Thank you so much for joining us today. We finally got the rain we were expecting this weekend. Um, I would like to call to order the Tourism Development Commission regular meeting on Tuesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Steve, if we could go ahead and get roll call, please. >> Yes. Chairperson Ber,
>> present. Vice Chair Montgomery >> here, >> Commissioner Marin >> here, >> Commissioner Kleberg >> present, >> Commissioner Shiranovich >> here, >> Commissioner Shelton >> here, >> and Commissioner Miller is absent. Madam Chair, we have a quorum. >> Thank you very much. Next agenda item is
approval of minutes. Do commissioners have any corrections, additions to the minutes from the last meeting on October 21st? Okay. Hearing none, I'll accept a motion to approve the minutes as presented. I move to accept the minutes >> and a second, please.
>> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor? >> I >> I. >> All right. Moving right along. Westworld of Scottsdale. Presentation and discussion regarding Westworld's fiscal year 202526 event
season and event schedule process. Will Lfold or Loft sorry, general manager, Carter Unger, sales manager. Austin Unger, a sales manager, all here with us today. Welcome gentlemen. >> Good morning madam chair, members of the council. Um thank you very much for
inviting us to present today. Uh I am as you mentioned I am joined by Mr. Carter and Mr. Austin Anger. They do the booking for uh our facility and they've done the booking at our facility for the last 10 years and I I do say that of that they accomplish a
lot. Last year we had eight days of the entire year where we didn't have anything going on on campus. We had 23 123 days where we had multiple events on campus. And this past weekend we had a marathon, we had two horse shows, we had a arts and crafts fair and and another event. We had five events going on at at
Westworld last weekend. So, uh, and I've worked at a lot of public assembly facilities. I've worked at some big ones. I I was the assistant general manager of the Georgia Dome for five years. We did NFL football. We did the SEC football championships. We did u YouTube concerts, but this facility is
is busy and Scottdale should be proud of it. And I've only been here for 13 months, but uh I think uh Scott still's got a good thing going. Um we have uh oh, I also want to want to thank the commission for for uh sponsoring our uh strategic plan that we've been working
on for the last year. And u with your permission in February when it's finished, we'd like to come before you and present the results of that strategic plan. The the objective of that plan is to bring um all of our stakeholders together and develop a a uh
a unified approach to how we want to book and present Westworld. And for our objective for Westworld should be three things. It should be a uh to manage the facility responsibly from a financial perspective two to e generate economic impact for the city and and three to be
a good community facility to to provide good community events for the for the citizens in the community. So uh again we thank you and we look forward to presenting before you here in the not too distant future. Uh today however we've been invited uh to uh talk about
two things. one our our event schedule for 2025 2026 and also our strategy on on booking and how we booked the facility. I I want to preface what we talk about today with the following comment and that is our strategy going forward may change when the strategic
plan has been uh been been uh been been accepted and and uh and indoctrinated into our operation. But uh uh we want to give you a feel for how we approach things today. Uh and with that uh out of the way, uh we're going to start on our presentation.
>> Madam Chair, commissioners, just we're having uh we actually had last night's slide to present it to city council. So there it is. It's up now. We're good. >> All righty. Westworld, a 386 acre uh facility. Uh we have about uh 400,000
square feet of indoor uh uh air conditioned space. Uh we have outdoor covered arenas. We have Monttero which is a a a catering facility where we can do events, parties, uh receptions, meetings and we also have polo fields.
We have a we have a wide swath of inventory with which to to host events. So that's that's that is definitely within our uh one of the big pluses we have at at Westboro. Uh who we serve? We serve the equestrian events. We do approximately 80 events total each year.
