Welcome to the Carson City Culture and Tourism Authority Board of Directors meeting.

Today is Monday, April 13th, 2026.

It is 4 p.m.

And we are at the Carson City Community Center.

Robert Bob Kroll Boardroom.

Can we get a roll call?

Andrew Rainham.

Here.

Garrett LePier.

Here.

Matt Dodd.

Here.

We have a quorum.

All right.

If everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

To the Republic for which it stands.

One nation.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Next, we will open it up for public comment.

Hearing none.

We will move on to item five for possible action, approval of minutes from March 9th, 2026 CTA board meeting, and the March 20, 2026 CTA special board meeting.

Do we have any changes or additions?

No, my motion to approve the minutes for the March 9th CTA board meeting and the March 20th CTA special board meeting.

A second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Next, we will move on to the consent agenda, consisting of item six and seven.

Does any member of the public have anything they'd like taken off for further discussion?

Does any of the board have any items they'd like taken off for further discussion?

Can we get a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Hearing none.

Motion passes.

We will move on to see here.

Sorry, guys.

Item nine for possible action.

I am gonna turn this over to Chris Kip.

The purpose of this item is to review the proposed physical year 2027 CTA tentative budget.

Chris, we will turn it over to you.

Thank you.

I'm gonna try to go slower this year since there's two newbies.

Not do it in 30 seconds.

So this is our tentative budget that we've got for taxation for fiscal year 27.

We have um three funds in our budget that with estimated expenditures of 3,431, 794.

So I'm gonna whip through the pages, but if you guys have questions, you can ask me as we're whipping through or at the end.

Um if you start with page four of the whole document, which is page three, schedule S2.

This one is just asking how many full-time equivalent employees we have by function.

We have two functions, the general government, which consists of David, Chris, and Casey, and the culture and rec, which consists of Eric, Stu, Lady, Lydia, and Zach.

So and then the population, those numbers are given to us by taxation.

So that's it for that page.

The next page, which is page five of 15.

This page is the fiscal year 27 projected revenue.

I'm gonna go into details further on pages six, nine, and ten.

So we can come back to this one if you still have questions after that.

The next page is page six of 15.

This is the projected expenses for all three of the funds, and we're gonna do the same thing.

I'll go through the detail on seven, nine, and ten.

So page seven of 15.

This is the fiscal year 27 general fund.

So this is our main fund.

The first column number one is our fiscal year 25 actuals that we ended up after the end of the financial statements.

The column number two is fiscal 26, what we're estimating we're gonna finish.

And the column three is what we're working on today for fiscal year 27, the tentative.

So let's see here.

The room taxes, the intergovernment intergovernmental revenue that consists of grants that Lydia has requested, and then the 75,000 in miscellaneous, that is arts and culture donations that Eric plans on going after this year.

And then the um I added some more to investment income because usually I budget a little 11,000 and like last year or fiscal 25 ended up with 136,000 in interest.

But since we don't control the money, I get nervous about putting big numbers in there.

So I just kind of bumped it up a little.

Not a lot, because we never know.

Then the transfer in that we will go over that a little bit more, but that's um transfers in from the VNT capital project.

The beginning fund balance is estimated into fiscal 26 at 3,522,973.

Uh do you guys have any questions on that section?

No, okay.

Next page eight of 15.

This is our fiscal 27 general fund expenditures, and they're broken out by the two functions of general government and culture and rec.

So same thing with the fiscal year 25 actual current and tentative columns, and then um it's broken out by general government uh salaries and wages benefits, and then all the services and supplies for each of those, and then we have our intergovernmental expenses, which would be like our interlocal agreement with the city, um state taxation payments, things like that, and the questions on that page.

All right, so then um page nine of 15 is basically those the totals from the previous page, just the subtotals, and then showing that our ending fund balance for uh uh fiscal 28.

We're estimating to be 3,363,724.

Next page, page uh 10 of 15.

This is just the VNT capital projects fund.

The um revenue with the VNT capital.

We have uh 608 approximate thousand dollars going from coming in from room tax, 366 dollars from interest income, which that could be bigger as we talked about earlier, and then a beginning fund balance of 91,912, which we're estimated carry over from 26, and then expenditures.

The only expenditure we have is the transfer of 608,115 out of this fund back into our general fund, which we use for marketing.

Any questions on that one?

Yes, okay.

Uh just and it is goes for the the the first page too on interest income.

But um, in terms of your methodology for increase, I understand that you can't really predict, but was there a certain percentage or something like that you applied to basically at the time when we were fixing it when we were doing the budget?

I just took what was there and I kind of just took like 50, I just doubled it.

Okay, but then when you feed it into the document because it calculates percentage base of each account balance, so that's why some of them look a little higher than others because some of them have more money in the the funds than the others.

So that's how that went.

Okay, yeah, that's great when it comes in more than you like, but I just was wondering what the methodology was.

That's great.

Great.

All right, Chris, real quick.

Yeah, yeah.

So basically the VNT funding's a pass through.

So it's gonna it's gonna come in, and and that basically is our marketing budget, is a good way to look at it.

Yeah, it's not all of our marketing budget, but yeah, so and it what it has to do is it has to be in it.

Um we it's um atherent value to the VNT as well.

So when we're marketing, we keep that in mind that you know we're drawing people to Carson City to get on that train.

So um capital pro is that it for that page, sorry.

Okay, and then um page 11 of 15.

This one is the capital projects fund, same type of thing.

We have the room tax and the interest coming in, but the difference is on this one this 384,200 that's going out.

That's the bond payment, not too long.

It was two years ago.

We renewed that bond, and that's doing the capital project in um the centennial fields, so that's the bond payment for that, and then the next page, page 12.

This is just the sheet that transfers the VNT capital projects money into the general fund money, so that's just a transfer schedule.

Next page 13 lobbying expense estimate.

We don't plan on doing any lobbying, so that's a zero.

And then page 14 of 15.

This is a schedule of existing contracts.

So these are contracts that we have in place that will have some expenditures in fiscal 27.

