Economic Development, Communications, and Marketing Committee - Regular Meeting

That's our cue, everyone. Welcome to our Economic Development and Marketing Committee meeting. Welcome to everybody here. This meeting will be recorded. The Zoom application will notify you that this meeting is being recorded, which it just did. Please press continue on the Zoom application to stay in the meeting. Use the raise your hand feature in Zoom when you would like to speak on an item and to also lower your hand when you're finished speaking. Please unmute yourself when called on to speak and mute yourself when you are done speaking. If you are calling in by phone, identify yourself by name before speaking on an item. Press star nine on your phone to raise and lower your hand. Press star six if you are participating by phone to unmute. So we're going to... Move ahead with this meeting. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining us today. I know we're all a little bit tired and weary from all the fun events we've had in the last couple of weeks, and we have a big weekend coming up as well. So we're going to get moving on this. So I'd like to call this meeting to order. Roll call shows every committee member is here. A consent calendar, we have one item approval of June 8 2026. Minutes. Can I have a motion on that, please? I'll make a motion to approve the June 8 meeting minutes. Motion and second any discussion from the audience about the minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. OK, that passes. Public presentations, do we have any public presentations today? Seeing none in the room. Howard, no? OK. Anyone online? Public presentation? All right, we're going to move ahead into our general business. We have a lot to talk about today. So discussion and direction on the citywide 2026 economic development and community engagement.

Ready, Paulina? Everyone, thank you very much, Mayor. Today, we're going to be going over, I don't know if you have the PowerPoint ready. Hope everyone's doing well. Happy Monday. We'll be going just a recap of the committee input and work that we've done so far. And then I'll be turning it over to Alicia and she'll be providing an update on the watch parties and the night market as we have those events this weekend at 900 Lafayette. And then I'll be providing a campaign update, just an overview, right before we go into committee members' feedback. So we're going to be doing an exercise to get feedback from you guys on the campaign and the efforts that went into developing and executing, implementing the campaign this year. And then the last will end with just a recap of our next meeting in August. Um, so what we've done so far, I think this is the one that we just keep adding. So since the last meeting, um, we went over what we were proposing for watch parties. We've now, um, had two watch party events and I'll let Alicia talk more about that. Um, and then we, um, also are going to be having our last night market. This, uh, weekend. So without further ado, I'll turn it over to Alicia that can provide an update on the watch parties and the night markets, which is our last event for the campaign.

All right. Good afternoon, everyone. How are you? Great. Thank you. I might be delayed. I think the slide that we're seeing or that I'm seeing online is the what we've done so far. Perfect. All right, everyone. So as Paulina shared, we've done a lot this season. We were able to accomplish huge things this season. to really celebrate and promote the city of Santa Clara, our community, our residents, our businesses. And I think we should all be really proud of what we've put together so far. Um, just when we thought we were wrapping up, we weren't because we were able to secure a sponsorship with DevCon, um, to help support the campaign. And that really set us in motion to begin planning the hosting of watch parties. Next slide, please. So as you all know, um, the city prepared a proposal for FIFA. with preliminary locations, event assumptions, and this was all based on due diligence, items such as capacity, event complexity, adherence to FIFA regulations. And ultimately, we put the proposal into FIFA and were approved with the following event concept locations. So Alamo Drafthouse, which is at Westfield Valley Fair, The mall, that is a theater that belongs to Santa Clara. Also, Santa Clara's Convention Center, where we propose an event concept of watch party and fan zone, as well as an integration of a watch party into our July night market. And so all of those concepts were approved, and we started running really, really fast. Ultimately, for Alamo, we were approved to proceed with three rounds or three matches within the round of 32. And so that's what was hosted on July 2 at Valley Fair. At Santa Clara Convention Center, we were approved to do a three-day public viewing event. This was this past weekend. I know I saw a couple of familiar faces there. So I'm really excited to see you all. That was from July 9th through July 11th. And this really served as the city's flagship public viewing hub. We had a fan engagement zone and this was for the quarterfinal matches. This was a pretty exciting event. We'll get into those details in a little bit just because we're coming off of that event which was, again, a really good event. And now we're headed into the integration of the July night market and watch party, which we'll talk about a little bit today. That's going to be this weekend. We have expanded the hours to ensure that our night market is incorporating the watch party. So we'll talk about those dates, times, and programming behind that. Um, but as you see, we were able to push our watch party campaign into motion. Next slide, please. Um, so as I shared previously, the first watch party was hosted at Alamo draft house. Um, we were able to have three matches screened. So, uh, Portugal versus Croatia, Switzerland versus Algeria and Spain versus Austria. This was a really different type of watch party than what we have been seeing around the Bay Area. We were able to utilize six of Alamo's auditoriums. So we were able to see these games on massive big screens in really comfortable seating, food delivered to your seat. We were able to broadcast in English and Spanish. Again, we had food and beverages on site. We had a live DJ. And there was also face painting and photo opportunities. So if you look to the left, these are some of the families that participated in these player cards that we were able to utilize for the watch party. This watch party was successful, but of course we faced a few challenges with as fast as we're running in order to get this accomplished. So some of the challenges that we faced We're really around logistics. So securing the date with summer movies, summer movie buyout. So I'm not sure if some of you all are movie buffs, but Toy Story 5, I believe, came out. Also Moana, so we were competing with those movies and being able to pull those offline in order to proceed with the watch party at Alamo. We also were competing with the holiday weekend. But all in all, as you can see from the photos here on the left-hand side, people really enjoyed themselves. And it was really a premier experience that we were proud. Next slide, please. All right, so next what you're seeing here is the watch party that we just hosted this past weekend at the convention center. Some of the photos that you're seeing here on the right hand side are of some of the activations that took place. So again, this was really a watch party slash fan zone. So we did have Mission City Ballroom available and open for people to just come in and watch and enjoy a 40-foot screen. And again, we were able to host a three-day experience. So first match on Thursday, which was France versus Morocco. Second match on Friday, which was Portugal versus... Oh, I'm sorry. I think I don't have the proper teams up here. And then Sorry, and then Saturday we were able to go into Norway versus England, we have two matches 2pm and 6pm and then Argentina versus Switzerland. But we also have activations which are what you're seeing here on the right hand side, so we have the moment factory which were augmented games. This was a dynamic experience, you were able to play virtual reality games that's the photo that's here in the Center. Many families and kids were able to participate. It was a soccer themed virtual reality game, but it really kind of livened up the space. If you were there, maybe you had your kids there that maybe they weren't interested in just watching the game, but we were able to have a family filled experience. What you see up at the top is skills and drills. So we did have the kiddos out there. This activation was for 12 and under. So we did have the kiddos out there doing skills and drills, which was really exciting. Again, something to just kind of fill the space if you're not necessarily there just to watch or if you're a really big soccer buff as a kiddo, being able to get active while watching one of your favorite teams play. And then, of course, we had some of our iconic photo opportunities. So the Santa Clara letters, which we've been seeing at every event now, such a staple at this point of our events. We also had the FIFA World Cup clock, a giant soccer ball. And then we had food and beverage areas as well and a lobby bar area with a DJ. And so that was really exciting as well. And so what's upcoming is going to be our night market integration for this finals weekend that's coming up. So I'm sad to say that this will conclude our night market series for EDMC specifically. So we are extending it. It's going to be a massive party. So we are extending it. It's going to be a three-day event, so July 17, 18, and 19. So that's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The night market will run as normal on Friday. So as you see here, the 4 to 9 p.m. But then Saturday, we are going to close down Homestead. And we're going to take over Homestead between Washington and Lafayette and utilize that as our viewing area. So if we can actually go to the next slide.

