Managing in the “New Normal”
Best Practices Forum
Alternative Revenue
Sources
Friday, April 20, 2012
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Alternative Revenue Sources
Doing business as usual simply will not work in the “new normal.”
The last few years have seen repeated cuts in budgets, unfilled
vacancies, deferred maintenance, and even layoffs.
And yet
citizens continue to expect ever higher levels of a wider array of
services even as they continue to call for lower taxes. Doing
business as usual ensures local governments will struggle
unsuccessfully to satisfy these conflicting demands. An increasing
number of local governments are turning to private models of
collaboration across public private lines to offer excellent service
levels without raising taxes.
This Best Practices Forum on
Alternative Revenue Sources is one in a series designed to help
local governments thrive in the “new normal.”
Register
Today!
When:
Friday, April 20, 2012
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Where:
Plano Center
2000 Spring Creek Pkwy
Plano, Texas
Cost:
$199
$149 for SGR Members
Register!
Best Practices Forum Agenda
Alternative Revenue Sources
8:30
Continental Breakfast Sponsored by Legends Sales & Marketing
9:00
Bruce Glasscock, City Manager of Plano
Bruce will share Plano’s experience with Corporate Sponsorship of various City events, facilities and opportunities
in terms of revenue generation, partnerships, and endowments/donations. Plano’s new initiative launched with a
five year contract for $1 million with more sponsorships in the works. Bruce will specifically address Plano’s
process of selecting a consultant, reviewing and identifying the city’s tangible and intangible assets eligible for
sponsorship or partnership, determining cultural impacts of such sponsorships, evaluating impacts on current
ordinances, revision of program policies, and developing a marketing strategy acceptable to the City with
sensitivity to community values.
9:45
John Alper, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Legends Sales & Marketing
Legends Hospitality Marketing is the advertising firm hired by the City of Plano to seek out and negotiate
sponsorship deals for the City of Plano. John will share the key considerations for a successful corporate
partnership program from the perspective of the local government.
10:15
10:45
BREAK sponsored by the Sponsor Bureau
11:30
Eric Batey, President of the Denison Development Foundation
The Denison Development Foundation originally saw the potential for reducing electricity costs for their members
through collaboration, but realized that they would be able to deliver stronger results if the City was assisting
them. Eric approached the City of Denison on behalf of the Denison Development Foundation and the Denison
electricity purchasing program grew out of their initiative. Eric will share the perspectives and experiences of the
Denison Development Foundation and their members in this collaborative effort with the City of Denison.
12:00
1:00
LUNCH sponsored by SGR Executive Search
2:00
2:15
BREAK sponsored by SGR Training
3:00
Elected Official Panel
Elected officials from Plano, Denison, and Corsicana will share their perspectives on how the
citizens have reacted and accepted the various alternative revenue programs throughout the day.
4:00
Adjournment
Robert Hanna, City Manager of Denison
Robert will share Denison’s experience with both voluntary contributions and with facilitating collaboration among
the business community. Denison instituted a voluntary contribution on water bills with an “opt out” provision that
generates over $550,000 per year to support parks and recreation – over 7 cents on the city’s tax rate. In addition,
Denison has facilitated collaborative purchasing of electricity on behalf of their business community. Since
initiation, the program has saved small businesses an average of more than 20% on the price they were paying for
electricity previously, while also generating revenue to the City, which the City has dedicated to marketing and
promotion of the downtown business district.
Connie Standridge, City Manager of Corsicana and Johnny Combs, CEO, Trinity Green
Connie and Johnny will share Corsicana’s experience formulating a project to capture methane from the City
landfill, and using the gas and other renewable sources to generate electricity. They City partnered with Trinity
Green which fully funded the project and took all risk for construction of the power plant. The City will purchase a
portion of the electricity generated at market rates for use at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The excess will be
sold to the power grid or to other customers by Trinity Green. This is a new project which will begin construction
soon. The City has invested several years in development, analysis and evaluation before moving forward. The
project is expected to realize a hard dollar savings and net revenue to the City in excess of $500,000 per year –
more than 4.2 cents of the current tax rate.
Kyle Conway, Principle, The Sponsor Bureau and former Director of National Event Marketing for the Grapevine CVB
Kyle will share insights into how to effectively raise sponsorship dollars from corporate sponsors for events and
festivals, as well as how to evaluate your special events to determine how much interest corporate sponsors will
have in helping to underwrite your event. Corporate sponsorships are a viable option to supplement traditional
funding for programs. !However, corporate special event sponsorship dollars come with a whole new set of rules
that are often overlooked. ! Learn to avoid the common mistakes most make when getting into corporate
sponsorship. !