Economic Development, Communications, and Marketing Committee - Regular Meeting

Star six if you are participating by phone to unmute. Additionally, we have a workshop scheduled for today and want to inform everyone that and then it ends. There's nothing. Insent calendar. We're going on moving on to our consent calendar. That passes. On I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

Who is this? Alright.

We have the consent calendar approval of the 06/23/2025 of development of marketing committee minutes. Approved. Motion. And the second, any discussion from anyone on the minutes? All those in favor? Aye. Both? Minutes approved. Public presentations. Do we have any members of the public that would like to make a presentation to complete?

Anyone here? Anyone online? Alright. We're gonna move on for our general business. I know that we have some members that need to leave early today, so we're gonna move on.

Alright. First one's where meeting is 05:30 to 06:30. Those two are people that we're gonna leave know that. The meeting is 05:30 to 06:30. Yeah. No.

Yeah.

Okay. That's already about 05:15. I bet you said 04:15. No. 05:15.

I'll figure that. Okay. Okay. Discussion and direction on citywide 2026 economic development and community engagement plans. And on the citywide theme for 2026 major events community engagement campaign, we're gonna start with our staff.

Liz, back to you. Yeah. Liz, city manager. Thank you, everyone, for coming today. We're very excited to see such a cool group that we've had for the past few weeks. Really appreciate it. Today, Elia and Alethia and I,

our development project officer, are

gonna be doing presentation following up on our work workshop that we did last time and kind of really narrowing down today on our values, our theme, coming up with the events. So I'm gonna with that, we'll leave

it to. Thank you. And I'm gonna

do something to speak to you for one minute, which I didn't do last time. Can we just go around the tables and introduce yourself? And if you're representing and learning the nation, let us know. Just so everybody knows who's in the room. Howard, would you like

to start? Yeah. I'm Howard. Go to the hot dog. Have a hot

so we know who's here.

Okay. I'm Howard. I'm also known as the hot dog user. I brought a hot dog card right down on the heart of where all this is going to happen. It's very important to me to be here, see what happens with everybody, For sure.

Yes, sir. I am Mike. I'm the current president of the the executive work for Santa Clara, at at the landscape for a long time. And if I'm

I'm Theresa O'Neill, a lifetime community member and also vice president of school Spanish.

I'm Deborah Monahan from the Cultural Commission. And while I have in mind, I could just invite you to Thursdays. I'm family women art installation for the city hall at 11:00.

K. I

have nothing to invite you to. I'm Christine Lofton. I

I'm Katie McCarthy, director of marketing at Discover Santa Clara.

President, Ed Con, director of the. He's on the mark.

Heidi, welcome state librarian.

I am a commissioner on the commission. But I'm here on behalf because I grew up in. And so I'm in that that age group of of mid thirties, so I don't see any of anyone over here. So I'm kinda, like, a representative of of those.

Andrew Broder. I'm a member of the Sandler Swim Club, Sandler Dad Club, and our of the QuadEx Foundation. Hi. I'm David Broder. I coach at West side. Santa Clara soccer coach. I'm on the salary commission commission and salary commission, and I've been also the resident. Yeah. My name is.

Okay. Thank you so much. And I can see there's a whole section I I should have read. It was on the backside. So, anyways, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Your presence here underscores what makes Santa Clara special, our deep sense of community, shared values, and collective pride in our city. As we prepare to welcome the world for 2026 in 2026 for Super Bowl sixty and FIFA World Cup, we're committed to ensuring these global moments are also deeply rooted in the local impact. We're not just planning events. We are building experiences that reflect who we are as a community.

That's why today's session centers on a key question. What do we want the world to see when it looks at Santa Clara? Over the course of this meeting, we will walk through the results of the process mapping and world word cloud exercise, establish event categorization guidelines, outline logistics for event priorities, and most importantly, co create the themes, values, and events that will define Clara's voice on the global stage. This is not a presentation to the community. It's a collaboration with the community.

Today's hands on workshop and group sessions are designed to converge your ideas, your stories, and your vision. Whether it's youth programming, cultural showcases, local business activations, or city led events, this is your opportunity to help shape a legacy we can all be proud of. So thank you again. Let's get started. Now we can go to Liz. Thank you.

And before I pass it

on to Alicia, we're gonna

go online. I see who who am gonna stand today. I see you all hear me? I see we have the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. So I have promoted you to speak.

