Would you like to get a >> person Montgomery >> here? >> Uh, Vice Chair Shenovich >> here. >> Commissioner McKver >> here. >> Commissioner Marian >> here. >> Commissioner Shelton >> here. >> Commissioner Kleberg >> present. >> Commissioner Miller
>> present. >> Uh, chairman, we have a quorum. >> Thank you very much. Uh before I get started, I want to make sure that I give the proper introduction as we have a new uh TDC member here. Uh new commissioner. It is one Kathy McKver. Welcome, Kath.
>> Thank you. >> All right. Well, welcome to the Tuesday, April 21st TDC meeting. U go ahead and uh get the approval of minutes going. Any questions?
I you know I would like to good morning everybody. Um I was looking at the meeting minutes and comparing them to the recording of it and we didn't do much in way of documenting a couple of the issues that there was some conversation about and I know in 2019 or
around there we were doing a lot more in terms of documenting conversations in the minutes than we are now. So, I'd like to see some highlights particularly on the stadium funding item four and item five as well. Just kind of documenting what the the kinds of
questions. >> Yep. Commissioner McKver, you are correct. A few years back, prior prior to 2020, we went away from actually having minutes. We went to a marked agenda. Uh so, it's kind of a summary of of the positioning that's there. The videos, of course, is available to get
more into the detail. Um, so that's generally where we stand today. Um, so we're asking for a vote to approve them or not. Uh, there is the option available too that we can discuss that and bring these particular minutes back to the next meeting if that will address
your concerns. >> Well, I think I'd probably be okay go moving forward. I'd like to see a little bit more. But yeah, I'm >> and and going forward, we can always touch base with you and see if we can provide some particular items to assist you going at forward meetings. >> Right. I just think it's important that the city council know that we are doing
our due diligence. >> Understand, commissioner. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. May I have a motion to approve? >> I move we approve the minutes. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> I. >> All right. The minutes have been approved.
>> All right. Next, we have a really exciting uh adventure on our hands here. Um, we are about to have experienced Scottsdale share their strategic business plan. And what I'd like uh this our group here to sp pay special
attention to is are they targeting the right people, right? Are we are we generating and meeting all the metrics that they met and what they've been put in front of them? And I want us to just make sure we ask those questions at the end if we have them. Uh, and we make
sure we do a really good job with this. Okay. Uh Rachel. >> Good morning, commissioners. Uh Commissioner um Chair Montgomery as well as Vice Chair Sherovich and the rest of the commission members. I'm Rachel
Sacko, president and CEO of Your Experience Scottsdale. Thank you so much for the time that you're giving us today uh so that we can share with you the experience Scottsdale strategic program of work and um our business plan for the
fiscal year 2627 which does begin July 1. This plan, I'd like to tell you, is based on what we have been tasked by the city of Scottsdale in order to accomplish for our residents and our community as well as the entire tourism
industry in Scottsdale, a successful part of our economic development in Scottsdale, which is so based on tourism, and that is to create prosperity through the tourism industry for Scottsdale. The experienced Scottsdale budget that is in the package that you received is in line with the
budget that we have for this current fiscal year. That budget just to make sure that not just for your own notification but those that might be listening in. We do not come to the city with a budget in mind. They come to us and tell us what the budget is based on the projections of what their
forecasting will be. And that is also in line with some of our other funding partners that we have contracts with. I also want to mention this because I think there's sometimes a misconception about Experience Castile because we've been working as a partner with the city for a long time. Experience Scott
Castile is a private notfor-profit corporation. We are not a part of the city department. We are not a city employees. We are one of the many contracts that the city has to perform a particular uh role if you will. And in this case, our role is to make sure that
the economic development and all of the economic prosperity from tourism is continuing to grow. Currently, $3.7 billion annually are a result of generating from tourism efforts. And our
job is to use those visitor generated bed tax dollars that come through our hotels to make sure that that continues to grow for our citizens and our residents and our community. So, because even though we're not a city department,
we we are a not for-profit corporation, we're really proud of the fact that we can stay in line with what uh guidelines the city has given us as well as to execute what we believe is a very successful program under your leadership and oversight. as well. As an example,
you'll see in our budget, we're so proud that we're containing our management and general expenses at 14% of our entire budget. The city asked us to stay below 20% aspirationally. The last couple of years, we've been at 14%. What that
really means to anyone listening is that 86% of our entire budget is put into programs that help to keep generating that $3.7 billion. If you have any questions about our budget, about our finances, our CFO, Geneia Kihase is with
us here today and I would ask her to come up later after our presentations if you have any questions about that. Here's how we put our program of work together just so you have a little bit of information about what goes into it before you see it. Every year we look at our budget. We begin this process in
January. We want to see what programs have worked well. We measure everything. If a program has worked well, we keep it. If a program does not stand the scrutiny that we have based on ROI, it is replaced. Based on the budget that we
are given by the city, we then can look at what are the other things that we can use to amplify our success and build those in as our as our budget will permit us to do so. So, what you're going to hear this morning is an overview of some of the highlights of
the programs that have made that that research mark, if you will. We want to be respectful of your time. We know you've got a lot going on. So, what you're going to hear is a synopsis of the highlights. You have your strategic business plan in front of you. You got it in advance. I hope you've had a chance to glance through it. If you want
more time afterwards, my team and I be happy to meet with you separately and comb through it as much time as you would like. So what you're going to be seeing here through that program of work is what you and our members and anyone who goes on our website can see exactly
how we are deploying against the mission that the city has given us. We've even given you all of our travel schedules and the shows we're going so that you can see in detail where we are going to be to continue branding Scottsdale. So as um part of our whole strategic
planning process, we look at those programs as I've said, but we also run them by our experts. We meet internally as a team and also with our members to make sure what kind of research is out there nationally as well as globally as
well as locally. We meet with our members. What are you seeing that worries you? What are you seeing that excites you that we need to be worried about in terms of making sure that we can counter anything that is a challenge or amplify those things that are also
part of our opportunities. We also meet a lot with the city staff. We meet with our contract administrators and we meet with our board members to make sure that they also have a weighin on what we're doing. And of course, the city staff sets our performance measures with us. I
also want you to be aware that what you're going to be hearing today, we also had a chance to share with our Scottsdale City Council members as well as our key city staff. We invited every single council member to come to a program like this where our team brought
the program of life to them as well as we invited various general managers of some of our major resorts to come. The purpose of that was before this came to you for your approval that we could hear and the council members could hear from
our general managers, are they hitting the mark? Have they addressed what you would like to see in this program of work? And the council can say to us, okay, what about this? What about that? So before you had a chance to to hear it and oversee it, we wanted to make sure
that our council also had that respectful privilege as well. So, the final thing in your packet is our performance standards. As I say, we work with the city of Scottsdale and our contract um administrator to put those together based on the standards every