This is just the ones that carry over into 27.

This is not a full list of any contracts we will have in 27.

These are just ones that are going to carry over.

Any questions on that page?

On number two, uh K Denaio consults.

That contract ends in 26, which would only be a couple months of our fiscal year.

Correct.

So do we expect to renew that for another year?

No.

So it ends on um October 8th.

So that is just the payment for July 1st through October 8th.

Okay, thank you.

And then the last page, page 15 of 15.

This is privatization contracts, and we have none.

So do you guys want to go back to any of the pages?

Are you good?

Cool.

I have one question.

Okay.

Page nine of 15.

9 of 15.

Okay.

Hey, um, if we go to the ending fund balance, it equates out to about 180,000 short from what we're estimated to end fiscal year 2526.

Is that just being conservative in our estimations?

Are you looking at the ending fund balance?

Yep.

So the ending fund balance is 91,687 for 25.

And then we have 91,912 for 26 and 92,278.

Basically, that's interest that it's earning each year on the fund on the money that's just sitting in the account.

Uh what I'm talking about, yeah, page nine of 15.

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm looking at the I was looking at schedule page nine.

Uh ending fund balance of um 3,363,724 is is roughly 180 short uh from what it was in the previous fiscal year.

Is that just based on our estimate?

Just based on our estimating the numbers.

Yeah, with the express with the whatever expenses we budgeted in and what the revenue has been projected at.

Thank you.

And we actually have less expenses because we have the big 3D grant, and most of that money is being spent this fiscal year.

We'll have some trailed over into next fiscal year, but not nearly as much.

So we have a lot less expenses there.

All right.

Cool.

I make a motion to approve the 2027 CTA tentative budget.

A second.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Hearing none, we will move on.

Well, motion passes.

Hearing none, we will move on to item 10, monthly non-action items and presentation presentations and discussion only.

With that, I will turn it over to our executive director, Mr.

David Peterson.

Uh thank you, Chair for the record, Dave Peterson, executive director of Physicar City.

I do just want to thank Chris because she does an amazing job on putting this budget together every year, and also thank the three uh program managers in front of you as well who put together some very nice comprehensive programming for fiscal 27.

So we do sit down, uh Chris and I sit down with the chair.

We spend about four hours going through all the line item level detail, which we uh save you from uh here on a Monday night.

Uh but I like where where the team is going moving forward because I feel like we're still pushing trying new things, um, new events, you know, new marketing efforts, obviously some some new cool stuff, hopefully on the arts and culture side of things, but uh I just wanted to say it's it's a very nice team effort all around, and and thank you to Chris for putting all of this together because uh it does take a lot of effort, a lot of work uh for sure.

So hats off to the whole group, the whole team on that end of things.

So thank you, Chair, for letting me make a comment there.

Uh 10A is my executive director update.

I do have a handful of things uh this month to talk about.

Uh the first thing you're probably all wondering as we look at the empty chair all the way down at the end.

Uh the initial recruitment for the second uh hotel motel uh lodging partner uh resulted in no applicants.

So the city has basically left the application period open until such time as somebody applies, and then we'll move forward at that point through the board of supervisors process.

So I just wanted to let you know uh where we're at with everything.

So we'll we'll be a board of four for a little while longer.

So uh second thing, uh rural marketing grant requests.

Uh Lydia does superb job.

Uh we have four.

Uh we have four, this is Travel Nevada, Division of Tourism's rural marketing grant program.

We've got four initiatives that are going to drive our destination marketing overnight visitation and enhance strip planning for potential travelers.

We've got participation and the data fi co-op.

Um option two won't make a lot of sense, but basically it's the second, I think, of three uh options.

Uh it includes the advanced visitor analytics, a targeted digital advertising campaign designed to reach high-intent travelers.

Uh the uh the project overall also has a piece with a presenting tier for Expedia.

That's another co-op with Travel Nevada.

Uh that'll promote specifically Carson City lodging.

And then we also I'm excited about this.

We talked a little bit about the Mind Trip AI.

Uh, I think last month or was it wasn't last month, it was the month before.

So we did go ahead and and uh put a part of this request in for the Mind Trip AI trip planning platform for the dot com website, and that'll also uh I don't want to say it doesn't supplement, it just kind of adds to our itinerary development and visitor conversion.

So in terms of the way that that uh grant breaks down the datafy co-op platform uh 24-5.

So we're seeking 12,500 because it's a 50-50 uh grant program on the datafy advertising buy.

Uh that's basically within a dollar, it's a 50k buy, and we're seeking 25,000 on that end of things.

And then Expedia is a $15,000 co-op, so that'd be a $7,500 request.

And then Mind Trip.

Uh they're giving us a deal uh to try this out for the first year for $16,000.

And so that'll be an $8K uh request as far as the grant is concerned.

It is gonna cost us more moving forward, but I appreciate the fact that they're taking almost a third off, I think-ish.

Uh I'm looking at Lydia, but but roughly um a third off because I think it's a couple thousand a month.

But I'm excited to see what this will look like and the fact that we'll be able to actually control where the information is coming from for the AI piece to our our website and our content, right?

So I feel comfortable with this.

So our total grant ask is $52,749 for fiscal 27.

So I'll have a TAC.

Uh sorry, 52749.

Yeah, 52749.

So we'll know.

Uh I'm not sure about the timing because I don't know when the Commission on Tourism will meet in June, but uh we'll know obviously before the end of the fiscal year, whether or not I'll know at the June meeting for us, I don't know.

But I feel pretty good because Lydia did a really good job of putting the grant request together.

It's very detailed.

So typically one of the best put together grants out there.

So but we are competing, million five, and there's two point seven million dollars worth of requests.

So uh yeah, a little little short in terms of the the request.

Um so that's uh grant, uh, end of things.

And then I want to talk a little bit about film.

Uh so as you know, we've had some great films come in here uh recently through Lydia's involvement last year and her Cordillera International Film Festival board role.

