Twenty twenty-six, it is four PM.

We're at uh Carson City Community Center.

Robert Bob Kroll Boardroom.

Can I get a roll call?

Andrew Reno.

Here.

Garrett LePier.

Here.

Stacey Diomi.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Great.

Next, we will move on to item three.

If everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Under God.

Thank you.

Next, we will move on to item four and open it up to public comment.

Hearing none, we will move on to item five.

Approval of minutes from February ninth, twenty twenty six.

Does any board member have any changes that need to be made?

No, I make a motion to approve uh the board minutes from February ninth, twenty twenty-six.

All in favor, aye.

Any opposed.

Next, we will move on to the consent agenda consent agenda.

Item six and seven for possible action.

And let's see.

Yep, item six and seven.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Hearing none, we will move on to item number nine.

Possible action discussion and possible action regarding contract number CTA two six two seven-one for the design and engineering fabrication, illumination, transport, and install installation of a sixty-nine foot tall sculpture road spike in the amount of one hundred and ninety-seven thousand six hundred and eighty-seven dollars from March tenth, twenty twenty-six to December thirty-first, twenty twenty-six.

And with that, I will turn it over to David Peterson.

He is the artist that we're proposing to move forward with uh with the board's consideration for this centerpiece.

Um so this is this is the big one.

Uh we're hoping that we can have this positioned nicely on the grounds of the Nevada Railroad, uh State Railroad Museum.

Uh we have a meeting with them later this week, the leadership over there to talk about placement on the on the grounds, and our our plan B backup uh plan would be out at Mills Park.

Um so with that, if there are any questions, Seth, if you don't mind you know coming up if you want to talk a little bit about the design, your inspiration, I think that would be be great, and then uh open it up to the board uh for questions.

Sure and then um so Seth, you just have to press that and just state your name for the record.

Yep, perfect.

Uh Seth Johnson.

Landscape architect designer.

Um yeah, thank you for having me, and thank you for allowing me to present this in front of you.

Um the inspiration for the spike um for the architecture came from historic architecture from railroad structures.

Um it'll mirror that same concept um and bring that integration between the old look of trestles and heavy metal and steel into the railroad spike.

Um, and I think that the intended location is a great location for it.

Um, and as well as just the material selection will be very weatherproof for a long time into the future.

Um, and the engineering um both of the structure and the footing will be a great integration into whichever site we decide uh choose.

Thank you, Seth.

Um, I'll turn it back over to the chair.

Um question if there are any questions from the board yet.

Do we have any questions for Seth?

Questions or comments.

Uh yeah, I do.

I just uh David, could you cover the funding sources uh for this, please?

Of course, uh Stacy, thank you for the question.

So right now the plan is to utilize the EDA grant that we received through Travel Nevada, uh plus or minus 150,000 of this 197,000 and change, and then we will use TOT, so transient occupancy tax from the dedicated 1% arts and culture funding under Eric's program uh for the difference.

Having said that, we are going to be reaching out for potential donors to see if they would like to assist with the funding of this particular piece.

Uh, but I can't say that we're that far yet.

We're working on some meetings over the next couple of months.

Um, so it's very possible that we'll be able to further reduce the TOT, the specific one percent for arts and culture, uh, with some of those donations from others.

But that's how the funding breaks down.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Of course.

Any other questions?

Stacy, no more questions.

No, I'm good.

Okay.

Um I I think there's a couple things that we should talk about on record that go onto the record and and live there.

Yeah, I love this project.

I love the concept of what you're trying to do.

I do have a little heartburn about spending the money without having a final set destination of where this thing's gonna live when it's all said and done.

Um I I think the railroad museum is an awesome location for it.

That would be great to make that happen there.

I'm trying to get over that.

I'm trying to get over spending the money in hopes that we have a location for it.

Because if that location doesn't work or the other location doesn't work, uh 70 foot tall sculpture is not an easy thing that you go store somewhere and keep somewhere.

Um that also is a lot of money that goes out that doesn't have a home for it to live in, which leads leaves us answering questions that we probably don't want to answer.

So that's where my heartburns at.

I would love to hear some comments to make me feel better about that and um have that conversation.

Chair, may I jump in?

Yeah, definitely.

Thank you.

So we do have a good questions, uh Garrett.

We do have some options at both locations, I do believe.

So our A plan A would be the railroad museum.

And obviously, we want to go vertical with it, like you know, like a railroad spike.

Uh, it's possible, you know, that initially could we lay it on its side and have it positioned uh out at the Nevada State Railroad Museum.

Absolutely.

Not ideal, of course.

I think Eric would agree that we really want to go, you know, in a vertical capacity there.

Uh from a Mills Park perspective, Eric has had some conversations uh with I know uh Mr.

Horton uh from the Cultural Commission perspective, Clan Martell City Manager, and we've talked to Jen Budge as well.

That would be again the plan B option.

I know that they're going through the master planning, so we have the same option there initially that we could uh lay it on its side initially or at an angle or something along those lines while the master plan process plays out to then you know go with a vertical um installation.

So I feel pretty good that it will be one of those two locations.

Whether or not we're vertical right off the get go this fall, I'm not sure.

You know, I don't want to say that, and then that's not the case for some period of time that maybe it has to be on its side or at an angle or something along those lines.

Uh but I I'm I feel comfortable to say one of those two locations will definitely house the the spike, you know, long term.

So that helps, you know, a a little bit.

Obviously, there's the ideal situation.

The plan this Friday is to walk the grounds.

Uh Eric and I are going to go over and meet with Dan Thielen, who's the administrator for the division of museums and history, and Daphne De Leon, who's the and Seth is going to be there, of course as well, uh, who's the museum director and kind of survey the whole property because obviously, you know, there's some challenges on the north part of the property with that marshy wetland area, and you know, want to put something there and then have the thing slowly sinking in the ground or whatever the case may be.

Uh but I feel pretty good that we'll be able to, I hope, come up with a location that makes sense visually, right, at the railroad museum.

And I would say the same thing about Mills Park as well.

Uh the cool thing, obviously, at the railroad museum, it's the railroad museum.

People are going around on the trains, right?

And so I know there's two, maybe three, Eric, I think, visual lines of sight that have the mountains in the background.

And so the idea, you know, hopefully we can figure out a way to put the spike up, and that way we're not taking away from the beauty of the property and people you know driving around, uh not driving, but riding around on the trains, you know, so they can take a great picture.

But also, I think we would love for people to be able to engage with the piece, right?

And go out there and take a selfie and whatever, you know, you're standing this way with 70 foot spike, you know, up above you.

Um those are the things that you know, hope that we can talk about and having Seth there will be fantastic, you know, as as an artist, and it just his perspective, you know, as well.

Um, yeah, there'll be some stuff down the road from a geotechnical perspective about the soil and all this that I do not know a lot about, how to figure that out.

But I think the plan for Friday is can we at least come together and say, okay, here, you know, maybe here's choice one, choice two, choice three in terms of uh positioning the spike with the railroad staff and team over there, and and then we'll work through some of the details, you know, moving forward.

But the fact that they're open to it uh is I think great, you know, and and we agree.

Uh I think that is the ideal place.

And and I I don't want to speak for Eric, but I know that everybody that I have spoken with feels that the railroad museum is the perfect place, you know, to have a spike.

Being the capital, among other things, but yeah.