Thank you.

So this is the layout. And essentially, for the watch party, essentially we're taking over Homestead. What you see here are two screens flanking both ends of Homestead. We will have a turf area as well, so some soft seating. We will also have chairs. We'll have umbrellas for folks that want to kind of beat the heat. And so we're really excited about this. This is something that we haven't necessarily done before and really extending the night market portion for the watch party. And so, again, you'll see kind of Santa Clara and residents taking over the streets, which is really exciting. Some prohibited items, just so that we're all on the same page. We will have rotaries serving beer and wine. They will be on site. However, we cannot allow outside alcohol into this venue. Pets, unfortunately, are not allowed into the watch party space. Glassware is large coolers, drones, professional recording equipment, firearms, of course, or any weapons. But essentially, we, the community, are going to be kind of taking over and having a full block party, essentially, in celebration of the watch party and the conclusion of our night markets. Next slide, please. And then you all are very familiar with our night markets, very successful in May and June, and we're now heading into July. So this is just the programming that you all will see. We will have for Friday specifically, we are integrating with Parks and Rec for their summer concert series. So we will have some of their entertainment are going to appear on stage. Parks and Rec is also going to be doing a gardening activity within our flex zone. So really excited to bring that as well. Our flex zone is also going to, the turf remains in our flex zone. So if you all went to the June night market, we had the turf down, some soft seating, a DJ. And we also had the vintage village, the vintage market flanking that flex zone. So that's going to return. It was a really big hit and people were really, really excited to participate in that. So we're going to run that back and we'll have similar programming as well. On Saturday, we'll have salsa dancing lessons. So really, really excited about that. I know that the Santa Clara community loves to dance. Um, so we're excited about that. Valeria Studios, um, will be out. Um, and then also our headliner, uh, which is one of our entertainers from May, Vibe Society, they will be back on Saturday as well. Um, and then on Sunday we'll have, um, DJs, a couple of DJs. Um, we'll have, uh, K-pop, uh, Random dance play performance, because I'm hearing that the halftime performance for the final will be a K-pop band. So we're going to lean into that a little bit. And then we'll have AC dance team performing as well. And that is it for watch party and night market. I don't know if we have any questions. Happy to field any questions.

Thank you, Alicia, for that report. I have a question about the watch party area. I just asked Paulina, do we know how many people can fit in that area? I don't think it's going to be big enough. That's my question, knowing who showed up for the convention center. Yeah.

Ironically, the convention center is actually smaller. It's a tighter space, the Mission City Ballroom than Homestead. And that's part of the reason why we did decide to proceed with Homestead. Just for the larger group, there was discussion of potentially putting the watch party on the courthouse parking lot or having it on Homestead. We chose Homestead so that we could expand Homestead. if we do have an influx of people. Right now, Mayor, our capacity count, what we're anticipating is 3,000 in this space. So that's what we're planning for.

Can you see it from outside the space? If you're standing on the sidewalk, would you be able to see some of the screens in the event they end up in the American Legion parking lot or the the courthouse parking lot, would you be able to see it from... Yeah, I believe so.

So, Mayor, I know you were at Convention Center. The screen that we had there was a 40-foot screen at Convention Center. This is going to be around that size or maybe a little bit smaller, but they're very large screens, so you'll be able to see them from a distance.

Those round things are tables, right? The rounds are umbrellas. Oh, umbrellas. So... Can you see through the umbrellas? Are they tall? Are they so people can see a ramp? We want to make sure people can see from outside in the event. We have a lot of people, which it's great chance that we would.

Yeah.

It's going to be blocked by all those umbrellas.

Well, we went with umbrellas versus a large tent so that you would have more of an opportunity to be able to see from the outside. So that was part of the plan. We also place the umbrellas along the perimeter purposefully so that you're not, you know, having to look through umbrellas if you're center, within the center of the street.

Yeah, that's kind of obvious, but I'm just thinking if it gets big and people are trying to watch it from outside, are they going to be blocked by, will they have to go up or can we put the umbrellas high so they're... not blocking people's view if they if they're not able to get in that would be my i just don't want like a little riot if everybody's trying to get in and they can't get in there they can't see from you know somewhere else in that area i'm just i anyways that's what i that would be my concern

Okay, thank you, Mayor. I'll definitely talk to the movable team about it. I know this was something that we were studying, right, in terms of the placement and making sure that folks weren't going to be blocked. That is part of the reason I think we're also not allowing people to bring personal umbrellas in. So you can, you know, we'll have the exterior perimeter umbrellas, but we're not allowing personal umbrellas in because that will block the view. But I'll talk through it with movable a little bit more and make sure that we're in line. I'll let them know your concern.

