TDC Minutes 04/17/2023April 17, 2023
MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY
TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL MEETING
Naples, Florida, April 17, 2023
LET IT BE REMEMBERED the Collier County Tourist Development Council, in and
for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 1 p.m.
in a REGULAR SESSION in Building F of the Government Complex, Naples,
Florida, with the following members present:
Chairman: Commissioner Bill McDaniel Jr.
Vice Chairman: Clark Hill
Susan Becker
Kathleen Brock
Amanda Cox
Councilor Jared Grifoni
Nancy Kerns
Ed "Ski" Olesky (excused)
Councilwoman Beth Petrunoff (excused)
ALSO PRESENT: Paul Beirnes, Collier County Tourism Director
Colleen Greene, Assistant County Attorney
Buzzy Ford, Tourism Digital & Social Media Coordinator
Christopher Johnson, Interim Director, Financial & Mgt. Services
Marissa Baker, Manager, Paradise Coast Sports Complex
Amanda Townsend, County Museums Director
April 17, 2023
Anyone who needs a verbatim record of the meeting mQ1, request a video recording from the Collier
County Communications & Customer Relations Department or view it online.
1. Call to Order
Chairman McDaniel called the meeting to order at 1 p.m.
2. Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
3. Roll Call
Mr. Beirnes said Ms. Petrunoff has an excused absence. Ski Olesky is probably stuck in traffic.
A quorum of seven was established by members present in the board room.
4. Agenda and Minutes
A. Changes and Approval of Today's Agenda
Mr. Beirnes said the only change is Item 7A from Coastal Zoning. Some changes needed to be
made with some of the engineering. They reached out late Friday and asked if we could move this
to the next TDC meeting, so we'll skip over 7A.
Vice Chair Hill made a motion to approve the agenda, as amended. Second by Councilor
Grifoni. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0.
B. Approval of prior TDC Meeting Minutes
1. Regular Meeting March 20, 2023
Ms. Becker said she wanted to say how well done these minutes are with the details, especially
Mr. Johnson's financial report. It was extremely well done, especially his ability to answer the
questions that many of us asked.
Ms. Becker made a motion to approve the March 20, 2023, meeting minutes. Second by Vice
Chair Hill. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0.
5. Presentations/Public Comment - (3 minutes each)
A. Executive Director Update EPaul Beirnes]
Mr. Beirnes reported that:
• We're tracking and interpreting a lot of influences within the travel industry right now.
We've probably never seen so much in ever -changing elements. The influences are far
reaching and very compounded. There's no one or two that are living on their own.
• We're constantly monitoring everything from social media to research sources.
• The list of what we're tracking hasn't ever been so long. We're still tracking hurricane
perceptions seven months afterward and red tide. There are no traces and we monitor it
daily because that changes significantly.
• We're watching the sargassum seaweed blob and where that may end up.
• We're watching political partner statements, whether it's anti -left, anti -right, pro -governor,
pro -anything. It's very fragmented. There are many discussions that have brought Florida
into the fray.
• We're witnessing momentum through the NAACP's call to avoid visiting or moving to
Florida, objections to Florida's open -carry law, rising inflation and gas rates, and LGBTQ
family quality travel bans that are being elevated. Last week, it was abortion bans, so
there's a significant amount of elevation going on, as well as elevated travel costs.
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April 17, 2023
• He and the research team have been monitoring "Florida fatigue." Over the last couple of
years, we've witnessed a tremendous benefit to Florida tourism, occupancy rate, average
daily rate and spending. What's happening now is that people are getting more
comfortable going into major city centers.
• Lisa will talk later about meetings, industry and trends that have been a benefit to us
because we're a smaller destination for those who might not want to go to Vegas, New
York or Chicago. They're winning over a lot of business because people are willing to go
back.
• Those with the wherewithal and desire to travel overseas to Europe are chipping away at
the solidified state we've enjoyed in the last couple of years.