So real quick, Stacy, you want to jump in here?

Stacy has a question.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, let's keep that.

No, I mean, you know, I don't have to jump in front of Garrett.

I mean, if he has comments still minor related to what David said, and and uh I mean to ask if um you know, if we can hold off on spending any funds until I in other words, approve it, but perhaps we you know, in the motion say that no funds get expended until an agreement is reached for uh placement.

I I mean is that a possibility?

That's one question.

Uh second question is for Todd, uh, if he's there, not I'm assuming he's there.

Uh I would assume that if uh that this would need a three-zero vote to pass since there are five of us.

Um is that an accurate statement?

This is Todd Reese.

Uh Stacy, this is I think this item just requires a majority.

Um, and because there are three of you here, it would pass with a two-one.

Okay, thank you.

David, I'll leave you to answer the other question then.

Okay, so uh I'm I'm looking at Seth here as well.

We have a super tight timeline, you guys, because there's another piece to this puzzle which involves Burning Man in August.

And so right now, approving this today to allow, and I uh Seth, if you want to jump in if I misspeak, but our conversation with Seth have been if we get this approved today, Seth is rolling on this right away because he's got engineers and some other folks that obviously need to be involved in the design and the fabrication side of the spike.

This is what keeps us on track to have this piece ready to be transported out to Burning Man in August.

So if we lose a month, uh I don't want to speak for Seth, but I'm worried then that that will impact the Burning Man element to this.

But I Seth, if you want to weigh in, feel free.

Why would you have to lose a month necessarily?

Oh Stacy, I sorry, I thought you had said we would come back once we know.

So I was thinking you were talking about the April ward meeting.

No, my my question was if I said that I I didn't I didn't mean to allude to that.

Um my comment was would it be possible to approve it?

Um pending um confirmation of some sort of agreement to place it, either at you know, from the city manager at Mills Park or from uh a letter uh from the museum director.

Uh that's one question.

I guess I guess the other potential is that we approve um all of the money and hold back the 37687 um until a location is secured.

Um that might be another option.

And you talked about laying it down.

I assume the install that this price includes a vertical installation, correct?

The installation part, but not the foundation that we still have to do separately because with the EDA grant, that's not something that's covered, right?

So there was still a little piece of this puzzle from an installation standpoint that we ourselves have to cover because the way that the EDA grant uh guidelines for our particular cohort were written, installation of things, in this case art projects is actually not eligible.

It would not our rules that yeah, so the 37687 covers what then give me one second, Stacey.

Let me say 37687.

So under staff in the proposal.

Under staff summary.

Yep.

The second to the third to the last line says 37687 upon completion and installation of the work in Carson City.

Oh, yeah.

So that was okay.

That's the last payment piece uh to Seth.

Right.

We broke it down into those one, two, three, the four different payments basically to complete our payments to Seth.

So I see what you're saying there.

Could we hold off and wait on the final payment for final installation?

I think that's a fair a fair way to go about doing it.

And I mean, we don't even know how much we're gonna have to pay for the foundation.

Right.

Yeah, separate separate process that we'll we'll have to go through for that particular part of it.

And that was just a decouple this from this particular RFP that we put out to not create any issues for the Travel Nevada and DTCA team from that perspective.

And I certainly Stacey pending the the dialogue that we have on Friday, um, the director of DTCA, I I did get a message from her uh late last week, and she said obviously if it's a green light to place this out at the railroad museum, you know, she would want to move forward with an agreement uh to put it there, and then how long you know we would we would have it out there at the property because it would be considered a temporary art installation or placement is the way that we have to do this because some of the EDA funds obviously a large share of the EDA funds are being used uh for the design, the fabrication right of the of the piece itself.

Um so I would work with Todd obviously to get get going on whatever that agreement could look like, and maybe we could bring that back so you all could see that at the at the April meeting.

If that if you envision it rest resting there in this agreement.

It would be a long-term temporary loan.

I would think we could go up to a hundred years.

Okay.

I want to make sure we were talking two or three years.

Oh gosh, no, yeah.

That's way oh yeah, I was thinking 10 to start, you know, with ability to extend it or something like that.

But okay.

Yeah, no, fair enough.

And again, we're having to work through some of the nuance of the actual grant itself and the guidelines that we're beholden to uh being a member of the cohort number two, you know, that received the the funding through Travel Nevada through the EDA grant.

And so I've after talking to through to the director, she felt comfortable, you know, with this approach to do a temporary art installation or a loan or whatever the technical would be, Eric, I guess.

Yeah, it's we're working with all of our partners as well as we can with some fluidity that this would be a temporary loan from Visit Carson City who would retain ownership to the Nevada State Railroad Museum, and we would be doing this with the end goal of someday being able to donate it to the Nevada State Railroad Museum and giving them full ownership of it.

Okay, thank you.

Sorry, uh if I jumped in for any other questions there.

No, not at all, Stacey.

Yeah, and that's it for me on questions.

If I may jump in real quick, Eric Brooks for the record.

Um conversations have been going on with railroad staff, including Daphne Deloney, the executive director, uh, for over a year.

So this isn't something that we're just now presenting to them.

We have we have been in conversation with them about this piece living there at some point uh for over a year, and they are very much agreeable and they want it.

Uh so that's maybe we'll soothe you a little bit knowing that this isn't our first meeting going in to talk with them.

But everyone who's part of this wants it to be there, including those that are on staff currently.

So you feel pretty comfortable.

I feel very comfortable.

Like I'm in a with the railroad museum.

I do.

In Mills Park is option too.

It's good to have a second option.

Yeah.

Everyone wants this, including everyone wants this to be at the railroad museum, and that it is where it should be.

So I feel very comfortable and confident that that's is where it will come to rest.

Okay.

Yeah, and in the short run, I have a commercial lot in Carson, and I'll store it at for the short run until we figure out exactly where it's landing as well.

And I would just add to Eric's comments.

I think what changed this has gone back and forth as Eric said it was, yeah, then oh no, because it's being 100% funded uh at one point, we envisioned it utilizing the public art infrastructure money within the EDA grant.

Now that that is not the case, and we will be supporting it, whether it's our TOT, the 1% for arts and culture, or through other donations, that changed the position uh from the department's uh Department of Tourism Cultural Affairs perspective because it wasn't 100% being funded with EDA money.

And so, yeah, it's been a yes, no, yes, no, uh, back and forth a little bit, and a lot of this honestly had to do with the nuanced language of the grant guidelines themselves and what was eligible, what wasn't eligible, and something with another um 3D culture border project that had come up even before that had been approved.

And so apologies, you know, that that this has been a little bit of back and forth.

Uh I don't think I never thought it was going to be easy.

Uh, but it's certainly been a little bit more difficult than even I.

I think I had anticipated to work through all of these nuanced things between the state and us and county and this, that, and the other thing.

And so um, but I do feel I I share the optimism that Eric has for our conversation on Friday, you know, that I think we can come to some sort of a a decision that hey, yes, we like it.

Here's two or three different physical options for placement on the property, and then just work you know through the details, and yes, there'll be some geotechnical things that'll take place down the road, but we're we're not that far, you know, along yet.

So at first it's just does this make sense?

Can we select, you know, I'd love to have a couple of locations, not just one on the property, but two or three different locations for consideration, and then you know, we can keep the process moving forward.

