If you are a social media nerd who loves the snow-sports industry then you missed the best conference to meet all your needs, the 2010 Tahoe Snowcial. The Snowcial event was started by Tahoe Skiers / Snowboarders, Heavenly Mountain Resort and One to One interactive to create the Sundance Festival for the Facebook generation. The conference was a way to share ideas about new ways of using social media and how to connect with fellow snowcialites. The other reason to have the conference was to get away from the 9–5 routine, which in the world of social media doesn’t really hold true and just have fun. Make it known that as hard as this group works and cares about what they do they all know how to let loose and have a great time all in the same day.


Day one consisted of a social meet-n-greet with hors d’ouvres, some light cocktailing and practice gambling on the side… Harrah's way of enticing you further to enjoy yourself after the cocktail party was over. First a little Texas Hold-em tournament to decide which snowcialite had the best poker face. I stepped up with my fellow conference attendee JP Lagos, who really had no poker face after the cocktail party, to try our luck in winning some Heavenly prizes. I was lucky enough to bust a few of the other attendees and even hand Russ Pecoraro (Director of Communications at Heavenly Mountain Resort ) a really bad beat to keep myself alive well into the final table. The best moment of the night had to be Sonny Mayugba showing up dressed in silk Japanese inspired PJ’s along with his amazing control of White Russian ninja like skills at the table. If you don’t know who Sonny Mayugba just do a little research on Heckler Magazine. So the final two facing off for the evening were Sonny Mayugba and Viddler president Rob Sandie and even though Sonny had ninja like skills with his White Russian in hand it was Rob who took down the night as the 2nd annual Snowcial Poker Champ. I ended the tournament with a 3rd place finish, courtesy of Rob Sandie, and $50 gift certificate to Heavenly Sports. With poker over the night continued in typical south shore style with visits to various hot spots including a quickie to Cabo Wabo.

Day two started out a little slow due to the previous evenings casino shenanigans. The schedule called for riding in the morning and the real reason why we all came, the conference speakers including keynote speaker MC Hammer. So as anyone can guess the morning riding session was rather difficult but with the snow in great condition the fog was quickly lifted. The Heavenly mini shred park was enjoyed until it was time to clean up and ready ourselves for knowledge. I personally was very interested to hear what type of speaker Hammer was, after growing up during the golden Hammer age I was a bit awe-struck to just see him walk onto the stage. I could have been set for the day just seeing him at the conference but to hear the man speak was simply impressive. For the record, Hammer is one of the most amazing speakers I have ever heard. His knowledge of social media and current trends in social media ranks up with some of the biggest hitters in social media. MIND BLOWING! Second, Monica Sullivan, Harrah’s Entertainment, spoke about how she manages over 40 brands and how a large company like Harrahs has embraced social media along with traditional advertising. Third was Rob Sandie , President or Viddler.com, if you have never heard of Viddler.com then you have never had the enjoyment of FailBlog videos. Rob’s presentation on social video touched on some great points that could be adapted to many industries. After a short break Digi David Amirault, Freeskier Magazine took the stage to discuss how freeskier has taken charge of social media on their own site and the success they have seen from allowing more content to be posted from multiple sources. After Digi Dave came Christine Loredo, Orbit Media and iLoop Mobile, the First Lady of mobile. The knowledge of mobile and social media followed by the current trending statistics could keep a marketing manager busy for months just trying to figure out their brands best path. The final presenter of the evening was Pete Blackshaw, of Nielsen Online. Pete is an impressive speaker to say the least, I wish I could say more about what he discussed because it touched on so many important social and non-social media ideas that I would eventually give too much away, you just have to hear him speak. The evening came to a close, well for me at least, with dinner at Cabo Wabo and after a Chicken Burrito I pretty much feel asleep on my feet. I heard stories about the after party at Vex nightclub but someone must have laced my burrito with Tryptophan because I was out for the count. Day two was the most intellectually stimulating day I have had in a longtime, all the speakers had many excellent points that still have my mind racing.

The good book - Heavenly Scavenger Hunt guide book

Day three started with a breakfast to discuss the days scavenger hunt, next lunch at the Lakeview Lodge, a quick dinner, and finally Hammer Time!!! Breakfast was a great start to the day however a 7am start was kind of early, ask JP how he felt getting a super rude awakening. But once you dove in it was well worth the early and cruel wake up time. Following breakfast was the start of the real fun, the Heavenly scavenger hunt. Each team was given a book with pictures and point values. Using your camera phone each team snapped pics and uploaded them to a flikr account for judging. Before we got neck deep into the hunt we had to take a quick stop over at Heavenly’s newest family activity, the new indoor carpet lift and extreme tubing hill. The new magic carpet (as we called it the MEGACARPET) stretches 450 feet up the hill to a snowtubing zone that has 4 lanes and drops 65 vertical feet. If you need a break from making turns or have little ones that need some other fun… go snowtube at Heavenly! It was absolutely amazing! I'd like to give a special thanks to Russ Pecoraro for coordinating the quick break. After the tubing experience it was back to the hunt and I was lucky enough to hook up with Dan Rich of the Heavenly Ski school and for some reason we didn’t fair so well on the scavenger hunt due to insanely good snow conditions. I have a quick omission to make as well; I, before this past weekend was not a huge fan of Heavenly but with a guide like Dan, I have to say Heavenly has some amazing hidden terrain that is well worth finding.