year and the budget that we are given to produce that. So, I want to make sure that you had a chance to look at those. Because we are a membership organization, this also means that we are hearing directly from our members. So during that six months or so, we're
always out and about talking to people about what they hear. I attend national as well as regional trade shows for um for US travel. I'm on their board as well as destinations international and I meet with my colleagues to see what they're doing regionally. And I can tell
you that those two organizations have also said that this organization, I don't say it for myself, but I say it for our community, is one of the best programs of worth and the best staff that they have worked with. So I'm very very proud of that. So this plan, just for your information, has been approved
by our executive committee of the board who reviewed it. They've also this has also been approved and presented to our entire board of directors. So without further ado, I'd like to start having this program brought to life for you. You're going to hear from our executive team. You're going to be hearing
beginning with vice president of convention sales and services, Kelly Bluebomb, followed by VP of marketing Michelle Meyers, then vice president of communications Laura Mcchie, VP of tourism, Deian Buon Grup, and again they'll share those um highlights with you. Please don't hesitate to ask
questions in between each of those presentations or if you'd like to have further education about something that's being presented. This is your time to fully understand and hear and then hopefully for your consideration approve this program of work before it goes to the city council. Thank you for your
time. >> Kelly, >> good morning commissioners. Um, as Rachel said, my name is Kelly Bluebomb and I oversee our convention sales and services efforts at Experience Scottsdale. Um, a quick reminder, our team is charged with building
relationships with meeting and event professionals from throughout the United States and Canada, educating them on this amazing destination and then working with them handinand to bring their meetings and events into our hotels and resorts and tourism related businesses. I wanted to start this morning with just a quick snapshot of
who our Scottsdale Group customer is. Um the graph on the right shows you 70% of the groups that we're working with do fall in that corporate segment followed by our association customers at just over 17% and that's rounded out with our niche segment which includes sports, it
could be professional, collegiate, youth and then also our fraternal, military um and social groups. Um I wanted to also dig a little bit deeper into from that corporate segment what are some of the high value segments that are gravitating towards Scottsdale and producing really well for us. Um, these do tie in with
what our partners at economic development are targeting as well, and those include financial and insurance, pharma, medical, healthcare, and high-tech. There are a couple that we're going to dig in deeper as a team in this coming fiscal year really to develop further. Um, those are retail. We've seen some great opportunity filling our
summer need period with retail groups. And then also legal. Um, certainly their propensity for our luxury product. Stephan, I see you nodding. We love our We love our legal groups. So really going to try and dig in and um and pursue more and develop that segment. Um speaking of new market segments, um new
business is a very high priority for the convention sales team. The destination certainly does enjoy um you know great repeat business, but we really charge ourselves with mining, digging, fishing where others are not fishing to ensure that we're filling the funnel for our community with new business
opportunities. So we do track and measure um what is new business for us this fiscal year. So far, 26% of the leads that our team has generated are new business for Experience Scotssdale or the destination. A theme you're going to hear um with all of my colleagues
today is Experience Scotsdale's focus on making Scottsdale a yearround vibrant destination. Um certainly we um are a very seasonal destination um with some great opportunity in the summer, but also from a group perspective that holiday time frame that mid November um
to the new year time frame. Um, another thing that we track and measure very closely is how much of our business is filling those need times. And I'm excited to share with you, and you can see by these graphs, 30% of our business is filling those need times for the destination.
You might wonder how we do that. Um, as a sales organization, we strategically invest in resources um that allow us to target groups that are meeting in competitor destinations over our need periods. It allows us to then introduce the destination to them to consider
moving those summer programs and needtime programs to Scottsdale. We also have promotions um that allow us to financially incentivize customers to fill those need times. Um summer meeting summer savings is a program that we've had in place for several years. It allows us to financially incentivize
customers to book in that Memorial Day to Labor Day time frame um where Experienced Scotsdale provides a financial rebate um for those groups. So far this fiscal year, just over 40,000 definite room nights have been generated by this program that will fill not only this coming summer, but summers through
2028 as well. Um, and this new, it's new this fiscal year, but we also worked with our community as opposed to looking at seasonal campaigns really just working with sales leadership to identify what are universal need dates for the destination. Um, there are some dates that are just not as desirable um
for groups, right? when Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday, Halloween's on a Wednesday, those Mondays coming out of Easter, Mother's Day. So, we worked with the community to identify dates that overall are those need dates. Um, off- peak perks is the promotion we have put together for that. Um, that again allows
us to financially incentivize customers to um look at those time frames. Um, we'll also continue with our customer focused programs this year. So, this is things like trade shows, sales calls, sales missions, client events, familiarization trips. Um, it allows us to take Scottsdale on the road to our
customers and in turn also bring customers here to experience the destination. Um, I talked a little bit about new business and again really mining and making sure that we're again fishing for those new customers. That strategy follows over even into our FAM recruitment. So far this fiscal year, 30% of the meeting professionals that
have come to Scottsdale through our familiarization trips have never been to the destination before. Sometimes I wonder where we find them. Um, I also want to talk a little bit about our customer advisory board. That is, um, a group that actually I think about eight of them are checking in in just a few
minutes. Um, our customer advisory board actually kicks off tomorrow. And this is a group of 20 customers that are such a tremendous resource, not only for Experience Scottsdale, but for our community. I jokingly say sometimes you just need to hear that your baby is ugly
and whose baby is better looking. Um, so we are able to have very candid conversation with this group to find out what is Scottdale doing well, what is our competition doing better, what do we need to be thinking about to be relevant 3, five years from now to ensure that this destination stays um, you know, the
class act that it is. So um, and the other thing that's really great about this group is I talked about some of those highvalue market segments from the corporate side. These planners represent all of those industries that are so key for us. So, we're actually going to be taking a deep dive with them over the next couple of days and really digging
into those niche segments to find out how do we need to position Scottsdale? How do we need to package it up? How do we talk to these customers to continue to grow that business? The last thing I want to touch on um is actually something that was born through our customer advisory board. Again, we
get feedback from them, we receive it, we put it into action. And a few years ago, we were talking with them at industry trade shows where there's every domestic destination, every international destination. How do we stand out um and make sure that Scottsdale really has a buzz and an elevated presence? And these high impact
sponsorships and activations were an idea that they had. Um this is an example of what we did at IMAX America. We literally took Oldtown Scottsdale to um the trade show, built a whole uh retail facade complete with Oldtown Cowboy. Um the whole idea here is again Scottsdale has an elevated presence.
There's a buzz on the floor about what we're doing. We're able to meet with incremental customers that we wouldn't otherwise. And again, just just really kind of cut through the clutter. Um we'll continue with these in the new fiscal year. We'll be leaning into Wellness, Western, and the Sonorin
Desert. Um before I turn it over to Michelle, are there any questions that I can answer about the convention sales plan and strategies? >> What does Scottsdale need to do better?
