RENO-TAHOE AIRPORT AUTHORITY COMMUNITY OUTREACH COMMITTEE BRIEF OF MINUTES July 21, 2016 Boardroom / Conference Room A/B COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: ALSO PRESENT: Jessica Sferrazza, Chair Adam Mayberry, Trustee Jenifer Rose, Vice Chair Rick Murdock, Trustee Sandy Evans Hall Andy Wirth, Trustee Daniel Farahi Marily Mora, CEO Patrick Flynn Brian Kulpin Michael Knox Rebecca Venis Don Kornstein Trish Tucker Rick LaMay Heidi Jared Jim Nadeau April Conway Thomas Petersen Stephanie Kruse Owen Roberts Mike McDowell Sharon Spangler Eric Henry Art Sperber Pete Parker Jaime Tibaduiza Patrick Wink Charlene Bybee Chad Morris Jennifer Cunningham Burnham Moffat Hillary Schieve COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT/EXCUSED: Bebe Adams Glenn Carano Carol Chaplin Karl Hutter Marc Johnson Matt Harris Aaron West Bob Lucey The Community Outreach Committee (COC) met on Thursday, July 21, 2016. I. Call to Order, Roll Call: Chair Jessica Sferrazza called the meeting to order at 5:32 PM. Community Outreach Committee members were welcomed by Chair Sferrazza and Vice Chair Jenifer Rose. Roll call was taken and guests introduced. II. Public Comment: RTAA Board Chairman Rick Murdock introduced a special guest from Safari Club International (SCI), Chief Executive Officer, Phil DeLone. Mr. DeLone proudly announced that starting January 2019, and continuing through January 2020 and 2021, Safari Club International will return to Reno-Tahoe. SCI expects to bring 20,000 attendees, from 103 different countries, and more than 1,000 unique exhibitors to the area during their annual conference and exhibition. Mr. DeLone thanked the region for coming together collectively to make SCI’s return possible. SCI was most recently here in 2013, and since then the air service at Reno-Tahoe International Airport took a dip. However, Mr. DeLone said he is confident that the air service is on the rise and for that reason, SCI is “coming back home” to Reno. The COC members applauded his remarks. III.Approval of Meeting Minutes from April 21, 2016 There was a motion to approve the minutes from the Community Outreach Committee meeting held April 21, 2016, by COC member Art Sperber, and a second by Sharon Spangler. The COC members voted unanimously to approve the April meeting minutes. IV. New Business: Update on Key Issues Facing the Airport Authority: A. Airport Website: A Focus on Air Service and Customer Service – Reno-Tahoe International Airport’s Website Redesign Includes Features to Facilitate Travel, Gain Feedback From Customers, and Provide Helpful Information, Presented by Mike McDowell, KPS3 Marketing. Brian Kulpin, Vice President of Marketing and Public Affairs, introduced the topic and Stephanie Kruse, President of KPS3, a local marketing and advertising firm. Mr. Kulpin explained that the Reno-Tahoe International Airport’s main website was a little dated, and needed to include a focus, not only on customer service, but also on promoting air service. KPS3 was hired to do the website redesign. Ms. Kruse opened the presentation and introduced Mike McDowell, Senior Account Director with KPS3. As a reminder to the group, Mr. McDowell showed COC members what the previous design looked like. Mr. McDowell explained that KPS3 had a specific strategy in mind when redesigning the website – not just a website with pretty pictures and links, but a strategy to ensure that the site addressed the primary users and their needs. Following research, surveys, planning meetings, and review of analytics, KPS3 emerged with the following objectives: new design, a new look and feel to match the RTAA, and a reflection of the new design in the terminal building. Usability was also factored in by making the new website responsive to the size of the user’s screen (desktop, tablet, or smart phone), i.e., the website automatically fits to the appropriate screen. Statistics show that the majority of the traffic, about 64% of the Airport’s website traffic, is from mobile users, so website responsiveness was important. Page 2 of 9 Next, KPS3 focused on ways to integrate air service into the new website. While retaining a focus on customer service, the goal was to also build in a planning tool, enabling customers to go to www.renoairport.com to plan their next trip by air, promote flight deals, make the search process easier, and facilitate booking travel. Mr. McDowell said KPS3 integrated social media to match the efforts of Airport staffs’ outreach on social media platforms by pulling content feed from Facebook and Twitter to the website, which facilitates more two-way foot traffic between social media and the website. Finally, Mr. McDowell stated that updates to the site were done in the same content management system that was previously used, enabling Airport staff to quickly make necessary edits and updates. The redesign also included a crisis communication strategy with the ability to have a site-wide alert, a way to direct users to a specific location for crisis updates and contact information, and