Half of them are are equestrian events and half of them are non- equestrian events. We also do trade shows, expose, festivals, concerts, sporting tournaments, auctions and sales, corporate and lifestyle events. We pretty much do it all and and we've been
pretty successful at doing so over over the over the years. Our purpose as the premier event-driven economic engine in Scottsdale's tourism economy, Westworld delivers year-round activation with our
diverse high impact equestion and special event programming. Our key objectives are to increase event bookings and maximize facilities, especially in shoulder seasons and the summer. And we've we've been working hard lately to bring in some events in the summer. Uh the National Reigning Cow
Horse Association does their big uh uh summer event at Westworld now in June. That has certainly uh generate economic impact for for the community during a time period where uh we need to fill hotel rooms. Uh we boost are also one of our objective is to boost economic
impact to Scottsdale while maintaining direct fiscal responsibility at the venue. uh we uh for every dollar that that we lose uh on an operations standpoint, we generate $39 of economic
impact, which you compare that to other facilities around the country, we have a lot to be proud of. Uh we celebrate our rich western heritage and our traditions. Certainly, Westworld's grounded in in doing equestrian events. Uh the equestrian uh uh world is is is
our foundation. So we look to the future in in in in continuing that. That's very important to us. Uh we want to attract and and maintain major events and tourism uh driving shows that highlight the Scottsdale brand and destination and we certainly have done that. Uh we have
the the February Arabian Horse Show which is worldrenowned. The Barrett Jackson Auto auction also is worldrenowned. Uh when I took this job and I was living in Canada when I took this job and I told people I was going to go work at Westworld, they said, "Ah, it's where Jackson Ottawa actually is."
So it's a it's an event that they know they know about that event everywhere. So that's a lot for Scottsdale to be proud of. Uh we also want to enhance the public benefit through accessible, highquality events that create love of place and and community pride. If you were at Westworld this past weekend, we
had a arts and crafts festival where that the people that were at that event were they were they were really happy to be there. So uh we uh we service a lot of uh of people's needs and and their wants and uh and and we're happy to be in that business and we're happy to be
uh to be trying to figure out how to do things better in the future. At this point in time, I'm going to hand things off to to Mr. Carter who's going to take the the presentation forward. Thank you. >> Uh madame chair, commissioners, thank you for your time today. Carter with
National Western Capital Corp. Had the honor and privilege of doing the sales booking at Westworld since 2014. Um, I wanted to first thank you all, um, past, current, and hopefully future TDC's for all the support, um, the funding of some
of the events that take place as well as the overall funding and support of Westworld as a whole. So, thank you for that. Um, I'll kind of just go over some of these things quickly and also would love to answer any questions that you may have, so feel free to interrupt at any
time. Um, as uh our amazing new GM mentioned, we have got 80 plus events annually with many of them often running simultaneously. Like you said, we had five events this last weekend alone, the Penners Conference, uh the a Paints
Horse Show, um the Arabian Horse Show of Arizona, Scottsdale's um American Cup, a treasure hunt, and a every woman's marathon that started that had about 7,000 competitors come out and join it. So that was pretty cool for a first year
event. Um we when we first came in, you know, we had a lot of the calendar other than the summer was already full with a lot of horse events. We already had some amazing large events like Bear Jackson, Arabian horse show, Sun Country quarter horse show taking Jan January, February
and December. Um, we started adding more to it, especially in the new north hall, the new south hall, to the fields, to the tent, and we really tried to, while our backbone will always be equestrian, we'll always be known for collector cars
and bear Jackson, we also wanted to add other things. Scottsdale is a diverse community and we serve the entire area. So, we've been very purposeful in having a little something for everyone. Um, we get right around a million visitors annually to Westworld, many of which are