People bring in their own seats to sit in there?

People can bring their own seats.

They'll bring their own seats. I'm just afraid that it's going to be well, and I want it to be very successful and there's a lot more people than, than what fits in there. Um, when they did the 3000, was that people bring in their own seats or people just standing up? How did they calculate that? The stand, um,

It's with, so we are assuming 3,000 seats from the seating that we have placed in there. So not with other people bringing their seats, but I'll definitely, again, I think your concerns are valid. So I'll check in with our fire and movable, the producers, and make sure that we're all on the same page. I agree with you if this thing um, does turn out to draw in more than 3000 people. We definitely want to be prepared and make sure that folks are able to see.

Do you say you're, are you bringing in seats for this?

We, we, we will have seating that is provided and then folks are also able to bring in their own seats.

Oh, the seats are coming inside the, the inside this rectangle.

That's correct.

Oh, okay. One thing that many people at the convention center were very pleased with was that they were able to watch the game and sit down. So we had a variety of ages at the convention center because people had seats and they could comfortably watch. the game. So, and brought a different crowd, I think too, with having people be able to sit down, but I had so many compliments about that, that it was a comfortable place to watch.

Kelly, you had a question.

Oh, Kelly, I can't hear you.

Can you hear me now? um you said no outside alcohol but people can bring food but not large coolers can you clarify i mean if we're if we're selling this as a block party there's going to be food trucks but are we saying that people can actually bring in food but it depends on the size of their cooler that's a great question um that's that's a great question

I think first and foremost, we want to encourage people to get their food from the night market and bring it over versus bringing in their own food and coolers. I do want to get back to you on size of cooler because you're right. We're saying large cooler. And we should clarify what that means. And if we're allowing coolers at all, if folks are bringing in their own food. So Kelly, I guess to answer your question, let me get back to you on that in terms of size of cooler and if coolers are at all.

And I actually don't care about the size of the cooler. I just think it's something we need to consider is our messaging. Yes, come in, park, bring your, you know, your little charcuterie board or don't bring outside food. And so if that's all just dependent on the size of the cooler, I think our real message is do we want outside food or not? You do not need to get back to me, but something to consider.

Okay, awesome. Thank you, Kelly.

We are looking forward to Kelly and her charcuterie board. But, but at the same time, the watch parties, I mean, the night market's going on. So there's going to be food and alcohol there that people can purchase.

Yeah.

They just can, but they can bring, they can bring their whatever food and beverages to sit here in this area. Correct. That's right.

That's correct. Again, we would encourage folks to really utilize the night market, right? We've got Rotary that's doing the beer and wine, and we've got, you know, all of the different businesses that are within the night market. So we encourage that. But Kelly, we do not have a truck that has charcuterie. So if you're wanting to bring charcuterie, you'll have to bring that one in.

They do get art and wine, but they don't have these little...

Howard, go ahead. You just make it simple and make it clear, coolers only. That way you can also see through the coolers for security reasons. That also limits people to what they can bring in. There's not a lot of clear coolers out there.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a clear cooler.

Oh, kind of like they do at the stadium.

They do?

Only clear. That way you can see through. Because that's security reason. 3,000 people. You don't want some jerkwad doing something stupid like they do nowadays.

OK. Yvonne?

Hello testing. Okay. This works. Um, I had a question, um, and it kind of goes back to the, um, locations used for the watch party, which was Alamo draft house and SC convention center. Can you walk me through or explain why city hall was not a good location for a watch party?

Hmm. Hi Yvonne. Um, So I would say that it's not necessarily that City Hall was not a good location for a watch party, but with the amount of planning and resources and the amount of time that we had to plan, standing up an event without any infrastructure in place would have been significantly more robust than some of the locations that we did use. So for instance, Alamo Drafthouse already has screens, already has AV, already has built-in seating. already has a built-in audience as well. Convention center, same thing. It's a facility that we own. We do have the resources to be able to kind of bring in these activations as well. And then similar for the night market, right? The night market is already built in. We have the night market already running, so we're able to utilize those same resources. So it's really more of just a timing and what all we would be able to stand up so quickly. Hopefully that answers your question, Yvonne.

I just wanted to point out, I mean, DEF CON did sponsor. How difficult would it have been to have rented a screen and just have a couple of vendors to have food be provided? You did mention Santa Clara loves to be outside. They love dances. That would have been a great location to watch the soccer parties outside.

of you understood Yvonne um I I completely hear you like I said it's really not so much about funding as it is more about timing and and how quickly we could stand something up with the resources that we had but I hear you Yvonne

Sorry, Alicia, and I was just going to say to add on, I know that you had mentioned at our last EDMC meeting, and I think at that point, we had already gotten or submitted the proposals for FIFA for the watch parties. And so at that point, it would have taken us even longer to go back and change what we had submitted for. Great suggestion. That's something that, you know, next time we can definitely consider our next event. I know that, you know, we weren't able to accommodate it this year, this World Cup. Great suggestion.

I'm mentioning that because of transportation barriers. There's some people that couldn't drive to those locations. And there's a lot of demographics that want to be involved, not just those that have the access, that live in District 1 or live near Santana Row. There's a lot of people that could have came that are renters that could have just walked to the location and watched the party, watched the soccer games. And so those are things that we need to keep in mind when it comes to planning these things, because you want to make it accessible and have actual community there. Just wanted to point that out.

Oh, and I think that's a really good point. And the city hall complex is a phenomenal location for events. And I think now that there's water there in the fountain, it looks really beautiful, too. And I think we have to take advantage of that. So we have events in different parts of the city. So that's a very good point. Thank you, Yvonne. Misha. No, it turned green. Did it turn green? Can you hear me now?

Perfect. So I was just thinking in regards to the alcohol situation, how are you going to monitor who's bringing in alcohol if food is going to be allowed and all these things? So I was just something to think about. Maybe it's better to say no alcohol and then have people purchase from the vendors. That just kind of popped into my head of how are we going to be monitoring that?