M I mean I I will say when I think about what what keeps me up at night and um I think we have been um so blessed to have really strong lead volume over the last few years. Um also in being a popular destination it means that sometimes you
know our rates are at a premium our availability is limited. So, um I think for me it's ensuring that we stay in the mix, right? Because at some point somebody could feel like, oh, you know, I always get turned down in Scottsdale and take us out of consideration. So, I
think one thing as a community we can do better is really working with customers on flexibility when availability of dates to stay in the conversation. I think it's staying relevant and just staying um staying engaged to make sure that we're on that consideration set and that there isn't scal fatigue from the
group side. Yeah. >> So, it's not a quick no, it's a establishing a relationship, trying to help them, help us, and >> Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And I mean, I think when we look at, you know, turning down customers, um, eventually they do become flexible. I mean, all all of us
that are in the hotel world know, right? Um, and so I think again, being able to stay in the conversation and have a chance when when flexibility arises. Aside from flexibility, is there anything that comes out of these um customer meetings about the experience?
>> Yeah, in fact, last year um we actually convened the board and took them into Oldtown Scottsdale to get some, you know, kind of candid feedback that we could say, what is the experience like? How would you incorporate this into programs? Does this feel like a place that you would want groups to um go? And
we were able to even share a a very detailed recap report with our partners at the city that just gave some feedback from a meeting planners perspective. What could be better? Some of it was wayfinding and signage and um you know there was a lot of really great compliments about um the personalities
of the people that they met and the great service that they saw. So it's it's engaging with them in those conversations to again like what's working and what's not. Um but the Oldtown one was a great a great um experience for them. With that, I'm going to ask Michelle
Myers to come up. Thank you. >> I had I I had a few questions here. >> Sorry. Of course. >> What What does it look like as far as in the year for the year lead volume versus where it was last year? >> Yeah. So, the short-term um lead volume
is is strong. Um on a weekly basis, I'd say anywhere from 40 to 55% of our leads are for arrival in 2026. Um it also means we've got some very tired salespeople um with, you know, that lead volume. But yeah, I would say short-term leads are up over over last year. Um and
I actually just um was on a performance call with um Cvent, who many of you are familiar with, and lead volume for the destination January through March was up 55%. Um so lead volume continues to be strong. again, great short-term opportunity if we've got the availability. Um, but it's also having
those conversations with customers with 2026 opportunities. If we don't have it, let's talk about 27. Let's talk about 28 and getting our corporate customers to be thinking um a little bit more ahead just with um the lack of availability. >> I know we talked last year about association. >> Yeah. >> What what what did you do as far as
planning for association and hitting that market this year? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, um, one of the things that we did last year was we convened a focus group of DCbased association planners, um, to similar to the advisory board, really just engage in some of that candid feedback. And
what we heard from them is we source your destination, but we haven't been there in a long time as far as the actual planner, and that there were some kind of outdated perceptions of like it's there's nothing to do there. It's hard to get to, and just some general education. And so one of the things that we'll be doing this coming fiscal year
is hosting a familiarization trip that is just for our DC assoc association customers. >> All right. >> Thanks K. >> Thank you. >> Good morning commissioners. I'm Michelle Myers, vice president of marketing.
Before I cover some of the marketing highlights for next fiscal year, I always like to give a highle overview of how we approach our marketing strategy. As you know, tourism is a fiercely competitive industry and in order to stand out in this very crowded marketplace. We have to differentiate
Scottsdale. We have to know our audience and we have to know the right ways to reach them. Scottsdale has always been a luxury destination and we use a powerful combination of data sources, research, and in-depth analysis to reach affluent travelers most likely to convert and
maximize spend in our destination. We use psychographic audience behaviors and robust targeting parameters to reach luxury market across the United States, in Mexico, Canada, the UK, and in France. Today, I'm going to cover some of the
marketing efforts that you will see next fiscal year. One of the big things we will be shifting to is a year-round evergreen podcast strategy. Historically, we've utilized podcast advertising to amplify our seasonal campaigns in summer and over the
holidays. And we have found over the years that this is one of the um mediums that really translates into actualized visitation. So, our year-round approach will be twofold. will be focusing on selecting hosts um from popular host read podcasts that align with our
personas to have them tell the story of Scottsdale through their advertising. Then we will also have produced podcast ads that will align year round with our different personas on the channels that they are most likely to listen into.
Next, we will be continuing our yearround nationwide CTV strategy. Similar to podcast advertising, the reason CTV is such an effective strategy is you can start with interestbased targeting and you can layer on retargeting ads. So, we're able to find
the right audience and then nurture them with our advertising. Um, so these robust targeting abilities have allowed us to transition from just a two-year or two times a year approach to advertising on CTV to doing it year round with a
whole variety of different um content. So you can see here we ran a suite of 12 different commercials in 2025 that reached over 24 million households and drove almost a million visits to the experience website through retargeting
ads. This next fiscal year we'll be continuing with this strategy along with developing some additional content that really aligns with those motivations of our personas. Another new thing we're focusing on next fiscal year that we're very excited about is airport partnerships. We will
be signing a two-year contract with JSX Airline to really work with them in a variety of ways next fiscal year. This partnership will include some traditional efforts such as social media and email, but it will also include some more exciting things such as you can see here an airplane wrap. We'll be doing
some flash sales driving um that people can purchase when they're buying flights into Scottsdale. There will be airport hangar activations and then this airplane wrap will last for the two years of the partnership. We will also be doing some airport lounge testing. We're currently in talks with a variety
of different airlines to find some key airport lounges in some of our prime target markets to kind of bring a taste of Scottsdale to those lounges. So, we'll be leveraging Scottsdale's main differentiators, our Western roots, our Western experience, and golf by bringing things like golf simulators, hat bars,
um, and different wellness activities into the lounge space that travelers can interact with as they're out traveling. And then lastly, from an airport partnership standpoint is we will be partnering with Retrieve Air. They are a new pet friendly airline that started flying into Scottsdale on February 14th.