The good news and the reason that um I have the contract going out to December is on the off chance, you know, something comes up between design fabrication, burning man coming back.

If we run into a pickle or whatever over there at the museum and there's some additional geotechnical work that has to be, let's say done, um, at least we have some flexibility, right, with still getting this installed before the end of the year.

And the beauty of that is since the installation is not technically eligible through EDA, we don't have to worry about the conclusion of the two years on October 8th for the EDA grant, right?

We're not beholden to that deadline, right?

As long as the piece is created, that's the way that the uh grant is is written that that we you know took approve, you guys approved as the board, the piece has to be completed, and that's all we're held to in terms of utilizing the EDA monies.

So I think we've got a little bit of flexibility, I guess is where I'm I'm going there.

It's not like oh my god, it has to be you know in and done by you know the eighth right of October.

So on the off chance that something does happen, you know, we still have some flexibility, you know, beyond the eighth.

So and I appreciate Seth being willing to to store it um you know, temporary basis at his yard.

So I I think I think we have some options, I guess there, you know, in case something comes up that we we none of us anticipated.

So you left yourself a buffer time-wise just in case.

Yes, good.

Yes.

Any other questions?

Okay, with that, I will make a motion to approve con contract number CTA 2627-001 for the design engineering, fabrication, illumination transport, and installation of the 69-foot tall sculpture, railroad spike in the amount of 197,687 dollars from March 10th, 2026 to December 31st, 2026.

Can I get a second?

I need a second on this.

Stacy, you want to second the motion?

I do not we do not have a second.

I I you know, I just I guess I will say I appreciate that um, you know, I don't dislike the design.

I love the design.

Um it's too loose for me, it's too much money and it's too loose.

Um not knowing what's happening.

Um the motion didn't include the holdback of the 37687.

Um I the fact that there's more cost to be incurred to make it vertical without us knowing what that cost is.

Um I I those are the those are the concerns I have.

Do you have a motion in mind?

Uh I don't know.

I have to think about it.

Um I'll make a motion for discussion.

Go ahead.

You'll have to us your back and up.

We're going to so yeah make a motion to table this until the April meeting and give staff time to work with the state to get a formal agreement to where this is going to live once it's completed.

Um that's my hiccup and reservation.

I will second the motion to hold back and bring the bring it up again in the April meeting.

Um can I get a all in favor?

Go ahead.

Sorry, Stacy.

Um David, um does that seem doable?

So for if I could ask a question, just to clarify, uh Garrett, are you wanting to have an agreement between us and the state to come back at the April meeting as well, or just that they have agreed uh for the placement, or do you want to have something formal?

So we'd so well, we'd have to bring two agreements.

We'd have we'd bring Seth's contract back, but before that, do you want to have an agreement between us and presumably the division of museums and history?

But I don't know if that'll be a state lands thing or how that will work.

But are you wanting to have um two items then to come back at the April meeting?

One would be the agreement for placement and duration of said placement to proceed bringing the contract back.

I think it could be done that way or um, and it doesn't have to be a formal contract that's done with the state.

You know, if we've been talking to them for for a year, um, you know, I I just think this is about process has nothing to do with the project.

I love the project.

I love what you guys are doing with this.

It's just doing the process right.

And I think we're putting the cart before the horse in this to lay this money out and not know where it's gonna live.

That's just not prudent to me to do it, do it that way.

So if we had something in writing, a formal agreement would be awesome.

That would be great, or something in writing from them that says we are agreeable to letting this live here for a period of time.

Doesn't have to be in perpetuity, it could be for a year even.

But having a place that we know that this is going to be able to rest when we lay the money out, I think is really important.

Um so some so something on their letter head that says we are in agreement of that.

Maybe maybe we don't have all the details lined out, but we are in agreement to it laying here for at least 12 months after five years after, a hundred years after would be great.

You know, whatever that looks like.

Um I think that would make me a yes all day long on this.

Okay, so then Todd, for purposes of today, we can just table this item because technically the second piece we don't have on the agenda.

Can we just table the item then for today, and then we'll bring back a couple things for April?

Yes, you've got um you've you've got a few options, and it really depends on uh it really depends on on what Stacy thinks.

Um there's a there's a there's a motion on the table.

There is.

So there's a motion on the table.

Um so you you have that motion.

Um if uh you wanted to if you and the motion is to table it.

Um and that's exactly what you what you uh suggested uh Dave.

And you can you can do that and bring it back at the next meeting.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to table the issue until the April meeting.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Again, uh point of clarification.

It the motion was a little more than that.

Um could you restate your motion?

Yeah, uh Garrett, or or have it read back into the record just so I'm clear on it.

You bet.

Want me to make the motion or read it back in the record?

What whatever your preference is.

Um motion is to table agenda item number nine for possible action to come back to our April meeting and in the interim, this item to have a formal no, let me strike formal, to have an agreement of where its final resting place will be.

And that agreement could take the form of some kind of written commitment.

Is that your intent?

That is correct.

Does it not have to be a formal agreement, although it could be, but something in writing from the department of where it's gonna live that states that they're okay with it living there.

I will second the motion.

Any questions before?

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none, we will move on to item 10 for discussion, presentation, and discussion regarding the dust and wonder trail.

And I will turn it back over to David.

So this one is Eric, if that's okay.

I'm gonna let Eric kind of cue this up.

We'll turn it over Krista up if that's okay.

Yeah, okay, thank you, Chair.

Eric Brooks for the record.

Thank you all for taking the time to have Krista Danail, the executive director of the Dust and Wonder Trail.

She's gonna come up and present some more information.

We've been able to give you updates every two to three months uh from this project for the past two and a half years.

Uh, and now we'll be able to get into some of the details that she's been able to work with with partners throughout the region.

So take it away, Krista, and I'll be here for any questions as we go along on this high-level uh recap.

Thank you, Krista Dinayo, executive director, Dustin Wonder for the record.

Thanks for having me today.

Um and then Lydia is sharing the slide presentation.

Um, I guess okay.

Uh yeah, so so happy to be here.

And I know that you all already know a lot about this project.

Um, but I I'll just try to keep it yeah, high level and where where we're at and where we're headed.

We obviously, this initiative through Travel Nevada brought together the three DMOs of Visit Carson Valley, Visit Carson City, Virginia City Tourism Commission, and a lot of art and culture and history leaders to do some studies and to figure out how to begin this regional collaboration to bring together the best assets of all the destinations in terms of art history and culture for a branded and elevated visitor experience.

So then on this slide just talks about that process a little bit, the 3D steering committee, and we can hop right over to the next slide.

This was in 2022 when this began.

We had our regional leads, Eric Brooks, who you know here, and Brian Fitzgerald and Carson Valley and A.

Perry and Virginia City, who are also now the board of our nonprofit, Dust and Wonder Trail, and a lot of other great leaders who are still involved in advising us and lead leading the leading the trail with us.

So the next slide is I'm just gonna move kind of quickly through these because I know you all have a lot of information already, and then I'll leave time for some questions at the end.

This was just kind of some of the highlights of the studies that happened that just demonstrated that there's a lot of opportunity to draw in local visitors from Reno, Tahoe, and Vegas, and uh there's a burgeoning grow, rapidly growing sector of travelers who are the cultural travelers and folks who really want unique and off the beaten trail experiences.

So Dust and Wonder is perfect for bringing those folks to our regions.

