Hope Lake Lodge at Greek Peak Mountain Resort
EXPO Schedule Here
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Management Sessions
Summer Ops Part 1: The Intersection of Defining and Selling Summer
Claire Humber, SE Group; MJ Legault, Origin Outside. Moderator; Olivia Rowan, SAM
The synergy between the “creating” and “selling” your summer guest experience starts with your “story” from the very beginning. What is unique about your place…Who is the audience…And how does this guide your capital improvements planning AND help your guest imagine their experience during their dreaming and scheming phase of travel planning? In part one of Summer Ops at the SKI NY-SKIPA EXPO Claire Humber, SE Group and MJ Legault, Origin Outside will share how the orientation around the complexion AND design of activities/programs/events belongs together. They will share how resorts are evolving and how they define success with summer ops (hint: it’s not just about profits) and examples will be shared around successful approaches to selling summer at ski resorts.
In part 2 of Summer Ops at the SKI NY-SKIPA EXPO (Tuesday at 1:15pm), Eric Lipton will do a hands-on workshop “Designing Your Ideal Summer Guest Experience” where he will demonstrate how to apply idealized mapping to the summer guest experience.
Intro to Building a Culture of Safety for Ski Areas/Resorts:
Collision Safety
Chauncy Johnson – Snow Angel Foundation
This presentation focuses on key areas necessary to build a culture of collision safety. Culture is a difficult thing to influence and change, however, it is critical for the short and long-term success of any organization. In the ski industry where patrons form a large part of the mountain’s culture, there are additional challenges because of individual skier behavior that affects not only the health and safety of themselves, but others. Through this presentation, staff and management will learn tools to commit to and support a culture of collision safety, be provided tools to communicate effectively in high stakes situations, understand the downsides that can result from complacency, and feel motivated to improve no matter their current situation.
Building Effective Teams to Form a Culture of Safety
Chauncy Johnson – Snow Angel Foundation
This presentation focuses on key areas necessary to build a culture of collision safety. Culture is a difficult thing to influence and change, however, it is critical for the short and long-term success of any organization. In the ski industry where patrons form a large part of the mountain’s culture, there are additional challenges because of individual skier behavior that affects not only the health and safety of themselves, but others. Through this presentation, staff and management will learn tools to commit to and support a culture of collision safety, be provided tools to communicate effectively in high stakes situations, understand the downsides that can result from complacency, and feel motivated to improve no matter their current situation.
NYS DOL – Minor Employment
NYS DOL Chief Kenneth Harnett
Chief Kenneth Harnett will present an “NYSDOL Employer Seminar” with a focus on child labor law. The overview will provide overview of labor law for employers with a specific focus on how to comply with child labor laws.
Creating Engaging Terrain For The Guest Experience
Fun Slopes: Why Has the U.S. Mountain Resort Industry Not Figured It Out?
Led by Michael Bettera – Effective Edge
This panel discussion will delve into the under-utilization and potential of new engaging terrain in the ski industry. Despite their success in attracting and retaining younger audiences in international markets, these on mountain offerings have not been fully embraced by U.S. resorts. We will explore the reasons behind this, provide updates from the Freestyle Terrain Resource Guide (FTRG), and discuss various types of Fun Slopes, including Adventure Slopes, The Burton Stash, Kids Play areas, Family Cross, and more. This panel is essential for resort operators looking to innovate and capture the youth market while offering a unique, fun experience that stands out in the competitive winter sports industry.
Snowsports Roundtable
Kathleen Brennan – PSIA
This roundtable discussion led by Kathy Brennan will address many topics important to snowsports management and instructors. It will include, but is not limited to, wins/learns from 23-24 season, improving the guest experience, techniques for recruiting and retaining staff, staff development and PSIA-AASI certification, and more. Bring your own questions and ideas to the discussion.
General Manager Roundtable
Led by Dennis Eshbaugh – President – Holiday Valley Resort
Tim Baker, Vail Resorts, Chip Seamans, Windham Mountain Club, and Erin Visco-Chapman, Bear Creek Mountain Resort will join Dennis Eshbaugh as moderator to consider a series of topics. They will include “The Power of Giving People More than they Expect”, “Who’s Responsible to Grow Skiing?”, “Is Subscription Skiing the Future?” along with other pertinent subjects that challenge how we run our ski areas.