I just was introducing myself. I'm also online on the way to the meeting. Thank you. This is. Thank you,

I see that you have a name.

Hi. Hello. Can you hear me?

We can.

Yes. I'm in China right now, and good morning and good afternoon. This is Diana Ding from DingDing TV and Silicon Valley Community Media. We've been the voice of Silicon Valley Asian Americans for last sixteen years, and we are the organizer of Asian American Stories video contest and award ceremony and Silicon Valley Lunar New Year together. Thank you.

Thank you, Diana. And we have Jian Ji. Jian Ji.

Can you hear me? Hi.

This is Jaya Gautam. I am with the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce doing the programs and events and marketing.

Thank you so much. Alright. We will get started. Well, thank you all so much for coming today. Really, really excited to have you all here. I see a lot of familiar faces that participated in our workshop two weeks ago. We're gonna go ahead and hear you forward. So just wanna say thank you for your time. Alright. So a little bit of background.

In April 2025, staff presented a strategic framework to the committee, get a community activation, and the event support in 2026. Important aspects of the framework is the need for cross sector collaboration, focusing on community engagement, our civic pride, and our visibility to the rest of the world. We also want to ensure that the city is ready for these events coming to the city and that our city feel part of these events. Continue background. So over the last three meetings that we have conducted, we established the role of the stakeholder group, have fully flowing discussions on how the committee can truly serve as a community engaged process collaboratively to provide true benefit to the community of Santa Clara residents, and participated in an event strategy workshop to help identify and place value in the most prominent places to gather.

And so now that's what we're gonna do today. The purpose of today's meeting is to review the community value survey word cloud results, to review and process the mapping exercise results and align them to the core values, to establish the event categorization guidelines, outline logistics for event priorities, prepare a call to community for proposals, and align event strategy with the campaign narrative of. So what have we done so far? Over the past two meetings as a stakeholder group, we conducted a core value survey, which align spatial insights with the. So I'm actually gonna hand this over to, and she's gonna walk us through our value survey results and the word cloud that was generated.

Thank you. With that, our team is very excited to share the slides with you. So the world the word cloud is the outcome of the story that we have closed by now that represents the values of. And as you can see, the beautiful beautiful word home is at the top. On the left, you'd be in the top five values, and then for frequency.

As your tables, you also have full list with all the words. And, actually, when I say all words, they're not really over the first one. We actually filtered out some of the submissions that did not respond to what we asked for, but all the all the responses will be made publicly available online. All the different drawings and and sticky notes and comments that you've provided overlaid on top of each other. So this is all that we got from you.

And on the on the right, you see a representation of how we understand that, so how we grow with that. So what is interesting is that, as you may have noticed on on the left, there are there's more every community where they are instead of having to go to these two those central activity clusters. So this is what we have this is how we have processed the last last meeting for a workshop or mapping exercise, and we're looking forward to hear your comments or your impressions of that. And lastly, before I'm passing back to Lavitzky, I would like to say that it's very important to connect the two things. So we have the word cloud now.

We have heard the community values. We have also asked you for spatial exercise, spatial input. So how do we do two together? And and this is everything that today is about. We want to understand how do these two elements lead us in choosing our branding of pain theme for 2026, and how did it lead us to a holistic strategy that will really make sense and really highlights everything this community has to offer. So this is the goal for today.

Thanks, Arlia. So we're gonna keep going. And today, I just wanna kind of highlight that we're gonna try to breeze through very high level through the slides today where we're headed in terms of creating this theme and then also prioritizing a list of events for the city and sponsor partner led. So and and and, really, the goal is to gauge you all in pods again, which you were already conveniently and get you all talking and and for us to have you all do the work. So bear with us as we try to graze through where we're headed.

We're excited to hear. So with that, at the last meeting, we reviewed the following draft value statements to help spark some creative thinking around Santa Clara's diversity and values as as we prepare to host the major events. Each one of these value statements was really very flexible flexibly. Excuse me. So that you identifying things such as the world plays here or another phrase can be layered onto our values, which are what we just saw in the word cloud.

In our opening discussion today, we'll ask the community to vote on the core values and the base value statements that will become our theme. But before we get to that, we wanna talk through the event categorization framework. And so I think you all have heard us kinda talk about how we will be bucketing events, so we'll walk through that today. And the goal is really to have an open discussion and narrow the event. Now that we've identified and located all of the events currently proposed by the city and by the committee, we'll be categorized into three buckets, which will allow the community to define the roles and clarify expectations that align with these resources.