Um, we're very excited about this airline. They have limited service currently, but the reason that they added Scottsdale into their kind of flight pattern is because over the last year, Scottsdale has been one of the top destinations that their people have been searching for. So, they know that this
is a market that aligns with their affluent travelers. So, over the next coming fiscal year, we'll be partnering with them on influencer trips and some airport activations where we get to uh partner with our pet friendly resorts here in the valley. Another important element of our
marketing approach is really leaning into the unique differentiators of Scottsdale. Arts and Culture continues to be a prominent differentiator and next fiscal year we'll be leveraging a variety of strategic partnerships to really highlight that element. One prominent partnership will be Southwest
Contemporary. This is a New Mexico-based publication that's a leader in the space. For the last 10 years, they have developed an annual New Mexico field guide. And this will be the first year where they are creating an Arizona field guide. So, we'll be partnering with them throughout the year to build a
Scottsdale insert. So, in addition to already talking about the Scottsdale arts and culture scene in it, it will be an elevated way with an insert to really kind of highlight Scottsdale among the whole state. Golf continues to be a priority for all of our marketing
efforts. We have two golf commercials that will continue running nationwide throughout the year. We have robust YouTube campaigns made up of about 12 different golf um golf videos. Um and then we have seen from a seasonal perspective that summer golf occupancy
has been up year-over-year. So we'll continue to double down with some of that summer golf messaging to really kind of drive that trend. Another element we're planning for next fiscal year is the Michelin Guide. So Arizona will be included in the Southwest Michelin Guide. We won't know until
later this summer if there is Scotsdale representation from one of our resorts or one of our restaurants, but if there are, the marketing and communications team will be partnering on making sure that we're highlighting that element in Scottsdale's foodie scene.
Social media continues to be a tra Sorry about that, a top channel for travel um inspiration across all demographics with short form video being that most impactful content. We will continue to optimize our content creator program. This is a program where we work with
local content creators to go out and capture all of the content that our team of just one social media person can't do on their own. And then we repurpose all of that content um into different videos across all the social platforms. And we found over the last few years that the
organic content that um performs the best is also what performs the best on a paid standpoint. So, we repurpose all of that um successful organic content into paid advertising across Meta, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, and Pinterest.
From an international perspective, we will be staying the course while continuing to monitor the situation. As you can imagine, things kind of shift on a daily basis. So for France, the UK, and Canada, we'll continue to be agile while focusing on educational content that keeps Scotsdale top of mind for our
travelers through publications and partnerships that align with our target audience. In Mexico, we have a partnership with an agency called B Social. And we will continue running campaigns that reach affluent individuals across Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterey that are
really designed to tap into those key travel um differentiators and motivators such as golf, culinary, outdoor adventure, and seasonal events. And then on top of that with the two additional flights coming from Taiwan, we'll really be focusing on being educated about this
market, learning how they kind of in grab data and book flights through our partnership with the Arizona Office of Tourism. One other element we will continue is our meetings marketing. Each year we work with Kelly and her team to partner
and make sure we are in key meetings publications that align with our audiences and our verticals. We run meeting specific paid ads. We have LinkedIn ads and we also have a meetings commercial that we run on connected TV in partnership with retargeting ads that
are targeted based on job titles. And then lastly, one non-advertising priority for next fiscal year is a little bit of a website refresh. Um so we can make sure that we are optimizing our website against AI. Um, with all of
the changes, as you may know, since Google began implementing AI overviews in 2024, there's been kind of a significant drop in organic search across all industries. So, we'll be optimizing our website to ensure we continue to align with those AI
overviews. Any questions on marketing? >> I have one. Um, marketing has become so sophisticated uh nowadays. Can you cover quickly some of the adjustments you've made just in
the last 5 years that you feel like have made the biggest difference? >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh, one of the biggest shifts that's happened internally is we've been able to bring all of our kind of media buying and media planning inhouse. So, we had an outsourced uh, media planner and we had an outsourced digital agency and we've been able to
bring both of those inside which one was a massive cost savings but has also made us extremely agile. we can test so many different things, reach so many different audiences. That has also allowed us, as you heard me talk about with CTV, prior to bringing that
inhouse, we had to um purchase that from a broadcast standpoint, which had a very high minimum spend. So, we've been able to reduce all of these kind of financial shackles, I would say, um to really give
us more agile, be more agile, and better stewards of our funds. And then as targeting abilities have shifted, we can now reach like I said from an interest standpoint. Previously with marketing you had to focus on some of those highle demographics just age, household income
and geoloccation. We can now flip that on our head and really make sure that we are talking about interest first and then layering on all those important things so we can make sure we're reaching the right audiences. See if I can um I thought the airport strategy was really interesting. Um how
many pe it seem but it does seem a little on the narrow side. So how many people do you think you're going to get in front of and are they customers only for season or >> Yeah. So JSX they have a massive database of individuals and the reason our partnership with JSX is so exciting
is because they really deal in that affluent luxury space. So these are people who are able to pay that higher price point. There is some limited service and one some of the flights that fly in are only on limited dates. So there is a little bit of maybe not
being able to get people in as consistently. So that's why we're laying on some of those other partnerships with the airport lounges. We're talking with United, Delta, and American Airlines so we can try and have a little bit of that bigger reach in some of those direct fly markets.
And I I like the podcast strategy too. How do you track how that converts? >> Yeah. So, uh, last year we implemented what we call attribution software. So, this is a new software. We're able to kind of add an advertising pixel to all
of the content that we put out in the world. And we now have insight to when people not only watch or see that commercial or engage with that ad, but also when they come into market. And that's how we've been able to really understand what that actualized visitation is. So we now have this
attribution data. It takes about a full year really to understand kind of the trends you're seeing in that data. So as we are learning more and able to tell more of a story, we'll be sharing all of that data out with all of our stakeholders. Um, but we're able to pair that along with all of the data and
research that the podcast team shares with us each month with our reporting. Um, I got to give you kudos because I've been with international DMOs. I've been with other bigger DMOs and we envy the stuff that you do in the marketing side.