I don't know. I don't know how they're going to monitor. I'm worried about the success of this. That's really something not, that's a hard, it's a good problem to have, but how people are going to come in here, it could be, it could get so big that we're not going to be able to, but we have beer and wine for sale there. And you'll probably have a wristband. You get a wristband, right? When you get beer and wine.

Yeah, I was just thinking maybe it makes more sense to just say no alcohol and something like this.

We're not going to know.

Just like at our street dances and all the other things that we do.

It's like there's a weird one right there, too. Yeah, because I'm like, how are we going to know?

Yeah, I mean, I think those logistics have to be worked out for this. I think there's some work to do between now and at least Saturday, which is the third place game, and then Sunday. There's a lot of interest, and Santa Clarins love to be together, so this is going to be a It's going to be great, just we have to control it the best way we can, but leave it controlled, but at least a little bit uncontrolled so people can feel like they had a good time. Anna.

I know every watch party, we had an RSVP to be in the watch party. Is there an RSVP for this watch party? Because that would control it.

We do have the RSVPs through Eventbrite, so that is how we're monitoring really the notoriety, or as Mayor said, the success of the event. But it's really just to monitor, right? You don't need a ticket to get into the event. It's really just for us to monitor who all is coming, how many people are coming so that we can be prepared. As Mayor shared, we'll have wristbands for beer and wine. And we can continue to look into this a little bit. Again, like I said, from the cooler perspective, maybe it is just no outside food at all. But I do think that it's challenging because we are in a street. We have a festival directly off of it that sells food. So we can do our best to monitor. And that is what we'll do. And I'll work with Movable to see if there's any additional parameters or provisions that we can put in place. But I do acknowledge that it's going to be challenging.

I didn't think there was an RSVP for the night market. Is there an RSVP? I didn't think there is. Well, for the convention center, you RSVP, but nobody checked the ticket. You just walked in and got a wristband and walked in. Is that the same kind of thing? You don't even need, you can just walk to the night market.

But you also had the waiver. Are people going to have to sign the waiver? You can't control that on something this big with all these different access.

How are you going to get people to sign a waiver?

I think we had it at the convention center because there was different activation. I don't believe that there's going to be a waiver here, Alicia. Is that correct?

That's correct. There's no waiver.

Yeah. And then just part of this is the city is going through the, you know, getting a permit for this event as well. And including reviewing with police department, fire department to make sure that this is a safe event for everyone. And so these are great comments and feedback. And Alicia will go back and work with Moodle to address them as much as possible. But as the mayor mentioned, you know, it's a watch party. So you're not going to be able to confine it without limiting the the fun or the accessibility that you want to have at a watch party.

It's like a street dance, probably times 10, but kind of similar to that. Yeah. Depends on the weather, too. It's like, yeah, it's supposed to be in the 80s, but we'll see.

Yeah. Some people don't care. They'll be out there in the sun. Oh, okay.

Well, thank you. Thank you for that. Alicia.

If there's no other questions, we'll move on to the next portion of the meeting. Okay, so not as exciting as the watch parties and the night markets, but wanted to give you guys an update just where we are at with the budget for the campaign. So there wasn't a lot of updates to this slide that we've been reviewing and we went over last month. The bigger update, if you can go to the next slide, is this is a snapshot of where we are with the event budget. These are figures that are gonna be changing as we continue to reconcile event expenditures and revenues. And so I think we went over last time the event stadium with 6,580,000, a little bit over that. FemZone, we have a new figure. We're a little bit under 200,000. And you could see what we've allocated. And then if there were sponsorships associated with that specific event and where we're at. The night markets, we have an updated number of around 160,000. And then with Alamo Draft House, we've spent roughly 105,000 on that event. as you know as we continue we'll be able to provide a final update um hoping in august yes with all the event budgets So today, what we really wanted to do is go and provide the committee members that you guys have been part of this campaign since I think April of 2025. And so you guys have been coming and meeting and taking time out of your days and your lives to come and help build this campaign. And so before we got into providing feedback, I just wanted to go over everything that has been part of this campaign. If I missed something, please let me know. But the one year to go event that was held at the youth soccer park, the art and wine festival that we kind of we had our first booth for the campaign and then pray to champions where we really got to show and showcase our campaign branding. That was the first event that we had where the mission meets the moment. branding. Our tree lighting holiday, our Tu Momento, Tu Jugada that happened in December as well with Telemundo, where the Mission Meets the Moment campaign and Super Bowl flag raising in February. Our partner-led event, Lunar New Year Celebration, our Celebrate Santa Clara Day on the Field, the STEM Zone, our partnership with Triton Museum for the partner-led event as well, the football, the art of the game. and then the beginning of our night market series, the FIFA World Cup flag raising ceremony, and then now our lunch parties. So part of that too, as I mentioned, you guys have been coming to meetings, to all the EDMC meetings that you guys have attended, plus the stadium, the global relations, the art activations, the night market subcommittee. So you guys have put a lot of effort into making this campaign successful. So we just wanted to take a look back and see the feedback. The art activation, so we got the countdown clock that had a schedule throughout the community, different locations, the Roman numeral letters for Super Bowl LX that... traveled with the FIFA countdown clock. We had the Discover Santa Clara article that was included, that we were able to include our top favorites. And then I don't know if you guys attended the Valley Fair activation where we were able to display and showcase the Roman numerals and the FIFA clock as well. And then, of course, Super Bowl and the six matches that were held here. And so what we're going to do is I'm going to have Reena pass these out. And we have two, we can, I don't know if you guys want to stay in your tables. But we're going to go through this exercise to get feedback. And we're going to do it in group. So each group will be a table. And they'll select one person to facilitate the discussion and one person to record your answers. Oh, I can try these with you if you guys want.

Well, we'll just look at them. We're not going to, because it's really up to them.

Yeah.

I have, do you have an extra one? Of course. Okay.

I have.

We're just looking. Because it's up to them, not us.