out of town. Um, as you all are very aware and I've paid attention or focused on making sure a lot of that happens in not spring training time so that our restaurants and hotels that often in the summer struggle can get some love. And that's been something we're really proud of. And I'll give you some examples
later of some of those offseason types of events. Um, we like to focus on, you know, representing Scottsdale in a way that Scottsdale will be proud. Our brothers and sisters over at Experience Scottsdale do a phenomenal job of getting the word out about what
Scottsdale is and attracting the people we want. And we want to make sure we're working with them to enhance that destination and make sure everybody knows us for the worldclass city we are. Um, a couple things that are interesting that sometimes people don't always understand is if you want to have a
convention and you're wanting to come in to carpeted floor, AVI, sconces on the walls and dining facilities set up in and out. We're not exactly that. What we are is large bulk space that's a blank canvas for someone to bring their event
that doesn't have to follow all these different things. Hire these people, use this person. We basically say you know your event, you know your attendees, come to us and look at this 120,000 square foot open space that you can design how you want, make it yours. And
so that's why we, you know, we really specialize in that flexible large bulk space. So if you'll bear with me, I'll give you a quick explanation of event use days from 2015 16 up until this last fiscal
year. Um, we're really about 5050 on horse shows to non horse shows. And you'll see as the years go by, the yellow creeps up a little more, which is the non- equestrian. But what isn't
easily understood necessarily is when we have a large horse show, and a lot of our ecoin events now, the smaller ones have fallen off and the larger ones have taken over. They've expanded. Many are two weeks or 10 days. They take all the arenas, all the barns. So you have one
equestrian event on site for the entire week. But then we have a north hall, a south hall, grass fields that also can be booked by three different special events at the same time. So while the special events look like there's more of them, there is because there's more
venues to use for there. And the horse shows use all the available assets at once. So it's really a 50-50 mix. And if you look at our revenue, it's about 4.7 and 4.7. It's literally off by like 30 or $40,000 on the revenue to Westworld
between the two. So, it's really a great mixture of both. This slide is showing um our available square footage of rentable assets per month. Um so, in January, when we're very lucky to have Bear Jackson, they
rent the entire property for the entire month. February Arabian Horse Show. March is nearly completely booked. Um February as it drops is because this is total available square footage um times the amount of days in the month. So that's why there's less available square
footage in February. And then you'll notice in June, July, and August, renting the outdoor arenas, renting the multi-use tent, renting the polo field is not really possible. That said, we have youth soccer all summer long on the grass fields, which is a great community
amendy and something we're able to do because of the revenue generation we do the rest of the year. Um, so yeah, I guess that's that little snapshot of our economic impact study that was done by ASU just recent
or about a year or two ago. Um, happy to forward that on to Steve, get it to everybody if you all would like to see it. Um, it's pretty interesting. Those are the main numbers. Now, here's a just random group of
examples of some of the events that when I've heard you all speak in the past, you you know, rightfully as Bed Tax funds this amazing commission and all the great work it does and experience Scott does, we do want to focus on destination type events and events that drive heads and beds and out of town
visitors. So, some random examples that some of which need no introduction. Bear Jackson, Sun Circuit, Rabbi Horse Show, Scottsdale Art Week came in uh last year. It was a big success for its first year, and we're excited to have them back this coming spring. Um the Kims
Ranch Million-Dollar Breakaway, another big televised, people from all over the country coming. It's grown to 10 days this coming year. They've got a concert component, big prize money, and like I said, it's televised in the rodeo world, in the ecoin world. It's a big deal.