Uh Carson City is really helping to kind of stay involved in the region's larger film strategy, including attracting productions, uh building industry relationships and creating fields for future film tourism related opportunities, which is what we're all about tourism.

And Lydia's been super active on the Reno Tahoe territory front.

So Reno Tahoe Territory, we're a part of that, six DMOs, uh including the lake, North South Shore on the Nevada side, uh, Carson Valley area, Virginia City, and of course, Reno Sparks.

And so the idea here has been to take advantage of these film opportunities for the whole region, as in Reno Tahoe Territory.

So through those partnerships, the territory also has a unique way to provide an official Northern Nevada uh representation at the Cannes International Film Festival, and that's next month.

And that is huge, I'll just say uh out loud, uh, because that gives this whole area valuable industry connections that basically either we cannot get access to or it would they'd be cost prohibitive for us to even even get in the in the door.

So because of that value of the opportunity, the territory decided to include Lydia's attendance in future grant requests as an annual effort, basically, on behalf of the whole territory.

So we're not paying uh for said attendance, but of course, we're gonna support the work by allowing Lydia to be there uh to represent this whole area next month.

So that's May May 10 to uh 18.

So we went through a couple of meetings.

Uh they were interesting, a little back and forth, you know, about the important role that tourism uh that film plays as it relates to tourism.

Uh we have all the ducks in a row, and obviously Andrew's on our our board as well, and Chris, Lydia.

Yeah I don't know if you want to add anything but you're you're welcome to to jump in but I I am uh very excited about what we're doing with film.

Sure I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any uh it's just a really unique opportunity because I'm on the cordera board they're actually sponsoring basically my festival pass and the accreditation that comes with it and then RTT is helping with uh the travel expenses that go along with it so it was a you know unique opportunity that came up last year uh that I never thought was ever gonna happen again um but because the film bill did not pass and the budget is not there for the film office to attend we have no one from Nevada at all that with official representation as a destination and so um I'll be able to go to the film USA pavilion and that's where people that have productions are looking to actually find places to film.

And then there's their American pavilion where which was actually sponsored by Visit California last year.

So there's just a really large tourism aspect um and a lot of networking opportunities so I'll be there for about a week um just trying to network as much as I can um under Emily's guidance and so um uh from cordillera and hopefully we'll have some fruitful efforts real quick after watching your you and Emily do your presentation last week is there any way we could get you two to do a presentation for the board so everyone kind of understands the whole yeah realm of everything because I mean I learned a lot just sitting there and absolutely I think Emily would be happy to do that she was happy to take support I'm I'm always uh just wildly impressed with what she does with how little she is actually funded throughout the year so we um she's always looking for places to uh just explain her cause and I think this would be a great place to do that.

Okay.

Um especially since uh they're kindly letting me uh go and and have a week out of the office to be able to do that well just after seeing everything with the film tourism and how big that's because what's it called jet or set jetting set jetting and the numbers behind it through Expedia I was just like wow so I I think it'd be good to have them do a presentation in front of the whole board because I know we've had a lot of film over the last two years here in Carson so it just it's fascinating to me.

Yeah absolutely we'll have to have her put together some of the just more impacts of I think even more commercials and and films are are coming so fun to see.

Yeah we'd be happy to do that.

Love it I just have a comment um seeing I've only watched the trailer on my uh on my little cell phone and and it seeing the Carson Valley seeing the Carson range seeing our area that we live in we drive around every day and in some degree take a we take for granted seeing that on film I cannot wait to go watch that I believe it's May 1st it's out in theaters uh be able to go watch that so anything we can do you know I look at film whether it's a documentary whether it's a um uh a real Hollywood motion picture it's gonna end up in the movie theaters you're selling your area you're you're selling your setting you're selling the general charm and culture that that you offer here and it's a great way to sell people to come check it out it's a no pressure sale so I really really like that so love what you're doing keep it up doing a great job thank you thank you very much happy to do it very grateful and Andrew I know a guy that can help us with setting the agenda thank you you're welcome uh the last thing I was just gonna mention we have a really cool event coming we ran out of time in terms of preparing the presentation decks uh last week we're gonna have a boxing event out at the prison uh I'm gonna I'm gonna say Nevada state historic Nevada State prison rumble and Stu will correct me of course I'm if I'm wrong but it's the first part of June and so next month I'll make sure that we've got some additional information but the setting is going to be really really cool.

So Stu, I don't know if you want to add high level because I know we don't have a lot of all the details worked out but anything you want to say yeah we haven't talked a lot about the information but it is uh Saturday June 6th 6th.

Okay.

And a lot of what they do is for the Parkinsons with uh kids that have Parkinson's so and working with Lucia and Mo uh at the prison is really helping.

They're very on board with everything.

So hopefully this will be an annual event along with their other boxing matches as well.

Do the losers have to stay the night?

Yeah, they do, but they stay when they turn it into the ghost store.

Uh one more will Garrett be guarding them.

His outfit.

That's the goal.

He's gonna have his uh real estate sign on the back.

I don't think that motion passed.

That's all I have for you on my update.

So I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any others.

Okay.

Uh great.

If if uh hearing none, we'll go ahead and move on to 10B, Transient Occupancy Tax Actual versus Forecast.

That's the big sheet in the packet.

Uh we've got actuals in through January.

So January we did uh wind up just short of 1.9% or 1.87.

Uh February right now.

Uh I don't know what to say.

Uh it not looking good.

It's better than where I thought it was gonna be uh a week before we we put the the revised projection out, but we're still gonna be down around four percent.

No, snow.

I it's just been this is a weird up down, up down.

I don't even I've almost given up.

I'm driving Chris crazy, honestly, with trying to revise these numbers because I seem to miss the opposite way that we that we land uh based on you know the individual properties, returns and the way things are coming in.

So uh right now uh I think that's about where we're gonna be for February.

Uh yes, we had the new property come online, but we still are offline with rooms at two uh properties.

So federal is still down rooms and then plaza with the renovation, and we're trying to get an idea of where plaza am I missing the third one?

The holiday and express has been gone through some renovations as well.