As shown on the screen, we're categorizing by city led events. So these would be historical, long standing city events that are supported by the city, well, as proposed new events that we've outlined or highlighted over the last couple of meetings. Sponsored partner led, so these are produced by external organizations in collaboration with the city. The city may provide in kind services, such permits, logistics, staff time, etcetera, and community led events, which will be organized by local groups, nonprofits, or individuals. And their city acknowledgements with varying levels of courted data support.

And so with that, we have even further categorized the events by large, medium, and small to help us identify where more clarity is needed. So, specifically, funding sources, event lead scale. We scale we categorize the events by scale, so large, medium, and small to represent scale and capacity for city resources. So, again, city led events are categorized as large and will be lead produced and has resources fully supported by the city by way of fundraising and other sources. Then there's medium, which are the sponsor partnered events, and they are categorized as medium because the events will be led and funded by a partner.

And, again, the city may provide in kind of services. And then there's the community led category, which are categorized as small but are extremely intact. So this goes back to what earlier on the confetti the confetti events that we see sprinkled around the city. They will engage all the districts and are organized by local groups, nonprofits, and individuals. And, again, the city will acknowledge and provide very level coordinated support.

So from here, we're gonna kind of jump into what's needed in order for us to define the city led events. The goal of today's workshop is to propose a short a short list, and we wanna focus on city led event requirements for a moment and how much to ensure sorry. And how to ensure that they are successful. Excuse me. So that is understanding how many city led events are feasible.

Is there a monumental moment that we wanna identify across the city led events? And what are the logistical requirements, challenges, or benefits that we should be considering as it pertains to the logistics, staffing, permitting, budgeting, etcetera. So these are just things to keep in mind as we're starting to narrow the focus. And then as we begin to focus and narrow on the sponsored partner led events, we wanna be thinking about who will lead these events and who could benefit from the events. Could it also benefit from an external partnership?

We wanna list opportunities for visibility, for vendor partnership, for in kind support. We wanna understand the budget. We wanna understand feasibility and logistics, and, again, benefits and challenges, and then also how the city can support. So this will really help us develop a cohesive and attractive sponsorship package that we would like to distribute at late August. Alright.

So as we start moving from planning into execution, we ask that anyone with sponsored marker ideas come forward with their proposals to be presented to the group at the next meeting. So that's where you see the timeline launch there. Also, don't feel like you need to wait for the next meeting to discuss any potential sponsored partnership ideas that you all have. Feel free to reach out to us. We're available to assist.

And so, again, what should be included in the proposal? We'll wanna make sure that there's a clear vision and value alignment, that the event logistics are very clear, the location is available, and that we understand the reach. Also, estimated budget ranges, required permits, and facility access needed, and any interdepartments for the visit space. And and and that's really where we're looking at what the city can offer, what support the city can offer. So with that, I promise that we were gonna breeze through these slides.

It's your turn to get started. So we prepared a couple of exercises for you all, and we're gonna start with the core value exercise, which is the writing of core values as a theme. So I'm actually gonna ask the committee members that they can join the community members. We can kinda say something.

Sure. Like, just going through the couple slides before, we talked about the, like, for instance, the sponsorship events.

Mhmm.

And you said, bring in the next two weeks all of this information, including all the logistics, and I mean, they thought, that's not gonna happen. So I just wanna make sure with budgets and all that, none of that's gonna happen. I I think if we stay at a high level first, we should not talk about the events because I don't want people to think that they were for them to present something that they have to give all the details of the event. It's more like, yes. We'd like to do an event with with NVIDIA now that sponsor something. So is this something we should pursue kind of thing? I I just wanna Yeah. Talk about our the expectations for the committee. Yeah. They don't have to actually plan with them, you know, in the next few weeks. Can you just wanna clarify that?

Yeah. Absolutely. So setting that, like Mary said, we are really looking for these events to start generating. Right? By regenerating the IDs and understanding. And so as we get into this exercise, you'll see that we actually put, like, any proposal template that is there just to help us start thinking for where we're headed. But we're not expecting for all the events to be bugged up by a desk. Okay. That is correct. Okay.

That is correct. We're working through it together. Alright. Committee members, do you think you all can join the community, and we'll get started on the exercise? And then for the folks online, we will be sure to share out once we come back.