NRCHA, something we are very proud of. In the middle of June for about 15 days, we've got over a thousand horses and usually the kind of metric is for every horse you've got three people between trainers, family, etc. Um, so that's in
June. Um it's a amazing event nationally uh national event. Cactus Classic is another huge reigning ecoin event that has competitors. If you drive through our parking lot, you'll see license plates on pickup trucks and trailers from across the country. and many of
these shows um like not on here which maybe I should have put the global champions Arabian tour which is going to be happening again for its second year during uh the Arabian horse show in the tent. We set up a whole thing. It's a tour that goes
around the entire world from Miami to Buenosis to Dubai and it's a really big deal. Um, and I hope you all should come out and check that out if you're going to be coming out to the Arabian horse show. Arizona Black Rodeo, competitors from all across Arizona Bike Week. A lot
of dentists from Milwaukee like to put on their chaps and come out and it's a great fun time. Um, so those are just some examples. Again, like Mr. Loft said, we've got well over 80 events a year, so I just picked some random ones. Um, and then just
I had a discussion with my partner about what offseason is. And I told them in my opinion, you all can correct me, off seasonason is any time that's maybe not January, February, March. And honestly, shoulder seasons and summer, we like to have a lot of things. So, I gave a
random example of all the other months from the Scottsdale Fair that had its initial year this last spring, which was a 10day run of rides and games and stuff for the community. Um, United Fight League televised mixed martial arts thing in May, NRCHA in June. This coming
July, we've got coming back that took a break from us for a little bit, a youth sports camp, um, best of the West reigning abilities expo, which is everything you can think of from equipment to life skills to everything else for all people that have special
needs or uh, disabilities or whatnot. They did a wheelchair football that was beyond amazing and they hit hard and caught passes that I could never caught catch. It was really cool. Good guys, which you'll see the picture of, is here twice a year. We're very proud of that
event. And I think that's the last slide. So I will double check. Yep. Wrap it up before I turn it all to you for any questions for Mr. Loftall or myself at Westworld. And as you mentioned, we're getting going on our strategic plan, which we're excited to have and
have that formal guidance, but we've really focused on three things. Uh economic impact that isn't necessarily direct revenue at Westworld, direct revenue at Westorld to be accountable to the taxpayers that funded this great venue, and community good events. So,
we've got soccer in the summer, we've got high- five sports camp, we've got stuff that's just good for the local community who's a free dog show. Um, and then we've got large events and festivals or concerts that are maybe great revenue for Westworld, low
expense, but don't necessarily bring a lot of out ofstate people. And then we've got events that maybe cost us a little more, take a little more effort to put on, but are huge economic drivers. And like I said, when you've got license plates from Texas for 10 days in the middle of June, that's
pretty awesome. And so those are the three legs of our stool that we try to focus on. But again, that may change with the new strategic plan. And with that, I will shut up. Sorry, I get a little nervous and talk. Thank you. >> Thank you guys very much. That was a great overview of everything you do. Um,
it's amazing how Westworld can accommodate so many different types of events and I want people to make sure they realize that. Um, a quick question I have that you didn't quite mention is I know when events take place at Westworld, the concessions are run by Westworld. Um can you talk about the relationship a little bit between the
event producers and concessions and is there any type of um kickback is the wrong word but any give back to producers from those funds or what does that look like? >> Our food and beverage operation is uh is handled by Mc Culinary and they've been
the food and beverage provider for the last dozen or so years at Westworld. Um there are contracts, long-term contracts that have been in place for a while in which uh some of the producers who bring events
are are able to bring in their own uh food and beverage provider. Some events actually get percentages of food and beverage. What we're trying to do through the strategic plan is to make the playing field a little bit more level because it hasn't been leveled in recent years. Um the leveling of the
playing field will be will be to aid to make sure that we're providing quality food and beverage at a good price. Um, but we have to compare that to other public assembly facilities, what they're charging for food, too. So, uh, yeah, the hot dog might be a little bit more expensive than what you could make back
at home, but in order for a a a company to actually come in and and make a profit at that, we need to be able to to charge a higher price. So, that is something that we're working through right now. And our strategic planning process, which as I mentioned earlier, we plan to come back, hopefully allow us
to come back in February to give a presentation to you on that. Uh, we'll answers to that question. >> Thank you. Um, would there And just real quick, and I know you're coming back with all those answers, would there be a component that would assist nonprofit events maybe with those expenses as
opposed to a for-profit event? >> Um, we could look at that. We haven't, but it's not something that we couldn't look at. Um, we have a a contract with our with our uh with our third party
vendor which may we may want to augmenting that a little bit to to to address that and and and other issues that uh have arisen in recent uh in recent memory. So yeah, they're they're they're uh I'm not trying to be vague, but but we need to try to take a step
back right now and take a look at what path we want to take so that a uh provides us an appropriate revenue stream allows our uh our third party food and service food service vendor to actually make money because if they're not going to make money, they're not going to stay there. And we also need to
be able to make sure that our our our our clients who bring events to us are are serviced well and the general public who come to those events are serviced well. So there's a there's a lot of uh there's there's a lot of tentacles to this challenge. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. I will open it up to commissioners for
questions. >> Okay. To follow up on that question, what exclusives does Westworld hold? >> Um could you define exclusives? So, what exclusives does Westworld hold? Do you hold the power? Do you hold labor? What
What do you hold as far as events that want to produce an event in your facility? >> As far as contracts for services provided, is that what you're saying? >> Yeah, we have a contract with our with a food service provider and we have a contract with uh with a parking
provider. >> How many parking spaces can you hold? >> Uh we can do 12,000 spaces. your event calendar. You talked about the number of events. >> Um, is your move in and move out dates also part of that number as far as your occupancy?