Yeah, so we we brought a new property online and probably have we're down about an equivalent number of rooms from so thank you, Stu, uh, from three properties, right?

So I've got March basically f flat right now with a little bit of growth uh for April, May, and June.

So we're pacing to be about 1.6 plus or minus percent behind last fiscal year, year over year, fiscal year over fiscal year.

So wish I had better news, but uh that's where it looks like we're we're looking at right now.

So happy to answer any questions uh that you all may have.

I I will say this, I I don't want to get ahead of Lydia's presentation.

I do feel that the winter campaign at least helped to a certain extent, right?

Because we're talking about everything that you can still do here, absent snow up in Tahoe and talking with my peers.

It's been a tough winter up there for for them as well with the snow conditions or lack thereof.

Um now, of course, we have a great amount of snow that's just come in.

So maybe we'll have snow May, June, July or something.

But uh I do like what we did, and we're gonna kind of double down for next fiscal year as well.

We don't have any snow again, you know, with everything that you can still do here in Carson City because you can do a lot.

You know, come down here, ride your mountain bike, still golf, whatever, right?

I mean, there's a lot that can happen absent the snow, you know, up in the basin.

So that's where that's where we're where I've got us projected right now.

So wish it was better news, but I think this is somewhat realistic, and obviously we'll see how the returns come in for March, you know, and when we represent um in April.

And uh as much as Chris, don't don't get upset with me.

But if things go totally off the rails for March, I think we will take a look at revising um our 27 number as well, right?

Which is gonna pull down when you were talking about the ending fund balance.

Obviously, it's gonna pull down because our 26 is gonna come down and then so will 27.

But uh I want to see kind of where where things stand before we make that adjustment because we have to reset the whole budget because everything is tied to percentage shares and all that stuff.

But I'd like to leave that open uh potentially if March is really screwy, you know, relative to what we've got presented.

So that's what I wanted to say on that front.

Any questions on room tax?

Okay.

Uh thank you.

Uh all right.

With that, let's go ahead and shoot to 10 D events and sales update.

Mr.

Wexler, take it away, please.

For the record, Stu Wexler visit Carson City.

Um, I'm just gonna go over some of the events that already transpired, and then uh a couple of the shows I went to.

Uh we're gonna start with the uh Reno where Carson City TCG con.

It was a card show that came to us last minute.

Originally it was supposed to be up in Reno.

Something happened and they couldn't uh secure a facility up there.

So they came down.

We were referred, they were referred to us by Andrew Reno.

And so we were able to work with the Matt.

Do may I interrupt you for one second?

I am so sorry.

Uh Chair.

I'm I needed I just need to bounce back here real quick.

I apologize.

We have to table item 10C.

Uh so I we're not going to cover the hotel motel and I even had a note to myself.

So sorry, uh Transient Lodging Report because we're still having some challenges with properties December information.

So I did not uh Chris and I talked about this.

We didn't want to bring something forward, knowing that it will be changing at some point here, hopefully in the next week or two.

So Stu, I apologize.

Um we're gonna table 10 C.

We'll bring that back at the May meeting.

So with that, Todd, if hopefully that's okay, we can resume 10 Dr.

So uh on the trading card show.

Uh so this was last minute, and um we were able to work with Parkson Rec at the Mac Center, and this was a trading card show with Pokemon, some of the uh other trading cards that they work with, and we did go there.

Um this was like as I said last minute, and there were actually uh over a little bit over a thousand tickets uh sold.

I don't have the information as to where they were coming from.

They are still in the process of looking at their survey response, so I I can get that information uh later on.

Um they had close to a hundred vendors, and it was a very good turnout actually.

Uh and they what we're looking at is for Carson City to be the primary market going forward.

So this originally was supposed to be in Reno at the convention center.

We worked so well in such a short period of time that the company wants to work with us going forward.

Uh actually, I just talked to them today.

They're actually looking at an October date.

Whether we can do that this year or not, we're not sure.

I have to get together with Parks and Rec and just kind of look at some of the other events that we're going to be having around the same time.

October is very September, October is very busy for us.

So I think that uh would be a a lot of interest, uh, especially getting a head start in the marketing of it now instead of what two months, I think, before it actually happened.

So yeah, it was pretty interesting and fascinating.

And uh there was one old gentleman that was uh lives locally that was actually selling a lot of uh sports cards uh that was pretty fascinating, some really nice cards from uh baseball, you know, first editions and all that, tops with the bubblegum.

So it was pretty fascinating, and I think people had a good time on that.

So then I'm gonna go to uh we did our go west prefam tour.

So the go west show summit is where uh I was going to in Las Vegas.

We had a pre-fam tour that was arranged by the uh Reno Tahoe Territory and uh Reno the RSC VA.

So we started originally with 16 operators, and because of the world environment, um it it whittled down to about eight operators.

A lot of people were tentative and coming with the the government shutdown and what was going on.

A lot of people that were supposed to come from uh Europe decided not to come.

So it was a little bit smaller, but they did get to see um a more close knit tour of Stewart Indian School and uh the prison itself.

So I can tell you that from the international aspect, the Stuart Indian School was fascinating to them.

Um the Native American culture, the history, it's something they never experienced.

So when they see it from us, and they had uh a tight uh guided tour, and we made um we had them make uh small baskets for them to give away.

So they were extremely appreciative, very interesting.

And uh Justin, who was the grandson of somebody that was an alumni of the school, gave the tour itself, so he did uh uh incredible job, and everyone really was fascinated by it.

So the prison was a little um should I say spookier, not everybody enjoyed the prison.

They it was a little tougher, um especially for we had some Latin American people that tour operators that um maybe not would be their um venue the next time they come across.

But uh they they did enjoy seeing what what it was to begin with, but you know, the history of it itself.

So and then they headed up to Virginia City and went back to Reno, but they did appreciate uh the time we spent with them.

So and I did see a couple of the uh operators at the show, had appointments with them themselves.

So we we did get to talk about um some of the uh itineraries that we had.