Um this slide is just talking about other things that were discovered or heard during the public forums of those at that time about creating unique experiences, authentic experiences, folks want to really get to know a place, um, creating things like a passport, which we're working on now that would bring people through all of these destinations, connecting these destinations and their their unique but also connected experiences.

Um principles and project goals that were identified then and that we're working with now include stewardship and inclusivity, connecting arts and heritage destinations, as we talked about through the through the three destinations, and strengthening economic viability of existing artists and art and culture and heritage businesses in all locations.

So these are our guiding principles.

Uh and as we are just to lay out sort of where we are, um, that phase one of the first couple years was doing that study.

We now have a 10-year destination plan that is an amazing guide for our work.

Um, where we are now is um I began here uh joined forces with everyone involved in June, and we began the establishing of the nonprofit.

We've been working with Estepona Group to do the logo and branding, which you'll see in a moment.

They are in process with building the platform, which is really incredible, and we're really excited about, which will be lying coming uh coming live around the end of May.

We're doing a lot of community, we've been doing a lot of community engagement through town halls and um other, you know, just meetings and um working with community for input and guidance.

Um, now really focused on programmatic and funding plans and um the public art infrastructure, which you've been hearing about, the amazing uh railroad spikes that are happening throughout all three destinations with a special vision and guidance of Eric Brooks and our board and our our invited or our selected artists.

Um, and we are doing a lot of board and board development now, and then we'll begin committee development for guidance.

Um this is our mission.

So just to share with you that we're bringing everything together that's already been learned and talked about through that 10-year plan, connecting communities through art history and culture, um, building collaborations between local artists, culture and history bearers is really important for the foundation of what we're doing.

Um in our vision, we are focused on keeping in mind economic growth and community engagement, educational opportunities, and revitalizing our rural communities, which all of you are very familiar with and already doing.

So, yeah, I think we can a big focus on collaboration for us.

We can hop on along.

This shares with you our brand, our budding brand.

This is our logo, which we're very excited about.

Um, and um took a long time to actually find the right one.

And we're really proud of it and how it represents, we think the excitement of the movement along the trail and the wonder that all of the art history and culture brings to all of us, and also the incredible nature that we're all fortunate to have in these locations.

And yeah, just continuing to work from there with the Estepona group on how to create this platform that will really be user-friendly for our visitors and also really support the art, history, and culture creatives in the corridor by showing what they're doing and creating a literal map that visitors can see and connect with, and that will include the spike trail and really provide some great wayfinding for art and history and culture experiences here.

I just want to make sure I don't waste anyone's time and that we have time for questions.

Let's see where I don't know why I'm even looking at my computer.

It's right here.

So yeah, so the unique opportunities of the platform that's being built is and what we're doing is the collaboration between the three destination marketing organizations.

And then also offering really cohesive and personalized itineraries for visitors.

So we are going to be creating those.

Our all three DMOs will be involved in creating those.

And then we also have a strong AI component so that once we've brought the membership and all of the local opportunities onto the platform that visitors can really narrow in on specifically what they want to experience in a variety of one-day, three-day, five-day or so opportunities.

We're really gonna do our best to get visitors to at least two of the three destinations is a goal.

Moving along.

Oh, okay.

Sorry.

So this is just some of the awesome statistics that demonstrate the expansion and growth and cultural tourism industry, art tourism market, and the excitement and development and detour destination traveling.

So these statistics just kind of back up why we're doing what we're doing and make us excited.

So we've already talked a bit about the public art infrastructure.

Um, those that is now underway.

We're working on the smaller spikes, the medium-sized spikes, and hopefully soon the large spike.

Um there will be storytelling that's happening with with and through the spikes.

Um, you know, and those will be connected by QR codes to our digital platform.

Um, and so that's we will be doing some unveiling events and and sort of showcasing and highlighting as we launch this starting this summer.

Um this is uh just talking about I already mentioned we've been doing town halls in each destination and just really reaching out and connecting with our current stakeholders and other community members.

So folks know what we're up to, why we're doing this and why it matters, and how we can also make sure we're serving the local communities as we're inviting more tourism.

Um then this is um just sharing with you about some of the what we've learned at these gatherings about what folks want, especially local artists need support with the wayfinding with the publicizing of their events, with knowledge and capacity building.

Um so then on the next slide, um you'll see some of the ideas for specific curated itineraries that we've been working with, um, highlighting local artists and makers, integrating creating intergenerational experiences.

This is something I'm working on in several grant applications right now, or projects that bring together youth elders and community to do to design murals, for example, or other kinds of community-centered and based art.

So yeah, educational experiences, thinking about families, thinking about you know nature and art together, thinking about all of the indigenous art, the Western art, the specific and unique experiences here, and how to connect those through those curated itineraries.

And finally, um, but not the easy one funding and sustainability.

Um, so as I mentioned, currently working on a number of grants to support marketing efforts, for example, right now, and also local community-engaged art projects as well as uh yeah, some other some other opportunities coming up.

It is a challenge, as anyone in the room may know, to lift a nonprofit off the ground and to find operating support, particularly when you're brand new and don't have a history yet.

So, one of the uh several ways that we are looking at fundraising and also sustainability include the membership fees for the platform.

We're offering at a low low level of zero to make it affordable and accessible for maybe artists who couldn't afford a fee, but then 25 and up through 10,000.

Um we have uh ways that folks can also just give a donation and don't need to become a member.

Um but we think that once people see this platform, they're gonna want to join because why why wouldn't you?

It's awesome.

Um then uh we have collaborations with all three DMOs who are supporting this project, as you know.

Um we have uh we'll be having the unveiling events for the spike trail together paired with fundraising um starting this summer into the fall and then moving forward.

Um yeah, so those are some of the things we're working on.

Um just wanted to yeah, share.

And also leave room for thank you.

Um leave room for questions or anything that you all might want to know more about.

And thank you for your support from the beginning till now in create in creating this opportunity, this nonprofit, yeah.

How's the fundraising going so far?

It's going.

Um we it's a lot of planning and grant writing right now and grant prospecting.

Um the like I mentioned, the operating funds are few and far between for brand new nonprofits.

So we like even the local, for example, from Nevada Arts Council, we don't qualify because you have to have a been an organization for three years.

So operating funds are challenging.

That's where uh we think that membership and fundraising events is gonna have to play a strong role, um, especially this first year.

Um but there are other grants that are mostly project driven that can we can support us a little bit uh small line item operating, and then also really support the local community and their work and local organizations who we're gonna partner with, which is great and very important because we need to we need to do that and also demonstrate our col our ability to support local community and economic growth and infrastructure.

And so those that those kind of grants can do that.

Um then yeah, as we grow as we move forward and are in existence for a couple of years, we'll have a lot more opportunities for operating funds.

How about private funding?

Do you guys have a link or yes?

We do have a we do have a link and people can donate to us already.

We haven't done a lot of um outreach yet for for fundraising uh for donors because we're putting a strategy together and don't want to want to do it well, if I could say, especially as we we want to drive membership as we do the unveiling events, and then also get people really excited through additional fundraising events and other locations with partner organizations, et cetera, and and hopefully have sort of a combination of private donors donating at these smaller fundraising events and then people joining as members or donors at these unveiling events that are kind of larger and more, you know, draw more media, hopefully, and also highlight the spikes.

Um so we don't want to just and also our platforms not live.