>> I believe it is. >> So, a question would be, how do you shrink and move shrink move in and move out to accommodate more midweek events? Well, um, a, there has to be a demand for midweek
events, and b, um, there is no magic dust that you can just sprinkle out and say that we've got dirt in the north hall right now. We've got to take it out and we've got another event coming in. Right now, our challenge is that there are there are
days, let's say we're a hotel, and you've all been to a hotel, but I can't I can't imagine you've ever been to a hotel where you're still checked into the building or is still checked into the room and the next person who the next night is is checking into the room while you're still there. That's what we
do at Westworld. So, we have to figure out a way to get around that because it it it inconveniences our customers. uh and we only have 365 days of inventory and and a lot of our day and there's very few days that there's wiggle room. So trying to come up with that wiggle
room is the challenge. I don't have an answer right now. We need to talk to people and we have events where they're contracted uh contracts actually overlap uh and and they've done that for years. Uh they've and that overlapping is not
always uh a uh a congenial affair. So that's one of our challenges that we need to work towards solving. >> So how many how many events that you h have there are on multi-year agreements. >> Um we have about
about a dozen. We're trying to actually work for more events with multi multi-year agreements, especially the horse shows because the horse shows make commitments many years out because there because they're on a tour and so if if I'm running XYZ horse
show and Westworld will only give me a contract for the following year, then I'm rolling the dice for the next two years. So, we've got a we are and and Carter and Austin have done a yman's job over the course of the last last year trying to take those events with only
one with only one year contract and expand them to to to three. We want we want to try to get up to three. So, that's what we're working on. We're working towards that. U but it's but it's a process. >> So, how uh explain the the relationship as far as selling you're selling the
building all the time. You've got the the bureau selling the building or trying to bring events in. How does that relationship work between >> You say you said the bureau is selling. >> Yeah. The bureau doesn't sell the building. We sell the building. >> Yeah. >> If they wish to bring up an event that
requires your building. Yeah. >> How does that relationship work? >> Well, we tried to see if we could find a a a time which which was available for them to bring an event in. the the vast majority of our events are repeat events. We have like two or three%
turnover each year. So from January to April, those events are all locked in and have been locked in for years. U so to try to find space in that time period is difficult to do. The the times of the year that we're
trying to book are the times of the year where where Scottsdale is not as attractive to to visit the summer months. So, those are the the months that we're working on and and we're we're achieving some success. >> When I came to Scottsdale, first thing I did was look at your calendar and I
looked at all of your events and I looked at all the events and all the hotels they had listed on each individual website. A lot of them don't have hotels listed. Some promote RV stays. How do you prioritize the hotels and
staying in hotels that provide the hotel tax? How do you take that in consideration when you're booking events? >> Um, we should uh have we uh I don't know that we have. I've only been there 13 months and uh the the the one thing uh
that is is challenging for us is that we have a calendar that is we have very little turnover. So, we've got these events that have been locked in. And if they're not currently events that drive hotel rooms, and it is our charge to
bring in events that drive hotel rooms, then we have to try to figure out how to rekindle our our our calendar so that we have more room for events that uh that will that will drive hotel rooms. And that's all part of the strategic plan
that we were we're were talking about is a we need to figure out a direction a unified direction for if we have five stakeholders and they each have a different definition as to what we should be pursuing that that makes it difficult to pursue a path. So um that's
something that we're working on. >> Um well a followup to that question if I may with the RV spots. Is there any type of bed tax that comes back to the city for those spots? I the answer is yes. >> Thank you.
