The Economic Development and Marketing Committee on Aug. 11 prioritized potential citywide events for 2026, singling out cultural heritage and storytelling programs, food-and-beverage activations and a proposed "Santa Clara World Cup Festival, Art Brews and Wine" as top ideas to be developed further.

The committee convened in person and on Zoom to review more than 80 community-submitted concepts narrowed into a dozen categories. After a gallery-walk and a dot-vote exercise, staff reported cultural heritage and storytelling and food-and-beverage concepts received the most support (25 dots each), followed by tech and innovation showcases, live music/performance categories and sports/athlete experience concepts.

Why it matters: Santa Clara is a host site for FIFA World Cup events at Levi's Stadium, and city staff and community groups are planning a coordinated slate of 2026 activations intended to engage multiple neighborhoods, local nonprofits, arts organizations and businesses while creating a single calendar for public information and marketing.

The meeting opened with a public comment from Wanda Bach, who identified herself as a longtime Santa Clara resident and said she wanted seniors and older adults considered in planning. "I do want to represent seniors and older adults in that I do not feel that ... we're being considered enough," Bach said. Committee members acknowledged the comment and said staff would keep seniors informed.

Rotary Club member Dan Holder proposed a large festival idea he called the "Santa Clara World Cup Festival, Art Brews and Wine," describing it as a free, family-friendly weekend at Central Park timed in May 2026 with soccer skills games, meet-and-greets with former professionals, an art market, a beer-and-wine pavilion and continuous live music. "The idea the name of the event would be the Santa Clara World Cup Festival, Art Brews and Wine," Holder said while outlining dates and program elements. He described local Rotary members and past San Jose Earthquakes figures who could participate.

City staff led the workshop portion of the meeting. Alicia Knight, development project manager, walked the committee through the gallery-walk and dot-vote process. Paulina Morales, assistant city manager, and Rina Bridal, director of economic development and sustainability, said staff will use committee feedback to produce a prioritized short list, create estimated budgets and assess feasibility. "I'm very excited to be joining this wonderful team ... and excited for the upcoming events," Morales said during introductions.

Harbir Bhatia, CEO of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and Innovation, told the committee the Chamber has a games committee that can coordinate calendars and promotion; staff clarified the gallery sheets listed community-identified examples and were not exhaustive.

Group discussion and reports: small groups were asked to select their top three event concepts and name likely partners. Presentations from the groups repeatedly listed the World Cup festival, cultural heritage programming (examples given: Lunar New Year, cultural pavilions, historic tours), live-music series and food-and-beverage events (street food crawls, restaurant week, night markets) as priorities. Groups cited Central Park, Mission College plaza, downtown corridors and the convention center as potential venues and flagged public-safety staffing, volunteer recruitment and event funding as primary implementation challenges.

Staff directions and next steps: committee members and staff agreed on a path forward—staff will compile the prioritized list, estimate budgets and logistics, coordinate a citywide event calendar and bring a consolidated recommendation to the City Council for final approval in September. Rina Bridal said communications staff have engaged a consultant to develop a unified theme, slogan and campaign; the staff recommendation on a final theme will be presented to council for approval.

Votes at a glance: earlier in the meeting the committee approved the consent calendar (minutes of the last meeting). The transcript records the motion and a second and notes "Ayes have it," but does not list a roll-call tally.

The committee did not take a binding vote to adopt any single event concept at this meeting; instead, members provided direction to staff to prepare budgets and feasibility analyses and to return to council with a recommended slate.