• Occupancy and ADR performance in January and February were really good, when you
consider that we'd just experienced a hurricane. Compared with last year, an all-time
record year, January and February performed extremely well. We saw some weakening
during the month of March and thought most or all would come from Florida residents
because of red tide. But research showed it wasn't just Florida, it was everywhere, the
Northeast and Midwest.
• We haven't been able to identify one silver bullet but saw a roughly 8-basis point decline
last month.
• As of last week, we started seeing a stabilization. Red tide isn't in the news and there was
some stabilization of occupancy and ADR. Even RevPAR exceeded last year's numbers,
which, even though it was Easter, was a significant change after a month of downward
slippage.
• Our market strategy since last summer and pre -hurricane set us up for what we're going to
celebrate and talk about going forward. Our strategy was to allow our peak season to do
what it could do. We'd elevate it without overdoing it and focus our strategy on shoulder
seasons, spring and summer.
• In March, we started rolling out a lot of campaigns in the Northeast, Midwest and Canada,
pushing toward spring and summer.
• Joseph will show that Canada has now become our No. l international market. Last
March, we started a test to see whether we could increase that in spring and summer and
we saw good traction, so we've started pushing that.
• Enriqueta will focus on the size of the website searches coming out of that.
• Paradise Coast Sports Complex is bringing 200-250 people to The Cove every Saturday
for Sunset Saturdays. There were 4,000 people there on Easter weekend for a church
service and Easter egg hunts. That's a great testament to what they're doing — getting word
out to the community. We can brand the sports complex more with an entertainment
component. They've sat down with Paradise Advertising and we're looking to augment
that not only in the remainder of this year with communications of special events there,
but also 2024.
• We started the beach renourishment program. It's incredibly impressive. They're currently
dropping off sand where the Naples Beach Resort was and moving it down toward the pier
in mining trucks and then laying it going north. The sand is 6-feet deep and 50-55 feet
wide, so it's a combination of a berm and beach restoration happening in one swoop. It
looks great.
• The marshals monitoring the site got no complaints or concerns from the public.
B. Reserves Update [Christopher Johnson]
[Mr. Johnson detailed a PowerPoint presentation.]
Mr. Johnson reported that.
• He's back to answer a few questions from the last meeting about reserves, the history of
the reserves and how they're broken down by actual pennies.
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April 17, 2023
• The reserve history over the last 10 years, 2014 until FY23, shows reserves have ranged
from $28 million to about $74 million in the adopted budget this year.
• In the FY23 amended budget, the current reserves are $45,611,000. That's after we did
budget amendments to move funding for the beach berm project and beach cleanup.
• The first 3 cents equaled about $14.7 million apiece and total about $44 million.
• The fourth penny totals $1.2 million and the fifth penny totals around $352,000.
• Those are mostly attributed to the beach renourishment fund, about $39- $40 million.
Chairman McDaniel asked if he could e-mail the PowerPoint slides to TDC members. We don't
need to have a discussion today, but maybe offiine we could have a meeting to chat about the
allotment of these revenues and expenses. There are legislative things going on now that we have
to pay attention to just to ensure we continue doing what we're doing.
Mr. Johnson said he could do that.
Mr. Beirnes said a storm hit Florida's east coast over the last week and Fort Lauderdale had
significant impact around Daytona Beach Shores. During Hurricane Ian, they got battered and that
ended up impacting their beach renourishment because it took about half the sand they'd put
down. They don't have reserves remaining, so that leaves them in a precarious spot before
hurricane season. We're blessed that we've got a team like Coastal Zoning who are preparing us in
a good way as we get into the summer season.
C. Overview Of Return On Digital Media Efforts Presentation
Mr. Beirnes reported that.
• In the 2'/2 years since he's been here, they're always dealing with significant numbers. We
rely heavily on research to make sense of it, especially Downs & St. Germain.
• Our CVB has been leading the charge in measuring metrics. Other CVBs measure some
factors exponentially, but a year ago, we started using Zartico, which tracks digital devices
in our pockets, such as what people are doing, where they're traveling, when, what town.