It it there's some really cool stuff that you guys are doing. Um, what you did with Chase, are you thinking you're going to do something again with Chase or MXGBT or somebody along those lines? And if so, when do you let everyone else in the hotel community know that you're
going to be going down that avenue for the year? Yeah, absolutely. So, um, we have worked with Capital One Travel the last couple of years. Um, I'm not sure if anyone has seen the news, but Capital One Travel and Hopper used to be kind of combined. They are separating right now. So, Capital One Travel will be its own
kind of entity uh where it's developed the same back-end software that Hopper has. So, right now we're we're on a little bit of a pause. We're waiting for that shift to take place so we can make sure that we are uh reaching directly with Capital One. And we're also in conversation right now with AMX and with
Chase Sapphire to see if we can implement into some of that kind of OTAA space. Previously when we worked with OTAAS, uh we were using Kayak, Hopper, and Expedia and we realized that those really aren't helping us reach the right luxury travelers that we want. That is why we're making the shift, but it just
takes a little bit of time to get in with those partners. >> Yeah. I mean, just uh from the hotel standpoint, some some chains have an easier ability to jump in midyear to those programs. Some chains can't. And so, you you have to keep that in mind, too. If you're going to join into one of
those programs, not every hotel can jump in and participate at the highest level quickly. >> Thank you for that. That's great to know. >> Any other questions, commissioners? I have a quick question about international >> about the one >> about the international segment in
general. How's it doing? >> You know, it's it's kind of a moving target. Some of my other colleagues will talk about it. Um Laura Mc Merrychie who will be up next. She actually just got back from a trip from France. So, we're seeing a little bit of positive, little bit of negative. Again, it just really
depends on what's happening in the news. Uh things can change on a daily basis, but we do have boots on the ground representation in all of those markets. and we're talking with them on a regular basis just to make sure that, you know, we're staying top of mind. We don't ever want to abandon market, but also we want to make be sensitive. We don't want to
push something out right when, you know, the news cycle might be giving that negative perception of us. >> So, do we have GSAs in major markets overseas? >> We do. Yes. >> Okay. And um I I understand we position ourselves as a luxury travel, but having
worked in the Grand Circle for a number of years, I know that um particularly France, Italy, um it the the Grand Do we position ourselves as a kind of an entryway to the Grand Circle? >> We do. Yes. Um you'll hear from our
tourism team a little bit later. One of the things that we like to say when we are talking to that international audience is that it's the luxury gateway to the southwest. uh you know, you have to treat those international travelers a little bit different than you would domestic. We know that they are likely coming in to Phoenix or leaving from
Phoenix and not spending their whole time here. So, we really like to make sure that when we are talking and telling that story, it's first talking about how you can come in all of the other things you can see how it's easy to get to and from um their country of origin through Phoenix with hopes that
after we kind of nurture them, they will come and spend longer time in our destination. >> Thank you. Commissioners, any other questions? Michelle, thank you very much. >> Good morning, commissioners. I head up the communications department at Experience Scottsdale, and our job
really is to layer in that positive media coverage with all the good work that Michelle's marketing team does. So, we know that it takes people multiple touch points to make their decisions and if they don't know about Scottsdale, they're not going to book it for their meeting or for their vacation. So, we really try and make sure that we're
getting in there and generating that positive leisure and meetings coverage. As an overview for what we'll do next fiscal year, we'll lean into the personas that Michelle outlined and we'll continue to promote Scottsdale in our top domestic and international markets. We're really going to double
down on the luxury segment. As we said, that's extremely important for Scottsdale to differentiate oursel from the rest of the valley. Um, you'll consider you'll continue to see us lean into that earned media coverage. As Michelle mentioned, with AI overviews, that earned media coverage is now more
important than ever. 89% of the links that are cited in those AR overviews are earned editorial coverage. So, I like to say you might not have time to read your travel and leisure and your Kanye nash traveler every month, but AI does. um we'll continue to really focus on um all
of those top markets and our paid storytelling program as well. So with our paid storytelling program, we're able to work with content creators and satellite media tours and those really allow us to tell some of that seasonal messaging to make sure we're positioning
Scottsdale as year-round destination. So as I mentioned, domestic markets, that's our bread and butter. It always will be. Um, so we'll get into those media markets with our media missions, our events, familiarization tours, trade shows, paid storytelling, and our media
relations programs. And then every other year, we alternate two big media programs. This past fiscal year, we had Scottdale Showcase, which took place in December 2025. And with this particular program, we kind of turn the media mission model on its head. So
instead of going into our top markets like Chicago, New York, LA, we bring them to us and we teach them how to pitch Scottsdale. So this past fiscal year we brought in 30 journalists and 63% of those journalists had never worked with us before. So they're able
to go back to their editors and pitch Scottsdale because they've been here, they've seen it, they've smelled it, they've tasted the food here in Scottsdale. And for our first two years of Scottsdale Showcase, we've already generated 163 articles and those continue to come. Um, and that involves
our our various hotel partners. We had 12 different activities. So, it really is a communitywide event. Next fiscal year, we're hoping to host Travel Classics West. Um, so this would be our 14th year hosting. Scottsdale brought this conference to Scottsdale in 2004,
and this will, like I said, it'll be our 14th time hosting, which is more than any other destination. So it brings in 18 top editors, editors from publications like Afar, Kanye Traveler, Travel and Leisure, Virtuoso, and 45 freelance writers. So again, they're meeting in our destination. They're
staying at our hotels. We organize pre and post trips. So it's huge value to us. And then, as I mentioned, our paid storytelling program. So, we'll work with content creators, so um YouTubers, influencers, and really be able to tell
our Scottsdale story. So, what why these why these outlets are so popular is because they own their channels. So, they're able to control the messaging. So, we can get things out there a lot quicker. We can work with them to really massage the messaging unlike traditional
editorial coverage. And then we also work with broadcast experts on what we call satellite media tours. So these satellite media tours are a little bit of a hybrid between PR and advertising because they are paid to play. But you'll be watching um your TV
station and you'll have a content or you'll have a broadcast expert who comes on and talks about why you would come to Scottsdale in the summer or how you can have a stress fee stress-free holiday trip to Scottsdale. Um, so we really can work with these various broadcast experts to get into our top domestic
markets and tell Scottsdale story. And then of course triedand-true media famili media familiarization tours. We know that once journalists come to Scottsdale, they'll fall in love with Scottsdale just like our visitors. And the coverage they produce continues to
last for years. Once Scottsdale's in the back of their head, they'll plug it into roundups. So talk to us about, you know, what they're working on and continue to tell that Scottsdale story. Last year we hosted more than 200 journalists in Scottsdale, both on group and individual press trips.
And then of course the triedand-true media relations, our press releases, Scottsdale travel news, monthly e newswsletter, pitches, and our online press room. A new program for us next fiscal year, kind of taking page from uh the convention sales side, is we'll establish a media advisory board. So,
we'll work with this media advisory board of journalists who can really look at our what we're doing, our fam tours, our images, our press materials, and really give us some honest feedback about what we're doing right and maybe what we can improve compared to other
destinations. And then, of course, international markets are always going to be important for us. Um, I mentioned that domestic is our tried andrue, um, our bread and butter, but the international markets are so important because we know that these visitors tend to stay longer,
spend more, and often come during our need periods. Um, the single most important factor for international visitors is that airlift that we mentioned. Um, so it's really important for us to make sure that we're telling Scottsdale stories in those key international markets. We need to
maintain a balanced portfolio between domestic and international coverage. And while the same tactics we use for domestic, so those fam tours, um, working with content creators, we we employ those things in international markets as well, we know that there are some nuances and we have to tweak those
a little bit. So we have international representation in the UK, Canada, the German speaking markets of Germany, Switzerland, a a Austria and um, and France. And we can and then we work with the Arizona Office of Tourism in Mexico
and Taiwan and all of the emerging markets. The international efforts are so important for us and we know that it's a long game in terms of those efforts and we really have to stay the course. And so what does this all mean? At the end of the day, um, for this fiscal year, the first three quarters, we've
generated 6,171 articles, 19.3 billion impressions, and that means that many people have seen Scottsdale and put us into their consideration set. So, before I turn it over to Deian to talk about booking, um,
I wanted to see if anyone has any questions. >> I have one question, and you briefly mentioned it. Um, it may be in events, maybe media, maybe sales. I'm not sure, but it kind of covers them all. Um, in regards to international and you cover
domestically tremendously and you guys do a tremendous job of getting that word, we've recently had Starbucks Airlines, China Airlines and TSC and and new routes and new possible new customers which we always are looking
for. or have you looked at any attention towards Taiwan or towards the wealth of that country with all those flights now starting between those airlines with the airports and such? >> Yes, thank you. Um definitely. Um we're working with the Arizona Office of Tourism and our tourism team, our
marketing team, and then the communications team are all really working to educate those customers in those markets. We've already partnered with Arizona Office of Tourism to host a few familiarization tours. Um, right now we're really focusing on educating those markets on what Scottsdale has to offer.
