Click Here to view the 2022 New England Summit Program Booklet

Seminar Schedule – Subject to change. Check TV screens in event hallway for updates.

 

All seminars will take place on Tuesday, Sept 13 and Wednesday morning Sept 14 (ending at noon) with the exception of the Lift Boot Camp which will combine several sessions on Tuesday and then 8:30am – 3:30pm on Wednesday.

Tuesday   9:00am  Opening Keynote with NSAA CEO, Kelly Pawlak 
Kelly will be giving the state of the ski industry. This keynote will have plenty of data to illustrate ski industry trends, health indicators, challenges, and opportunities. Kelly will also outline NSAA programs and resources.

 

Session Descriptions for FES 2022
 
Session 1 – Operational Risk Management and Learning from Others
 
Our daily operations present a spectrum of challenges, necessitating risk management to be the responsibility of every employee at the ski area. How will we change and adapt to ensure we’re not the subject of the next nuclear verdict? Join us to discuss what the industry is facing with the incidents that grab national headlines. From recent mountain bike litigation to zip line incidents, we will examine what happened and what could happen to understand and improve your operational risk management.
 
Session 2 – Your Responsibility Code Gets a Facelift!
 
Originally introduced in the 1960s as the Skier’s Responsibility Code, and updated in the 1990s to Your Responsibility Code (YRC), the Code is as fundamental to skiing and riding as a lift ticket. Now, the code has received a well-deserved facelift in 2022! The Code, which provides seven of the basic best practices to follow to mitigate risk on the slopes, has grown to 10 basic best practices. The modernization and updates to the code provide a critcal opportunity to reengage with our guests on safer skiing and riding. During this session, we will share the exciting and new changes to our “rules of the road” and how we can use this revision as an opportunity to educate and influence behavior on the slopes.
 
Session 3 – Claims and Litigation Review
 
Join the FES team and your local ASDA attorney as we discuss recent verdicts that change and mold the ski industry and how we operate. Building from session one, this portion of the FES will review wins and losses of a range of cases and, most importantly, discuss the lessons learned from these incidents. In addition, we’ll share examples of challenging property claims, and how those have affected the resort operations, as well as important takeaways you can bring back to your ski area.
 
Session 4 – The Growing Concern for Employee Safety
 
We work in a unique environment and our work does not fit squarely into the volumes of State and Federal Government code that regulates workplace safety. The standards that govern machine guarding, electrical safety, fall protection, and confined spaces can be complicated to understand and execute. Learn what other resorts are doing to address these issues and concerns. We will also examine workplace fatalities, how the resort navigated those waters, and what we can all do to prevent these situations from occurring again.
 

Session 5 –

Unique Strategies and Insights on the Evolution of Release and Waiver Laws

We often talk about how waivers and releases are one of the most protective strategies use to defend ski areas.  This session will dive into some of the evolving considerations on releases and waivers—minor releases, group sales, venue provisions, maximizing release capture across departments, bifurcated ticket pricing options, and the rise of new technology that makes many of the strategies easier to implement. 

Lifts and Lift Maintenance – Mike Lane, NSAA
Three sessions on Tuesday
All day on Wed. “Boot Camp”

 

Conveyor Lift Safety with Connor Rowan – Star Lifts

Conveyor Safety and maintenance

Topics 

Conveyor Maintenance, troubleshooting, safety, anchoring, etc.
The good, the bad and the ugly. In this rebranded little shop session, we will celebrate the really cool things we’ve seen over the past few years, some things probably considered bad, and some of the really tragic things, giving all of us an opportunity to take pride in what we do, learn some things and understand when things go really wrong.
 
What’s new in 2022, ANSI B77 Update. This session will layout the coming changes in the B77.1 revision to the 2017 standard. The changes include over 40 significant items and many are must knows for you and your teams. A deeper dive into what to expect for work carriers, procedures, dynamic testing and operation and pre-operational logs. Bring your questions, and notebooks.
 
Lift Safety Boot Camp
 
Focusing on lift operations, this full‐day special event will cover key aspects of your lift operations, from
maze design to unseated passenger plans, to help you and your staff improve your operations and
create the best environment for all of your guests to ride your lifts safely and successfully. Aimed at lift
managers and supervisors, each class will utilize a mix of indoor and outdoor time to take the discussion
from concept to real‐world application and promote information sharing with your peers. You will leave
this series with new planning and operational skills and tools to put to use as you set your area and
guests up for success.
 
Module 1: Lift Operations ‐ Setting Your Guests up for Success: Maze Design, Load and Unload Ramp
 
Setup
 
This session will discuss methods of setting up Mazes, Ramps and Signage to most effectively impact the
 
success of your guests. Essential concepts to be covered will include calculating the appropriate maze
 
length needed before the load board, and correct placement of unload signs. Bring your questions and
 
ideas.
 
Module 2: The What, Why, and How of Creating Unseated Passenger Plans
 
Unseated passenger plans are critical tools to help areas and their employees respond quickly,
 
effectively, and safely. If you don’t have plans 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 to include 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.
 
Module 3: Root Cause Analysis & the Five Why’s
 
Incidents and near misses rarely ‘just’ happen. And, 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. Which then allows you to develop solutions to address that cause. Join this class
 
to learn or brush up on how to conduct a root cause and trend analysis using example lift incidents. And,
 
of course, we will also identify potential solutions so that you can work with your area team to address
 
issues you are facing at your area.
 
Module 4: Breaking the Cycle: A Lift Operations Roundtable
 
“But we’ve always done it that way!” Sound familiar? Or, maybe you have felt the need to use that
 
phrase? Change is hard and often difficult. This facilitated roundtable is intended to bring out and bring
 
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, the
 
takeaways from the other Boot Camp sessions, and help you move your lift operation forward.