So and then I went to Las Vegas for the Go West Summit.

Very interesting.

Um there was more international people at this summit than than I've been to before.

A lot of uh people from China that were coming, a lot of people from a lot of operators from Latin America and um from the international interest.

When I was meeting with them, the biggest interest was really the wild west history of our area.

The VT train, which is on our one of our brochures in the front, caught their attention right away, especially the one it has a couple cowboys riding along.

They saw that and they were extremely interested in that.

So um, because they don't have itineraries like that over in their countries.

So we talked about that.

I think there's a lot of interest that we can work on.

They do know it's a seasonal attraction, so they're they're fine with that.

Um then one of the other uh interesting points about Go West is our location to everything.

Uh when I went through them with our maps, they were uh had no idea how close we were to everything, especially the gateway cities.

When you go in San Francisco, you go into Sacramento that they can drive up here from those areas was really huge for them.

And but I'll tell you the biggest point that I think we have over some of the other areas is that Carson City has no resort fees.

Uh you go into Reno, Tahoe, Vegas, obviously.

When we talked about that, it really perked up their interest, especially in this day and age when everything is so expensive.

So the no resort fees, the no parking fees was really of interest to them.

And we did have some um uh seminars, and just looking at this uh if you can look at that international arrivals decline, Mexico, interesting, is still up 6% as compared to Canada, which is more of the political environment of what's been going on.

The U.S.

is still the number one destination for international travel, but other countries, namely Brazil and Canada and Mexico are catching up to what the US is.

So if we don't change, we could see those countries surpassing the US as a destination.

So Andrew doesn't think so, but then so I had actually had 42 appointments.

We did have some no-shows, we had some late arrivals.

Um I think with uh the TSA lines, people were arriving late.

Fortunately for us, Reno was no problem, even Vegas coming back, there was no issue at all.

Coming into the East Coast is where the problems were uh TSA lines extremely long.

So we did have some operators that got there late, but I was able to meet with them.

So there were a couple no shows, but then we had some free time, so I was able to reschedule four appointments.

Some I have worked with already and are looking to bring uh tour operators here to Carson.

So we'll I'll be following up with them, you know, in the next uh couple weeks on that.

Uh but the the buyers from Germany, Mexico, China, and Latin America are extremely interested in coming to our area.

Vegas is Vegas, everyone's gonna go to Vegas.

But when I showed them and told them about Carson, uh the smaller venues and the uh itineraries we have, just the history of our area that everyone was very, very uh interested in that.

So uh and next year the Go West will be in Galveston, Texas.

So they switch every year, and I've never been to Galveston, so that should be that should be interesting as well.

Um but um but yeah, the US is still the one number one destination, but the other countries are catching up to what we do, so we'll see what happens with that.

And then some of the April uh tournaments we were looking at the Comstock, which is the Comstock shootout, which is happening uh this month.

Um we're having the Capital City Gun Club, which is happening this month, and also the Tasmanian Boxing Club, which will be happening next weekend.

Uh and the Tasmania, that's one where they're we're gonna have 24 bouts, 48 fighters from Northern California and Oregon coming to Carson for the event.

Um we're also gonna have the California Youth Association.

They are getting towards uh the last time I talked to him, they were at the 150 uh youth participants, and this is all California.

So you have the youth participants that come up with their parents.

So these are just the shooters that are participating in the event.

So you also have the families that are coming up.

And then the Comstock has about 19 uh about 19 teams and close to still close to 400 players.

So you're gonna have a lot going on this weekend.

The hotels are gonna be packed within the next couple weeks, just with all the events happening.

Stu, can I jump in for just one quick second?

Uh any of you who would like to participate uh as in watching, not necessarily getting in the boxing ring on the 25th of April.

Just let Stu know, because we'll have a table right there, ringside.

So you're welcome to to join in uh and watch.

So they've been a great.

They're just Marvel and and Cisco have been great to work with.

And so I I'm not here that weekend, but uh please let's do know if you can make it over.

You don't have to be there, obviously, for you know, six, eight hours, but uh, even if you come over and catch a couple of bouts.

Yeah, that also goes for the prison rumble.

If anyone wants to go, I think that one will be very uh interesting.

So just let me know, we can get tickets for that as well.

And then the the last one is uh the cabalero Ballador in Carson City, Nevada.

Rancho Uva Blanca Family Wines is a door.

Yeah, that's where you so uh yeah, this is gonna be this is gonna be happening uh June 27th as well at Fruit Park.

And I'm gonna let David talk about this one only because he met with uh the owner last week while I was still at Vegas at the show, so he has more of the information from the meeting on that one.

I'm gonna show off, Chris.

That hurts my feelings.

No, I I have to be honest with you, I could not be more excited uh to work with uh Billy Rodriguez and the Rancho Uvalanca family wines.

This is going to be, I think, an amazing event.

Uh starting on hopefully 40 horses.

Uh he's got three events in California.

They just finished one up in Washington.

And before I forget, since I forgot to table 10 C, I want to give a uh uh really a big shout out, uh Matt to Irma from your team because she's in this world.

Uh so she has the uh skirmish girls, right?

So you've got the uh oh my god, the chatros, you got the guys, skirmish girls on on that side in terms of horse dancing, and don't ask me to get deep into the the woods on the on the different types of of dancing and everything because I'll probably bungle something.

But Irma has been wonderful.

Um, she's going to be doing the introductions with different horse groups in and around Carson City uh for Billy.

It's really becoming a full uh team effort because this guy, Eric, he's going to connect uh Billy that same weekend of the boxing.

It's really becoming a full uh team effort because this guy, Eric, he's going to connect uh Billy that same weekend of the boxing, but he's gonna connect uh Billy with some of the uh Latin American owned businesses in Carson City that we already work with for Dia de los Muertos and the Tamale Festival, and then we're gonna get him up to the boot in the hat makers up in Virginia City as well from a vendor perspective.

Uh and then hopefully it's it's it's a kind of a weird I guess online uh deal for this particular world of horse dancing.

