saying thank you very much for the lunch that's provided that helps our members squeeze in all of the meetings they have throughout the day.
And I also do want to announce that Bob Eames, who has served on this board for years in the aviation capacity, sent an electronic communication to me April 25th, stating that he would need to step down from this board.
So he has officially resigned as of April 25th.
We will now begin with items for consideration, 1A, EDP 23-029, that is considered approval of the minutes of January 11th, 2023.
Those are included in your backup materials.
I've got a hard copy here today.
At this time, the Chair would entertain a motion to approve these as submitted.
I'll let you approve or approve second.
All right, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion regarding any suggested changes or corrections to the minutes as they were submitted?
Hearing none, I'll call the vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.
All those opposed, please signify by saying nay.
Any abstentions? And the motion carries unanimously.
And at this time, we are going to switch items for consideration, considering that a vote is necessary and we want to make sure that we get it in today.
So instead of moving to items for consideration B, we are moving to items for consideration C, and that is EDP 23-032.
Receive a report, hold a discussion, and make a recommendation to City Council to renew the contract between the City of Denton and Hickory and Railventures, LLC.
I will turn it over to Mr. Emerson to begin the presentation.
And we're also very happy to have the president of scope here with us, Ms. Gregory. Thank you.
Okay, afternoon members of the board. So thank you, Chair.
So I'm going to let Heather Gregory do the bulk of the presenting here today, but she is here to talk about her, the STO program, which is our entrepreneurship center that we have a partnership.
This will be the third renewal of that agreement and very looking forward to hear from her.
And without that, I have a few clarifying items that I'll jump in at the end, but I'll let Heather take it from here.
Hello, thank you for having me. As they said, I am Heather Gregory, so I own Hickory and Railventures, which is the private business that has a public-private partnership with the city to operate STO, which is Denton's coworking space and entrepreneur center.
What I do is run the space, manage the staff, and run all of the programming that we do to support entrepreneurship in Denton.
We have, you can see on the board, we have a mission to support entrepreneurs by increasing access to resources and fostering a strong sense of community.
We do this for a thriving, independent, and creative economy in Denton.
So part of our partnership is that we do monthly reporting and we do annual reporting. So the backup materials that you have kind of have an annual report, what we did in 2022, and I'm here today to present kind of the highlights from that in person.
So this is just kind of the above the fold of our website. If you haven't ever been to our website, I encourage you to go stokedenton.com.
When you look at that main navigation, the tab under offerings is all of the memberships that we offer.
So those are memberships where people pay monthly dues to work from our space, and then really where the city comes in, that partnership is in what we do.
And that's all, that whole list in that navigation is the programs and the events that we do to support entrepreneurs in Denton.
Also under resources, we have blog posts, links to where we've been in the press for the work that we're doing, as well as downloadable resources, again, to serve as help and guides for entrepreneurs in Denton.
So one of the things that we report on is our membership numbers, but also we do twice a year member satisfaction surveys. So we try to understand what we're doing right, what amenities members could use.
And so we just pull some of the testimonials to show to you the value that we bring to Stoke or that we bring to our members through Stoke through the co-working space.
People talk about efficiency, being able to focus on their work, improved mental health, the ability to be in community with other entrepreneurs, maybe that have different skill sets, but that are complementary to their own.
So I'm not going to read those for you. Again, you have the attachment if you want to take them there.
So on the left side of the screen is the overview of kind of our website statistics. So, again, all of this is kind of pulling from the whole of 2022.
So you can see the number of users that came to our website, the total number of sessions that we had, the session duration, the goal completion.
So that's when people submit forms to sign up for our newsletter list, book a tour, or reach out to contact us.
The bigger section on the right is about our memberships. So you can see throughout the year 2022, we had growth in our memberships.
We offer a variety of different memberships. And so the amount that people pay, it starts as low as $95 a month. It goes up from there.
But the amount that people pay determine the access that they have to this space. Some people have a couple of times a month. Some people have 24/7 access. It just ranges.
In total, in 2022, we had 187 member companies that were a part of our organization. We gave 51 tours, 71 venue rentals.
So we have three different conference rooms that are available for our members to use.
But one of the sources of our revenue is to rent those on an hourly basis to the community that maybe don't need access to come and work from our space, but they want to have meetings.
And then 44 percent of our membership are tech or tech enabled companies.
One of the programs that we do is an incubator program for female founders. This specifically we do in partnership with Texas Women's University, the Center for Women Entrepreneurs.
So because of the timing of when the program runs in 2022, we on the left side, it shows we wrapped the second cohort and then we launched the third cohort.
So we we basically graduate six to eight entrepreneurs from the program every year.
Disil Creative Reuse is one of the graduates from the second cohort and they're a real success story for us. They started their business in 2020. They were in the cohort 21 and 22.
They started completely online. They opened a small storefront and through the program and the growth of their business and then continued advising by myself after the graduation from the program.
They've just signed a lease on five thousand square feet. So they grew from 1300 square feet of retail space to five thousand square feet and they'll be opening in their new location later this summer.
