NE Snow Sports Summit

For this week we went to the NE snow sports summit at Sunday River. I found this to be a very cool trip getting to meet with alot of people from the industry, and sit in on some good lectures. For me the best part was being able to sit in the new Piston Bully 400's and seeing all the new technology that has gone in to them. The one thing that I would have liked is if the ski areas had booths as well so it would have been easeir to meet some GM's from mountains.

Five questions:
1) How did you get in the ski resort industry? - Bryan from AMI signs - company started making stuff for amusement parks and have expanded in the the ski resort industry.
2) How has your business been effected by the economic down turn? - Doug from Cameron compressors - About two years ago they felt a hit, but now they are rebounding with most of their sales going over seas.
3) Do you have any advice for someone looking to get in to the industry? - Mike for RAMP - Start by just getting a foot in the door on a entry level job in a field that you are interested in and stay with it even when the going gets tough.
4) What way do you feel that the industry is trending? - Jennifer from Ski Prism - Things are really going to a much more technology reliant society and e-ticketing.
5) Is your company doing anything to be involved with summer operations? - Patti from Leitner Poma - Yes we have started making bike carriers for our chair lifts.

One Week Down

It was nice to start gettin to "work" this week. I like the idea that we are goin to be running the Lyndon Outing Club, I think it will be a good way to learn some of the ins and outs of running a ski hill. And since LOC is a smaller place I feel like we will be able to do more then if we were working for a large resort like Stowe. For my group work I will be working on trail maintenance, which is a field or the industry that I am interested in. The groups first priority is to get all the brush and blow-downs cleared from the trails, for this hopefully we will be gettin help from the freshmen classes. Over all it seems like it should be a fun year.

First Post

Just set up the blog for practicum class. Looking forward to learning the ins and outs of the resort industry.