The Kottke Report Review and Analysis
Dennis Eshbaugh – President – Holiday Valley Resort and Kelly Pawlak – President – NSAA
From national to regional, sharing data and trends to help you understand where we are at, and opportunities for the future. Based on their experience, Kelly and Dennis will also share a few of their thoughts about the ski biz.
Multi-mountain Passes & the Changing Skier & Operator Experience
Stu Winchester – The Storm Skiing Journal & Podcast
Twenty-eight ski areas across New York and Pennsylvania have aligned themselves with the Epic, Ikon, or Indy passes for the 2024-25 ski season. Is this a positive development that drives skier visits, or does it represent a loss of autonomy and control? We explore the pros and cons of these ever-expanding products with the ski area managers who know them best – and those who have so far declined to participate.
Risk Management
NSAA Fall Education Series Workshops presented by Dave Byrd of NSAA, Ryan LaVoie of MountainGuard Insurance Programs and ASDA Attorneys Charlie Gfeller, Jim Kelly, Maryjo and Steve Zweig
Session 1:
Marking, Padding, Hazard Awareness, and Duties to Warn: Part 2
The issue of padding and marking is rapidly evolving, with growing claims including one of the largest plaintiff’s demand in any ski lawsuit ever—$97 million!—resulting in a crucial defense verdict in a padding trial. This session is a timely and important follow-up to last year’s discussion on padding. We will discuss the latest efforts from proposed ASTM and ISO padding standards, and their impact on resort operations, the next steps in standards development and industry best practices. As padding and marking claims grow, we’ll provide new helpful risk management tools regarding padding about guest education, signage, and releases of liability. Also, we will look at recent skier collision litigation and the impacts of these verdicts on the ski industry. This is a must-attend session for owners, mountain operations, risk, and ski patrol.
Session 2:
Ski Area Operations, Accessibility, and the Americans with Disabilities Act
Ski area operations are highly unique compared to other businesses, but accessibility challenges and exposure risks from the ADA still remain for our recreational businesses. While the ADA is significantly broad in application, we want to lead an industry conversation about what approaches work best for accommodating families with disabilities and mitigating potential legal exposure. Given the breadth of our operations at ski areas, this discussion will include ski school operations, lifts, F&B and restaurants, weddings, rentals, parking lots, alternative sliding devices, lodging, summer attractions, and importantly, the importance of expanded guest education. Expanding overall accessibility is a smart business model, and will also serve to mitigate confusion, family stress, and ADA claims—and we will provide some tools to help achieve these goals.
Session 3:
Safety and Operations after the Miller vs. Crested Butte Ruling: New Risks and Exposures for Lifts and Unseated Passengers?
This summer, the Colorado Supreme Court released an unprecedented ruling in Miller vs. Crested Butte limiting the enforceability of releases of liability involving chairlift incidents and unseated passengers. This ruling will be closely analyzed in other ski states, even though ski areas do an impressive job with training, we will need expand our guest education efforts and consider smarter operations and technology solutions like video surveillance. Despite recent regulations from ANSI B-77 addressing unseated passengers, this session will compare which devices and approaches are more effective for unseated passengers, and share best practices on education and training, particularly with ski patrol, lift departments, and ski school operations. With our ASDA counsel, we will discuss how this ruling impacts releases overall, and we will examine the best industry strategies to limit these incidents and mitigate falls.
Session 4:
Risk Management Grab Bag: Quick Hits, Fast Takes, and the Best of New Risk Management Strategies
This session will end our program with a fast-paced variety of unique risk management strategies from around the industry, with some helpful tools to implement over the next season or two—and we’ll incorporate clever ideas from ski areas as we hit each FES stop. This will include new technologies and practices regarding incident investigation, mountain operations, vehicle safety, construction contracts, employee safety, and NSP’s new Outdoor Risk Management modules, to name just a few. These strategies cross a variety of ski area departments, but as the last session, Ryan and Dave will keep this fast-paced with important take-aways!
Marketing vs. Risk Management? No, Marketing AND Risk Management
Stew Jensen, nxtConcepts and Dave Byrd, NSAA
Too often safety and risk are viewed as necessary burdens, or some type of vague insurance compliance headache—an obstacle to creating fun experiences, events, or compelling marketing and branding. But we need both of these important departments to work more collaboratively. It’s not us vs. them, it’s us AND them. This session will look at how we can connect marketing, operations and risk management to provide a great guest experience that also achieves a workable balance with risk management, operations, and special events. With examples from around the industry, we will discuss how areas can develop narratives that promote safety, showcasing fun, and effectively leveraging social media that achieve important risk management goals, but also underscore some of the gaps when communication or understanding is lacking between the departments. When departments works together to promote safety the result will be expanded guest education, and mitigate injuries and claims. This session will be geared toward marketing professionals.
