Wednesday, March 29

8:30am - 10:30am General Session

Welcome to the Forum!

Alicia Evanko-Lewis, Executive Vice President, Global Events, Northstar Travel Group

Corleigh Powderface, Nakota Stoney

Scott Klososky, Founding Partner, Future Point of View

Oliver Weibel, Director Canada, Switzerland Tourism

Cat Shaw, Director of Content & Marketing, MTS

Elder Prayer and Smudge

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & WELCOME

Janet Eger, VP, Destination Development, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism

Pete Woods, President, SkiBig3

THE FUTURE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

In order for travel organizations prosper in the next five years, an aggressive stance on weaving together technology and people must be in place. Scott Klososky developed the concept of Humalogy over 12 years ago and has been helping winning companies refine their digital strategies all along the way. His content is rich in ideas that can be applied in the near term to help your organization prosper in the longer term.

SUSTAINABILITY SERIES

Back again, this series focuses on various aspects of sustainability, tackled in 10-minute segments throughout The Forum. We’ll cover sustainable destinations, keeping tourism dollars in destination, and traveling with less environmental impact. Learn how you and your business can make a difference in small and big ways.

Swisstainable – Sustainable Travel in Switzerland
Sustainable travel doesn’t necessarily mean having to go without. Sustainable travel means greater awareness, depth and more enjoyment. With this in mind, Switzerland follows its sustainability strategy: Swisstainable.

DIGGING DEEP INTO THE DATA

Our partners at Destimetrics, Phocuswright, STR and OnTheSnow help to unpack the ’22-’23 season. They’ll share insights gleaned from never-ending datapoints to make sense of the industry’s success and what it might tell us for the short and long-term future.

Chad Dyer, Owner and Global Managing Director, Mountain News, publishers of OnTheSnow & Skiinfo

Issa Sawabini, Founder & CEO, Fuse

Brian Roth, Director - Regional Sales, United

Bob Stinchcomb, Senior Vice President of Sales, Alterra Mountain Company

Adrienne Saia Isaac, Director of Marketing & Communications, NSAA

Charuta Fadnis, SVP, Research and Product Strategy, Phocuswright

Tom Foley, SVP, Business Intelligence, Inntopia

10:30am - 10:45am Break

10:45am - 12:30pm General Session

Chris Klauda, CHIA, Senior Director, Product Analytics & Insights – STR

Forming Respectful and Responsible Indigenous Partnerships

Many of our destinations and resorts are located on indigenous land. It’s our responsibility as stewards of travel to connect visitors to the history and tradition of the lands they’re exploring. Members of Indigenous Tourism Alberta share how partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous entrepreneurs can prosper in the mountains.

Tim Patterson, Owner/Lead Guide, Zucmin Guiding

Connecting With The Next Generation: Gen Z Insights & Opportunities

Issa is widely considered one of the foremost marketing experts in youth culture, action and outdoor sports, and marketing to millennials and Gen Z. He’s used this knowledge to develop successful youth marketing strategies for over 100 brands including Mountain Dew, Nike, Gatorade, Converse, Amazon, Kraft, Harley-Davidson, Tik Tok, Puma, Burton Snowboards, Zip Car, Champs Sports and MasterCraft. He’ll share insights on Gen Z and some of the tools that can be used and tactics that can be implemented to best reach this audience.

Insights to Action to Actual OUTcomes for the Mountain Community: Evolving Data to Quality of Life

DMOs have more data and insights than ever before. Resorts and Mountain partners are missing a big opportunity if they're not leveraging the information and relationship. Mountain destinations and ski regions now collaboratively have the opportunity to utilize real time insights from events, movement and spend for the betterment of the community, the improved experience for the visitor and transformation of the organization. If these new tools are available, which mountain communities are using them the best?

This session will have two destinations tell their stories about completely new insights and how they leveraged data insights to collectively create outcomes for their residents, visitors, and stakeholders.