Um, but with those two flights from Taiwan, it's very important for us. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions, commissioners? >> Thanks, Laura. >> All right. Well, with that, I'll turn over to Deian Buenup, who's our VP of tourism.
Good morning, commissioners. My name is Deian Boon Greb. I oversee the tourism department and our team specializes in selling Scottdale to travel professionals both domestically and internationally. So, what we do once you see an ad or you
read one of the amazing stories that our communications team cultivates, hopefully you call your travel adviser and you want to come to Scottsdale. That's where our team comes in. Um, we work with travel advisors, tour operators, receptive operators, airline vacation divisions, online travel
agencies, pretty much anybody who will sell travel, we'll talk to you. Um, so when that phone rings, we want them to be well-versed on how to sell Scottsdale. It's our job to make sure that Scottsdale stands out, that we're differentiated from the rest of the valley, and that these clients are
prepared to sell all of our amenities. We will be focusing on luxury travel in the year ahead. Um, one of our taglines that's going to be a a one of our mottos for this year is legacy moments are the new luxury currency. So, people are not
um spending as much in accumulation, but they're spending more on transformation. So, they want those experiences and that's what our team is selling. According to the preferred hotels luxury travel report, 64% of luxury travelers prefer to book their travel with a
travel advisor. We've listed some of the reasons up here, but 97% say that it's also the best way to curate a personalized trip. And so, since the luxury segment has been so resilient over the last six years, um that's why we're going to be focusing on those
travel advisors. That segment is really where the adviserss thrive. And it's our job to seek out adviserss who are selling luxury but may not be selling Scottsdale. Since the beginning of this year, we have already met with several new clients. About half of them, in
fact, never sold Scottsdale before. Next year, we'll continue our partnership with Virtuoso, which is a luxury travel consortium. It's opened many doors for us and gained us access to invitationonly events in the luxury space. Next year we'll participate in
creme de la creme, unique luxury, serendipians president's club, just to name a few. Um, and we're also trying to break through that sea of sameness. When it comes to luxury travel, you really have to be different. You have to be special. And so what our goal is is to focus on um, some of our efforts will be
focusing on how Scottsdale's different. We're going to utilize some of those high impact activations at our luxury travel shows. If it works for IMX America, it certainly will work at International Luxury Travel Market. And so we're going to employ some of those tactics as well. We'll continue our
efforts with LE Miami, which is also an invitationonly luxury travel show. Destination education. This is paramount for our team. There are two ways to reach a travel professional and get them to sell Scottsdale. The first way, obviously, is to come here. Once you've
experienced all that Scottsdale has to offer, uh, you will definitely talk about it and sell it to your clients. Next year, we plan to host 30 to 40 familiarization tours and site inspections here in the destination. The second way is to go to them, go to their office, host a webinar, teach them all
the ins and outs of the destination. Next year, we plan to train 15 to 20500, sorry, to 2,000 travel advisors and teach them how to sell Scottsdale. We place a huge emphasis on education because of something that we call the
multiplier effect. So for example, this year so far we've reached 3,500 travel advisors. Those travel adviserss will sell to hundreds of their clients, resulting in tens of thousands of visitors coming into Scottsdale. So these companies often ask us to come
back year after year and train because it means increased sales for them. So we know we're doing something right. Air service development. Commissioner Marin, you you preempted my um presentation. We are going to be focusing on some of the new air service.
Um the easier it is to get to a destination, the more likely you are to visit there. In 2024, international travelers accounted for 14% of our 11.7 million visitors in Scottsdale, but it was 19% of the spend, which accounted
for about $2.4 billion in visitor sending spending. So the international markets, it really takes that air service development to make it happen. So anytime you see a non-stop flight coming into Phoenix Sky Harbor, that makes Scottsdale easier to sell because
people can get here more easily. Phoenix Sky Harbor currently is home to 24 airlines that service non-stop flights to 130 domestic destinations, but then an additional 26 international markets. So there's huge opportunity for us.
These two um Taiwanese carriers are um doing quite well so far. Year-to date, they average about 200 passengers a day on the days that they do fly. So, we're focusing on education um in the Taiwanese market. They may not know where Arizona is if you're not involved
in the semiconductor business. And so, for the the traveler, the the luxury traveler, we're trying to educate them on what Arizona is and what Scottsdale is so that there's a higher propensity for them to come here for vacation as well. and we have a great partnership
with Phoenix Sky Harbor and um we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg that there'll be a lot of growth in the years to come in the international segment with regard to air service development. But let's not forget our own airport here in in Scottsdale. Um Scottsdale has a lot of
amazing amenities at the airport. Three of those are our fixed base operators. So many of our clients choose to ply fly private and um you're able to use our FBOS's to do so. We partner with Scottsdale Airport at the National Business Aviation Association trade
show, promoting Scottsdale, letting people know that we do have an airport and we do have amazing access. We also have customs service 247, which a lot of people, a lot of our clients don't realize. So, educating our customers about Scottsdale Airport is very important. In the coming year, we'll
also be partnering with JSX to promote their service and hopefully um reach a couple of our key domestic markets through those efforts. So, I'd like to open it up for some questions. Um, if you have any for the tourism team. >> Commissioners, any questions?