If I could have your attention back again real quick. Oh, if you can go to the next slide. So the first section, oh. Oh, sorry. Yvonne and Misha, before you guys get started, I just wanted to go over it with the group real quick. So part one is reflecting on the campaign experience. So looking back at developing the slogan, the logo, the art activation, developing the list of the event and art activation list, and then delivering the campaign events. And then the last one is a committee experience. So the main questions that we would like to have you guys work through is what worked well, what impact did this have on the campaign, what did we learn, and what would we recommend for future large-scale initiatives? Within each category that I had just mentioned, there's some discussion questions to help guide the discussion and feedback. And then if you could have someone write down the takeaways, if you need more paper, let me know. Part two is recommendations for future signature campaigns. So what we want to preserve from this campaign, what we want to continue as a legacy moving forward, events that we want to see come back or part of the campaign that we'd like to live beyond 2026. Then next, what we could have done to enhance the campaign. Lastly, innovate any new ideas or experiences that maybe we would want to consider for a future event. And then part three is group priority. So you're going to have three recommendations from each group that you're going to share with everyone. And then we'll vote on which top three recommendations we want to walk away from this campaign as a collective group. So let me know if you have any questions. The first section we're hoping we can get done in like 15 minutes. If you need a little bit more time, let us know, but I'll be coming around and just checking it. Okay. Thank you. One minute warning, guys. One minute. All right, we're going to reconvene the meeting.

Where's Sean?

OK, everyone, we're going to get the meeting started back up again. Thank you. All right, do we have a table that wants to start, or should I just call one out? Force them? All right, I'm going to force you. deborah we'll start with deborah's table we didn't finish so yeah there was a lot just big takeaways things that you guys liked um and then what you think could be improved?

Okay. Regarding the campaign slogan and logo development, collaboration on different points of view worked well. So many people wanted to buy the merchandise and we should realize that the city itself needs a lot more swag in general. It would be great to know how many hoodies and cups and everything got sold. We should have started sooner. The colors and hidden images were a good choice and could be used again. Represented our city well and the banners on El Camino were great. The event and art activation development planning, things kind of fell apart around the sports figures, community paint murals and public art in general. Did the activation successfully capture the spirit and significance? Yes. Which events or activations created the strongest engagement? Night markets, Lunar New Year, day on the field, and the sports zone at the parade. Were there ideas, audiences, or opportunities we should have explored earlier? We definitely should have sponsors earlier. What did we learn about creating meaningful experiences around a major moment? I think that the night markets were proof of concept for 900 Lafayette, and if we make something happen there, people will come. We needed more time to plan. Things were too rushed and announced last minute. There was a complaint about running out of bracelets to get on the field. More social media and promotion on TV, etc. We all heard a lot about San Francisco and San Jose. And validated parking at the Alamo Drafthouse wasn't clearly communicated, which might have kept people away. delivering campaign events, what aspects of event execution worked especially well, hiring event producers who brought the vendors, challenges, short-term planning and lead time, communicating with the community. Let's see. Other key takeaways we were talking about is getting the school district and university more involved. And committee experience, we would like to see it open to a broader community earlier, but praise for Alicia and Paulina.

And I guess we didn't get to the part two.

Okay. Thank you, Deborah, and thank you for the table. Next, we'll go with Yvonne's table.

Okay. I'm just going to go through all of these quickly. For the campaign slogan and logo development, the slogan and logo was chosen prior to presenting the ideas. So we wanted to see some more ideas there. We did see a copyright there when it was presented to us. So in a way, it seemed like the streamlining process wasn't really, you know, the best use of time because we all gave the input and in the end it was chosen ahead. But based on the time rush, what came out was it was adequate for the time being. Also, even in our activation development planning, the public art activation was not activated. You can't rush art, so you have to maybe at minimum reach out two years prior to our activation. But the partner led event was a success. You know, you have the football there being exhibited and it actually looks really beautiful. Something that, you know, anyone that is around that Triton Museum area, it's like something nice. It's really nice to see. also let's see delivering campaign events given the limited time frame city staff did a great job but we do recommend a broader call for committee members because our committee does not reflect the community and so that would have been great to have more of a rather than subscribing to some newsletter, we need to do the outreach. We need to improve that because again, it's diverse and we want to include everybody. Let's see. The initial idea of the committee worked. but it worked in improving partnerships. I think that's something that was like positive here is that you had like a networking situation where it created these partnerships that can just improve over time. And again, just kind of let's make sure that the committees reflect demographics that we represent or where we are. because there's a lot of acknowledgement of the diversity, but again, we need that here. Also, let's see here. We need more engagement earlier on. How long did we know that we're going to have these Super Bowl and FIFA? So we should have planned this years in advance. The time frame was too rough. And I hate to think that we were doing everything on rough draft mode, and that was the final product. But we should plan that better. Also, let's see, we need to use social media, radio, television in different languages so that we can reach out to everyone and make sure that it's actually reaching out to the communities and not just a limited few. And let's see, something that we can take away with this, there is a positive part to this. And we should continue this as a tradition. That's something that Santa Clara does want to see. And there's room for improvement. So we should continue to keep these events going, especially like night markets. But we also should be keeping in mind, hey, Is this accessible for this community? Not everyone has a car. Not everyone can park at Santana Row or Valley Fair. You get charged there. So you're limiting certain audiences. Not everyone can drive all the way to the convention center. You're limiting audiences. Let's make it where they can actually bike there. They can actually walk there. If somebody wants to go with their grandmother, make it accessible for that demographic where it's the young, the older generations, and everyone has a great time.

um so that's pretty much what our input is that was a lot thank you very much um okay and then misha is going to be providing input from the last table