Nicole Brownell, VP of Strategic Advisors, Zartico

Kaitlin Eskelson, President & CEO, Visit Salt Lake

Sustainability Series

Back again, this series focuses on various aspects of sustainability, tackled in 10-minute segments throughout The Forum. We’ll cover sustainable destinations, keeping tourism dollars in destination, and traveling with less environmental impact. Learn how you and your business can make a difference in small and big ways.

How Traveling with Less Amounts to More
Mount encourages travelers to travel with just a backpack and rent everything they need in destination— from bikes to clothes to pool toys—from the locals. They’ll explain how their business has decreased single use travel items immediately thrown away after a trip and created a deeper connection to the locals and environment.

Madison Rifkin, Co-Founder and CEO, Mount

Live at MTS: The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast—popular newsletter and interview series among the ski industry and consumers alike—explores the world of lift-served skiing in the United States and Canada. Stuart Winchester will host an episode of The Storm live at MTS, where he’ll sit down with Bob Stinchcomb, Senior Vice President of Sales, Alterra Mountain Company. You won’t want to miss this conversation.

Stuart Winchester, Founder, Editor & Host, The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast

Ray Gadd, Director of Marketing & PR, Visit Sun Valley

Sustainability Series

Back again, this series focuses on various aspects of sustainability, tackled in 10-minute segments throughout The Forum. We’ll cover sustainable destinations, keeping tourism dollars in destination, and traveling with less environmental impact. Learn how you and your business can make a difference in small and big ways.

Lift Your Voice: How a Small Industry is Working Toward Big Climate Action
The U.S. downhill snowsports industry contributes over $58B annually in economic impact and supports, broadly, half a million jobs across the winter tourism economy. While the industry has worked for decades to lower its own emissions and operating footprint, there is much more that needs to be done to keep skiing and riding in the future. Learn how one small – but mighty – industry and its trade association are lifting their business voices in support of audacious climate action by both policymakers and the private sector.

Creating Corporate Culture with Employees at the Core

Many companies say they have great corporate culture, but what does that even mean? It’s more than free snacks in the kitchen and WFH flexibility. A positive corporate culture is imperative to low employee turnover, high output and an overall motivated workforce. Companies excelling in this area share their philosophies, priorities and policies for putting their employees first.

Janine Bavoso, Chief People Officer, Northstar Travel Group

Matt Miller, Vice President, Airport Operations, Denver Hub, United

OnTheSnow.com’s Visitors Choice Awards

Brian Wright, Director of Marketing, Mammoth Lakes Tourism

MTS Summit Award, Sponsored by United

Corporations—big and small—have a responsibility to their customers, local communities, and society at large to make a difference in the world we live in. The Summit Award celebrates action by recognizing organizations, programs, projects and individuals that go beyond rhetoric and truly make an impact. MTS and United will announce the 2023 Summit Award and the recipient will share details on how they’ve changed the way they do business to benefit the greater good. Learn more.

12:30pm - 2:00pm Lunch on own

2:00pm - 2:45pm Breakout Sessions

2:45pm - 3:00pm BREAK

3:00pm - 3:45pm Breakout Sessions

THURSDAY, MARCH 30

8:30am - 11:00am GENERAL SESSION

Benjamin Alexander, Olympian and Champion for Diversity

Kristi Kavanaugh, Vice President, Sales, Aspen Skiing Company

Colleen Weiss, President/CEO, East West Hospitality

OnTheSnow.com’s Visitors Choice Awards are an annual list of favorite ski resorts as ranked by user ratings and feedback from the platform’s nine million unique North American visitors. The winner for the ’22-’23 season will be announced live at MTS.

Benjamin Alexander: The Unexpected Olympian

Benjamin Alexander, Jamaica's first-ever Olympic alpine skier, didn’t follow a typical trajectory to Olympic qualification. He began skiing at age 32 and rewrote history as he qualified for the Beijing Olympics.

At MTS, you'll hear about his Olympic journey, including how he had the guts to do something so outlandish and how he succeeded in the face of adversity. His Olympic experience led him to be a champion for increasing diversity in winter sports. We’ll learn about what projects he’s working on now and how the Jamaican winter sports legacy will live on.

Want a preview? Listen to Benji on BLISTER Podcast.