• We rely heavily on Destinations International, a globally recognized industry unit that uses
Oxford economics to make sense of the economic impact of tourism within a market.
• What's so exciting is Adara. Leroy Bridges is a senior executive with Adara that we lean
on to show where spending is and how it affects our advertising effort.
[Mr. Bridges detailed a PowerPoint presentation.]
Chairman McDaniel said he saw a number that showed it was catching 60% of the actual credit
cards and that was correlated back to actual people who were touched by the digital advertising. Is
that correct?
Mr. Bridges said that was right. That's important.
Chairman McDaniel noted that it only picks up MasterCard, Visa and Discover Card, but not
American Express, so you're correct in saying this is a conservative number. It's good that it's
correlated back to the direct touch.
[Mr. Bridges continued his PowerPoint presentation.]
Mr. Beirnes told the TDC:
• These slides are top of the line. The deck Leroy sends us is about 260 pages and is very
detailed.
• We decided it was important to redact detailed information and numbers for privacy
reasons and to focus on the top 10.
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April 17, 2023
• The numbers were astounding when we looked at restaurants, an aggregate of $600
million, but it was amazing to know our digital communication was received by someone
who then took action, came to market and spent.
• We use it to have a robust conversation about our content communication within emails,
such as this is where people are staying, this is where people are eating or this is the type
of experience they're looking for.
• This allows us to be much smarter in our communication, whether it's promotions or
imagery within our ads.
• This information was shared across our entire group, including the web team, Paradise
Advertising and our content team.
• This is exciting information. Leroy will tell you how our destination radically changes
from any other destination he's seen. This allows us to be smarter in our conversation.
Ms. Becker noted that some of these top hotels and restaurants that were closed as of September
28 made the top list.
Mr. Beirnes asked Leroy if the information was pulled from the fiscal or calendar year.
Mr. Bridges said it's tied to the last fiscal year, the end of September, before you'd see the impact
from the hurricane.
Chairman McDaniel said this also is impacted by how you do the search. If it's a numbers game,
how many transactions? Or is it by volume or dollar amount per transaction that moves Tommy
Bahamas to the top of the list?
Mr. Bridges said they're sorted by the most dollars spent at each location.
Chairman McDaniel said that explains how it adds up to what's on the list.
Ms. Becker said that's interesting then because look at No. 5.
Chairman McDaniel said that means that there was a lot of shopping done there. It's a fine place
to go.
Ms. Cox said that's her favorite. She loves how Gucci and Alvin's Island are together.
[Mr. Bridges continued his PowerPoint presentation.]
Mr. Bridges said what he covered today shows how this closes the loop between the marketing
and what's put into the marketplace. It's so important to understand what's actually happening
post ad -exposure. This is the data.
Chairman McDaniel thanked him and asked Paul for a brief report on the slides for the upcoming
BCC meeting to help ratify why we're doing what we're doing and how we're doing it.
Mr. Beirnes said he'd be happy to do that. Everybody chuckled at the list of clothiers, but pretty
much every other category, like Porsche and Mercedes, it was amazing to see what is being spent.
These are very accurate extrapolations. We're proud of this and to see $600 million coming out of
it, so he appreciates the invitation to share that. It's a complex algorithm, so he appreciates Leroy
explaining it.
6. Consent Agenda
All matters listed under this agenda item are routine and action will be taken by one motion
without separate discussion on each item. If discussion is desired by a member of the TDC, those
items will be moved from the Consent Agenda and considered separately under New Business or
Old Business.
A. Coastal Zone Management
None
April 17, 2023
B. Beach Park Facilities
None
B. Tourism Division
None
7. New Business
A. Recommendation to approve a proposal from Humiston & Moore Engineers to provide
professional engineering services for State required Annual Monitoring of Collier County
Beaches and Inlets for 2023 under Contract No. 18-7432-CZ for time and material not to
exceed $52,004.00 and make a finding that this item promotes tourism (Fund 195, Project
No. 90536).