Okay, I think it's on now, yeah. So I think we said there was a lot of successful events that came out of this campaign, and I said we all had a lot of fun kind of getting involved and kind of sharing our ideas. Just to kind of piggyback off of the earlier involvement, we also thought that if we could have had a little bit more time to be able to engage more folks, engage more sponsorships, kind of market the events a little bit more and gain more traction. If we could work on these things a little bit earlier on and kind of push some of the decision-making to be a little bit faster. I know sometimes things take longer longer and there's a lot of back and forth. But I think that there were a few times where we had a lot of momentum and then things kind of paused and then we kind of picked back up. So if we can kind of just start things a little bit earlier. We also think a lot of the larger events that I think had more of the marketing and had a little bit more maybe attention towards them were really successful. The STEM zone, it was super fun for both adults and kids. So I think kind of being able to repeat that again and getting some of the corporations to sponsor it, have different booths, kind of get the kids involved. But it was super insightful. We heard for both kids and adults. Stadium event, we heard a lot of people that hadn't been able to visit the stadium before, that was a really cool opportunity for them. So if we can, we continue doing events like this. And again, I think kind of piggyback into what you said, having the events tailored to kind of families, like of all ages, all generations to be able to participate has been really great. And then I think, yeah, just like the earlier planning, I think more of us can help if there is a little bit more time with a lot of us have different connections, different networks, different resources. And then I think all of us that are here willing to help, I'm sure are willing to make a few phone calls. go visit a few folks, right, and kind of get that engagement going a little bit sooner. And then just more PR, more social media, more marketing. But overall, we think that it was super successful and a lot of fun events came out of it and a lot of opportunities for folks to connect with local residents. I do think also something else that came up, I didn't write it down, but I just remembered, having so many different international folks being here, it would have been a cool thing to maybe host certain events, not the players, but like, you know, the folks coming to support them, the fans, where they can meet local Santa Clarians and kind of just have those connections because who knows when you're going to be across the country maybe and, you know, now you have a friend there, just kind of continuing and building, you know, our presence in the world.

Thank you. No, that was a lot of good information, good feedback that we can take back. And, you know, next time we host both Super Bowl and FIFA, we'll be better prepared. Yes.

Yeah. But I think just any of the events that we host.

So we should start planning now. No, I think. One of the things, I'm just gonna deduct a little bit from what we heard. One of the reoccurring issues I think was the timing, right? That as I mentioned, I think the committee was put together in April of 2025 and we had to put together a campaign and launch it in a very quick turnaround. And so I definitely think, we definitely hear that, that having a longer runway would have made it a little bit easier. to bring you guys or have more input and more impact on the campaign and for us to have better planning and foresight with the longer timeframe. But, you know, hindsight's 20-20. And then one surprising thing that I didn't hear was, I think there's a last meeting where like, oh, we want to have this back and this back. And I know you guys mentioned night market, but no one really said anything about the stadium event and bringing that back or continuing it. Oh, you did? Did I miss it?

I apologize.

Yeah, we just talked about it too. I don't know if we got to, do you guys get to part two or is that just part one?

Yeah.

Yeah. Do we want to go? I think we kind of just mixed it all up. Yeah. So did we get to part two? No. Okay. Do we want to go back and share part two?

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I think something that let's go just how about like seven minutes part two? What do you want to do? What do you want to carry forward? If you did, that's fine. Just tell us what you want to carry forward. So are we working on it now? Recommendations. Okay, go.

Yeah. So recommendations.

Sorry. So what we're going to do is go back to the group. You guys do part two. If you can get to part three, that would be great. And then we're going to go back and share it as a group.

What do you think about that? Oh, the different themes, yeah. Yeah, I agree. So it's just, you don't have to. Okay, no, come on. David, what?

Okay, so I put gem zone events, stadium events, maybe with different themes, the night market that we'd like to talk. What else do you guys think?

Yeah. Yeah.

think the cultural events are a good idea too because there's such a melting pot here in santa clara yeah and then i know like yeah and i know

It's kind of a little bit

I know the chamber, Silicon Valley Chamber does like international night markets and cultural festivals. Maybe the city can just partner with that. Oh, like taking video, like marketing it. Yeah. Tell them to hire you. Yeah. Spend money. Yeah.

All right. We're going to go back. We're going to reconvene.

It's a long time.

Yeah. All right. Is everyone ready? Misha, Yvonne, Deborah? Are we good to go? All right. This time we'll start with Misha's table in the back.

All right. So a couple of things that we think would be great to bring back is the STEM Zone event. I think that was really fun, again, both for adults and children. The stadium event, I think would be great. And maybe we can have like different themes. So maybe like this year, one year it could be on sports, one year it can be on music, one year it can be on, you know, something culture, right? So I think just different themed events at the stadium year after year to have something new, right? It's not going to be the same thing every year, every time. And then we also talked about the night markets having themes like international cultural themes per night market. So like one night market can be focused on like an Asian night market. Another one can be on like a Latino night market. Another one can be on Middle East. So just different ways that we can kind of engage folks from our city to kind of come and showcase what they have and then give people an opportunity to see what exists. Yeah, I think those are kind of like the top three events. And then Esther was mentioning like how much are we like recording, like documenting, like videos, making social media posts. Like, hey, this was our latest night market. Come join us for the next one. And being able to kind of market how incredible the event was to reel in more folks there. for the next one and I don't know if I think I see sometimes emails coming in with the post like hey can you guys please share but if we can make some sort of communication thread maybe to this group and you know other folks that every time something's posted we kind of get alerts that we can repost I think the more that we can share about what's happening the more traction it's going to get and the more folks are going to come in and I think I don't know I'm speaking for everyone but I think I'm more than happy to share what's happening on my end.

So just if I can follow up on that, because we did, I think for one of the, for the watch parties, we were trying to get promotion from the members to share. So we did send it through an email. Is there like an avenue or like what, how else would you like to get that information?

Yeah, I think email is fine. I don't know if like we can do it for each time it's posted. I don't know if that's too much. Is that too many emails? I don't know how often you guys are posting. Maybe we just kind of have to go in. Is it like weekly, monthly? I think if we know that.

Like every other day. We are trying to get the word out on social media. Yeah, and so we, right, there's a balance. So you don't want to bombard your emails and then you just stop and ignore our emails. So I think we were just trying to share one for the watch parties that you could share overall. And if you do check on our social media, I hope you guys all follow the Santa Clara Instagram and our social media accounts. Yeah, I repost. You could always like share those as well. So, but thank you, Misha. That's a good suggestion. Thank you. And then we'll go over to Yvonne's team. Okay, let's see.