Are there any requirements as far as these participants having some kind of footprint?
That's a great, great question. So Accelerate Her, as I said, we do it in partnership with Texas Women's University, which operates statewide.
This was the first program of Accelerate Her through the Texas Women's University Network.
So when we first started, we were the only one in the state and we did prioritize Denton, but we serviced entrepreneurs throughout the Metroplex.
Since then, they launched a Dallas branch of this program, a Houston branch of this program.
They're launching an Abilene branch. All of this really started. This program started in Denton.
So as there have been more programs throughout the state, we have really focused more and more on being located in them because we don't need to duplicate efforts.
One of the big events that we do every year is FlintConf, which is an entrepreneurship conference that we do in Denton.
We've done it every year since 2019. We held it virtually in 20 and 21.
So last year in 2022 was the first year that we were able to hold it again in person.
And you can actually go to the next slide. The right hand slide there is just the whole, it's the day long of speakers.
We have panels and speakers and networking opportunities. And these are some photos from the event last year.
We held it at Sunago Bell at the top of Wells Fargo. One of the other big programs that we do is participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Last year in 2022, we held five events throughout the week to and what we really focus on showcasing Denton businesses and providing exposure for them.
So Global Entrepreneurship Week is a global event. And so we've chosen to participate locally here since 2018.
Our events have grown in that time. So the right hand side of the screen, you can see we host a startup trial.
So this is an opportunity for businesses to showcase themselves. We focused on education businesses.
So this includes anybody who does workshops or education as part of their business model or education technology businesses here in Denton.
Some of those are especially exciting because, for example, from the future or ReadyRosie or Standard User Cybersecurity,
they're not businesses that are really open to the public, so you can't typically go in and see them.
So the startup call is an opportunity for them to showcase their work to Denton and for Denton to be able to see what they're doing.
And then the next slide. One really exciting new program that we were able to launch last year because of this partnership was the Denton Pitch Competition.
So we did this as kind of our final event for Global Entrepreneurship Week last year.
So what we were able to do was we opened applications in this. Everybody who was eligible for this had to either live in Denton or their business had to operate within the city limits of Denton.
So this really was very specifically, they had to be a Denton entrepreneur. We had over 30 people apply for this.
We narrowed that down to about the top 15 that we thought were viable to win the funds.
We provided resources, templates, best practices for pitching. Then we provided one-on-one coaching and feedback for people.
We recruited judges from the Small Business Development Center, from Texas Women's University.
There was an SBA lender and then a small business lender that were judges, so all people that are really used to hearing business plans, vetting them kind of on the spot.
And we were able to award a total of $10,000 in cash prizes to businesses.
So first place won $5,000, second place won $3,000, and third place won $2,000.
This is just kind of a snapshot of some of the other events and programs that we do.
The coffee and commos are group mentor sessions that we do. In 2022, we were holding them on a weekly basis, minus holidays, so there were about 45 of those, 22 member events.
So we do two member events every month, nine educational events, and then nine networking and community events throughout the year.
And then a lot of what we do is then create the marketing and promotional materials for this to increase exposure for entrepreneurship and the support that we're providing.
So all those graphics are just pulled from our Instagram.
Another thing that we are tasked with doing in our partnership is making sure that there is awareness in the Metroplex around the support that Denton provides for entrepreneurs.
So this is just a couple of highlights from that. There was the Denton County Magazine in 2022 showcased women-owned businesses.
And so myself and then a number of people in our network were showcased in that magazine.
And then last year for Dallas Startup Week, I spoke on a panel during They Do a Day Long Women in Innovation Summit, and I spoke on a panel about building entrepreneurial communities.
So we got exposure in the region in both of those ways.
This is the team. All of this work is done with the four of us.
We are in a little bit of a staffing transition right now. Lossamy has been with us for five years, and it is very bittersweet to watch her move on to her other endeavors.
Mary has gone from part-time to full-time, and now we are hiring, we're actually interviewing this week for a new person to join our team. But all of this is done by the four of us.
And that's it. I'm happy to answer any questions.
I will just say that you have something in your backup packet that is the work plan items, and those are directly associated to the economic development strategic plan that was adopted in 2021.
And so Stoke is specifically called out in dozens of ways of what we're supposed to do to support entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Denton.
So each of those work plan items that were called out on the right-hand side lists the detailed actions.
Again, this was just kind of highlights, but you can see a lot of more details of what we've done to help Denton meet its economic development goals.
Questions? So can you remind us, what is the amount of the contract asked for and what is the change from the prior year? I can do that.
I won't. I'll allow it. Just kidding. I just like to pretend to be a joke. Next slide, please.
Okay. So here are the particulars. So one thing that I just kind of want to point out here is that this contract, the current contract expires July 1 here 2022.
And what we're attempting to do with the term of this contract is have it more aligned with our budget calendar.
So we want to extend this new contract in September 30 so that it aligns with our budget process and it also aligns with our other partnership agreements.