[Moved to the May meeting.]
B. Recommendation to approve a proposal from APTIM Environmental & Infrastructure Inc.
to provide professional engineering services for 2024-2025 Local Government Funding
Request under Contract No. 18-7432-CZ for time and material not to exceed $26,052 and
make a finding that this item promotes tourism (Fund 195, Project No. 90065).
Vice Chair Hill made a motion to recommend approving a proposal from APTIM
Environmental & Infrastructure Inc. to provide professional engineering services for 2024-
2025 Local Government Funding Request under Contract No. 18-7432-CZ for time and
material not to exceed S26,052 and made a finding that this item promotes tourism (Fund 195,
Project No. 9006S). Second by Ms. Becker. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0.
Ms. Becker said it would be nice to see 7B at the top of the page, as it was in the past.
Mr. Beirnes said it should be.
S. Old Business
None
9. Marketing Partner Reports
These reports (Marketing Partner Reports - Downs & St. Germain Research; Paradise
Advertising & Marketing, Inc.; Lou Hammond Group; Convention & Visitors Bureau PR Team;
Collier County Tax Collector - tourist tax collections; Miles Partnership - Website Analytics,
Digital & Social Media; Paradise Coast Sports Complex, and County Museums) are provided to
TDC members on a digital link to the County website. The Research Data Services report will be
presented monthly, and the other reports will be presented at TDC meetings on an -as -needed
basis. TDC members may request a presentation by the marketingpartner representative or by
tourism staff at each TDC meeting.
Part 1. Marketing Partner Report
A. Downs & St. Germain Research —Joseph St. Germain, president
[Mr. St. Germain detailed a PowerPoint presentation, March 2023 Monthly Dashboard.]
Ms. Cox asked if this is normalized for the year -over -year hotel closures because we're missing some high -end
luxury hotels in March of 2023 that were open in 2022, so do we attribute some of the ADR to missing hotels like
the Ritz Carlton and La Playa?
Mr. St. Germain said yes, we're not normalizing it. This tells you what the rate is here. That means we're not
normal. Part of this shows that not having their rates here is part of what it does. Given that we saw dips in
occupancy and a bit in visitation, that's not all of it, but it is definitely part of it. That's affecting a lot of the
ecosystem there. Per your request, we also put in the hotel numbers. The hotel differences are about the same.
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April 17, 2023
Occupancy was down a bit. The biggest drop was in rate and that also would affect those same properties.
Revenue was down about the same amount. Overall, if many other destinations saw your average daily rate was
$405, they'd be pretty happy about that. But you're comparing yourself to yourself from last year.
[Mr. St. Germain continued his PowerPoint presentation]
Chairman McDaniel said he appreciates the correlation between what was being shared earlier.
B. Paradise Advertising — Cyndy Murietta, VP of Media
Mr. Beirnes said Cyndy does our media buying and tracks return on investment on all our
efforts.
Ms. Murietta said her team works very closely with Adara and Leroy's team to come up with the
searches that we want that are going to affect visitation in exactly the way we want it to. Adara is
one of many vendors and media partners we work with. The numbers you saw were an
accumulation of all the media we do.
[Ms. Murietta detailed a PowerPoint presentation.]
Ms. Cox noted that when Leroy was speaking with us, he was sharing that from an Adara
perspective. The hotel reported revenue is the non -rooms revenue because the hotel reservations
are attributed differently, right? Her tracking is restaurant, spa, golf. For whatever the ancillary
revenues are, when we look at the impact report like this, is that $400,000-ish the same? Is it non -
rooms revenue or reservations?
Ms. Murietta said it can be a little confusing. What he was showing was all of last fiscal year,
the credit-card expenditure report. What that means is people should start advertising. When they
swipe or tap their credit card in their destination, that's a different number.
Ms. Cox asked, So these are the bookings before the credit card swipe?