So we're gonna just be clustered in pods working through the core value things, and then we'll move into the ident identification category. You're right. So for the core value exercise on your table, you should have a list of core values and base statements that are in front of you. The goal is to generate the top three value statements that will become part of the for the 2026. You've been provided a list of value and update statements.

Please use the following steps as guidelines and instructions. That's also. I'm actually gonna come walk around. So

we aren't so good at following directions. We have a bunch of these words that we love, but our favorite, I think, across the board was innovation. We filled out some of these with the value outward, and then we wrote with Uvara. So SANSARA is where innovation takes the field. The road to 2026 run through Santhera powered by diversity where we felt opportunity worked there well.

Have the from the greatest hits with some of our original. We have Santa Clara, the future starts here. That's kind of a play on the word innovation, but a little bit less literal. And, Clara, the word kicks off here. The world's world. Yeah. Whichever you prefer. And, Clara, the world gets off here. Do you

wanna explain where the kicks off came from? Because that's just a spin on one that was already there.

And what was your other favorite one of these? Well, I think what we had oh, sorry.

I think what we

had talked about was that there's a way to like, for example, Intersex, which is not in the top 10, not even in the top 100, then there's a way to not be literal, right, about play or diversity, but to use words that inspire that in people. So some of the other ones we talked about were the world connects here, the world competes here, the world intersects here. Not super sexy, but just, you know, was there a way and I think if we have the future doesn't happen here, it starts here.

I said it sounds better that

the future starts here. Okay.

Number

one, Santa Clara 2026. Number two, Hometown park on the world class stage. And another grade, Santa Clara future cakes in 2026.

Yeah. '66. Alright. It's just approved for.

Alright. So before. Right.

So we actually think innovation is a play. Right? In that tradition,

it's kind of sad.

Yeah. But you can do it. That's below my.

You go. Alright. So I'll repeat that. We actually think of innovation. Do it with.

Right. Innovation.

There you go.

Yeah. Put it in. So

so so so we need tradition. It's actually a really good part of. It's to the point of being, like, over liberal. Like, that's kind of one of the things we struggle with. It's hard We said that the innovation is a quite a mission brought into our her point was and which is where tradition meets innovation, where traditions intersects with innovation or something like that.

Because a lot of people understand, but our tradition, there's a ton of here with that. We think we we kind of flip the script. I hope other people think. And Santa Clara where it takes parts to be the chain. Santa Clara, one of those things that's, like, very elusive adversity. It just has a lot of different ways to say.

So can you repeat

that last for us? Your Last one was where it takes parts.

I know that nothing was before that.

How's she doing right now? Oh, you know that.

Absolutely. So but the intent of having the values agent, which what you saw in your dashboard is is David. So Santa Clara would have blank place here or, excuse me, where blank taste the meal. The goal is to have interchangeable values. That's the reason why we ask the community, right, to provide those values for us. And so we'll have one main slogan or main theme. And then from there, as events start to pop up, if there are words that resonate better for this particular event, you may change that value and keep the slogan. Does that make sense? Alright. So now the time to vote.

And

so, really, we're just gonna ask everyone to raise their hands if they like the value statement. I mean

Alright. Well

We could do three. We're gonna do three. You get three You get three votes, and I'm having everyone on the honor system. So three votes. And we're gonna collect those votes and bring them back to the group because the time chances by the people in events. Alrighty? Great. Alright. So we're gonna start with the first one. She's gonna have And you'll raise your hand. Remember, you get three votes. So Santa Clara, where diversity takes the feel, or Santa Clara where blank takes the feel. So where blank takes the feel means that's still very

different versus other values? Not

per se. We like diversity, but, again, they're inter they are technically interchangeable values. So you can change the value if you see it. Alright. That was the 125. Got it. 123456. Total.

You have to pick. It's not here. I'm making it. I saw this.

Okay. You all ready? The road to 2026 runs through Santa Clara powered by blank or powered by diversity or opportunity. 12345. Yeah.

But if you look at it, I one thing I should take into consideration is not San Jose. It's not San Jose. Right.

Alright. Alright. Santa Clara, where it takes blank to become a champion. Santa Clara, where it takes innovation to become a champion.

1234.

Well because, like, now multiple of them are kind of represented differently with this. That's true. It's like, were we voting were, like, where it takes innovation to be a champion or it takes heart to be a champion? Or Yes. I do. Right? So it's like, are we voting for this, or are you voting for the words?