So kind of following up on the night markets, we thought it was a good idea that we can maybe have night markets in different districts, maybe sometimes overlapping within two districts that we keep moving them around and just making sure that we can build the identity in Santa Clara. And that would be great to document that as well, because over time we can when we have these events again, like there's a Women's World Cup 2028 in two years. How about we start planning now? That's the time to start planning so we can get ahead of the curve. Again, when we want to get more members on the committee, let's be direct with them. We want you to be on this committee. Let's figure out a way to just make sure that we can get the diversity that represents and reflects the community. So that would be great if we can do something like that. But my immediate suggestion is to start planning now for the Women's World Cup because the women here at Santa Clara University, they put the US women's soccer team on the map. And that's what made soccer so huge in this country. and in the entire world where the women's soccer is actually viewed more than men's. And so for at least for in the U.S. And so that's something that we want to leverage and make sure that we can get ahead of that.

Is it confirmed that we're like, I don't know that they've announced who's hosting yet, right? Brazil, but I think, yeah. 2031, yeah. Sorry, Yvonne.

Even if we're not hosting, we can still have events because I think there's an appetite for it. We can still have watch parties and events.

Yeah, because we have BFC. Yeah.

Well, and from Santa Clara University, there are many of the national team players. Exactly. Santa Clara. So yeah, Julie, we have lots of them.

More watch parties. And ideas of more watch parties.

More watch parties for the women's.

Yes, for the women.

Perfect. I like that. OK, we can't hear you if you're not on the mic. Howard, are you the designated spokesperson for your table? Okay, and with that, Deborah, we'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Howard.

Okay, so recommendations for future signature campaigns. We did talk about how, you know, more social media should really help to enhance the message. And similar to the Women's World Cup, we thought about looking at soccer events for the Olympics that are being planned at PayPal Park. probably Stanford, et cetera, at how we can use our space for watch parties and other participation in those similar world events. What new ideas, experiences, or approaches should be considered? More art, missed opportunity to share our sports legacy through art, and more placemaking in our downtown and stadium. Priority recommendation number one, more night markets and art. Priority recommendation number two, more brand campaign. And priority recommendation number three, start earlier and execute sooner. One thing we hope Santa Clara residents remember from this experience is this was an unprecedented historic sports year for Santa Clara.

Can you reiterate your number two priority? I missed it.

More of a brand campaign. More of the brand campaign.

Thank you. You guys did two and three. Did any of the other tables get to three that they want to share with us?

Part three, the priorities.

No. Okay. Did you guys want to share your closing reflections?

Just in like the last 30 seconds, I had some feedback that I just wanted to give on the night markets. And because I live in that neighborhood now, because I moved and I love it. But I also have worked for nonprofits for a long time. And one of the things I'd like to see is instead of having the nonprofit booths separate and a separate arm of an event is to incorporate them into the booths. Because what happens is... we sit out there and no one comes. So if the idea is to give visibility to nonprofits in the community, they need to be integrated in with the booth so that when people are buying bracelets, they can also come and see what's happening at the library. So that's just some feedback. I also thought on the night markets, we have the big, there were the big areas where there were tables where people could sit and eat. And I may have missed it, but it would be nice if there were like a few maybe smaller areas so people could, you know, if you got food, what was happening is you get food and then you've got to walk all the way across to try and find a table. So maybe some extra tables. And just a shout out to the cleanup crew, because after a night market, when I'm up walking at 630 on Sunday morning, you would never know that anything happened in that space. It is astounding how that happens. I don't even know how that happens. And I was, I was... I was actually thinking I'd go out there some night at 11 o'clock with my beach chair and a glass of wine and just watch them because, you know, that would be something like a super cool thing to to video and then show it like like in time lapse or something, because it really it's unbelievable how that happens. Yeah. So anyway, thank you.

Thank you. I think that's Very good feedback on the night market. It's good to know that they're doing a good job to clean it up and make sure that it's all right. Then I'll turn it over to Council Member Cox.

hopefully going back up to like the balcony level here. I think that one of the things that we're interested in when we take these back to council is, you know, we can get granular and talk about the way that this worked out for Super Bowl and FIFA, which is likely not going to happen again. But what are we missing in our community that we see happening in other cities that we want to say, yes, let's start that? I think some things to be conscious about it. We had a whole marketing team hired to help produce these events. So if we're gonna do this going forward, how do we do this as a committee? So some of the things that we need to continue to talk about are what does community engagement look like in this? What does a committee look like that's going to feed us the answers? And so, yeah, we could go back to council and be like, okay, we need more chairs and all of that is incredibly important, but we need to pitch a vision right now of what we want our city to look like going forward. Sunnyvale has these incredible street dances all the time. uh you know the romper uh miss romper uh romp through willow glen where everybody puts on their moomoos and their wigs and so this is an opportunity not to just celebrate what we have but we really have to look at this as what is our heritage and what is our city going to do going forward this just gives us leverage right now and um i'm telling you the success of these events gives us a footing where we didn't have it before particularly in a polarized council. But you know, when the community shows up and says, this is incredible and we want to keep doing it, we kind of feel like we need to strike while the iron's hot. So we don't need to just take back the details. We need to take back your vision of what you want to see Santa Clara taking now and making happen continually.

So I have a suggestion. Is there a way that we can get maybe some interns from local schools, like high schools, community colleges that live in Santa Clara to want to go into the neighborhoods and find out what do people want? Can't we do that? Because that's something that's lacking with the outreach is that we're not walking into the communities.

they have text polling that hit young people, like the two or three questions that they'll answer. We have to look at creative ways of using whatever resources we have to do it to hit the right target market that we're trying to hit because all of the young people, well, young and old, you know, carry these around and they're hooked to them and they'll, They'll answer a quick poll about their city. Not long, but they're not going to go to Facebook and go, oh, let's see.

Yeah, they're not using Facebook. And that's the other thing, too. If they see a survey, they're going to get bored and not look at it.

Well, it has to be a two or three question. They have to have a... Howard, it has to be a question that really hooks them in to make them want to, like at their level in terms of what is their interest. That's with every, you know, all the different age levels and ethnicities and everything else. But you have to do it in different ways. It's not just one way.

Should be on TikTok, Instagram.

