SUMMIT

Last Thursday I attended a snowsports conference at Sunday River.  I thought it was really great and had a good time.  I went to a seminar about growing the sport and what we need to do to get new skiers and riders on the slopes.  The presenter was the president of NSAA and i got a lot of great information from him, and he was very comical.  I also went to another seminar on marketing that was aimed at the younger generation.  The lady basically said that we need to learn to market in social media and to be very technologically advanced to keep up.  I spent a lot of time walking around talking to vendors during lunch and got a lot of great information.  I had a few questions that i wanted answered and one of the first ones i asked to Brandon Rogers, the sales manager at Amlon Ticket.  I asked him how he had gotten into the business and he just took over for his parents who had started the business.  Not really the answer i wanted, but its what i got.  Next i spent quite a lot of time talking with Bruce Whitney, general manager at U Source, about energy.  I had alot of questions for him, which is too much to list, but i was very interested because i am looking into the business management part of the ski industry.  Next i taked to Barbara Worzalla, assistant vice president at Travel Guard, and she explained me the need to buy the travel insurance she was selling.  I asked her how business was doing and surprisingly sales were up 30 percent from last year and usually grow 20% annually.  International sales were what was driving this growth though because of how week the US dollar is.  Next i asked Kelly-Jane Arsenault from Cultural Homestay International about their international programs and i asked her if i should head to a different country to work.  Her response was YES, GO TO CHILI.  Finally i spent a very large amount of time talking to Adam Portz, an associate from SE Group, about what he does.  I learned that their company basically provides consultant services for ski resort development and i may have found what i want to do.  I asked him if he had any advice for someone coming into the industry and he told me to just go for it.  He was very impressed with the path that i am on right now because of my double major in business admin as well and my drive to get my MBA after college.  So, overall i loved this conference and hope i get to go back next year....

L.O.C

We spent the day at the outing club organizing events and improvements that we can make to the non-profit ski club.  I think this is a great idea to help out the community and learn what we love while doing it.  It seems like a win win for everyone, but we will see what happens.  I am looking forward to this semester!