We're voting for the base statements currently, and then it can be we combine them with the noun. Oh, wow. So

Don't change the number.

Sorry. Just last night. We lost him.

We're starting over.

Over there. Stop you. Okay.

We're gonna start over. Number one, Santa Clara is where diversity or where blank takes the view. Could be diversity. Could be innovation. Yeah. It is.

It is. 12.

We have 12. That's good. That's fine. I see. That's. Alright. So Perfect. Done. Okay. We got 12. Votes. 12.

Okay.

Alrighty. Number two, the Row 22026 runs through Santa Clara powered by blank for diversity or opportunity. Super deal. For parties. That's fine.

Okay. Number three, Clara where it takes innovation or where it takes blank to become patient, where it takes innovation, where it takes heart to become patient. This is 16. Four. Hold on. Six. Alright. We're moving to number four. Santa Clara, the blank starts here. Santa Clara, the future starts here.

Here we go. One two. We've got two rows. Going once. Going twice. Alright. That's cool. Number five, Santa Clara. The world kicks off here. Now the question for this one, because it doesn't have a value statement, is I I will assume because it doesn't have a value statement that it is just a statement. It's just the statement. Santa Clive of the world kicks off here. Do we have any votes? Three. Three votes.

Alright. Six, the World Blanketier. And it was the it was sir. The world connects here. The world completes here.

The world world enters out here. Alright. Number seven. This one as well will be a a a. We meant for that to be the beginning of anything. Got it. Same. Got it. K. Set

up. But today, guess, the

I am. He's just being Santa Clara. It. Okay. So Santa Clara 2026. So you said you're gonna hold it back. Okay. Alright. Number eight, Santa Clara, hometown heart on a world class stage. Eight votes.

Alright. Number nine, Santa Clara picture case in 2026. We got one. Yeah. Alrighty.

Number 10, Santa Clara where tradition blanks innovation. Three. Alright. And Santa Clara, our city, our blank, our game. Alright.

So we're gonna close voting. We're also gonna close the workshop for now. And we're gonna move into the next workshop. But I do wanna do a time check because I know some folks have to leave early. It's 05:15. Yeah. Yeah.

You're gonna present City Claw.

Yeah. Okay. So what I think

we could do is just

introduce the city led events and sponsor led events list that are on your table, and feel free to take them home and think about them and bring them back. And I think the goal is that we're going to vote on what city led events we want to see here in Santa Clara. So on your table sorry. On your table, there's a matrix that's blue and green, It has a list of all this the all the events that were identified by the community. There's also a column for the event category, so small, medium, and large, which is what we talked about earlier, and then also suggested location.

We also have a column for our potential suggested date, and then some potential organizer key stakeholders. Okay? And then we also included on your table. This is an events template that we just were hoping to use to get everyone thinking about what goes into these type of events. So like we said earlier, and we have pointed out earlier, we're not looking for a full bulletproof proposal event with budget numbers through to that.

But we do wanna make sure that we are thinking through what it takes for these events to be. And if you all can just bring these back to the next meeting, and we'll vote. Well, I will email these out to the group as well. Well, heard them also. I'm gonna stay on my experience.

Sure. Website for those that are online. If you don't have any ideas or if you're looking to vote, I believe we also just sent a a message in the chat. Feel free to raise your hand, and we'll go ahead and promote you so that we can hear your words. Yep.

Hello? Hi. Amir, you can speak. Yeah. I just wanna let you

know the chat is disabled,

so we couldn't add some of

our comments. So I've emailed them over to you guys. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Of course.

I

voted for number one.

Thank

you, We will have your vote.

Thank you, everyone. Before we return this meeting, I decided to share that the Stanford Cultural Commission, I think this was mentioned earlier, will be installing a new temporary sculpture exhibit at City Hall Plaza. The feeding the piece is called Nebula Rider. It's a stunning 2,500 pound Pegasus sculpture created by artist Adrian Landon using stainless steel and aluminum. The exhibit will be on display from July 16 through November 14, possibly extended, and it is all centered around looking catalyst, a new possibility, which invites us to reflect on power of change and and how new ideas and moments can spark transformation.

We invite the entire community to stop by City Hall Plaza and and experience this inspiring work of art. And with that, this meeting's adjourned.