Those are all kinds of different. And including our seniors in paper, right?

Right. Door to door, yes.

Give me paper, I'll fill it out. No. So it's all different ways. Kathy?

Thank you. So what I thought was wonderful, Friday night there was Sunset Cinema, this concert in the park, and we had a watch party. It was so awesome, and so many people were happy. And that's what we need more of, because there's something for everybody. But the other thing was, at the watch parties, there were several staff doing surveys as people were coming in. And I don't know if we're going to collect that data and put it out somewhere. Because I think that will be a great indicator of why people were there and what they would like to see more of. So I hope that data is going to get shared.

And I hope we have, and we're collecting all this now, to have some kind of exit report to the council. about what we've done, where we're going and what the community input is. Because to be honest, there was not a lot of support for this committee. So it was more difficult. So again, as Council Member Cox said, we were coming off successes now to prove that this is what the community wants and it needs to go forward. Taylor.

I wanted to just add one thing. I think if we learned anything during this World Cup this summer, especially here in the South Bay, it's that there is a ton of potential here to be the cool place in the Bay Area. I don't know if you noticed, but they're showing the Golden Gate Bridge a little bit less now going into commercial breaks for games. And I think it's because. aside from these watch parties at San Pedro Square, which were unbelievable. I had friends across the country who were texting me like, dude, what's going on in San Jose? I think you're seeing that if we can be brave, right? If our city and we can be confident and be brave, we don't have to be the little city. If we can just build around things that already exist, you've seen that, right? The World Cup, it wasn't here every day. but it's a thing that exists that people like to watch and congregate for. So if we take advantage of these big games, these big holidays, these cultural events, and we just build around these things that already exist, the people will come. And I think it comes with time and understanding that now it looks like Santa Clara wants to respond to these things, because sometimes you worry if your city is a little sleepier than you'd wish. But I think with seeing the turnout, and especially now with the night markets, and I know we touched on this, but I really think this deserves emphasis. The night markets are great, and I think they're going to continue to be great, but also to be reconstructed a bit, right? If you theme them, right? Because if you go every three times in a summer, you know the event's going to be the same. That's cool. It'll draw people, but it's not going to be... if you give each of these a theme and you capitalize on these cultural communities and you say, hey, there's going to be salsa and Latin food and tacos and this and that, and you're going to learn how to make, you know, whatever. And that's one, you know, one, excuse me, what are the nights? Night market, sorry. And then the next one is Asian themed. And the next one, Italian. And you focus on some of these core cultural groups in Santa Clara. I think that will also showcase people and that we're all a little more similar than we think. And I think we're onto something. But if we wait for the next big tournament in four years, we're late.

That's a really good point. Otherwise, it turns into a farmer's market and you'll see less people going on and on. But I envision, again, I won't be here after December. I envision this community to be reconstructed into something that is more permanent in terms of events in the city and to help plan these events and you outreach to the right people, you want to get on this committee that you think should be on this committee and keep it going because this, I mean, and all the times I've been on the city council, this is one of the most successful committees in terms of, I forget when you look at that list of all the things that this committee has helped with. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty amazing. We should be very proud of ourselves. Let's give ourselves a round of applause. we should be very proud of ourselves. So why end it, right? Why end this committee? So I'm just going to say when it does come to the council and maybe it's reconfigured somehow, some way that you all will come and support it for the future because otherwise it's going to die and the events will die. And, and so I think there's a certain energy here and it needs to be supported, but it's going to have to be reconfigured to a more permanent basis. That's,

Can I add just, I want to add a quick comment. So I'm extremely honored. I am a new American citizen and I've been learning a lot through the committee, being on this EDMC committee. I just want to say that Santa Clara has so much um to offer and i feel like there are a lot of uh amazing people in the city uh if we capture more i don't know unique content and we don't have to copy what other cities are doing what makes them shine if they have a unique thing we don't have to copy them. We can be innovative and come up with something unique. And then with marketing, you just have to reiterate, like you do it again and again and again, and you say it again and again and again, and you brand it and you stick to it. And then over time, that sparkle will stick to Santa Clara. And I think, yeah, I think that is my observation. And I think there are a lot of, how do I say this? I would say soft power. We don't have a huge amount of, how do I say that? Geography, we don't compete with other cities in how big we are in size. but maybe the impact or the soft power, which is the culture or heritage or the diversity of the population and how welcoming, how open-minded people are here. And we could even organize some sort of welcoming volunteer team. I don't know what we're going to call them. They may make Santa Clara stand out because Silicon Valley to the outsiders or international strangers is known for, you know, Silicon making money startup. But there are real people who care, you know, about the city. And, you know, that's it's my I think it's more than just chasing money and fame. The people who live in Santa Clara, you know, who really care. Like I've met a lot of amazing people, including Anna, you know, she knows a lot of history. So anyways, that's just. Anna is history, right, Anna?

Live and walk in history. Well, thank you guys. We're past our time. For some reason, I was thinking it was five o'clock.

What's up with these clocks here in the library?

What's going on here? I like them. I like them. Thanks, Patty.

One last slide. And one last slide at the last one.

And then we're going to take our picture. Don't go anywhere because we are going to post every picture.

So this August 24th will be our final working session for where the mission meets the moment. And we will have a presentation on a final report that will include We didn't talk about it today, but on the 24th, we will. At each event, we've had a different type of community engagement or survey or an interaction or interviews that we've done. And so that data will be shared through that report on top of everything else. You know, the events that we had, you know, the final budget and things like that. Just an overview. And so because our next meeting will be dedicated to sharing the campaign's final report and we'll be celebrating our collective accomplishments in putting this campaign together, we will be providing food and refreshments to recognize the committee's contributions and celebrate the success of the Sessoric campaign. So we look forward to seeing you guys August 24th.

Oh, you're all coming now, aren't you? Thank you. All right, this meeting's adjourned, but please join us up front for a photo. Oh, what background do we want? Does it even show up?

Yeah.

Watch parties. Night markets. Yeah, that's good.

What's next? I don't know yet.

TBD. TBD.

I want to know food.

I know. I don't know yet.

Do you have an Italian?

I have no idea.