Marketing Sessions
Summer Ops Part 2: Designing Your Ideal Summer Guest Experience
Eric Lipton, SNOW Operating
It’s likely that your resort offers a greater variety of summer activities vs. winter. With options galore, how do you curate the right adventure for summer guests? What should happen when they arrive? How are they greeted, and where are they directed? In the winter, the journey ultimately leads them to the slopes. But what about their expectations for summer? What’s your definition of success? Homing in on the guest journey from the moment of arrival (or pre-arrival) can add clarity and direction for your team so they can choreograph the right experience for each guest. By designing this journey with an eye toward adding value at every stage and reducing friction where possible, you can unlock your resort’s true potential to deliver an unforgettable non-winter adventure in the mountains. In this interactive session, resort teams will be led through SNOW’s Idealized Design process to map out the ideal summer guest.
AI WORKSHOP: ChatGPT Plus: Live Training Workshop – Bring Your Laptop!
Mike Lannen – Eternity Marketing
Step away from daily operations and bring your laptops, as we explore the exciting world of ChatGPT AI-assisted content creation for the Skiing Industry! This interactive workshop led by Mike Lannen of Eternity is specifically designed for those eager to integrate cutting-edge technology into their marketing and operations strategies for ski resorts, rental services, and winter sports facilities.
Ever curious about how to effectively apply AI theory in real-world scenarios for everyday use in your business? Join us as we embark on a guided journey, teaching you step-by-step how to leverage the capabilities of ChatGPT Plus. Together, we will develop engaging brand materials, compose your first AI-driven blog posts, and even craft social media content that tells the unique story of your ski destination. You will even get a chance to build your own custom trained ChatGPT Bot. We will also be demoing other cutting edge AI tools for inbound calling AI agents and more!
Reviving Enthusiasm: Strategies for a Successful Ski Season After a Low-Snow Year
Sam Rufo of nxtConcepts
Join us for an interactive deep dive into how to rebound from an off season. We will start by getting into the mind of your customer, where we’ll combine the power of consumer psychology, data analysis, and predictive modeling to craft a winning marketing plan for 2024-25.
We’re rolling up our sleeves and diving deep into:
- Step into Your Customer’s Ski Boots: Learn proven psychological tactics to uncover your customers’ deepest desires and turn them into loyal guests.
- Become a Data Detective: Decode the hidden patterns in your sales data to predict future customer behavior and tailor your marketing with pinpoint accuracy.
- Ignite the Anticipation: Discover the hottest marketing trends to create a buzz around your ski area and build unstoppable momentum for the winter season.
- Go Back to Basics, But Better: Rediscover the fundamental principles of marketing that never go out of style and integrate them seamlessly with cutting-edge new strategies.
- Leave Last Season in the Dust: Develop a game-changing marketing plan that focuses on the future.
5 Guiding Principles for a Better Guest Experience
Eric Lipton – Snow Operating
How closely are you evaluating what your guest sees, feels, and experiences during their time at your ski area? Do you know what to look for and how to determine what aspects are the most important areas to focus on?
Join Eric Lipton, COO of SNOW Operating, for 5 easy-to-understand concepts that you can share with your team and immediately start evaluating the experience your resort provides. As an added bonus, he’ll share a few strategies you can use to lead your resort through change and build a guiding coalition to implement change that sticks.
Disc Golf – Overview of Industry Growth and Getting Started with A Low-Labor, Fun Summer Amenity
Ayden Wilber and Brian Baisley – Greek Peak Mountain Resort
Explore the thriving market for a low-maintenance, enjoyable summer amenity that offers effortless operation and substantial revenue potential. Discover the industry’s expansion trends, learn how to initiate your venture, and uncover strategies to effectively generate income.
Marketing Directors Group Discussion
Join Marketing Directors from attending ski areas to discuss this past season and possible strategies on staging a come back season.