And so Irma's gonna help us get into Fallon, Fernley.

We're gonna work with some of our partners out there as well as the Yarrington Smith Valley area to bring folks in uh for this event.

And all I can say is it came as a result of the boxing tournament when we actually got involved.

This guy, the chair and I were over at boxing last year, and Cisco and Maribel introduced us to Billy.

He's talking horse dancing, and ironically, Matt, Irma's been on me for I don't know, three years, four years to bring a horse dancing because of the Latino culture, right?

The share of population, and there's nothing like this in northern Nevada.

Uh, right?

Yes, we have rodeos and things of that nature, but but uh specific to the horse dancing and with these types of horses and and the banda and the ranchera stuff.

Uh so golly, I'm I'm I'm genuinely excited about this.

I'm just gonna be honest with you.

I think I think it's gonna be fantastic.

Uh Billy's already talking about a second event in 2027.

Maybe we bookend the summer and have something in the fall, right?

Well, Billy would like he would like to do a couple events a year.

Yeah, and Billy's gonna be here next week.

We're gonna do our like final walk through uh Fuji Arena just to go over thing with Parks and Rec and then uh we'll go from there.

But yeah, it's pretty exciting.

He's very excited to come up to Carson City to present this.

Uh and he also has some boxing events that he does along with the horse dancing that he works with Cisco and Mirabel on that as well.

So it's uh very exciting event.

It should be should be great for Carson.

And that's all I have.

Any questions?

En Espanola Perguntas para estu.

No?

Okay.

Thank you, Stu.

Excellent.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

No, I apologize.

I'm not gonna do that again.

I swear, chair.

Uh no, I really cool stuff coming.

I know it's a lot on the weekends, and it's something we're we're trying to work with all these different sports interests to figure out how we can try and spread some things out.

Unfortunately, calendars seem to get in the way, right?

Between this soccer and this shooting and this whatevering, right?

And but yeah, it's gonna be busy from here on out uh from an events perspective in terms of what we're sponsoring or we're endorsing or whatever the case may be.

But uh, I love the fact that we're bringing new events to Carson City.

So that that genuinely does excite me.

Not as much as Stu, of course, as the uh sales and events guy, but uh yeah, excited about this.

All right, no questions, 10 E.

Arts and Culture update.

Buenas tardes, por la record.

I mean, nobody has Eric Brooks.

For being here today.

So we didn't have a huge event April, but we'll go over a few things that happened, but we're able to do a lot of planning, which really excited for moving into summer.

Um, the mentorship continues as you can tell, along with learning more about data research.

Um learning more about fashion.

So thank you, David.

We'll also discuss Pete Paulus and his new exhibition inside our office, brewery Arts Center's 50 year Golden Jubilee Gala and the United States Conference of Mayors Public Leadership at the Arts Awards.

This is every time we have a new show, I say you can't miss the one.

This one is amazing, and we have another winner.

Uh oh, another Espanol for us all.

Oh, host a Dios.

Pete Paulos is uh retired pastry chef, so the reception he'll be cooking uh French Eclairs for everybody.

You'll and we're gonna pair them with Mendon Mill whiskeys.

You'll want to make sure you make that one, and we're settling on that date.

We'll have that for you soon.

He's Pizza Multidisciplinary Artist living and working in Virginia City.

We've worked together for the past decade in different shows.

Primarily he works in paper cutting, and he has a few of those pieces in the office as well in the gallery as well.

This is something new that he started about two years ago, I want to say.

Um I love them.

It's kind of that dream catcher idea.

Uh these oh host day deals are a frequent site within the plebos of New Mexico.

They embody faith in an all-seeing providence, serving the spiritual objects that are believed to possess the ability to perceive and understand that which is hidden from ordinary site.

And once you're in that room, especially if you're there early, well, we're able to be there early in the morning before the lights are super bright, and there's the power in that room.

It's a really spectacular exhibition.

We're very happy that he was able to share with us.

And that'll be up through the end of June.

Some of well, the majority of the people on the Dais here were able to be at the gala this last Saturday.

Uh big kudos to Spike and his team, Val in particularly to be able to pull this off.

It's their first gala in 50 years as well.

Uh and it's the first one that Spike has been able to put together uh with Val.

Val's Val knocked it out of the park because she's been doing this for a long time on a lot of definite venues.

Uh Mark Este was the celebrity chef.

They had multi-courses, uh past appetizers in the gallery space downstairs, the exhibition hall with music and an open bar, and then upstairs the room was laid out beautifully, uh course meal out, and then lots of different custom cocktails with the partnership of Minden Mill and TemTor in Reno.

Moondance Chocolates was involved, and then Bob Sumner, who was a huge surprise.

I really like his music.

Uh and that was able to be brought in as a partnership with For the Love of a Song, uh, which is a whole other story we can get into uh when we're off the time clock here.

And lastly, we'll talk about the United States Conference of Mayors, public leadership in the arts awards.

I'm trying to mix more of these bigger picture issues into what we've got going on in the region, in in particular in Carson City.

We've worked uh the general arts world and Nevada Arts Council in particular has worked with American for the arts for decades, a couple decades at least, through Susan and Tim way back in the day through the NAC.

And this is some really fun stuff to look at it, seeing what is happening in the country and how we can stack up with our smaller demographic.

So these people are championing the arts as an essential civic infrastructure, driving economic vitality and strengthening communities and enriching the lives of residents, which I can say we're we're proudly doing that same thing here.

The arts contribute 1.2 trillion with a T to the US economy annually and support 5.4 million jobs, more than transportation and construction combined.

And we hear these numbers all the time in the arts world, and then we get to legislative or other uh government entities, and those numbers don't translate for some reason.

If if mining came in and said we're doing these numbers, all kinds of money would be going to the mines.

So uh 1.2 trillion from the arts.

One of the winners was Governor Gretchen.

She was able to restructure the plan to eliminate Michigan Arts and Culture Council entirely along the state.

She was able to protect jobs and programming in all 83 activities.

