RECORD OF NTIG MONTHLY MEETING

Held: Wednesday 4 October 2017 7:30am-9:30am Venue: Hunter Travel Group Chairperson: David Brown Minutes: Rachelle Brockbank

ATTENDEES: Stewart Ford (Fordtronic Video & Sound), David Brown (), Brett Dann (Hunter Travel Group), Samantha Bullen (Newcastle City Council), Rob Wilce (Inner City Winemakers), Samantha Willcox (Newcastle City Council), Jill Gaynor (Newcastle City Council), Gemma Wroblewski (Newcastle City Council), Greg Frame (Frame Promotional Products), Shannon Kearns (Dave’s Travel and Events), Larissa Adamczyk (McDonald Jones Stadium), Elyss Larkham (Moonshadow – TQC), Jake Relf (Quality Hotel NOAH’s on the Beach), Maira Kemmis (Fairfax Media), Dana Pichaloff (Event Cinemas), Ross Melville (Newcastle Herald), Deb Mackenzie (Quality Hotel NOAH’s on the Beach/Newcastle NOW), Peter Gesling (Newcastle Airport), Allan Woo (Newcastle Airport), Joe Adendorff (Aden Hotels Group), Kingsley Smith (Newcastle Live), Mike Hadaway (Premium Bus Services), Snezana Belevska-Bennell (Big Kiss Creative), Richard Hamment (NTIG Sales), Colin Lippiatt (BRIEF Media), Tegan Hughes (Keolis Downer), Rolly de With (Australian Hotels Association), Colin Law (Commbank Business Banking), Will Creedon (Alloggio), Simon Glover (Alloggio)

APOLOGIES: Dennis Parker (Luxlift Airport Transfters and Luxury Travel), Gwendalyn Burt (Apollo International Hotel), Nicola Read-Jones (Hunter Business Chamber),

1. MEETING OPEN

Meeting opened 8 am.

2. WELCOME (David Brown)

Introduction and thank you to venue.

3. COMMITTEE UPDATE (David Brown)

 Newcastle has recently had recognition from the following sources.

 Travel Oz - Online travel publication Travel Oz is running a promotion to find the top 10 Australian destinations and Newcastle is one of the nominees. Help Newcastle win by going to the following link and casting your vote: https://www.experienceoz.com.au/en/newcastle-top-destinations  Fairfax Media – Newcastle has been named as one of the top 10 cruise destinations. The first cruise ship for the season, ‘Sun Princess’ will arrive on Saturday 7 October.

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A full list of the cruise schedule can be found on the Port of Newcastle website www.portofnewcastle.com.au.

 The Confucius Institute at University of Newcastle, and its partners, will be hosting Newcastle China Week. This year’s business forum, on Friday 13 October and NeW Space, will be focusing on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Belt and Road is one of this generations most significant opportunities to enhance global trade and investments. For more information, visit www.newcastlechinaweek.com.

 Matilda’s Vs Brazil Game– Attracted a crowd of 16,000 and gave great exposure to Newcastle. The stadium featured the Newcastle refreshed branding. DB thanked Newcastle City Council and Destination NSW for sponsoring the event and providing NTIG with some free tickets, which were distributed to members.

 Welcomed new member Joe Adendorff from Aden Hotels Group, who originate from Mudgee, but have premises and interests in Newcastle.

4. COUNCIL UPDATE

 Samantha Bullen (Cultural Facilities Business Unit, Newcastle City Council)

The Cultural Facilities Business Unit looks after , Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, Newcastle Civic Theatre, Newcastle City Hall, and Wheeler Place.

The café area in Newcastle Museum has been vacant for approximately 9 months. It has been identified that there is an opportunity there and Newcastle City Council will be creating a pop up call ‘The Newcastle Shop’, which is due to be launched on 28 October 2017 and has current approval to operate until the end of March 2018. This space will be a multipurpose hub for event information, visitor information, food and beverage, retail and the New Crew volunteers. Opening hours will be finalised this week, however, it will be a 7 day operation that will be open the same trading hours as the museum, with the possibility of opening earlier to capitalise on the food and beverage offering. Research will be conducted during the pop up, which will allow Newcastle City Council to make an informed assessment of the venture.

 Gemma Wroblewski (Tourism Team, Newcastle City Council)

The Newcastle Shop - Tourism operators will have the opportunity to display their brochures on brochure stands. The current space is limited, however, they will be looking at expanding this area. For the initial 3 month trial period there will not be a charge to display brochures, which will then likely change to an annual fee. Gemma will distribute an EOI to the membership today.

The New Crew Program – Designed to train volunteers in providing visitor information for events around Newcastle and in The Newcastle Shop. The volunteers are about to commence a TAFE program and receive training from Newcastle City Council staff member, Nerida Worboys. The aim is to have some volunteers trained and ready for The Newcastle Shop opening and Supercars.

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The Newcastle City Guide – The A5 guide will provide a more detailed visitor guide for tourists, including information on things to do, the history of Newcastle, beaches, getting around and will include space for 100 business listings. Most of the business listing spaces are full, however, there are a couple left that will need to be filled ASAP. The design will be completed this week and printing will occur before the end of the month, ready for the opening of The Newcastle Shop.

Visiting Friends and Relatives – The campaign will launch at the start of November, including media partnerships, social media and digital advertising. Businesses can become involved by putting forward an offer/deal for a period of 12 months, to give incentive to locals to take their visitors to various attractions in Newcastle. Gemma will contact the membership today with further information on the opportunity.

5. GUEST SPEAKER

 Brett Dann (Managing Director, Hunter Travel Group)

Brett gave an overview of his career path, which led to his current position of managing 180 staff through his multi award winning company, ‘Hunter Travel Group’.

Hunter Travel Group now has 9 offices in the Hunter and trades as Helloworld Travel. They will be looking to expand to 25 locations nationally in the next 18 months.

Brett discussed the progression of success within the business and attributes the success to being involved in several areas of tourism, as opposed to focusing on one main area; through keeping everything internal instead of outsourcing; and transparency within the business.

6. GENERAL BUSINESS

Women’s Pro (Colin Law)

Colin discussed the history and growing success of Surfest, being one of the most successful events in Newcastle.

Following the near fall over of the Surfest Women’s Pro division, Commbank came on board to help with crowd funding to keep driving the event. This method has led to the success of the event in 2016 and 2017. Fundraising for the 2018 event is underway, with 56 of the 85 fundraising opportunities already secured. Each share costs $1650, and one of the 85 businesses will be drawn on 25 October 2017 at Merewether Surfhouse as having naming rights and a $10,000 marketing budget. Colin invited anyone interested to approach him after the meeting.

7. UPCOMING MEMBERS MEETINGS

 1 November 2017 – Watt Street Commercial

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Committee Members Contact Information

FIRST LAST ROLE EMAIL PHONE NAME NAME David Brown Chair [email protected] 02 4908 8223 Stewart Ford Deputy [email protected] 02 4969 6722 Chair/Secretary /Public Officer Kevin Lyons Comms/Advoca [email protected] 02 4921 8989 cy Sub Committee Will Creedon Treasurer [email protected] 02 4929 3313 Rolly De With Committee [email protected] 0418 498 289 Tegan Hughes Committee [email protected] 0400 262 085 Colin Law Committee [email protected] 0406 991502 Gwendalyn Burt Committee [email protected] 0419 285 891

8. MEETING CLOSE

Agenda items concluded at 9 am.

9. NEXT MEETING

DATE: Wednesday 1 November 2017 VENUE: Watt Street Commercial

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