So what we have is a landing page, and people can go there and they can donate now, but we really kind of want to put a big emphasis on the publicity and marketing once the platform launches and use that as the opportunity to really launch into big bigger fundraising.

But all of this is is being laid out right now, and it means there's a big push that has to happen between June and September.

Well, I'll I mean it'll keep it'll keep going, but that's a big focus to be.

Between Garden and September is your major outreach or big push.

Yeah.

Okay, I got it.

Yeah.

Platform launch and then unveiling event, unveiling event, unveiling event, one in each destination, and in between some smaller like donor parties and things like that.

Yeah.

Great.

Any questions?

Um I think about this like the Kate Carson Blue Line Trail, but it connects counties together.

Would that be a way to think about this kind of project?

Yeah, you you might not know the blue line.

That's an old uh Carson talk.

For the Kit Carson Trail.

Yeah, I have heard of that.

Uh yeah, so the spikes will be the way finding piece of that uh with the world record being the hub.

So once people see any of them, they'll be able to shoot the QR code, which will then link to the digital map.

So if you've been able to find one of them, we think that you know 40,000 to 200,000 people are gonna come specifically the world's record largest spike.

Um and from there, they're going to want to tailor their stay longer, or they'll be coming specifically to stay for several days so that they can visit these unique and authentic opportunities in Carson City, Carson Valley, Silver City, Gold Hill, and Virginia City.

Love it.

I again love the idea, love the concept of what you guys are doing.

I take it the platform will be an actual website rather than an app on your cell phone.

It's an in-web app.

It's an in-web app.

Okay.

Okay.

Perfect.

You know, I I've in my day job of I've sold a couple places recently up in Virginia City over the last couple years on C Street.

It's one of my favorite places to do business.

It's such an eclectic group of people and the properties are amazing.

In doing that, in my research, I found that over two million people a year visit Virginia City.

That's a lot of people.

Yeah.

And if we can pull some of those people down the hill and bring them out to our valleys and show off what we offer here in the valleys, I think that's a beautiful thing.

So I love this project on all the different fronts.

Great job, great presentation.

Thank you so much.

Any other questions?

I'd like to thank Krista for coming and spending your time to talk about this and putting together a lovely presentation.

Sure thing.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Appreciate your work on this.

Likewise.

I'll turn it back to you, Chair.

All right.

Next I will turn it over to Executive Director David Peterson for his CTA executive director's report.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh with that, we'll go ahead and take up 11A, which is my executive director update.

Just two items this month.

Uh I want to let the board know the second lodging uh board position recruitment.

It's still up.

It closes this Thursday morning at eight o'clock.

And the plan is for interviews to be at the first Board of Supervisor meeting next month.

And my second uh piece of information, I am excited here because if all goes according to plan, we will have tickets for the 2026 VNT railway season launching on Monday.

So that'll be for all the different long lines and our Toast of the Canyons and good Lord willing, a couple of the other uh special theme trains that we're working on right now, including holiday related trains as well.

So uh we've kind of revamped some things with some pricing and some other options uh for the longer weekends, as in, I'll just give you an example, uh having a Father's Day train on Saturday and Sunday.

You know, so we think let's cover the weekend, we sell out, um, let's give the opportunity right to folks to come on Saturday and or Sunday.

So those are some of the changes that we've made uh from uh a ride perspective, you know, in terms of what we're doing with those holiday weekends.

So fingers crossed that everything goes well with Fair Harbor between now and Monday.

Uh so happy to happy to share that information.

So those are just a two quick updates that I I have for this month, and I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any on those two items.

Okay.

Um hearing none, we'll go ahead and move on to 11B, transient occupancy tax, actual versus forecast.

Uh so we we did get everything in for December.

So happy to say we were just a little over 5.6% uh up for the month of December.

Again, with our ups and downs, you guys.

I don't even know what to say because December was an all-time record for the month of December.

And obviously, we did not have a good fall.

Um we're tracking to be uh up almost a couple percentage points over January of 25.

Uh so you'll see that 1.773 sitting in there.

And I chose right now to not adjust February through June.

Obviously, with the new property coming online uh with the home two suites.

I'm gonna have about 24 days of data to work with for the month of February uh before we put our 27 budget together.

So I'd like to see what that looks like, and then I'll I'll probably have to do some modeling around um stay bridged, you know, like properties to to try to help blend this in to get us through June.

And then obviously I'll I'll do that for the fiscal 27 uh forecast or as well.

But uh right now I just want to kind of leave February through June until I can see something from our newest property.

But yeah, so I hope we don't have this yo-yo up and down business um to get us through the rest of the fiscal year.

So anyway, that's uh where we're tracking is just under 29.7 million.

Yes, I realize that's down uh about 957,000 as compared to budget, but it has us up slightly uh less than a half percent relative to the prior fiscal year.

So maybe a little aggressive uh, you know, with the the budget forecast that we had put together, but we did get pummeled last fall.

And I I know again having the fields closed did impact us quite a bit.

No softball out there at Centennial.

So that's uh where we're looking right now.

Again, less than a half percent up is the projection year over year this fiscal year.

So happy to answer any questions if there are any on our forecast.

Okay.

Uh hearing none, let's go ahead and move on to 11C events and sales update.

So I'm gonna be your Stu for today.

And uh Chair Reno will will jump in in case I say something incorrect uh as we move forward.

So we've got the uh Carson City uh TCG con, uh, which is a playing card event, uh the Go West Pre-Fam tour and Go West Summit itself, and then April events.

And so Lydia, if you want to get into the trading card con.

Okay.

So this is a brand new uh event for Carson City.

This is very interesting.

I will I will just say uh it's more than you know, baseball cards, it's all these different cards uh that folks are involved in in the Pokemon stuff.

I never got into that myself, my kids did.

Uh so right now we're looking at a hundred plus uh vendors.

I want to thank the chair, because it was a referral from Andrew to get this event here in Carson City.

Uh we'll be at the multi-purpose athletic center, flooring that whole facility out for this.

Uh they're hoping for 500 plus spectators over that three-day period.

I know Stu and his notes said a thousand.

I'm gonna go with uh 500, although I know they did bump that up, but I'm gonna stick with a thousand on the record.

So it'll run from the morning about 10 o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night.

And this is uh very interesting, I think, for us to get into this this world.

And uh so we'll see how how this goes as a as a first-time event.

Uh moving on to the ABA, uh, ADA, sorry, I've got ABA on my brain.

Uh Go West Summit.

This is the prefam, Sunday, March 29th.

I'm happy to say that we're we're a part of that day.

So they'll leave uh Sparks, come down to Carson City, and then go up to Virginia City and back to Reno.

So for this particular one, with the time that we have, uh we are going to do the quick drive-by at the historic governor's mansion.

Then we'll we we'll be out at the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum, followed by a guided tour at the historic Nevada State Prison.

So right now we have lost some folks, and unfortunately, what's happening out there internationally with everything that's taken place uh over the last few weeks has impacted our participation in this event.

So it's kind of a bummer.

Uh, we're down to nine people.

Uh we had 18.

Some folks have canceled again because of the geopolitics and some things that are going on out there.

Uh, but we are still going to make this the best day ever in Carson City.

Uh, that I can assure you of.

We're actually working, I'm super excited with the Stuart Indian School.

We're gonna have as a part of the experience small baskets that each of our participants will be taking away with them.