a Twitter feed for press information and up to the minute news. Mr. McDowell demonstrated where the alert would appear in the event of an actual emergency. He then gave a demonstration and guided tour of the new live website. Mr. McDowell stated that the vast majority of website users are looking for flight arrival information, which is very prominent on the homepage of the website. There is also now a customer survey tab on the site, visible from every page, which invites users to give customer feedback about their experience at the Airport. Flight deals are posted via Airfare Watch Dog, a flight price finder. COC Liaison Jennifer Cunningham asked roughly how many visitors the Reno- Tahoe International Airport gets each month. She praised the team for the clean, user-friendly look. COC member Jaime Tibaduiza asked about booking tools available on the site. Mr. McDowell advised that Airfare Watchdog is the application on the site for posting the latest flight deals, but no actual booking tool is on the site. Rebecca Venis, Manager of Air Service Development and Marketing, advised that there is no booking tool for a good reason, and that is that Southwest Airlines does not participate in any online booking tool, and Southwest makes up 50% of RNO’s flights. Therefore, if the Airport were to incorporate a booking tool such as Expedia, Travelocity, etc., it would not include the vast majority of RNO’s flight options. Therefore, the Airport encourages passengers to visit the respective airline websites for booking airfare. COC member Tom Peterson praised the Airport for the new site, calling it very responsive and user-friendly. He recommended making Flight Aware an active link on the website, so that passengers can better check the status of the airline flights and get more information. Airport staff acknowledged that it could be a good tool to add. Page 3 of 9 Charlene Bybee, COC Community Liaison and City of Sparks Councilwoman, asked if the new website and increased number of RNO passengers will result in an increased usage of bandwidth within the terminal building. She said she is afraid of possible website slowdowns that might be experienced by users at the gate while waiting for their flights. Mr. Kulpin responded that the WiFi at RNO is very highly rated in all customer service surveys as being very accessible, free, and convenient. Owen Roberts COC member and Microsoft’s Reno General Manager, concurred that the WiFi at RNO is “superb” with a strong bandwidth to accommodate its customers. He advised that RTAA IT staff could track the percentage of bandwidth actually used and monitor peak times of usage, but that by and large, it is more than adequate. He offered Microsoft’s support. B. Pathways to Aviation: A Presentation on the Aviation Educational Program, Presented by Eric Henry, Board Chairman and Pete Parker, Executive Director, Reno Air Racing Foundation. Mr. Henry thanked the group for the opportunity to present and introduced the topic. He said that Pathways to Aviation was founded by the Reno Air Racing Foundation. Mr. Parker began the presentation and explained that Pathways to Aviation’s mission is to create a strong and qualified aviation workforce. They wish to inform, inspire and engage young people to pursue aviation, from hot air balloons to drones and everything in between. During the National Championship Air Races, Pathways to Aviation invites children from the Washoe County School District to come out to the Air Races for learning and fun. This year, Pathways has 81,000 sq. ft. of space where they will set up classrooms and displays including an aircraft classroom to teach young people about rocketry and aircraft. The Discovery Museum, Challenger Learning Center, and Fleishmann’s Planetarium, will teach students about space. There will be a drone classroom and a Career and Industry hub. Learning institutuions such as Embry Riddle, UNR, TMCC and more will promote their schools. In addition, there will be a Career Expo where students can meet employers to learn how to get a job in aviation. Mr. Parker said they expect 5,000 students to participate. There will be representatives from Chautauqua, Amelia Earhart, and the Wright Brothers speaking in the industry hub. Marily Mora, RTAA President/CEO, will speak at the Checkered Flag Club. Workshops will be held all week long, beginning Wednesday and continuing through Sunday of the Air Races, September 14 – 18. Pathways to Aviation wants aviation-related companies to hire students locally right out of high school and then offer scholarships for college age students to further pursue their aviation goals. Mr. Parker stated that Pathways to Aviation wants to be a hub of information for any aviation company looking to hire within northern Nevada. Page 4 of 9 Mr. Henry added that only one or two students out of 100 might actually become an aircraft pilot, yet there are aviation-related jobs for students available in all related aviation fields like aircraft mechanics, aerospace engineers, marketing, sales, and more.