Ms. Murietta said they haven't gotten here yet in February. They saw our advertising and in
February they booked.
Ms. Cox said OK and noted that in the previous slide about Expedia, the return on ad spends. If
they're booking in February, they're likely not coming in peak season because usually our
booking is a bit longer, so that would be for any time, probably within a rolling year.
Ms. Murietta said it's when the booking occurs, when they're going to arrive.
Ms. Cox thanked her.
[Ms. Murietta continued her "Always On Campaign " PowerPoint presentation.]
Chairman McDaniel asked Paul to send him that PowerPoint, as well.
Ms. Brock asked what the targeted RDAs are for something like this. You're exceeding
expectations, she assumes.
Ms. Murietta said in any given destination, we usually want to double or quadruple the numbers.
These are extraordinary compared with our other locations.
Ms. Cox asked if that holds over time. She gets happy when ROIs get a 7-I . For February, this is
a 22.9 return on ad spend. Are we always this good?
Ms. Murietta said a lot of times it's this good. She's worked with this destination for so long and
oversees her entire department, so she looks at other destinations and realizes she's spoiled. She's
used to looking at these. They're all positive and they're all usually more than 4. But yours are
really good. We know how to target for you. We know exactly how to target the right kind of
luxury traveler and it's working really well.
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April 17, 2023
Ms. Cox said it's really amazing.
Ms. Brock said it's very good.
Vice Chair Hill asked if there's a point of diminishing returns that you can identify.
Ms. Murietta said she's wondered that, especially with Expedia, but we haven't really gotten to
the point where we're discussing anything like that. To me, it's bring it on.
Vice Chair Hill said the more tourism tax money we have, how far can we go?
Chairman McDaniel said it begs the question for us to have discussions as we go forward about
how we're managing the money. He's been asking questions about the reserves, revenues and
expenses and how we can best manage those to make that determination. This is February, which
is like love. Everybody's looking for something to do, especially in the marketplaces we're
advertising to, so maybe you could show us an annualized by month rate of return. Does it
change?
Ms. Murietta said it fluctuates a little in relation to the expense.
Chairman McDaniel noted that we put out $108,000 in digital advertising expense with this type
of return. Maybe that's because Paul talked about trying to hit heavier on the shoulder part of our
year and then looking at how much we're putting out in those in those shoulder months to see
what to do. It looks like it made sense. It's all a 38- 40-day lag time from when the booking
transpired until they get here, so maybe we could see that on that annualized monthly basis?
Ms. Murietta said yes, we look at that every month. There are external things like Paul pointed
out that affect visitation, that we really can't have rollover, which we're spending pretty
consistently. So that's going to affect it. We believe we should be out there consistently with a
steady drum beat to ride the ups and downs. You're never going to have a negative ROS.
Chairman McDaniel said OK.
Councilor Grifoni said the last slide showed Illinois at the bottom of the chart, 791 searches
versus delivering it at 15 bookings, a pretty low number compared with some other areas. Is there
anything that stood out to you about that, any particular reason why, compared to some of these
other areas?
Ms. Marietta said it's actually a pretty high number. You're looking at it in the context of what it
is, because this is only the Top 6. It's a list of 50, so these are the sweet spots and to have 15
bookings in one month from one market is pretty good. We're comparing it in the context of
Florida is going to be higher because we are in Miami, West Palm, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and
Tampa. In Illinois, we were only in Chicago, so when we do bookings, we book in terms of
DMAs, designated market areas, the greater city areas. So in some of these states, we're in a lot.
In New York, we are in New York City, which is a lot. In Massachusetts, it's all Boston.
Councilor Grifoni asked if the money you're spending for Illinois marketing and the type of
searches and bookings you're getting are being delivered. Is it equal to what you're seeing in the
other areas here or is there more spend and less result, whether it's these top six or not?