So I think that's a pretty cool.

They get a little demonstration basket uh weaving basket making.

And so uh I'm I'm I'm excited.

If we if we had more time, obviously we'd have them create a basket, but again, you know, we're we're a part of part of that day.

And we'll have Mary Bennett uh on as our our step-on uh guide again.

Everybody loves Mary Bennett, she does an amazing job.

So she will be a part of that, and uh Stu will run point, and uh just happy again to be a part of uh a part of this with these folks coming up from uh well back and forth the Las Vegas side of things since it's down in in Las Vegas.

So the summit itself uh is a pretty pretty big deal, you know, for for us to have it in the state.

Um it was here in Reno, if I'm not mistaken here.

Uh was it not?

Two years ago.

Tahoe Tahoe, that's right, Tahoe.

So glad to keep it, you know, here in the state of Nevada.

Uh Stu's got appointments that open today.

So he is feverishly uh working on uh flooring out uh his appointment schedule.

As you can see, you know, again, Western states and uh the western side of Canada as well, and then Mexico is what we're looking at there.

I won't bore you with with all the all the details.

So where are we at?

Okay, April tournaments.

All right.

So just to kind of wrap some things here, we've got the annual Comstock shootout, boys and girls, so it's combined uh coming forward.

We've got the California Youth Sporting Sports, excuse me, Association Trap Tournament.

That's uh that's gonna be great.

And then the Tasmanian Boxing Club.

It's a Parkinson's warrior never give up event.

So it's the first of multiple events uh this calendar year with Cisco and Mary Bell who are amazing over there at the at the boxing club.

So very excited to have multiple boxing events here in Carson City.

Um I'll back up real quick.

Uh looking at 19 teams, 400 players on that shootout, and then on the uh youth sports association trap tournament, 130 to 150 folks from California, um, youth shooters coming from California.

So again, driving overnight visitation on those tournaments.

Um so yeah, and then on the on the boxing side, 24 boats, 48 fighters, that's Northern California, um, and Oregon uh coming in for the for the tournament.

So excited about those opportunities that we have.

So I think a pretty good month as far as April is concerned.

So I'm happy to answer any questions uh that you may have on events and sales if there are any.

Okay.

Um hearing none, uh, let's go ahead and move on to 11D Arts and Culture Update.

Mr.

Brooks, take it away.

Thank you.

Eric Brooks for the record.

For our March meeting, we are going to talk about gallery shows happening throughout Carson City.

So we do have a new artist showing in the BAC satellite gallery, which is in our offices, Brittany Sundheim.

It's a couple images of her work.

These are absolutely breathtaking pieces, and we're lucky to have her.

So we'll be showing her for the next six months.

And you can meet Brittany at our next artist reception, which we'll get to in a little bit.

Uh besides the Brewery Art Center, we have some other great galleries around.

This is us commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Great Basin Native Artist Collective.

Uh, they have been showing throughout the Great Basin area for over 10 years now, and we can thank Melissa Molero for having her guidance as their uh main curator.

The show that's up right now is at the Nevada State Museum.

It's a great exhibition with lots of opportunities, cultural arts, education, professional workshops, online visibility, and community forums.

So there's artists from Nevada, California, Southern Oregon, Southern Idaho, and Utah.

That Great Basin is a big range of area.

So that's definitely one that you'll want to check out.

Moving on, the Stewart Indian School Gallery, which is normally curated by uh Melissa Miller Omoose.

Uh she's had her hands full with the museums, so they changed, and their education director Melanie Smokey put together an absolutely beautiful um exhibition called Basketry, Resilience, Beauty, and the Ingenuity of the Great Basin.

Uh Native and Indigenous Baskets are all the rage right now.

There's a big exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art where the objects are definitely being seen as fine art objects.

There's also the great uh or the basket gallery here at the Nevada State Museum that's a little bit hands-on and able to capture some of those million-dollar views of baskets.

And this one came out of nowhere and really really impressed me because it's not looking at the basket as this great form of art.

It's looking at it how baskets were used in the everyday and how they're still being used in the everyday.

It's a super fun exhibition.

There's several hands-on where you can touch the willows.

There's a video playing, you're gonna learn how baskets were made 100 years ago, how they're being made today, how that culturally goes for one generation down to the next generation.

And of the several areas of the several locations where you can learn about baskets, I would recommend this one over any other one in the region right now.

It's uh really, really impressive.

I was honored to be part of the Travel Nevada Media Mission in Atlanta last month.

Uh I was one of several representatives to talk about Nevada.

In particular, I was tasked with talking about arts and culture of Nevada, in particular the murals of Northern Nevada and the Dust and Wonder Trail Project, along with the 31 sculptures that will be commissioned through that.

There were over 30 journalists, editors, and content creators gathered in the historic Century Trolley Barn.

It was a great place to represent Nevada in this beautiful, beautiful structure.

Uh and it really turned my head to be in there and to talk just about Nevada.

It was super super comfortable.

We had representatives from lots of little rural towns as well as the big cities.

And people want an authentic Western experience.

And to hear that there's nearly 600 murals that I can see in northern Nevada, it blew people's minds.

So we're capturing them on several.

We're ticking all these different boxes for them where they can have this arts and culture family experience, but really be in the Virginia City C Street, uh step back into time.

So that phrase uh come see the old west with new eyes uh was perfectly placed for them.

Uh so we had that there's an image there of the booth we had.

So they've taken several pictures of murals throughout several of our communities.

Uh then we had the Mockett railroad spike there, and then some different um other objects in the back there with the uh buses in Goldfield and some of the really unique things you can see here in Nevada.

Um and people love the idea of the world's tallest railroad spike being in Nevada, and that was a talking point that everybody took home with them.

Uh so that was a great, great time had by all.

So I'll just touch.

We are we're able to have um director De Neo here a moment ago.

So to just fill you in on some of those details with where the sculptures are at.

Jeff Schaumberg, who's Reno based, you'll know him from the Believe sign in downtown Reno, as well as the home sign at the Reno Aces.

He's begun fabricating the nine interpretive railroad spike sculptures that will be placed here in Carson City.

Uh, right now we're waiting on some translation with the Washoe Paiute and Shoshone languages.

And once we are able to get that to those to him, he will be able to continue fabricating.

And we're still looking at a late May June installation time frame for those first nine.

Uh, we're working with partners in Carson Valley and Virginia City for the one words that will be going on the front, which will then be translated into some of the different languages that were affected on the VT and also on the Transcontinental Railroad, uh, Chinese and Italian in particular.

Um Carson-based artist Seth Johnson, he's doing the three 12-foot interpretive spikes.

We'll be at the two terminus points and the East Gate Station.

Uh, and then we're very excited that the committee chose Seth Johnson to be the lead artist for driven uh the 69-foot tall sculpture that we talked about earlier.

And I'm very excited to be able to get the rest of the information that the board uh would like to see for that April meeting so we can continue forward with this project.

Um we submitted a full proposal to be included as an honorarium for Burning Man.

Uh, we got that information yesterday.

When was it?

Today's Monday on Friday.

Uh we did not receive an honorarium, but we're still planning on working with Seth Johnson to be able to bring that out to Burning Man.

And uh the permanent placement for driven uh we'll have more to say on that in April.

There's an image there of Seth's design.

Uh again, super exciting that we'll be able to have something of such long impact.