3% of Michigan's GDP is tied to the arts, generating 20 billion in economic activity.

And Mayor Keller, the mayor of Albuquerque, prioritized its creative economy, which now generates 1.75 billion impact and support 17,000 jobs.

He's increased public arts funding from one to 1.5%.

So a very, very small percent to begin with, and even a smaller increase.

And that uh was able to create the City Makers program that pays local artists living wage to lead civic projects, launching the creative youth corp, employed more than a hundred young people in creative industries.

His 50 million transformation of the historic rail yards into a cultural hub helped attract Netflix one billion dollar expansion.

So from one to 1.5%, you get a billion dollar dividend.

And we have the opportunity to think bigger in what we're doing here as well.

And I'm really happy to have this team and this board to have the support uh to look at how we can expand and keep uh being creative and using arts to drive our economic growth.

Happy to answer any questions.

Let's chime in on two things.

The tater tots with caviar were amazing on Saturday.

Those were wow.

All the food was amazing, but but basically it was little tater tots with little cream and some caviar, and they would that was to die for.

Um also Santa Fe, New Mexico, um, which is a very much a arts mecca, if you will, uh Southwestern arts.

Um, that was just named the fastest growing real estate market in the southwest United States.

So not only does arts bring jobs and economic activity, it drives growth throughout cities as well, too.

Nothing about the halibut.

The halibut was superb as well.

Okay, I didn't want to undersell that part of the evening.

Um thank you, Eric.

Uh appreciate it.

And yeah, I mean, I think we're hammered down on arts, culture, history, heritage here, and just doing what doing the best that we can, right?

To to stay visible.

But yeah, I hope that we can get some state-level support for sure.

So and at some point, hopefully the rules can change with regard to national endowment for the arts to allow us to be a grants eligible organization, because at present we're not, unfortunately, just because of how we're set up as a sub-government organization, right?

So we're ineligible for anything, even through Nevada Arts Council if part of that funding comes from NEA.

So that's something we're still.

We keep talking to Tony Manfredi at the Arts Council about that because I would love to be able to put in for some grants through NAC or I'm not sure the humanities part.

Because yeah, we're just kind of left out, unfortunately, right now.

Just as us.

So anyway, thank you.

Good good work.

Okay.

We'll go ahead and move on to 10 F marketing VR.

Lydia.

Lydia Beck for the record.

Thank you.

My daughter speaks who's two speaks better Spanish than I do.

So I will forego that uh running joke.

So we're just gonna go over our typical monthly updates for digital and PR and then recap our DataFi winter campaign now that that has wrapped.

So of course we have our numbers.

Let's talk about diving into those and what those mean.

So March was a more mixed month than February was, but the bigger picture really remains encouraging.

So we saw a little bit softer performance in some channels as winter media spend tapered off.

And we started um channeling some of our funds to other areas as the winter campaign started to die down, especially with the seasonal conditions that we've already talked about at nauseum.

We know that that was definitely impacting some of what the winter campaign was, of course, which was uh heavy and snow and uh bundled up in cozy clothes, which was not happening a lot in March here.

So overall, we uh the website though continued to attract strong traffic compared to last year, and most importantly, our lodging interest remained uh a real bright spot.

So that increased 20% 24% month over month and 23% year over year, supported by our paid search keyword optimization.

So the paid search in particular was really continuing to show its value as a lower funnel tool.

So we're capturing people who are actively looking for places to stay.

And then with Meta, we continue to do uh what it often does best for us, which is help uh helps drive scale and visibility, while our display and our video helped keep Carson City present in the market, uh, even as spend declined this month.

For public relations, March was pretty incredible.

We had some some real wins within Matador, within the Travel Nevada magazine, with National Geographic, the Points Guy.

Uh, those are all really massive publications to have our names in and really helped our PR scorecard uh in in hitting some of our goals that we wanted for the year already.

So March was a really strong example of how PR can reinforce several different Carson City storylines at one time.

You can see the variety and in what we've uh got on the on this on the docket today, but we saw visibility connected really to outdoor experiences, Western heritage, museums and history, family-friendly travel, and film as well.

Uh which is especially valuable here, though, is where Carson City appeared, but how often it appeared in different contexts.

So that repetition really helps and it tells potential visitors that Carson City isn't just nearby, it's worth stopping for.

And also it's showing the value of our partnerships like we have with Travel Nevada.

Um, the fact that uh they're featuring us multiple times throughout that publication is showing that Carson City is is growing as a real viable destination uh in their eyes as well.

All right, so let's recap our winter campaign.

So that ended at the end of February.

So now we've got some data.

Again, when it comes with DataFi, there's a three-week lag in getting all of the uh data input it into the campaign, which is why we're presenting it now.

So let's talk about the highlights.

The big takeaway is that the campaign appears to have driven meaningful visitation and economic activity from a relatively efficient meet efficient media investment.

So the campaign did more than just generate awareness.

It translated into true travel behavior, overnight stays, and measurable value for us.

So that's exactly what we want to see from a seasonal destination campaign.

And um as Dave mentioned, I would be scared to see what our numbers might look like if we weren't targeting our shoulder season with this campaign.

So overall, we know for sure that this campaign drove at least 3,850 trips to Carson City.

And what DataFi is incredible at doing with the cell phone data is that we know that those 3,850 trips that came to the destination were delivered our ads and came into market.

So that's actually physically tracked.

So this slide gives a fuller picture of the type of impact the campaign had.

So the pattern there is pretty clear within our California drive markets.

That's an extremely important part of our overnight destination when it comes to this campaign specifically.

But we see this across the board when we really study our other visitor uh information across the year.

Um, of course, LA continues to creep up more and more, and we are are glad to see that because they generally stay longer and spend more uh as the far that happens the farther they go away.

But Sacramento always continues to be a strong market for us as well uh across the board and where they're interacting, lodging.

They do tend to provide a little bit more day trips than the other ones do, but overall, um strong visitation that we're seeing from uh from this campaign.

These are our traditional KPIs.

So it's giving our our kind of performance health check.