>> Any other commissioners have questions? >> Yes. Commissioner, >> I'm curious what you believe is your um biggest competitor. what who's in your who do you um face when you have events and and if what whatever that competitor
may be in future funding what would that need be to win that competition in those off months that you're going against other is it cities is it is it destinations what is the who is your main competition
>> I will I'll answer that question a little differently than you you asked it u during the the summer months Our biggest competition is is the weather. And we have to to go out and and find events
that the weather is not an issue to them and and try to attract them in the summer months. Whether that be uh indoor uh basketball camps or or or whatever for kids or kids or or or soccer tournaments
or or whatever. We have to find those events that uh that that uh that aren't u negatively impacted by the heat and go out and try to attract. That's how I look at it and Austin and Carter have
been working on that recently and uh we're making some headway but uh there's still some gaps that we can close. >> This may seem like a naive question. Is it conceivable that multiple events could be at Westworld in a day? In other words, you use the analogy of a hotel.
There could be a group buyout. >> There could be five groups in a hotel with your occupancy. >> Well, Sunday, this past Sunday, we had a a marathon and we had two horse shows. >> Great. >> Um, the challenge that we have is is to
create an environment where those events don't impinge upon one another. Uh, in all honesty, we had 6,000 runners show up on on Sunday morning at six o'clock in the morning. Uh, we anticipated or were told by the producer that we'd have
500 cars to park. We had 3,000 cars to park. So, uh, we had more traffic congestion than what we would wanted to have. We had to block off the entrances because the runners were going to go off the entrance. So, we had to cone that off. At the same point in time, the horse shows had horse show trailers
coming in for the morning. So um it becomes a logistical challenge for us to do things like that and uh and some days we're better at it than we are other other days but our objective u is to uh
create an environment where the events don't rub rub up against one another. Easier said than done though. >> Very risky. Thank you. >> Any other questions, comments from the commission? Do you see any events that that have been on the schedule that have
opportunities for growth that might need some support from the city, whether it's traffic, whether it's security, do you see anything that that has that opportunity? >> Um, the Scottsdale Fair, which is a fair that we did this past spring, that has
opportunity. Um, we are looking at bringing in a country concert festival. Um I I that is the one area of our of our uh our inventory where I think it if we could create an event once a year
whether that be in the spring or the fall or whatever uh an outdoor event which brings 30,000 people to the to the venue that's a good anchor for us to have. Uh so that's something that that we'd like to produce or or work forward
to. You also mentioned traffic. I think the challenge with Westworld is we have three arteries into Westworld. None of them are major arteries. They're all either local streets or or or neighborhood streets. And there are days
when we're bringing 60,000 people into the venue on those three streets. Uh we need to take a look at how we're bringing in people and how we're exiting. We need to, in my opinion, get a traffic engineer to take a look at at what we've uh what we do. When I used to
work at the Georgia Dome and my job was to manage traffic for the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta. And if we had if the Falcons were playing on the same day that the Hawks had a game and the same day the Braves played and Braves at that point in time played in downtown Atlanta, it was a nightmare. But uh we
we we did the best we could and we brought in traffic engineers and they helped to improve it. um the challenge that you have it's it is a it's a physics problem. There's only so much water you can shoot through shoot through a through a pipe in a given length of time. But but I I think we we
can do better than what we do right now. We have some extra expertise to help us in that. >> I I was trying to lean in on on the bike week event >> and also the EDM event in the summer. >> Yeah. >> Because both of them have been brought up as being possible challenges but also
opportunities to expand. Do you is there issues there or opportunities that we could help with? >> Yeah. Um that you can help with? Um the answer to your question is yes. I' I I don't want to answer that question now. If I could have some time to think about
it and come back, then I'd like to do that because that that's a valid question, a good question, and I appreciate that question. Um but I haven't done that question the homework that it deserves. How about flood control with these major rains. Does that impact you or is the
