Review Participation in North Suburban Home Show

For a number of years, the City has participated in the North Suburban Home Show, an event geared towards north metro residents related to home improvement. The event is hosted at the Andover YMCA (formerly hosted at the Anoka Armory). The event is coordinated by area community development staff specializing in building inspections, housing, planning, environment, etc. The event creates a presence for local contractors and local government disciplines including planning, building, public safety, forestry, and recycling. As event planning is underway for the 2013 event, Staff would like to recap the City's participation and return on participation for this event. Staff is forwarding this topic report at this time to discuss any potential changes prior to marketing materials being produced.

No notification required.

Staff has historically participated in planning the event by providing one (1) staff member to participate in the conference committee. Time commitment has included 3-4 planning meetings, set up the day of the event, and participation during the day of the event. Meetings are approximately 1-2 hours on average. This participation was originally part of the Planning Division duties, but has historically been part of the Building Official's role due to the core function of the event. Planning and Enviornmental Staff have still participated in recent years staffing various aspects of the event.

With shifting duties within the department and contracting of building official and building inspection activities for the City, Staff would like to discuss on-going participation with the event. If continued participation is desired, Staff would recommend a member of the Building Division or Planning Division absorb this function. The Development Services Manager has participated in two (2) planning meetings to better guage the City's time commitment in continuing to participate in this event.

As the event has grown over the years, attendance and vendor participation has trended positively. According to the event staff, the event draws approximately 1,300 attendees. It is estimated that Ramsey's attendance is representative of the geographic location, participation in planning, and local marketing of the event. Staff believes Ramsey resident attendance could increase with improving our local marketing campaign.

Although the event is largely focused on home improvement, the intent of the event is betterment of the housing stock in general. With participation in the planning activities in the event, the City receives booth space free of charge. The City is able to use this space to promote any of its activities. The City could chose to use this as an opportunity to promote development projects, building information, public safety information, etc.

Staff sees an opportunity to make better use of the City's booth at this event to communicate many of the functions that the City provides. In addition to the core function of the event for planning and building, the booth can also be used to promote other housing related functions, such as The COR, the Northstar Commuter Rail, larger development projects (Stoney River, Podawiltz, Residence at The COR), etc. Participation in the 2013 event would allow Staff to better study the return on investment by expanding our use of the booth and make a better recommendation moving forward.

Staff recommends continued participation related to the 2013 North Suburban Home Show and re-evaluate after the 2013 event. This will provide Staff the opportunity to study to full impact to staffing resources from planning to participation in the event. The event certainly does provide an opportunity to Ramsey residents related to home improvement and improvement of the City's housing stock.

Furthermore, participation in 2013 will allow Staff to better utilize this as a communication tool to our residents by expanding the use of the City's booth. The set-up could be a down-scaled version of what is used for the Game Fair booth in August.

Participation in the North Suburban Home Show is being coordinated by the Community Development Department.

Based on discussion.