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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOktoberfest - Community Advisory Council - 2018-06-26 A CTION M INUTES C OMMITTEE: Community Advisory Council D ATE: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 L OCATION: Concordia Club – Jägerstube T IME: Noon C HAIR: Tim Beckett R ECORDER: Carol Tucker Monica Anstett, Tim Beckett, Patti Brooks, Paul Buttinger, Stephanie Egan, Richard Hepditch, Bil Ioannidis, Margo Jones, Karl Kiefer, P RESENT Alfred Lowrick, Bill Poje, Werner Schlueter, Minto Schneider, Paul Schneider, Tracy Van Kalsbeek, Glen Walker, Shannon Weber, Don Willcox, Karima Kassam R EGRETS Diane Freeman, Gary Hallam, Alex Kinsella, Bryan Larkin, David Mendler, Nicky Schroder, Berry Vrbanovic, Kirstin Wever, Mike Abbott, Neil Aitchison, Tim Anderson, Larry Blundell, Mike Collins, Murray Costello, Bill Creighton, Greg Durocher, Henning A BSENT Grumme, Brenda Halloran, Brian Hopkins, Linda Jutzi, Rob Kerr, Kim Kugler, Owen Lackenbauer, Geoff Lorentz, Ian McLean, Michael Melling, Lois Peterson, John Rehill, Rhonda Richmond, Reinhard Schmidt, Dave Schnider, Carol Sherban, Lucinda Wallace, , Carl Zehr I TEM D ISCUSSED K EY D ISCUSSION P OINTS & A CTION R ESPONSIBILITY T IMELINE Chair’s Welcome &  Tim welcomed and thanked everyone for attending today’s meeting. Introductions  Round table introductions were done. (Tim Beckett) Willkommen Meine Damen und Herren President’s Report Welcome and good afternoon. Only 101 days until the official tapping of the keg at Carl Zehr Square in (Margo Jones) th Kitchener and we will be celebrating the 50 Anniversary for Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest. Exciting or what.. Thanks to everyone for taking time from your very busy schedules to join us this evening. And a special welcome to Tracy Van Kalsbeek the new ED for UpTown Waterloo. And a speical welcome back to Patti Brooks, Paul Schneider and Shannon Weber (WLU)!. June has been a very, very busy month. Wouldn’t you say so, Alfred? We have just completed Product Night with our valued partners who will provide our festhallen with various products and security night where we had representation from many levels of the regulatory agencies including AGCO, fire prevention, policing, public health, fraud, security and drugs. th The 50 Festival has so many exciting and new activities taking place prior and during the Festival. th  At the Annual General Meeting in February I announced for the 50 anniversary we would have a German Beer for our festhallen to serve to our guests. The ink is finally dry and we announced that th Erdinger will be available for our festhallen to provide to our guests for the 50. We have been told that Erdinger is the most popular German beer currently being served in Canada today. Great choice Alfred and Paul Buttinger. Thank you!  Hometown Hockey will be coming to Downtown Kitchener for the opening weekend. A special th request was made to have Hometown Hockey return for the 50 Anniversary the first time they have ever repeated a location. Thanks to Mayor Berry Vrbanovic! I TEM D ISCUSSED K EY D ISCUSSION P OINTS & A CTION R ESPONSIBILITY T IMELINE th  We are pleased to announce that tickets sales this year for all our festhallen went on sale on May 9 with great success. Plenty of tickets sold and talk on the streets was all about Oktoberfest! Thanks to the Oktoberfest marketing team and cooperation of all our festhallen!  We are sad to hear that Cambridge and Elmira will not be running this year. However, we have a new festhalle - Oktoberfesthaus which provides opportunities for partnership involvement and allows for potential systematic growth as service groups, community organizations and our existing Festhallen operators wish to partner within their own life cycles. th  The 50 Anniversary Concert will take place at the Concordia Club, the home of Oktoberfest, on nd September 22. We are getting closer to announcing the talent which will be entertaining us – but today I’m not able to share this with you. Stay tuned.  The Lottery has been approved and tickets are now on sale for the Black-on-Black Porsche. They will be sold at many locations as well as here today by Dr. Jack Bishop. But not to worry if you didn’t bring your funds today you can always register for tickets on the Oktoberfest.ca web site. 1 ticket $100 … 3 tickets $250 … thanks Jack!  Kitchener has the Glockenspiel with the story of Snow White and the dwarfs and …Waterloo will have the bells of the Time Teller. Harry Vogt is working with sponsors to refurbish the Time Teller located at the corner of King and William streets in Waterloo. Thanks, Harry!  We are excited to announce that we have secured a partnership with ARC MEDIA and will be visiting each feshalle this year to collect video footage which – combined with footage we collected last year – will be made into a brief CUSTOM profile video for each festhalle! These will be used on the festival website and social media – and will be provided to the festhallen for them to use on their websites and social media for promoting the 2019 festival. Thank you Laurie Davison & ARC!  The Oktoberfest marketing team recently announced the newly revamped AD MATCHING PROGRAM where Oktoberfest will match the festhalle dollars spent on dedicated advertising either on Social Media or with traditional radio partners.  Commemorative book ….. th I hope you too are looking forward to the 50 celebrations as we plan ahead for the next 50 and beyond. I think Alfred will agree with me … so much to do in just 101 days!! Oktoberfest ist … WUNDERBAR!!  Now who is going to be the first to purchase the Porsche lottery ticket? Not stated in the remarks Executive Director’s  Some additional staff has been hired to help with the workload. Karima Kassam is on a contract Report (A. Lowrick) basis with a focus on the 5K Fun Run, Oktoberfest Cup, Okt. Golf Experience, Downtown (Hometown th Hockey / BIA), Oktoberfest Car Show and 50 Anniversary Concert. Abby Howard is the st Receptionist / Administrative Support until September 1. KWO received government funding for this role. Alfred outlined the list of committees and staff responsibilities.  