The Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission was small in numbers but big on potential ideas for 2023 at its Oct. 12 workshop.
CAPC chair Jeff Carter and the commission’s two newest members — Mark Hicks and Chris Clifton — were the only members present as ideas were discussed with tourism director Madison Dawson for next year’s budget in a meeting that lasted just more than 30 minutes.
Ideas that were discussed included hiring a full-time director for The Auditorium, conducting a “destination assessment” through a third party and turning the original downtown fire station into a visitor center.
“We think we’re probably estimating a $2 million budget for 2023,” Dawson told commissioners. “Just keep that in your mind.Additionally, I’ve asked Paradise [Marketing] to give us a 12-month long marketing plan. In the years past, they’ve only done maybe nine months out of the year … this year we’re asking for 12 months. So, expect an increase in their budget and we don’t have it yet. Still kind of working on that, but just keep that in your mind as well.”
IDEAS FOR THE AUD
Dawson presented ideas for the 2023 budget regarding TheAuditorium, including more marketing dollars, refurbishing the basement floor and hiring a new venue director.
“The Auditorium promotion line, we want to add that and that’ll be for the shows that we have in The Auditorium currently,” Dawson said. “We don’t do any marketing for the shows that are not ours, so any outside promoter shows, they do all of their own advertising for their shows, but typically the venue does put some ad dollars behind those as well. And we just have never done that. … We’re thinking about $1,000 a month to go towards any shows that happen during that month.
“We’ll have like a pre-existing radio ad that we change every month to reflect our shows that we have in the auditorium.”
Dawson said the original wooden floors in the basement of the venue need refinishing.
“They’re the original wood floors, so we don’t want to cover them up or anything like that,” she said. “We’d like to refinish them. I’ve gotten a couple of quotes and they range from $18,000 to $20,000 to fully sand and refinish them.”
Another prospective line item is that of a new position of Auditorium director, a position Dawson said she would estimate with a salary of $45,000 to $55,000 a year.
“Currently all of the concerts that come through The Auditorium, all of these national touring acts, they are brought here by outside promoters,” Dawson said. “We primarily use a man named Larry Schaefer, and he does a great job. So, all of the auditorium shows that you see, those are his that he contracts the talent for and makes those deals with the talent.
“So, we’ve been asked since I’ve been here to try to pursue us promoting our own shows. And I will say … because I don’t have experience in this, it is difficult. And that’s why I think we need an auditorium director here that has experience and things like that.
“This year we’ve had between one or two shows every month at The Auditorium. And currently [we] divvy up those responsibilities. We really need someone who has venue experience.”
Carter said the CAPC is currently under budget for employee salaries.
“We approved a budget of $210,000 and right now we’ve only have spent $155,000,” he said.
Carter reminded commissioners that the CAPC would have to vote and approve adding the position and would play a part in selecting an individual if they decide to move forward with the idea.
DESTINATION ASSESSMENT
Another potential budget item for 2023 would be a destination assessment done on Eureka Springs by a third-party company facilitated by Paradise Marketing.
“[Paradise will] hire a third-party company to come in and they assess your destination, so they’ll tell you you need more parking here or to attract this type of demographic you’re lacking in this area,” Dawson said. “I think Paradise calls it a tourism master plan.
“What they do is they just assess your destination in all regards, not just marketing, but in, like I said, parking or … bathrooms are needed in this area, or this is how the normal tourist moves around and the destination and they need this when they’re here, whatever it may be.”
Dawson said Paradise would help the city find the company to provide the assessment with a “ballpark” cost of $50,000, if approved.
“Again, this is preliminary,” Dawson said. “This would be a third-party company that we put out for bids and these companies would bid on it and we would get that information,” Carter said. “They would basically evaluate us a destination.”
Carter said he thinks such an assessment would be beneficial to city business owners.
“I think it’s needed,” Carter said. “Like, I think we need to know where we’re short and then that information I think is good for stakeholders.”
Moving forward with the idea will be discussed in future meetings, Dawson said.
“Once we receive the estimated cost, I think we’ll just have to decide if the cost is beneficial for us or not,” she said.
Clifton liked the idea. “I think it could be really beneficial to have an outside independent group evaluating things,” he said. “That just takes away all of our biases.”
VISITOR CENTER
Commissioners also had preliminary discussions on an idea for the CAPC to fund renovations on the original fire station on Main Street across the street from City Hall and turn it into a visitors center.
Carter presented a plan in which the city would renovate the building, which features two garage doors, into a “community hall.”
“[The CAPC] cannot fund a community hall, but we do have the ability to fund a visitors center,” Carter said. “That’s in our purview. We could approach the city and ask them to let us have this facility for a visitors center.
“We could do the renovations and we could run it. Is this a road we want to go down? Is this a good idea?Abad idea? …” Dawson said the location in the heart of downtown Eureka Springs would be ideal for a visitors center and could possibly include things like merchandise, goods from area businesses and a selling point for tickets to events held at the TheAud.
Commissioners saw photos of the Experience Fayetteville visitors center that showed examples of what a similar facility in Eureka Springs could look like.
Carter said the venue could also be one that could host city meetings if needed.
“Iknowthere’sgoingtobesomepushbackon this,” Carter said, “but these are concepts. These are ideas. That’s why we’re here as a commission. We put stuff out, talk it through and it will flush itself out as either a good idea and we will move forward, or flush itself out as a bad idea.”