Operations Sessions
NSAA Lift Safety Bootcamp – All Day Monday
Mike Lane of NSAA
Lift Operations – Setting Your Guests up for Success: Maze Design, Load and Unload Ramp Setup
This session will discuss strategies and methods for setting up Mazes, Ramps and the Signage to have a positive effect on the success of your guests. Essential concepts covered include maze design, calculating the appropriate maze length needed before the load board, ramp design considerations and correct placement of unload signs. Bring your questions and ideas.
The What, Why, and How of Creating Unseated Passenger Plans
Unseated passenger plans are critical tools that help areas and their employees respond to incidents quickly, effectively and safely. If you don’t have a plan already or are in the process of updating yours, this is a session you won’t want to miss. This session will cover recommendations for what and who to include in the development of a plan and using an actual lift scenario go through the process of creating a plan for that lift. You will then be able to walk through those same steps at your area to create or update your own plans. Note that unseated passenger plans are a requirement of the new ANSI B77 standard, which becomes effective starting in 2023.
Lunch and Learn Session
Be ready with your pen and paper as we dig into several topics during this working lunch. Our roundtable discussion with the group will go into the role communications and PR play in your guest education efforts, examples of great guest education programs, the importance and impact of having a post-incident communication strategy, lift operations training best practices and collaboration ideas with your ski school and competition programs to keep lift riding safety front and center with students and athletes of all ages.
Root Cause Analysis & the Five Why’s
Incidents and near misses rarely ‘just’ happen. Trends in incidents don’t appear overnight. Using thoughtful analysis and well-defined tools you can identify the core (root) reason (cause) why something happened. This allows you to develop solutions to address that cause. Join this class to learn the basics or brush up on how to conduct a root cause and trend analysis using example lift incidents. Of course, example scenarios will be used to identify potential solutions so that you can work with your area team to address issues you are facing at your area.
Breaking the Cycle: A Lift Operations Roundtable Breaking the Cycle: A Lift Operations Roundtable
“But we’ve always done it that way!” Sound familiar? Change is hard – and we’re here to help. This facilitated roundtable is intended to bring out and up the barriers and challenges you face making changes at your area. Maybe it’s terrain, snow, staffing or culture – bring the challenges you face and we will discuss strategies to address those barriers and the takeaways from the other Boot Camp sessions. We will help you move your lift operation forward.
Hydraulics and Pneumatics of Snowmaking Systems
Tim Wang – Ratnik Industries
Tim Wang, Senior Snow Systems Engineer, will do a deep dive on basic hydraulic and pneumatic principles in snowmaking related to flow and pressure of water and compressed air in pumping and piping systems. Topics will include developing pressure with water pumps and air compressors, friction loss in piping and fittings and pressure ratings of pipes, valves and fittings.
ANSI B77.1-2022 and looking to 2027
Mike Lane – NSAA
This session is an overview what has changed in B77.1-2022. The changes include over 40 significant items, some of which you must know. We will review potential changes coming in 2027 and why. Participants will learn what key changes have been made in B77.1-2022 and gain a better understanding of what may be coming in the future B77.1 standard.
Lift Inspections and Maintenance Pro’s – a deeper discussion
Mike Lane – NSAA
This interactive session will start with your perspectives of what Inspectors Know, Don’t Know, and Need to Know. Once we gain these perspectives, we’ll discuss what resources are available and further develop what you believe is important in group exercises. The outcome of these exercises will be discussed even further. This interactive session will help individuals gain greater understanding of lift inspections and how you may be better prepared.
Snowmaking Tech Updates – A Panel Discussion
Ayden Wilber – Greek Peak Mountain Resort
Join Ayden Wilber, VP of Operations At Greek Peak Mountain Resort, as he leads a discussion of the latest in snowmaking technology and techniques with industry pros. Included on the panel is Aaron Madison of TechnoAlpin, Dave Reed from SMI Snow Makers, Gordon Santry of HKD Snowmakers and Tim Wang of Ratnik Industries.
The Quest for 1:1 (Air/Water Ratio) … 31 Years Later
Gordon Santry – HKD Snowmakers
At our first SANY show in 1993, we presented the possibility of a snowmaking system with a 1CFM to 1GPM Air/Water Ratio. 31 years later, how are we doing? Join Scott Gunnell, Charles Santry, and Gordon Santry, as we dive into the best practices to increase snowmaking efficiency & production, all the while reducing the labor to meet your snowmaking objectives.