Security night went over well with good attendance. There are lots of changes that our operating is going to have to deal with this year. For example: - New recreational cannabis rules st - New Smoke Free Ontario Act coming into force July 1 which addresses vaping, cannabis and I TEM D ISCUSSED K EY D ISCUSSION P OINTS & A CTION R ESPONSIBILITY T IMELINE prohibitions on smoke within specific radiuses of patios, schools and outdoor groups of a community recreational facility (Chicopee and Queensmount). - Public Health new rule of having 1 certified food handler on site at all hours of operation.  2018 Budget approval  Recently upgraded our accounting system (SAGE 300 ERP)  Hometown Hockey – Early planning meeting with Laurie Davison, Tim Hattle, HTH, City of Kitchener staff. Planning meetings start tomorrow. The footprint will be smaller than previous time. There will be at least 20 trailers.  Ticket sales are going very well and are well ahead of last year as expected. Social media support is ramping up with this weekend focus on Canada Day and a 6 for 4 deal option.  Porsche Lottery tickets are on sale now! th  50 Anniversary Concert is coming together. We are still working on securing the talent/  Alfred circulated the stamp which is available for sale in the office and store. Stamps are sold for $50 for a sheet of 50. th.  The Miss Oktoberfest Gala Ball will be on Friday, September 28A Blooming Affair has moved to thst the afternoon of Sunday, September 30. Women of the Year has moved to Monday, October 1. All 3 events will be held at LOT42 Questions st  Karl Kiefer indicated the Canada Parade in Cambridge is on Sunday, July 1. and asked if the request has gone out for a KWO float to be in the Parade? Alfred will look into this matter. nd  What time does the concert start on September 22? It will be in the evening (approximately 6 – 7 pm.)  When will it be announced who will be playing at the concert? Once arrangements/contract has been signed sealed and delivered it will be announced. Tim provided the following update: Oktoberfesthaus @ LOT42  A taskforce was put together right after the festival last year. KWO has seen our festhallen and revenues declining and felt the need to do something to continue to grow the festival. The taskforce played out a number of concepts.  KWO Productions is an arms-length organization under KWO that will operate the Festhalle under the leadership of Paul Buttinger. Ien Kaehler has been hired as operations manager on a contract basis.  Tim asked Paul if you wanted to talk about some concepts: - Working with LOT42 gives KWO an opportunity to reach further to people who are out of town. KWO can contribute through our volunteers. - This new festhalle will be open to KWO volunteers at any time. - We are also very excited that the Transylvania Club are able to transition and be part of this new venture. Community engagement is number one. Giving back to the community is part of the model. - We are going to have a VIP area where all the past presidents have already committed to being a host for a specific night. - We are very pleased with how things are coming along and we are receiving positive feedback. I TEM D ISCUSSED K EY D ISCUSSION P OINTS & A CTION R ESPONSIBILITY T IMELINE We have some learning curves and there is still lots to do. There are some great people that are part of the process / taskforce.  Tim stated that the focus at KWO is not on Oktoberfesthaus @ LOT42 but on the festival as whole. Every activity that we do is the best that we can do. Oktoberfesthaus @ LOT42 is run by KWO Productions which is an arm’s length company of KWO  If you have any concerns around that concept, Tim would be happy to meet with you to discuss further. Questions:  Does the profit from LOT42 go to Inc.? The budget for KWO Productions shows a sliding scale for profitability. We are not anticipating a loss this year but there will not be a big profit. There is an opportunity to generate revenue and give back to the community. There are many other groups that may want the opportunity to raise funds for their group. Transylvania Haus will have a section at Oktoberfesthaus @ LOT42 with an opportunity to showcase food, dance, and heritage.  With respect to some of the issues from last year, can you outline what the parking will be? Tim indicated the parking issue will definitely be resolved and we are in the process of setting up the parking options plan. There are many options / opportunities being explored (i.e. shuttles, taxi lanes, dedicated Uber Lane, etc.).  Is there an interest of the CAC to have the September meeting at LOT42 with a tour? Those in attendance thought it would be good to hold the meeting there. th  The next meeting on September 11 will be held at the Concordia Club. Alfred has made arrangements for a tour of Lot42 following the meeting. Round Table / New  Tracy Van Kalsbeek - What do you want / expect from members of the CAC, outside of being an Business ambassador for the Festival? There will be more involvement as we move toward our 20/20 vision. Right now we are in the execution stage for the festival. Tim will take an active approach to the 20/20 Vision and will be contacting various stakeholders. Margo indicated that when we are looking at having new events, we might ask partners where might be a good venue.  Alex Kinsella - Communitech had our True North conference at Lot 42 and the venue is going to be a game changer for Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest.  There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Next Meeting  The next meeting of the Community Advisory Council will take place on: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 Noon Concordia Club – Jägerstube (followed by a tour of LOT42) Tuesday, October 30, 2018 Noon Concordia Club – Jägerstube