>> With regards to the new flights from Taipei, um, it looks like this service is pretty new. How's it doing? And do we know where those folks are going? >> Once they hit Sky Harbor, where are they going? >> Of course. As I mentioned, they're
averaging about um 200 passengers a day per flight. So every day they fly, the planes can accommodate about 306 passengers. So they're doing pretty well. >> That's not a bad load factor for >> three months. >> Not bad at all. There's a lot of opportunities. Um so far, you know, it's
hard for us to track once they get here because they may be connecting to other destinations. The airport calls that through traffic. Um but we are seeing a lot of in the West Valley there's a lot of um expansion with TSCM. And so the thought is that many of them are staying
here. And the more we educate that market, the more that we'll get them to stay here. >> Got it. Okay. Interesting. >> And they're hoping to expand their service. Right now, each airline flies for three days a week and um they're hoping to expand in the future to to more days. So, there's a lot of
opportunity for the Asian markets right now. >> In your opinion, it's the data centers that are have incentivized these airlines to fly direct into Phoenix. Is that what's bringing them? >> Um, no, not necessarily. It's the semiconductor Taiwan semiconductor and um obviously
when you have business travel that gives them a nice base of business but there's still room for um for luxury travel and leisure travel to be coming in. So it's something we need to educate about and then we'll start seeing that it typically takes about 3 to 5 years when you open up a market. Yeah.
>> And so you know we we're playing the long game here. Those a lot of millions and millions of dollars have been invested to get those flights here and it's our job to keep them here. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thanks. >> Great. Well, I'd like to turn it back over to Rachel Sacko. She will um close
our presentation today. >> Thank you, commissioners, for your attention and for all of your support. I just wanted to make sure that as I close that I thanked you for everything that you do to oversee our program of work and for the oversight that you give and the advice and the counsel that you give
our teams. Thank you so much for everything. Is there anything else that we can do for you in terms of providing information before you consider um I hope approving this program of work. Um if you have questions about anything, I
would be very happy to meet with you. um outside of of this meeting uh with my team. That's one of the things that we hold very dear is that you understand the program, that you can actually stand up for the program and that you feel it actually moves the needle on what the
city has asked us to do to keep tourism as robust as it is in Scottsdale. So with that, I'll um I'll thank you again for your for your help. And one of the things that as I mentioned, Jania Ki is here. you didn't have a chance to um meet with her necessarily or hear from
her, but also Rachel Pearson who many of you know who is our VP of community and government affairs and so all of us would be happy to meet with you at any time. Thank you >> Rachel real quick. I just have one quick question in in this crazy world of
evolving uh sophisticated marketing. How how are we doing against what would be our competition and who do you think that is primarily? May I ask you uh Chair Montgomery to turn to a couple of your own commissioners um in some of the
meetings that I have had and I'm going to particularly look at Commissioner Myin as as well as Stefan um representing two of our major resorts. What I'm hearing from our resorts is that not only has this been one of the best years, not just year-over-year,
best years on record for many of our properties that have been here maybe 20 years plus plus, and I'm talking almost unanimously. What I hear when I'm out in the community as well beyond um out uh throughout the country too is that we
are definitely punching above our weight. We when we look at our competitive set, we have one of the lowest the smallest budgets except for Tucson, Arizona. And yet we are competing successfully with destinations throughout the country that have three,
four, five times our budget due to other budgetary mechanisms that they have like a tourism improvement district as an example. And yet we're continuing to have through the authenticity, through the service, through everything that Scottsdale has developed into an
incredibly robust tourism destination. So I would say perhaps if if you don't mind, um, Commissioner Marin, you might have something to say as well as um you might have something also to say from the forecast. >> I guess Lance, how how is the business? >> The business is great. My question was
going to be similar to um or more comment than anything. As as rising costs continue significantly, we recently month or two ago looked at the budget. We looked to be extremely conservative and since your budget is based on that budget, is there are there
things that um you've had to eliminate or are there things that you would add if you had more money? because to your point and to the the the board's knowledge um that I was at that meeting and every resort that was invited had
record years record of any uh year and continues. So the budget obviously will be significantly higher from a from a bed tax um for 26 for sure. Um and so yes, we definitely punch above our weight. We don't compete with hotels in the city. We compete with Austin and
Nashville and Chicago and >> correct >> LA and New York. We don't compete amongst ourselves. We're we have more leads than we know what to do with. So that's to your credit as well. We want to understand how do you keep that going knowing that costs are going up and the
budget was relatively flat. So are there things that you eliminated that you would want to put back into this budget? >> Thank you for that question. I was just asked that question at our board meeting last last week or so and the answer to that was when we look at the cost
efficiencies that this organization has been able to obtain. First of all, we have everything in house creatively. The only time that we go outside is when we need to make a film and when that we bring a television crew in that actually has an expertise in filming for a
commercial. Everything including even the development of our website is all done in house. We are a very efficient team if you will. And what we've been able to do with as as Michelle had mentioned in her marketing presentation
when you can actually look at where your key market can be your key customer and you can look at the just looking at that map if you remember from the United States. I remember um not too long ago that we were only able to have a robust
presence from our marketing, particularly television advertising in maybe let's say six destinations. Then it came to 18 destinations. You saw over 40 domestic destinations there that are receiving Scottsdale messaging um on a
year round basis. And how we're reaching them so effectively is that we can look at their interest. Yes. We can actually target an individual who has the net worth and the other elements that would we know make a a perfect Scottsdale
visitor and it's so cost-effective to get to that person and then we can measure it and then we can retarget and add to them. Years ago we did not have the ability to do that. Um so we can tell you that we're in the right place at the right time with the right message
reaching the right particular customer. So the cost efficiencies have allowed us because we actually avail ourselves of them and measure everything. Not every destination does that. But what my answer back to your question and my answer to the board was I don't know
that we would do anything that would be so different. What we would do is amplify everything that we are doing. So instead of just those 40 markets and we're reaching them the way we are now, what happens if we were able to reach them in other ways with different
messaging and in a more frequent uh fashion because we know that it doesn't stick in your mind to want to come to a destination till you've heard that message a few times. Um Alex, I know you and I have talked about this before. It takes a while and that is where your
budget comes in. As you all know, we're in the process statewide of looking at a potential tourism improvement area which would allow statewide destinations to actually amplify their budgets to bring tourism to their destination. So, should
that pass, we'll be having those discussions with our community leadership, our council, and our hotel community as well. Um, and that is one of the reasons our budget has not grown to some of our competitors, but we are definitely using it to our best advantage.