Ms. Murietta said our Chicago advertising is serving us very well. We continually see Chicago
at the top of a lot of the markets. The 15 bookings was probably several thousand dollars per
room nights, 33 room nights. For example, in Hartford and New Haven, you don't see these up
here, but that's because this was February and that was still going on. But in March, there were
several bookings from Connecticut and that was the only place we were in Connecticut. So we
always see a payoff from where we are and the bookings we're seeing. Two years ago, we didn't
have access to this kind of information. We saw what we could. But we've worked to get impact
in place and we can track all our media partners. It's interesting to be able to see what they're
bringing to the table. It helps me cull it down in terms of market and the partners we work with.
April 17, 2023
Mr. Beirnes said he's eternally grateful for all the collaboration on data. It's a great dialog and a
rich collaboration.
C. Lou Hammond Group — Mackenzie Comerer, FP PR
(Ms. Comerer detailed a PowerPoint presentation, "Services Conducted in March 2023.
Part 2. Marketing Partner Reports
D. Collier County Tourist Tax Collections — Paul Beirnes, Tourism Director
[Mr. Beirnes detailed a PowerPoint presentation.]
E. Miles Partnership — Enriqueta Balandra
Mr. Beirnes noted that when Enriqueta presents her initial findings and web searches, it shows
we should expect continued momentum, rather than the steep slope it historically afforded us.
[Als. Balandra detailed a PowerPoint presentation, "Paradise. com - March 2023 "]
Mr. Beirnes said he wanted to clarify that the top right local photo is not just reaching locals
who live here, but if a Chicago consumer finds themselves in market, we are able to identify that
they are in market. Therefore, we shouldn't be having a conversation about why they should be
here because they are here, but rather take them further down the itinerary plan, such as more
festival activities and more activities in -market. When we look on our website, we are in -market
and this is what we'll see. As a local, it shouldn't be all the great reasons to come to a sunny
destination, but focused on activities here. It's our way of reaching the mindset of who's looking
at our website and how we want to serve them.
[Ms. Balandra continued her PowerPoint presentation]
[Ms. Kerns left the meeting at 2:26 p.m.]
F. Paradise Coast Sports Complex/Sports Facilities Companies —J.P. Terrasi, Adrian Moses
Ms. Baker introduced the Sports Facilities monthly report, what's happened in the past month,
what's coming up in the next month and reviewing marketing and financials. The extent of what
they go over with you is based on the month, so she wanted to share that over the last five
months they've brought in $975,000 in revenues. They were budgeted to bring in around
$570,000, so they're over budget by $400,000. They're doing an incredible job with what they
have and getting creative with bringing in different forms of revenue to the complex.
[Ms. Kerns rejoined the meeting at 2:30 p.m.]
[Mr. Terrasi provided a PowerPoint presentation on website traffic.]
[Mr. Moses detailed a PowerPoint presentation on financials.]
Chairman McDaniel asked if there's an update about the new fields.
Ms. Baker said they're being told they'd be complete in late spring, but we don't have an exact
date. Hopefully, we'll know more about that soon.
Chairman McDaniel said if, from a planning and booking standpoint, you need to know so you
have the capacity to do what you need to do and you're not getting definitive numbers time -
wise, please let him know so he can help get that information.
Ms. Baker said she appreciated that, but they're OK for now. If it goes past May or June, she
will reach out to him,
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April 17, 2023
[Mr. Terassi detailed a PowerPoint presentation, a social media report.]
Chairman McDaniel asked why they couldn't say the name of the movie.
Mr. Terassi said we could not say the name of the movie or put the picture of the movie on
there because of the movie rights.
Ms. Becker said to keep up the good work.
10. Council Member Discussion
Ms. Cox told Paul his opening was very appropriate, noting it's good to keep track of everything
in the polarizing political climate and how the meetings and events industry and other companies
or associations share their views on that polarizing political climate. In her hotels purview,
we've taken about $23 million in cancellations over the past seven days, $2 million of that in
Collier County. It sometimes tends to affect our tier -I destinations like Orlando a bit at first, but
it's something for all of us to keep an eye on and think of the degree we can add to the marketing
message for our slice of paradise and toe that line carefully, along with red tide, sargassum blobs
and other things that keep us busy.