So just kind of streamlining that process. So the current agreement was for 143.
And so in the new proposed agreement where the ask is 183.9 and the bulk of this is of that 40,000 is really just the additional three months by extending that term out.
And then I'll let Heather, if you want to talk a bit about this, this is really the actual increase that we're seeing in the contract term. This is $5,000.
Yeah. So as I mentioned last year was the first year that we did the didn't pitch competition and it was really successful.
We but it was it was the first time we'd ever done anything like it. And we the event really happened in a room like this at the Civic Center.
So it was not a big public event. We did definitely market it and got an article in the DRC after the fact.
But what we the additional request here is to actually be able to produce a bigger, more public event.
So it would go towards more marketing and then also some of the event details like renting a venue.
And then how to other than kind of the activities, how is it quantified as far as Denton's return on its investment as far as dollars created here or and employers created?
So I think it goes back to the work plan where it ties in on the strategic. So in your backup, you have that.
So and actually we'll see in our what would have been item B, we'll have our strategic dashboard, which should make it easier for everyone to see is that we are going to take the items that are in Heather's proposal and Stokes proposal and directly align that in our strategic development plan.
And then we have quarterly reports that Heather also does the staff reviews and tracks various metrics about membership. Some of those, I don't know if you want to go back to that other slide, but there's any report is much more detail that staff has and we're tracking those as well.
So we tracks the say pitch competition winners, the those that have been through the cohorts to see what what revenue they are able to or if any of them are able to have successful businesses afterwards.
Revenue specifically is not something that we have tracked yet. We do a lot of the reporting that we are doing.
We are keeping contact. So part of the part of the requirement for the pitch competition winners in particular was to provide a two month and a four month report what they had used the money for what growth that had created what in terms of opportunities or new clients that it had created for that business.
And then each of the winners actually spoke on a panel at our most recent conference to talk about the process the business success that they experienced and then to promote people to apply for this next year hoping that we'd be able to do it again.
Yes. Is there a plan to migrate from or find a sponsor to take this over or with me because it grows each year. I just kind of want to know if we're going to consistently sponsor it as a city or if there's a private entrepreneur that we're targeting to take on.
Like what's the year right because I just don't if we're going to I just need to know if it's going to be the city in perpetuity because I like the idea of it. I don't know that I can get comfortable with us supporting every year.
So I'd like to know early if that's the decision before. I understand your proposition. I understand. But that's going to factor into how I evaluate. So I think this what we look to do this is this is the city's entrepreneurship program and what we're looking for is we're looking for an expert like Heather who is an entrepreneur to run that program for us.
So as of right now this is this is the city's program in fact our contract the Stoke branding and logo all of that belongs to the city of Denton. So this really is the city's entrepreneurship program that we're contracting with.
It's technically Hickory real ventures is who the contract is with. And so we view this as the city's entrepreneurship program and we would like for this to continue. I think what we can say is that nothing's off the table for looking into additional sponsors to grow the event or looking into that.
And it is would be a budget request coming forward to counsel anytime we want to expand that right now the additional ask could be absorbed which is what we're putting up for. We don't need any additional money and development budget for it.
But I think as it grows there's definitely something that both are could look into sponsoring the program or partnering just like they do with Texas University with another group that I'd be interested in.
Okay. Yeah, no good ones. Thank you.
Any other discussion questions any further presentation.
I think the only other piece I wanted to hit on is that after that contract we align that then moving forward it's a 12 month. So where you're seeing that increase it's still the same monthly amount it would return the 12 month amount and the next fiscal year.
All right. If there are no further questions or any further discussion, I will then entertain a motion to approve the renewal or to recommend to city council the renewal of the contract between the city of Denton and Hickory and well adventures LLC.
So moved.
Second. All right, it has been moved and seconded any further discussion before we call the vote.
All those opposed please signify by saying nay.
Any abstentions.
And the motion carries. Thank you very much.
We now go back to item B, EDP 23 dash 030. Receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the launch of economic development strategic plan dashboard.
I'm sure if I'm sorry.
Are there any other voting agenda items, I don't have to step away there.
Sorry about that. Thank you everyone. Thank you.
All right.
So, what I want to do is introduce our brand new economic development strategic plan dashboard.
So I'm going to go to the next slide form.
Excuse me.
Forums required to have the meeting.
Okay.
No, unfortunately, I think everyone else is out of town.
And that we Tony.
But we're still good.
Can we close the meeting, however, continue the conversation.
The chair can close the meeting. Yes.
Oh, and then talk.
After we do have immediate page chair here.
Unfortunately, can we continue hearing.
Presentation.
No, like staff get up to speed on what it is. And we sit in here while staff in a public building.
I think that meets the transparency goals of the city and it may even.
It seems to be circumventing the Texas open meetings act.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it.
We are without form right now. So we are going to have to end our meeting.
There's a lot to go through at the next meeting and I certainly apologize that we're not able to get through our agenda today.
I think we've done the best that we can do.
Thank you so much. And at this time, we are adjourned.