Peoria Standard

City of Chillicothe Marketing and Tourism Commission met Oct. 4.

Here is the minutes provided by the Commission:

MEMBERS PRESENT: Kevin Yates, Tiffany Moore, Lowell Bennett Amanda Oedewaldt, Nat Zich, Karen Moewe,

Michele Pollack, Mayor White

MEMBERS ABSENT: Dan Colwell, Paresh Patel, Joe Harper, Carrie McIntyre, Shirley Loser, Nancie Cassidy

Others Present: Council Member Trish Connor, Kaci Geier for PACVB

The meeting was called to order at 3:30p.m. Minutes of prior meeting were moved to approve as presented.

The first item of discussion was the Billboard. Discussion took place in regards to what was placed on the board last year and what is the plan for next year. The committee went through all the months and talked about highlighting the larger events for sure and then filling in with Ad’s that a business would pay for. Lots of discussion about the Christmas Parade and taking that day and have more things going on while we have a captive audience. The norm seems to be people leave as soon as the parade is over. This year changing that and having all the shops open with things going on so that people would have a reason to stick around and visit the shops. There was talk about asking businesses to decorate their windows or all at least have white lights in their windows, something to take part in the holiday season collectively. A suggestion was made to possibly have the parade a little later next year and do something similar to the Yule Walk in Peoria or the Christmas on Court St. in Pekin where every business has a little something to give a way and or refreshments for the customers just make it more of an eventful evening instead of just a parade. Possibly have a drawing for a cash prize and a punch card or something where people would have to visit a number of stores in order to be entered.

We went back to the list for the billboard and this is what was suggested;

Nov -Christmas Parade Dec -Nat’s Place Jan – Bald Eagle Days Feb – Tri 2 Beat MS Mar – Easter Egg Hunt April May June Taste of Chillicothe/Down town Thursday July HLC August September October - Fall Festival Chili Cook Off (New event committee is creating) This draft list will allow all to see where some of the slots can be filled with paid business advertisement. Director Parker said that she would send this draft list out for everyone to review again and plug in any suggested changes. List will be finalized at next meeting.

The question was asked why does Chillicothe not have one big event that the whole community can rally around? Like Morton has the pumpkin festival, Elmwood – Strawberry, Pekin Marigold Festival etc. Having a Chili cook off was mentioned. Mayor White stated that when he was mayor before there was a Chillicothe Cook-off and Mayors were invited from other Chillicothe’s; Chillicothe Ohio, Arizona and Texas. The Conesus was to move forward and plan this new event! There is plenty of time to really put a nice event together for next October. A Chillicothe Cook off /Fall Festival- Subcommittee was created: Nat, Michele, Karen, Tiffany, Kacie and Rachael will start to work on this community wide event that the whole town can rally around. It will be held at City Park, Live Band, vendors and really make this our CITY OF CHILLICOTHE EVENT that we become known for. The Mayor also reminded the committee that at the last meeting it was discussed to collaborate and make HLC a much larger event next year. Events like these that will help bring attention to our city. He also mentioned that at the at the IML conference in Chicago one of the breakout sessions talked about branding. In that session they stated that a brand for a city is really just a promise. Right now he feels our brand is Where the Rails Cross the River, which speaks of the history of this area. So everything we do should somehow relate to that if that is the brand we want to move forward with.

Mayor gave an update on the M & T plan and explained that this list will help keep track of income and expenses as it relates to M & T budget so this will be updated as money goes in and out on a monthly basis.

The Mayor also stated that he will be appointing Kaci as Bianca’s replacement from PACVB and he will also keep Karen Mowe on even though she is no longer with IVC and appoint a new IVC representative.

Director Parker stated that Joe Harper was not able to come to the meeting (he wanted to be reached by phone) but due to the time she wanted to at least share his information with the committee. There is an opportunity for our Chillicothe businesses to advertise with sky publishing via an advertisement booklet they have created. Because he has advertised in this booklet before the company is willing to offer up 3 full pages for $1,300 and the cost per business would depend on how many businesses participate. This booklet is given out by realtors, rest stops, hotels and every company who places an ad in the booklet within a 50 mile radius. The Mayor stated that Joe had told him that he was going to put a coupon in with his ad this time around to help track the success of the ad. Parker added that Joe suggested others that participate possibly do the same. His hope is to have a good number of local businesses advertise along with him to give Chillicothe more of a presence in this publication. Some discussion took place about that booklet and the one the PACVB puts out.

The question was asked ,what is the difference between placing an ad in the sky publishing booklet vs the PACVB booklet that was presented at the last meeting and where are we at with that. Director Park stated that the cost was a big difference between the two if you are only looking at the cost of a full page ad. Kaci from the Convention and Visitors Bureau stated that their booklet called Enjoy Peoria Experience Guide reads more like a magazine and that they offer additional ways to advertise and support their members. Those additional advertisements come if the city signs up for one of the Partnership Packages. Director Parker pulled up their list and read some of the other advertising you get with one of their packages:

Full page ad in the experience guide 1 featured event position on line Featured web on chosen page for 6 months Sponsorship listing and ling in Bureau Newsletters (4 annually) One blog article write up 1 tour of the town episode feature Radio mentions 5 Pictures and video placement on website landing page 10 businesses get a discount on membership (1/2 price)

The consensus was that the PACVB offers more opportunity for dollars spent. Mayor suggested that Director Parker work with Kaci to get the best package that makes the most sense for us and put that in the budget for next year.

Director Parker reported that she and Tiffany went through the Christmas decorations and pulled out what they think they could salvage. They came up with purchasing 12 holiday banners and garland and possibly some new bows if there is money to do so. They will re-use 12 of the wreaths that we already have. There are 24 poles and the plan is to alternate holiday banner, wreath and garland, holiday banner, wreath and garland and so on. Mayor White stated that $1,000 is available to purchase what we need. More discussion took place on the importance for the downtown area to really look nice to help attract folks to want to come down and visit the businesses. Consensus was for Tiffany to reach out to all the businesses about putting white lights in the windows for the holidays.

Tiffany reported back on the Facebook committee. She met with Joe and they split up some of the responsibilities. She will man the site on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays, she is sharing same information that she puts on Chamber site. Anything she sees that is Chillicothe events ore business related she is posting or sharing on the Marketing & Tourism and Downtown Thursday page. She stated that she and Joe briefly talked about changing the name. The Sub –committee members would like that to be talked about as a group when they all can go into more details in regards to that.

The Mayor stated that when he would like to get some information to the facebook committee to share some things he picked up from IML conference about branding.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

http://www.cityofchillicotheil.com/M%20%20T%20minutes%2010%204%202017%20draft.pdf