It ties in nicely with Lisa's comments. The opportunity to have 800 financial insurance
conference professionals in the destination in November is going to be huge. It ties up nicely
with the hotels we have coming back online that can be exposed to those conference
professionals because it's at the risk of being stereotypical, a meetings segment that's kind of
pre -qualified to pay the rates we need.
Ms. Brock said she appreciates all the information and noted that Paradise Advertising has done
a great job. Those numbers haven't been seen in the industry.
Ms. Cox noted that tomorrow, she's going to be leading some marketers with the goal of getting
return on ad -spend above 6-to-I. it now feels a little inadequate. Great work. She knows
motivation.
Ms. Becker said when Adara recognized Tommy Bahamas as the No. 1 retailer, she knows there
is not one person who doesn't come out of Tommy Bahamas with a bag. Tommy Bahamas is
smart enough to identify itself by name on every bag. Not all retailers do, but that's right on.
11. Tourism Staff Reports —Amanda Townsend
[Ms. Townsend detailed a PowerPoint presentation on March visitation.]
Chairman McDaniel asked how many on the TDC went to the cattle drive last month. [No one
raised their hands.] New year, we want to see you all there. Staff does an amazing job and they
actually herd cows down Main Street and when one of those little steers takes a notion and goes
the wrong way, the dogs round them up and put them back. It's worth half a day of your life and
travel. He thanked Amanda. It was a wonderful event and showcases one of our museums in
ImmokaIee.
12. Detailed Staff Reports
A. Lisa Chamberlain - Manager Group Sales
Mr. Beirnes said the office staff who make this all happen spend tireless hours of integration and
collaboration with all our agencies, so he wanted to start inviting staff members to come here to
bring the TDC up to speed on what they're seeing, what they're hearing, the challenges and
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April 17, 2023
opportunities in each of their segments. This month, he invited Lisa Chamberlain, who is
considered royalty in the meeting -sales industry.
[Ms. Chamberlain detailed a PowerPointpresentation and outlined her team.]
Mr. Beirnes said he sits down with Lisa daily for 35-45 minutes, sometimes in the lunch -room,
to see the latest information within the past 24 hours. John Melleky will be here next month to
detail the TDC grants process. In June, Claudia Cianfero will speak about the travel trade. That
will be perfect timing because we will have just come back from IPW (International Pow -Wow),
the largest travel trade conference, so we'll have a lot of good international insight on what's
going on
Ms. Becker asked what other staff members were here today.
Mr. Beirnes said Sandra Rios, our public relations manager, Jennifer Leslie, who is on our finance team, and
everyone else here is from Paradise Advertising.
Ms. Becker thanked him, calling it very informative.
13. Next Scheduled Meeting Date/Location — 9 a.m. Monday, May 15, 2023
Collier County Government Center, Administration Building F, 3rd Floor,
3299 East Tamiami Trail, Naples, Florida 34112
Mr. Beirnes said the next meeting is the third Monday of the month and we'll return to our 9 a.m. tc
noon time frame. In May, we'll be missing some data sources because the data comes in two weeks
later. He's sat down with Joseph St. Germain to see how quickly they can gather it, but there's not
enough time to crunch the numbers, so we'll have to provide that afterward, maybe five days later.
We'll send a cover letter with anecdotal information, but we'll pivot and deep dive into other things
with Paradise Advertising and Miles Media. We'll have a lot to cover when it comes to just John
Melleky's grants process. The agenda should be about 1,200 pages, so don't print it.
Chairman McDaniel said he appreciates him sharing that we're operating in arrears on critical data.
There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by
order of the chairman at 3:12 p.m.
COLLIE
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cDaniel Or., C
COUNCIL
These minutes were approved by the Council on NIA ('} (choose one) as
presented, `c _ or as amended
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