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INDUSTRY EVENTS MIDWEST SKI AREAS ASSOCIATION 2006 MEETING & TRADE SHOW From August 13-16, 2006, Crystal Mountain, Mich., pulled out all the stops to host the annual Midwest Ski Areas Association meeting and trade show. Gathering to learn, eat and network were 265 area attendees representing 63 areas, and 133 supplier personnel from 66 companies. Throw in speakers and guests (and media) and the total number of attendees came in at 445. The program was chock full of seminars tackling every area of interest for a winter resort and the trade show floors were packed as managers shopped for the coming season. And Crystal Mountain delivered an extraordinary venue, great service and fantastic vittles, making the show a great success.To cap the event off, American Fireworks out of Ohio (www.americanfireworks.com), put on a great feast for the eyes. Here are a summary of some of the seminars, in addition to many photos of the faces of the Midwest. New Media In a session titled New Media conducted by Mountain News, the cross-over from radio/TV and newspapers to website-driven information is growing. These outlets are still thriving thanks to the integration of electronic content and traditional content. When it comes to the users, Mountain News has found that people want live web cams, they want dinner recommendation, they want digital mapping and they want snow reports...and they want it now. Other web technologies that are on the rise are RSS, blogs, videos and podcasts. Internet users are used to these mediums and are coming to expect them more and more. And because of the immediacy of the electronic world, Mountain News emphasizes the need for PR and marketing folks to get their information ready much earlier in the season. For example, for the upcoming season, media kits should be finalized and available by September 1. Demo and Rental Centers This session, conducted by Tim Kohl who runs a rental shop at Alta, stresses the importance of having better gear for our customers. Kohl told attendees that the pool for ski rentals will shrink so instead of raising prices across the board for rental equipment, offer people the opportunity to upgrade. Kohl has found that one third of them will--people will always choose quality over price. At his shop, Kohl has upgraded all of his equipment and, at most, rents a set out about 10 times—that’s because he has trained his staff to sell the equipment to renters. By having the latest gear, the conversion to a sale is easier. Kohl also stressed the importance of having good employees. He has made his shop the place to work at the hill because he overstaffs by 25 percent and encourages his staff to ski whenever they want. He also has a bonus system that rewards an employee for each sale. The end message? The rental shop is not the place to put unenthusiastic, poorly-trained staff. The rental shop should be one of the highest paid positions at the hill, which will, in turn, lead to happy customers who not only rent, but invest in a skiing future through the purchase of equipment. Snowmaking Automation This seminar, put on by SMI’s Joe VanderKelen and York’s Jim Horton, went over the varying degrees of snowmaking automation and how it can help any area from the smallest to the biggest. The first question they tackled was what really is automation and what are the levels. First, there are two major categories: the plant (mainly pumps and compressors); and the hill (pump valves, hydrants, guns, weather stations, cameras and lights). When it comes to degrees of automation, the presenters agreed that there is semi-automatic and fully automatic. With semi-automatic systems, there are several combinations of automation, for example a stand-alone hydrant with manual start and stop, but an auto-adjust feature. Or, conversely, an automatic start and stop, but a manual adjust. There can also be a master hydrant with slaves running off of it. In a fully-automatic system, generally there is an auto start and stop, an auto adjust, remote hydrant control and the communications are automated. Both presenters talked about retrofitting existing systems, as well as the pros of looking toward the future--they agreed that in 20 years, no ski area won’t have some degree of automation. For example, when a section of pipe needs to be replaced, think ahead and run some conduit line in that area. It may save some time and expense in the future. As well, manual valves can be placed in shelters for future automation. As far as the payback for automation is concerned, Horton and VanderKelen urged attendees to consider that production can be doubled, the window needed for opening is smaller, recovery from weather events is much quicker, and there is better inventory control. Websites This session, conducted by Samantha Rufo, went over what user expectations are when it comes to websites. Rufo started the session by saying that people don’t want what you want, they want what they want. In other words, websites need to be less about bells and whistles and more about the end user. And what do out customers want? Very simply, prices, trail map, directions, snow reports and the hours of operation. They want to see good photography. They want a site that is simple to navigate, easy to download and that doesn’t hide information. A great tip by Rufo was to check out the rank of your site at www.alexa.com. This site ranks your website in overall website usage and shows you what other sites your guests visit. Conveyor Challenges David Kelly, Magic Carpet: Peter Kavanaugh, Star Lifts: Sam Geise, Geise Engineering: Marc Wood, M-Tek Consulting, Inc. This well attended session covered a number of topics including convex and concave curves and the new ANSI codes that effect them. When building a conveyor keep in mind the “lift” factor as the wind can get under them and blow them over, for example 40 mph winds equal 20 feet of pressure. Some of the new standards also require that there is always one person at the top and at the bottom for conveyors over 400 feet and full visibility is required regardless of length. Other tips included, when unloading, encourage skiers/boarders to step off the end, while tubers can step off to the side thus preventing the trip switch from kicking in. Shacks at top of the conveyor should be built off to the side enabling a clear view of everyone on the belt. Rental Shop Efficiencies Christoph Deszecker, HEAD/Tyrolia Rental Programs Manager When it comes to improving efficiency, pre-season planning plays a big role. Some of the things rental shops can do in the preseason include equipment mounting, calibration and inventory record keeping. When in operation, the goals of a rental shop should be to create a system that reduces “shop time” for customers, improves safety, and has a non-proprietary fleet set-up that’s user friendly and improves skiability. For the rental shop manager, it’s important to put yourself in the shoes of the customer and, once a month, you should follow the same process as a customer in order to change and improve your rental shop system. As far as equipment advances, look for systems that save time and money. For example, the HEAD BYS system requires no mounting and pre-season calibration. At Wachusett Mountain, Mass., the area witnessed a 30 percent reduction in labor costs because of this. The number of different set up combinations necessary in a typical rental operation is 2,500 per season where as the BYS system can reduce this number to just 100 per season. New Profit Centers: Ski area retail and accessories shops Dave Von Behren, Cascade MT and Claire Humber, SE Group This session explored some of the unique revenue sources that mountain areas are working on to add to the bottom line. Some of these include: on-hill photographers and photo booths, camera rentals, tubing park photos, cell tower leases, driving ranges, WiFi at lodges, disc golf, special events, fireworks, snowboarding pant and boot rental for tubing park attendees, harnesses for kids, summer snow events, disability insurance, arcades and coffee shops, demo centers and food service leases, just to name a few. High-end coffee shops are one of the fastest growing sectors on the mountain and espresso-based drinks are very popular among teens. Reporting and photos by Jennifer Rowan and Sharon Walsh.
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EVENTS WRAPUP 
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