So before we even get into the attributed visitation, it's important to know whether the campaign itself was competitive and efficient.

And the takeaway here overall is yes, we overperformed on data fi's benchmarks pretty much across the board or were flat.

And so uh we're really excited to see the engagement that happened with this campaign.

And it's simply put the ads were getting in front of people, they were holding attention, and people were taking actions.

This slide, of course, gives us a better sense of who the campaign was reaching and how those visitors behaved once they got here.

What stands out is that the audience appears well aligned and discretionary travel and overnight behavior, and their movement throughout the destinations simply suggests that they weren't arriving and just leaving, they were staying and engaging.

And the incremental lift is really the most important part here.

That's how we know someone saw the ad and was more likely to visit Carson City because of the advertising.

And that was a 9.34 times visitation lift.

So that means that someone was nine times more likely to visit after seeing our ad than they were any other advertising.

So uh overall, we see this as really a successful campaign.

Um they do benchmarks, um, they really make this a strategy, uh, reporting strategy that um uh is respectable.

This isn't just a lot of fluff numbers, they have a lot of uh modeling that they do to create a baseline of someone who would be a visitor if they were who let me recap here and read my notes.

So I apologize.

The value of this is that when someone they they provide an audience that is modeled around a control group, showing if they were gonna come to Carson City or not, anyway.

And so they compare that group versus who would see our our ads, and they are nine times more likely to visit than someone who is not shown our ads.

I hope I explained that properly.

Um I apologize.

Um, but overall, this campaign shows that the picture is a positive one.

Our digital channels continue to generate strong year-over-year interest.

Our PR is placing Carson City into meaningful travel and culture conversations, and the winter campaign appears to have translated that visibility into real-world visitation and value.

So we are excited to see where this goes, and hopefully with our grant funding, we can continue to do this again next year with a new campaign.

And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Lydia?

Real quick, what do you think's driving that Los Angeles market?

It's it's creeping up with Sacramento, Stockton, and Modesto.

I would love to say it's all our advertising.

Yeah.

I would love to, I think it's definitely contributing to that.

Um, I think Los Angeles across the board is looking for uh I think Tahoe helps, and I think our our our messaging around being our proximity to Tahoe is helping that a lot.

Uh, because of all I think a lot of LA is knows that Tahoe exists.

They don't know that Carson City exists in such proximity, and I think we're doing a great job of telling that story.

And I know that all of our other DMOs are also seeing lift from LA too, from what we're seeing.

And so I think in general, this area is driving more interest from that market, and we are capitalizing on that interest with our marketing.

Well, good job.

Thanks.

I would agree.

And to dumb down what Lydia was saying so I can understand it, we're getting in front of the right people to begin with who have that tendency and are looking for a rural destination like Carson City.

So the work that they do that goes in behind the scenes to uh refine, you know, the information, and it's always churning, right?

So it's that data driven, I think, effort with the campaigns, uh, that it's all real time, right?

As they're monitoring these numbers uh within the datafy campaign.

To a certain extent, we do that with the rest of the campaigns, but obviously when it's data fi's platform with Datavies um advertising, it's 100% track that way, right?

And from a real-time perspective.

So we keep learning, and I think that's the cool thing.

And if we're able to do this for next year, again, we'll just start off where we're at, and then we keep refining, right, and keep moving forward.

So hopefully we'll get better and and the right people, and uh, you know, obviously it's nice to see incriminal lift.

Um, you know, maybe next year we'll be at 10.34 or 11.34 times.

I think that's a positive.

I know there were a lot of hashes where we're in the benchmark, but there were a couple where you can see we are overperforming as as Lydia said on on that slide.

And those are the sorts of things that she and the data fi, and and I guess KPS3 too is sure, I shouldn't discount um their involvement, but you know, it's kind of three uh with with Lydia leading that charge.

Uh a lot of people are involved, you know, in these efforts.

So and some of the side don't even pretend to understand what they're what they're doing in the back end of the of the of the system, but but I I see it in the numbers and the the results, and I'm very pleased, you know, with us kind of dipping our toe in the water here uh from the data fi side of things.

So I agree.

I just think it's incredible that we can actually see someone who saw our ad and came to market.

I mean, the fact that that kind of data even exists is mind blowing in itself, and then being able to have baseline data for people who were probably coming to market anyway, and then being able to filter that out and showing what impact our ad actually had is really really cool data that yes is a little expensive to have, but I think is actually really uh invaluable so that we can guide our strategic efforts in the future instead of um hoping something works.

Yeah, when I was a little research kid many moons ago for the state to do this from a study perspective after the fact that we were in the 200, 200 and something thousand dollars a year range to try and get at somebody being exposed to an ad and then having come into destination, but that was always the challenge.

Were they already predispositioned to or not, right?

To to visit, um, you know, and then you're showing them the ads, but yeah, the research side of that was a cool 200 and something thousand here.

Yes, we have our platform, but that research, that data is a part of the buy.

I mean, we're putting the money in the buy, not it's not like there's 10,000 more on the research side of things, which is just phenomenal, right?

How research has changed, you know, the last 10 years or so.

To get the incremental lift data, that $50,000 buy is required, which is why we target that level and put that kind of investment in.

But we are going to be doing $50,000 worth of advertising on a digital side anyway, so why not pay just a hair more and get that data to go along with it?

I mean, well said, Yeah, so that's everything I'm doing with marketing and PR, you guys with some assistance from Lydia, I guess, is what you're thinking.

Uh so yeah, no, good job.

Thank you very much.

Uh 10G, future agenda items.

Anything from anybody.

Okay.

10H, our next meeting.

So we are one week shifted to the 18th, uh, because we will have our budget hearing during the regular meeting.

So just reminding everybody we're a week behind because we can we have to meet in the last 11 days of of the month uh with the taxation rules and all that good stuff.

So Monday May 18th, four o'clock right here.

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

Thank you, David.

Do we have any uh board comments or announcements?

None with that one move on to item 12 public comment.

Hearing none, we are adjourned.

Thank you guys.