Marketing Sessions

Maximizing your visibility with limited budget – Luc Huyghe, President – E4Soft, Inc.
 
Go Beyond conventional e-marketing & e-commerce. Everyone is overload with tons of information every day, every hour, every minutes. The question is how can I increase the visibility of my resort to attract new customers? How to maximize my time while increasing my visibility on the social networks without paying fortunes! What is a marketplace and what’s its added value. To discover all this, nothing better than have a look at the customer experience we offer to a new potential skier to the resort.
 
 
 So, You Want to Build a Website…
 
 We will outline the website design and development process from RFP to launch. But, it’s not just 101 level. We’ll dive into ways to use a website beyond just a brochure. How should resorts of all sizes use their website as a tool for communication, operations, and, most of all, selling?
Ryan Triffitt, Partner, Dirigo Valley Systems
 
 
 
Snowbound Expo 2022 in Boston

Join Raccoon Events to learn what the NEW Snowbound Expo has to offer, how it is different to the previous Boston Ski & Snowboard Expo and why you should be a part of it!
The organizers of Snowbound Expo will give a detailed overview of the improved format set to take place, November 18-20, Boston Hynes Convention Center. There will also be time for Q&A.
Learn about the 3 Strategic Pillars of the Expo; 1 – Sustainability, 2 – Inclusion, 3 – Retail.
Learn how content is a key driver and which inspirational speakers, including athletes, Olympians, adventurers, and mountaineers, are confirmed to inspire younger generations onto the mountains who attend the Expo.
3 days / 25k+ visitors / Over 100,000sqft Expo space / With over 30million marketing impressions
“We unite the Winter and Outdoor Community to help grow the snow sports industry”
 
 
 
 

Kim Shulver – OnlySky
Keeping the human experience as Snowsports Schools enter the digital age.   
 This is an interactive discussion about ideas on how we keep up with the times of technology without losing the human experience.   

 Kim Shulver is the Director of Snowsports Product at OnlySky with a long history in both Snowsports school operations and in IT. Kim is the former Snowsports Director at King Pine Ski Area in E. Madison, NH, with a parallel background in IT Transformation and she’s also a Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt.

Luc Huyghe

General Topic Sessions

General Managers Roundtable with Kelly Pawlak, Moderator
Join a painel of ski area GM’s as they discuss important info that trending now. Open to Senior Management only
 

Terrain Park Management Record Keeping with Charles Mickley, 1 Risk and David Stanley, Ullr

This session will cover all aspects of terrain park and bike park operations on record keeping, including daily logs, investigation documentation and procedures and reporting using modern technology and mobile devices. We will also cover sharing parks information with guests including websites and social media. Please join us we will provide feedback to many questions and challenges and will be able to answer your questions from the operational side.
 

 
 

People Skills for Everyone – Kathleen Brennan – CEO – PSIA-E

Recently PSIA-AASI updated and published their revised national standards introducing the Learning Connection Model including technical, teaching and people skills. These fundamentals identify keys to exceptional performance. During this session, explore how you may use these people skills throughout your organization to engage and build relationships with your guests.
 
 
Keith Pabian – Staffing Americans and International workers
Title: So much work to find Workers! – A staffing conversation about finding and utilizing Americans and internationals.
Description: Staffing is one of, if not the biggest issues for ski areas in Maine and around the country. This session will lay out and discuss solutions to this massive problem.
Join Keith Pabian and Colleen Debold of Seasonal Connect and Pabian Law as they delve into the staffing struggles that ski areas are experiencing, discuss strategies for addressing these challenges, and share best practices that your organization can employ. Keith and Colleen will discuss utilizing international workers (H-2B, J-1, and other visa types) to navigate the staffing crisis, while providing pro’s and con’s and a state of the government when it comes to these solutions. They will also share ideas about finding more Americans to solve your staffing needs.
These topics, and more, will be discussed with an eye toward understanding key trends and leveraging these in coming up with solutions to your organization’s biggest staffing and operational struggles. With ski areas across the country facing staffing challenges, this session is not to be missed.

Operations Seminars

Steve Greene – Action Bearings –  “In this seminar cost savings through energy reduction will be verified using the right choices in drive belts. A hands-on demonstration of the vast differences in wasted energy caused by improper specification and usage of standard v-belts will be shown. A basic introduction and review of bearings and lubrication will be included.

Maximilian Mundler at ARENA Slope Management

“Digitalization in Slope Management: From Snow Height Measurement to Data Driven Decisions”.
Based on current customer projects, the company ARENA SlopeManagement shows how the consumption of resources (water and energy) can be reduced by up to 20 percent through data analysis and strategic slope work. In this seminar,  participants learn what options they have based on their existing infrastructure in order to reduce their resource consumption in the coming winter seasons and thus meet the challenges of climate change.
 
Ian Jarrett, HKD, Exploring Ways To Multiply The Impact Of Your Snowmaking Resources We are currently surrounded by numerous limiting factors that impact our ability to make the snow needed to open valuable ski terrain for our guests. Labor availability, unpredictable weather patterns and the rising costs of energy continue to impact how we operate our resorts. Please join HKD Snowmakers to learn how to identify and implement force multipliers than will increase snowmaking simplicity, speed, safety, and efficiency.
 
 

Jordan Amandola – Artec Machine Systems.

Load Distribution in Gearboxes; Identifying the Advent of a Pending Failure.

Gears can fail due to various damage patterns. In this mini seminar we will briefly discuss; the combined influence of shaft misalignments and gear lead crown on load distribution and tooth bending stresses is applied to real world circumstances.