flood control or is the runoff contained over there? >> Well, Westward was built in a flood basin. >> That's why I'm asking, >> you know, um so we sometimes have swim meets when we don't plan them. >> Um there are three projects that are
going to actually initiate this coming summer to help with the drainage challenges. uh and the strange challenges have been a problem for the last 40 years. So, we are now on the cusp of of being able to address those challenges. So, we're we're very
appreciative of that. >> Thank you. >> I think the one thing that we've been trying to get to is hotels need we need business in May. We don't need more business in March. Spring training, we've talked about it. We've got it in
March. bringing up concerts in spring. We have the business in spring. Weather's good here and people come, but we need business in in May. Um, we need business in summer. Um, it's figuring out how we can either put sponsorship
dollars to bring those events to or create those events during those periods, but to add another on the calendar just seems like we're multiplying when we don't need the business. How do you take that into consideration? Well, I think that's a good point. Um, I I think that we need
to work collectively by we, I mean Westworld, the hotel association, tourism bureaus, and uh come up with a a targeted list of events that would solve the the the challenge that you just
addressed and and and of those events, then take a look at what West has to offer. those events and go out and sell Westworld to the events that we think uh we'd be a good f fit for that would then
also solve the hotel challenge in May. That's how I would approach it. That's not something you're going to do overnight. That's a couple year process, but uh that's the way to do it in my opinion. >> Thank you very much. Any other
questions, commissioners? Thank you both so much. We are so lucky in Scottsdale to have something like West Bless World and I appreciate all of the effort you put into making sure it's essentially completely booked out. So, congratulations and thank you for your time. >> Well, thanks for having us. We appreciate it and and we look forward to coming back in the winter with our
strategic plan and and uh and presenting some proposed solutions to the some some of the dilemmas that you've you've raised you've addressed today because we're all in this together. So, thank you very much. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Will. All right, moving on to agenda item number four, event program funding request.
>> Yes, madam chair, commission commissioners, we have a total of three events. Two in the community event funding program, one in the matching event advertising fund program, the two community Arizona national quarter horse show, the Sun Circuit Quarter Show. Uh the matching event is the Arabian horse
show. A rabbian's 30,000 under MEEF and a total of 37500 under the community event funding program. Uh staff is recommending those amount and requesting a recommendation based on presentation this morning. >> Okay. Do commissioners have any
questions regarding these events? If no questions, I will accept a motion to pass these events as presented. >> I make a motion to pass the events as presented. >> Second the motion. >> Thank you very much. All those in favor? >> I >> I.
>> Any opposed? All right. Moving right along to staff reports. >> Yes. Uh staff reports. If there's any particular questions, we've included information in your packet. Uh you receive the Smith travel report as well as some of our task collections today. Are there any particular questions the
commission has regarding those reports? >> I don't think so. >> And we have no program updates this morning as part of this agenda item. >> Okay. Um next up is commissioner's report. I'm excited about this one and I hope my fellow commissioners are as well
because there's been a lot going on. Um I know everyone's been busy going to amazing events. Um a few that I attended um since our last meeting was the D Mertos. I went to the D de Muertos. Um it was great. The the colors and costumes and everything they do is just phenomenal. The turnout seemed to be
very well attended. Um I was not able to attend the actual community event, but the dance was great. Um Canal Convergence we all know just ended. Um, also another signature event for Scottsdale. Um, fabulous. Again, it was great to see families out. I love that it's a free event for our community. Uh,
so congratulations on another job well done there. Uh, I also went to the Dreaming Draw Music Fest. I was really curious about this one. Um, it was really cool. Uh, it was a great use of the facilities outside of ball time. If you weren't able to attend, the stage in
the ball stadium was awesome. It was packed. There were people everywhere. everyone having a great time. It was really well done with crowd control. I think there was a lot of space. Um they timed it to where people could go to different stages and see different shows. So I was very impressed with that
