The city of Sparks may not be the “Festival City,” but local government is pushing forward with a plan to market Sparks as the place where something is “always happening.”

A refined and redesigned version of the city’s marketing plan, centered around an "It's Happening Here" concept, will be presented to the Sparks City Council Monday for their approval. The plan was originally introduced in February by Destination Development International, which was paid $114,000 for its work. Monday’s version of the plan will be presented by members of the city’s Brand Leadership Team, a group of community tourism stakeholders who are now taking the lead on Sparks’ branding direction.

The original draft plan aimed to label Sparks as the “Festival City.” Other recommendations for Sparks’ marketing included renaming the Sparks Marina “Celebration Lake Park” and Victorian Square as “Festival Place.” Another recommendation was to merge the area’s chambers of commerce.

None of these recommendations made it to the final draft that will be presented Monday.

“The BLT (Brand Leadership Team) feels that it is insincere to label Sparks as 'the festival city' at this point in time,” according to a report prepared for the meeting. “We are not there yet. To become known as a ‘festival city’ is the reputation — or ‘brand’ — that the city should attempt to earn. It is through the efforts of earning that brand that the city of Sparks will prosper from additional economic, tourist and commercial activities. Hence the BLT has focused on the Sparks branding plan becoming more of an ongoing process and collective attitude shift to make Sparks a place where there is always something happening.”

What did survive was the emphasis on events.

According to reports prepared for the meeting, Sparks events potentially infuse about $102 million in new money into the local economy. One of the goals from the original DDI branding and marketing report was to add 140 event days, bring the total event days in Sparks to 200 per year. This emphasis on the revenue from events is still a main part of the marketing plan.

“The goal of obtaining 200 event days is not as unattainable as it sounds,” the report states. “The intention is not to burden the city’s event department with the task of producing a string of ‘mega events.’ In fact too many mega events can negatively impact tourism and quality of life as there is a percentage who will avoid the area due to the crowds. Smaller events are less likely to cause deviations from normal business and, if well planned, can have a greater cumulative effect on the area.”

If approved in its entirety Monday, the next step for the branding plan would be to gauge the economic impact of all local events.

Economic impact data for special events is not collected by either the city or the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority. Hot August Nights producer Bruce Walter said his company is in the midst of compiling economic impact data from the 2009 event. However, other events do not have such data.

The city will be partnering with the University of Nevada, Reno in order to prepare the economic impact report.

New logos would be discussed throughout next year. However, according to Sparks community relations manager and BLT member Adam Mayberry, the new logos would not appear for a while.

According to Mayberry, as well as the preliminary report, logos would be placed on items such as business cards and city cars as those items wear out or need routine replacing.