And really, when Dave and I talk about this on a daily basis, the one thing that I say ad nauseum is big picture, big picture, big picture.

Uh, we've been great at talking about what we've been able to do the last hundred years in our area, and now we're starting to have some actions that will affect the next hundred years of how people are gonna view us.

Uh so big times in the big city and very thankful for the artists and the partnerships that we've been able to cultivate with this partnership and also with the continued direction of the board of directors here.

Uh, thank you and happy to answer any questions.

I I just want to say I love the piece at the bottom where the spike goes into that you know captures back to the uh the bridges.

Love that piece of it.

That's really, really cool.

Any questions for Master Brooks.

Thank you, Eric.

Appreciate it very much.

Um, with that, we'll move on to 11E, marketing and PR update.

Lydia, take it away, please.

Sure.

Thank you.

Uh, relatively short this month, we're gonna go through our our staples, our digital growth update first.

This again is for our Dita enthusiasts in the room.

But this next slide will explain to you what that what those numbers mean a little bit further detail.

Um, keep in mind with the short month and when these presentations were due, we only have the first 25 days days of February uh worth of data so that I could get to this to Dave on time.

So we actually compared all of the percentages that you see on this are based off of the first 25 days in January.

So it is uh more of an apples to the apples comparison.

So in February, in general in general, we spent a little bit less on paid media than we did in January, partially due to the way that we just flighted the media plan and the cyclical visitation that we have.

So this led to some declines in the website visits and on platform engagements, but overall web conversions and engagement remained really strong.

And while several metrics saw a slight month over month dips, our year over year trends are still remaining really highly positive, especially in the web visits.

So all of our improvements that we're making over time and focusing really on making sure that our website is geared towards those language learning models is helping that engagement a lot.

We had uh some really interesting wins in the public relations for February.

We were featured on the History Channel website under the origins of 22 unique state holidays utilizing Nevada Day as uh one of those.

So kudos to KPS3, they uh saw this opportunity, pitched it, and uh the history channel picked it up.

So we're very excited to be mentioned on the History Channel website that boasts over four million viewers per month.

Um, so I think that that's just a huge win for us.

So very exciting.

We are also featured in Convention Southwest magazine, which is a trade publication for event planners, and they were mentioning the Nevada State Prison as a unique alternative spot for conference and event space.

And then we had a Reno Gazette Journal inclusion for Carson City on its top day trip destinations for Presidents Day weekend, and then Eric continues to do an incredible job with Colo and all of our local publications to feature our arts and culture offerings.

So something different I wanted to bring to the table to uh kind of round out the presentation is CrowdRift is a really, if you've never heard of it, a really respected um publication and platform that's used in the travel space, and every year they come out with their travel marketing trends report.

So I will not bore you with like the 40 page deck that they had, but I pulled out just a few of the the main pieces that I feel like really applied to us that I thought you might find interesting.

So I hope you enjoy that.

Overall, they're defining 2026 as the year of redefinition.

So we're seeing extreme intentionality in the space.

We went from in 2024 the year of curiosity to recalibration in 2025 is what they called it, and now it's led to redefinition in 2026.

We were more efficient than we've ever been, and the chase is not around trends itself or what new platform is working, but focusing on using the technology to really scale in the arenas that we're great at.

So this data for some back uh background is pulled from over 155 travel marketers in US, Canada, UK, and Australia, and it ranged anywhere from a solo creator all the way up to those with millions of dollars in their budget.

Uh, one thing that they mentioned that did not go away, that of course, storytelling remains at the heart of it all.

So these are the core data that um I found the most interesting.

If it'll let me click over, there we go.

So, of course, AI is at the heart of it all.

Um we had a great conversation in our last meeting.

Um, and that definitely is not going away.

I just spent three days at a tech summit for uh tourism organizations in the West, and it was about I think half almost every breakout was about AI and the things that we talked about last month and how your website is is driving that core engagement.

But uh this was really interesting that there's been a 19% jump from being experimental to being embedded in your day-to-day.

So it of course reduces production bottlenecks, it increases content velocity and just the amount of content without increasing the head count, and it's making things more efficient in your budget.

So it's no longer experimental.

So in visit Carson City, it's only supporting really planning and content structuring.

We are not implementing it into our day-to-day content, but it's just helping us plan that content a little bit more efficiently.

Because remaining authentic for us is just the main, the main core root of what we're doing.

And I think we have a destination that lends itself to that, but almost all destinations are doing that.

I think we all know when content is fake and we really feel that.

Now, when it comes to the organic platforms that we own, travel marketers prioritize Instagram as the anchor of what they're using, but YouTube Shorts is having a major growth right now, including TikTok.

But interestingly, in the B2B space, LinkedIn is growing exponentially fast as well.

So the industry is really focusing, we're not expanding, and short-storm video is becoming the standard.

Uh, visit Carson City is also uh spending more time on YouTube Shorts.

Zach's been doing a great job with that, as well as TikTok.

Uh, those videos that we've put out with Woody continue to um have so much engagement on them and the views keep keep going.

So we are we're really excited to see that and continue to uh once we feel like we've cut a lot of of what we have from Woody, we'll um see if there's any other interesting angles that we can find in some of our attractions to continue that story.

Um, one thing that this was also pointing to was the focus.

So I think you know, in 2024 and even 2025, people were trying to be on every platform.

And a couple of years ago, we scaled back from that actually uh with a small team trying to be on X and trying to be on threads and trying to do everything really well in Pinterest was just spreading our resources really thin.

And so we scaled back and focused on what we can do really well, and that has served us really well.

So this side goes back to that website conversation and how your content is really driving how you're showing up in Google.

So website priority grew more than any other channel.

Um that was around the organic conversation.

So that language learning model, what's feeding AI is the new requirement.

And that was hit over and over and over again at this at this conference.

They're calling some they they haven't decided on a word.

A lot of people are calling it GEO.

And I wish I wouldn't even said that because I don't remember what the G stands for, so I apologize.

Um, but it's what's feeding the language learning model so that you're coming up in those searches again.

Um so AI search is is changing our behavior.

Fewer clicks, higher intent, it's directly impacting the conversations.

So the structure of your website is mattering more than ever.

71% of marketers are uncomfortable with AI visuals.

I think that's pretty standard across the board uh for most people.

They look fake, they don't show the destination accurately.

The conversation around it can go really negative very fast, especially on social media.

So we're just reinforcing using that user generated content from people who are in the market, and then also utilizing, of course, Zach, who is the major asset in our office.

Now, in the influencer space, the industry is moving towards targeted influencer use, which supports a smarter budget allocation.

So we're prioritizing fit and message and leveraging influencer content for ads and not just focusing on what their follower counts are.

So if we have someone that creates beautiful content that also has an audience that's part of our core audience, then we can negotiate those to be used as ads because not every content uh creator will allow you to use their post as ads.

So we are negotiating that in our contracts to make sure that our ads that are coming from us look really authentic and not perfectly curated, but is that is an actual experience for someone who came to market.

So the local and the niche influencers and in very niche spaces are the future.

And um, we're we're working really hard to go that route.

I think travel nevata is in a wonderful job of doing that from focusing people who are into raw counting, for example.

Um, just really niche activities that people can do in market.

For us, it might be a railroad enthusiast, um, coin enthusiasts.

So uh we're seeing that the content works really well, and we're exploring those for this next fiscal year.