event. I I really enjoyed it. And then the indigenous culinary experience um part of the um Native American um month. Sorry if I'm getting that wrong. But anyway, was held at the Museum of the West and it was awesome. Again, this is a great year. Unfortunately, they were a
little bit held back because of the threat of rain that didn't happen, which I think a lot of events in the city experienced this weekend. But those were the four that I was able to uh to see and all were fantastic. So, we're very lucky to have those type of things uh in our city. So, I'll turn this over to other commissioners and let us know what
you attended. >> I believe it or not, because of the way I like to run so much, I attended the marathon. Um to your point, I live near there. So, I really didn't see the traffic issue as bad as what a friend of
mine had said it was going. So, I didn't have the same issue. Um, I served on the water part. I wasn't a water person, so I volunteered. I thought it was fantastic. And I don't know, I'm surprised now after seeing that we don't have more of those. Um, maybe not just
at Westworld, maybe somewhere else, but I thought it was phenomenal and especially the the amount of people, the enthusiasm. I thought people left with knowing it was a remarkable experience here in our town, which this is really what we're shooting for. So, I want to
make sure I commented on that. >> Thank you. Anyone else attend events? >> I made it to Canal Convergence the other night as well and it was wonderful. the crowds and when we were leaving there were we were there for the 6:30 show and leaving there at around 7:00 7:15 down
Goldwater and in by Nordstrom's there was the people coming in uh kids families it it was wonderful and the the whole waterway and we were down at Olivan Ivy was packed so just we should be very proud and there was a threat of rain which didn't seem to scare a lot of
people so >> wonderful >> um I went to the USA nationals United States Tennis Association. They were here first week of uh November at the complex over on Via Linda. I tell you that is a crowd we want to bring
back. 90% out of state plates full facility on Thursday when we need the hotel rooms Thursday night. Uh it it was really a good audience, a great representation. I I would support bringing further events
like that back in here. Um, ENEL was up at Reach 11. They're back this weekend. Um, concern is going to be if these fields get soggy and what, you know, does the parks department shut them down? What do they do? Um, that's going
to be an possible issue. But, um, their first their girls event up there actually did very very well. It it they did more numbers than they did prior year. So, we've got good things to look forward to in the future. Wonderful. Thank you. And I know we'll
all have more opportunities to report back at the next meeting for all the amazing things going on in Scottsdale. And I highly encourage everyone to take advantage of the offerings we have here. Uh so moving on to public comment. I don't see any. We have no public comment. >> See none.
>> All right. Moving on to agenda item number eight, identification of future agenda items. >> Yes. At our next meeting on December 16th, one thing we'll be bringing forward is the Museum of the West uh marketing request. We'll be continuing to work on that and update the commission prior to that particular agenda item. Any anything else the
commission would like to uh hear from as well? We can start that. >> Sure. I have one. Um I'd like to review the ordinances that pertain to this commission. Um particularly section 2-286, which is the creation and membership. Um I think these things need to be looked at. I don't think we've
looked at them since the 80s. Um some things have changed. So, I think just a a quick look into it, make sure everything's still relevant, makes sense for our city and the commission um and the event producers, I think is important. So, if we could bring that forward, that'd be great. >> And we'll bring that for presentation.
Someone may not be familiar with that particular ordinance and then we can discuss and review and then bring it back for any changes. >> Thank you. Other than that, I don't have anything. Any other future agenda items? No. Um, one thing I did think of when I was at the Indigenous Culinary Festival
is to do an off-site meeting we've done a couple times. Um, maybe at the Museum of the West if they'll have us with their new facility so commissioners can see it. Um, I don't know when that'll be ready, but that would be that would be interesting, I think, to maybe have a meeting over there if it's possible. >> I think our last meeting was a year ago last October, but we can look at trying
to schedule that in the future. >> Okay, wonderful. That's all I have. Anyone else? With that, I'll take a motion to adjurnn in less than an hour. A motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> I'll second it.
>> All right. All those in favor? >> I >> I thank you all very much for being here.