We took a stop for lunch at the Lakeview Lodge for some of Heavenly’s stellar food. We started with a bevy of veggies, fruits and international cheeses, top that off with some Kobe beef sliders and anyone’s day of sliding will continue to be epic… but with all the fun of riding we quickly ate and jumped back on the horse for some end of the day runs. With a quick shower it was on to dinner before Hammer or so we thought. Through David LaPlante we heard that Monica Sullivan had set up a quick meet up in one of the ultra exclusive VIP suites inside Harrah's. The suites have a round the clock private butler to assist in all your personal needs. Monica had even made mention that she was wondering about a coffee maker in her passing to one of the butlers and upon her return not only was a coffee maker ready for use but a bowl of grounds was set out next to it in a true VIP manner. The VIP rooms are exquisite with many subtle touches including adding unique features like a rubber duckie for the bath. With wines like Jordan the quick VIP tour was truly a VIP experience. The group from the VIP room filled their glasses with a quick topper of the Jordan Cab and headed down for dinner. Harrah’s provided a unique and well prepared meal with a nice mushroom soup and some delicious twisted up bread. The evening’s main course was equally as delicious as lunch with a great Filet Mignon and fish combination plate accompanied by more delicious wine. We finished the dinner with a conference wrap up led by Pete Blackshaw and feedback from the entire group about the direction of the conference and also how evenyone had faired from the past few days of the conference.



What you needed to get into the show.


Finally we made our way down to Hammer, the highlight of the entire event. Needless to say we all had great seats at the Hammer show and as only Hammer can do he brings a pure show wherever he goes. Bustin out the old hits and keeping the crowd bumpin Hammer had everyone on their feet almost the entire show. He ended the night with the crowd on the stage with a little hammer dance-off. Over half of the Snowcial attendees made their way up to stage to try their luck. Even a former Dance-off Champ and Tahoe Snowcial attendee Eugene Lee threw down his best Hammer moves. For some reason a super drunk guy waving a towel was pulled from the audience as the nights winner. After the Hammer show it was on to the Hard Rock Café to announce the winner of the earlier scavenger hunt. With a packed house at the Hard Rock it was hard to really tell who came out victorious and all I could tell was a bottle of Dom was being sprayed over the entire crowd. After a day of riding all the fun terrain Heavenly had to offer my night ended at the Hard Rock although rumor has it that the Hammer after party at Vex was off the hook including a little visit from Snoop Dogg later in the night.

Every day was a good day!
Photo Courtesy of David LaPlante

Our final day was the most difficult to get motivated, knowing that we had to pack our bags and finally leave our little weekend getaway. Once we checked out of our rooms we all decided to hit the slopes for a few more laps before we all left in the direction of home. Leaving Heavenly the last day I felt like I had been welcomed into a special club of individuals who all shared the same passion for snow sports as well as social media. Everyone at the conference was extremely approachable and enjoyed both intellectual conversations as well as incredibly juvenile ones. Special thanks go out to Aimi X – PR for Heavenly for inviting us down to an amazing experience. Russ Pecoraro for being the guy who made it all happen. Heavenly and Harrah’s for being both complete class acts and who fully embrace the highest quality in customer service and One to One interactive for being the brains behind the operation. Oh and how can I forget David LaPlante, the man who seemed to keep the entire event flowing… We can’t wait for next years Tahoe Snowcial event and to hear what new ideas and thoughts everyone has as well after we catch up through all of the connections each of us made!

Labels: David LaPlante, Freeskier, Harrahs, Heavenly Resort, Pete Blackshaw, South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe Snowcial, Viddler

Comments:

 Scott Roeben
Wonderful write-up about the event. Great meeting you at Snowcial, and hope to see you again soon.

# : January 15, 2010 5:37 PM

 

 John Wagnon
Glad you had a great time at the 2nd Annual Tahoe Snowcial. See you next year!

# : January 17, 2010 8:47 AM

 

 Aimi X.
Glad you had a great time; I know Dan did too! :) Please come to Heavenly and ride with us again. Don't want to have to wait until the next Snowcial!
Great photo of JP extreme tubing!!
Aimi X.

# : January 17, 2010 2:20 PM

 

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