And then this side is talking about where influencer marketing fits and where it doesn't.

So UGC remains the most trusted format.

Creator partnerships are scalable and relatable.

Influencers are more selective and niche, and the industry is moving away from those celebrity, beautifully curated style campaigns into stuff that looks really gritty and authentic.

So just a couple more slides.

This last one is how social content is measured, and of course, it's really important.

So, how are we measuring these things?

And it's with meaningful interaction and community alignment that are more important than ever.

You can see on the top of the list under how people are gauging success is with occupancy rates and travel and in travel marketing.

So the economic metrics are still leading.

Um I thought that was really interesting.

I mean, it's it makes a lot of sense, but I don't think that that's ever going away.

And then, of course, in the metrics that they're using is that engagement.

So for us, we're always continuing on on focusing on lodging referrals as really being the lowest part of the funnel that we can track without actually getting the booking numbers or referrals from other hotel websites.

So uh we'll continue to focus on that, continue to be in uh in focusing on engagement and being intentional and being extremely intentional on our website as well.

So it's something that we're gonna be focusing on for the next year.

So the key takeaway that they said that they wanted to leave you with is that the industry again is choosing focus, efficiency, authenticity, and owned channel control.

There's a few things that have allowed us to move in that direction.

And of course, that's obviously having a great leadership that has flexibility.

I think Dave has been an incredible partner in that way.

Uh I always say for a guy who's never had social media, the fact that he understands and appreciates what it does is a gift to us all this office in the marketing side of things.

Uh, but I also think having a content creator in-house was one of the smartest things out that we did five years ago.

Having him was crucial to allow us to be nimble and forward-thinking and save budget because when you outsource that content to an agency, it can get very expensive very fast.

And it's been uh a wonderful asset for us to be able to stay on top of these trends and continue into 2026.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

I just want to say how much I appreciate you guys staying ahead of everything.

I mean you're trying to really are on top of things and we try.

I I'm I'm learning a ton.

I am too to be honest I mean it's I think that's the hardest part uh is staying on top of everything.

Um whether you're a media buyer or you're with just Google search alone and and paid social everything changes every week.

And so uh KPS3 is also a massive asset so that um we can focus on more of the community building and management and direction of where we want to go versus managing the nickels and dimes of the day to day so I'm grateful for that and I just have a quick story to tell you had a slide up there about AI but not being authentic when it comes to content creation and I certainly agree with that.

So one of the other boards I sit on I'm president for Sierra Nevada Realtors and we cover all six counties northern Nevada and we just had a big uh big win in our government affairs department which was Washoe County allowed accessory dwelling units to be built on on uh single family houses with obviously some restrictions around that and that's something that we've been working towards for about a year and a half trying to get that done.

And we understand that all marketing is storytelling so we wanted to tell the story to our members about here's where your investment into our pack goes and we looked for um we sent out a mass message looking for someone who was able to bring their parent onto their property in an ADU to tell their story.

Well we couldn't find that they were there we found a a few people and they're like we're not going on camera.

You're not you're not videoing us to go out on your social media.

So we said well let's try some AI video.

And um the first iteration of it was an avatar if you will to human being that's talking and they're telling the story and they're kind of narrating the story.

Individuals looked okay except for the avatar like it just did not look right.

It doesn't look like AI.

Yeah so we tweaked it we said okay no no narrator no avatar to be shown in the video and tell the story through clips and then when that came out that was beautiful that that was very well done and and honestly without a trained eye you really wouldn't have known that it was AI.

It was it was different pictures and different videos stitched together that told the story that we were trying to that we're trying to tell.

So um I I only say that story to say that as that evolves and as that gets a little bit better I think there's a way to to make some headway with that and and to help with in that concrete uh content creation side of it.

So yeah I agree.

I agree.

Thanks for sharing that I think the way that we're finding AI is helpful is so interesting in everyone's space.

I think there's always a little something that helps and we've even explored like AI voiceover which has helped Zach sometimes so then we don't have to outsource or try to find someone or go make a makeshift sound booth in our bathroom with a towel that may or may not happen during COVID.

So there's you know there's it there's a way to use it and for everyone it's just making sure that it's when you do put it out public that it's the right way.

And I think that's a great example of of how to do that.

So we're continuing to explore it.

It's moving very fast even at that tech conference it was it was really interesting to see um what's ahead so I will try to report as much as I can as we continue to learn.

Thank you guys.

I'm just glad we have Lydia and Zach to all of that stuff.

So yeah join Facebook no unfortunately I don't and and uh member Geomi's been texting me repeatedly Lydia he wanted to let you know GEO is generative engine optimization just for the record and he'd be happy to talk about it.

But not in a public meeting uh so yeah there's either so there's like the three different terms that they're using right now and no one's decided on which one it's gonna be so I'm like I think I guess we're all talking about the same thing all the breakouts use a different term and I was like all right.

Yeah lots going on in this space for sure.

But I think we as a destination being the capital being storic we just need to as Lydia said be careful because I think there's a line that you can cross and you don't come back from that from the visitor perspective if you cross over that authentic nature of how we're talking about the destination and and our people you know that live here and and the cool things that we have to to do and see for our visitors.

So yeah I'm really excited to see the Dustin Wonder Trail um web app.

I think it sounds like Espona group is really um out in front of the technology of what the user experience looks like in that capacity and so I'm very excited to see that and see how that might inform how we evolve our website too.

Agree, yeah, because there's a there's a personality or a uh persona component to that too, where we can leverage how you answer questions about yourself and what experience you would have on the digital platform itself, and and there's an AI component to that.

And yeah, that's a very different situation because it's not replicating any DMO's website.

So what we're doing here really um to my knowledge hasn't been done, you know, in terms of crossover with multiple destinations and and the sharing of that content and that information and trying to move people uh between the different destinations, you know, through that in web app, regardless of where you're at in your journey, you know.

In theory, we think the benefit of that is you would already be in destination somewhere, but our goal is to move you, you know, beyond just Carson City or just Virginia City or whatever the case may be with with the DWT.

So, yeah, uh some new uncharted territory, and I learned a lot there as well, you know, about what they're doing from a digital platform perspective and a kind of an in-web app perspective.

It's not your standard normal website, you know, per se, like we have as Visit Carson City.com.

So it's it's all new, and that's potentially where things are moving in a general sense, but also potentially for tourism, you know, and DMO space.

So yeah.

So we got these guys to keep us uh ahead of the the curve as much as possible.

So exciting.

It's it's pretty cool.

So someday, yes, I'll get a social media felt when the technology is perfected.

Uh until then it'll have to wait, and I'll just stay on LinkedIn and respond every month or two or whatever to people.

So uh any questions for Lydia?

All right, thank you very much.

Uh we'll go ahead and move on to 11F, uh, future agenda items.

Anything that the board would like to have on next month other than what we've obviously talked about already.

Okay, hearing none.

Uh 11G, our next regularly scheduled meeting right here, Monday, April 13th at 4 p.m.

And with that, I'll turn it back over to the chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Um next we'll move on to item twelve.

Do we have any board comments or announcements?

Hearing none, we will open it up.

We'll move on to item 13 and open it up for public comment.

Do we have any public comment?

Go team, I like that.

Okay, with that, we will move on to item 14.

We are adjourned.

Thank you, guys.

Appreciate everything.