>> I'm going to ask Joe for the same the same question. As being a Scottsdale resident, I know I can't play golf anywhere um at a reasonable thing. So, Joe, can you speak a little bit about what this is? >> The Scottsdale community also echoes the
hotel. I mean, record and you're doing a phenomenal job. Pedal down, keep doing what you're doing. And what I'm amazed with are the recruiting. So what you have is you have individuals that come on a golf trip or come for corporate and then they'll do their golf trip particularly New York Boston. They're
going to Florida and I particularly had an individual call a month ago and said I took the lead. I'll take charge of the golf group of guys which is not a easy task. We're I'm bringing them to Scottsdale. So he's booking a year out >> and the ones that are here the crossover
bookings when they leave put me down for next year >> and the cool thing was over the last year is the summer it really starting you're really doing a great job in the shoulder and summer and building momentum. Obviously we had great weather this year. Other destinations had a
rough winter with Pinehurst in particular. They had a rough winter. Conditions aren't great and so they're going to go down and try a different destination but they're all coming back. So, keep doing what you're doing. And I think this JSX partnership is brilliant. We get a lot of folks that come into Scottsdale on this JSX. It is a gamecher
and it's not that much more expensive if priced correctly. We keep hearing that and I think for some of those key destinations that they're in, that's a home run right there. So, great job. >> All right. Any other questions, Commissioners? Well, Rachel, thank you very much for that extensive uh
presentation. The team did a fantastic job. Uh it's always fascinating to see uh what we're doing and how we're attracting people. So thank you very much. >> Thank you commissioners. >> I was just going to say thank you as well. I mean we're all winning because of all the things that you do and that's
from all of us. So thank you. Keep doing it because of course all the bar just keeps getting set higher and higher. So thank you and and yeah, we need to push more business to summer and those shoulder seasons and I know we're striving to do that with all of those different activations that we're doing. So thank you for your partnership.
>> Thank you so much. and it's an amazing team. I'm really proud of them. I'm glad that you are as well. Thank you for your support. >> Okay, Steve. >> Yes, chairman, commissioner, staff is uh requesting a recommendation to forward to city council to approve the strategic business plan as presented here today
and the contractual performance measurements. >> I'd like to make a motion to present the experience Scottsdale strategic plan to the city council. >> I'll second it. >> All in favor? I I >> just for clarification, that was a recommendation to present to city
council. Correct. Did I hear that? Okay. >> All in favor? >> I >> I >> All right, Steve. What's next? >> As chairman, commissioners, we are on to item four, the 2627 city event funding program. In your packet, we provided
quite a bit of information as well as some recent red lines related some changes to our event funding programs. Thank you for your assistance over the past two months in framing these and what we'd like to move forward as a recommendation to city council for next fiscal year. I'd like to briefly review kind of some of the changes that we've
discussed and then open up for discussion and ask for a recommendation to proceed. Um so when we look at our event funding program we are making really two two changes. I think mostly it's been mostly administrative, minor changes, tweaks here and there. Uh not much, but in terms of the programs
themselves, uh we are recommending removing uh the seasonality funding criteria, reducing maximum funding from 30K to 275. Um relatively a minor change. That doesn't mean we won't emphasize having events come here in the summer or the season shoulder seasons if you will. It was just more of
administrative move to to make that happen. And the reason we looked at that as well is we haven't had a community event apply for more than 275 based on the funding criteria. So that that's why we looked at that and make that recommendation. The other thing um maybe more significant in terms of the program
itself uh we have four programs. One of those was our vent development fund program. Funding between 30 and 75,000 is availability there. This year staff is recommending pausing or not moving forward with that program for next fiscal year. Um, so we have four events
that we would consider grandfathering in through that program because they're in that process as you know we we fund through that for three years and then we asked them to events to move forward into the other three. The majority of the programs that participate events participated I think it was roughly around eight or nine were ready to make
that transition out of the event development into the community or matching event. So it was a good time to look at that and consider that. But the four events we're looking at will continue and present as as we normally do to the commission. That's why the worksheet and the postevent are in the packet as well because we still need
that application process to continue to look at those four. So those are the uh maj changes we are considering and we're also want to just emphasize there are some funding we've done in the past the Arabian tent support and the fourth of July fireworks show those will go through other sources to provide that
funding so they will not be presented to the tourism development commission. So uh with that being the case information is in the packet. Um, thank you once again, but staff is looking for a recommendation to move this forward uh to city council as presented. >> Any motion?
>> Could you just explain I know we talked about this quite a bit. Why you're eliminating it? Just is it efficiency? Is is it still keeping the same amount of revenues for people to come forward? Is it just a different category? Is it duplication? Just help me understand why it's just eliminating it completely. >> Commissioner Maron, thank you. I'm
assuming are you talking about the event development program 30? Yeah. Under after cons consideration we has we as we discussed >> some events that were not in the 9% bucket were are being reallocated to that 9%. So we had to kind of do a re-evaluation of the costs the expenses
associated. So that was a option we looked at had very limited impact related to that. There are some events like canal convergence that were not in the 9%. Tortois Scottdale was not in the 9%. It's being moved into that bucket. >> Okay. So we had to give consideration for that. It seemed like a good option
to take at this time. And as I mentioned last month, we will still consider events that come along. If the commission is aware of an event, if staff becomes aware of an event that we can present, not particularly in that program, we'll still take a look at it and make that presentation to uh the commission.
>> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Do we have a motion to accept? Let me go ahead and rephrase this one. So, Steve, we're we're looking for a
motion to accept the new funding. >> Accept as presented >> the four funings that are being here presented the programs themselves. Yes. >> Okay. I move that we move forward with the core funding. Is that the way the >> we're we're phrasing it?
>> The event funding programs as >> the event funding programs to move to the city council. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> I >> I thank you. >> Staff reports.
>> Yes. as we include it every month we have bed tax collections up to February as well as classification reports the proformer of bed tax fund uh financials are also in your packet uh is there any particular questions you might have regarding those as well as the event
funding postevent reporting form >> commissioners any questions >> all right there are no questions Chairman. Item number six, commissioner reports. >> Commissioner reports. Uh, anyone have anything to share about one of the events they've been to recently had the
opportunity to go and participate? >> Um, I went to a lovely event uh this weekend at the uh art museum. It was a mystery event and it was a lot of fun and uh met some nice people there and I thought it was a real great way to get
people into the museum. And I also attended the 70th anniversary over at the stadium and um it wasn't as well attended as I thought it might be but it was still very nice. >> Anyone else?
>> All right, Steve. >> Yes. There are no other reports >> there. Uh well, number seven is public comment. Uh we have not received any public comment. >> No public comment. >> Identification of any future events. >> Yeah. And next month we anticipate a
presentation from Westworld regarding their strategic plan. Uh so the general manager of West will be here as well as some of his staff to present that. Uh we do have some upcoming events either in May or June such as about the uh Bentley Polo event, but as one of the four I
mentioned kind of grandfathered in, they'll be here for presentation. And if there's any other items the commissioner would like us to consider, we we can do that. >> Will we receive uh information on the uh strategic plan from Westville before? >> Yes, a presentation was made uh in terms
of the funding aspect of it. I think I don't believe there was any detail on the plan itself and that's what we're hoping to have here. Okay. Any other questions? All right. I think that completes today's meeting, right? >> Yeah. We need a motion to adjurnn.
>> We need a motion to adjurnn. >> I motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Thanks everyone. Thanks Steve. >> Thank you. Thanks. Experience Scottsdale folks.