blog: Mountain Travel Symposium, part #3

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Austin Richardson
Vail CO, Colorado
April 9, 2008

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VAIL, Colorado — A rousing two days of speed dating capped by a gourmet
meal, Super Diamond and fireworks. Wow. That's both tough to beat and might
leave a mark. Hopefully, ski pants and fleece will cover up those nasty
bruises from "stumbling" a little during the first few days of this year's
Mountain Travel Symposium in Vail. Nice snow, mild temperatures, could
spring skiing be any nicer than over the last few days?

Shrewd organizers have planned it this way. I can almost hear a marketing
person in a strategy session say to the collected brain trust, "let's have a
couple days for people to get accustomed to the mountain and being here and
THEN start the seminars." This is good because it lets folks get good and
sore before sitting in sessions both morning and afternoons.

Speaking of spontaneous improv, what a workshop by Bob Doll and Lou Franson, two funny guys who showed their workshop how easy it could be to build confidence through the ability to free-wheel a bit. Good stuff.

Ever notice how rooms fill up at workshops? It's that same old grade school dynamic. The kids eager to share and engage sit toward the front, the cheaters and introverts hang back. Just kidding about the cheaters. We all know that "cheaters never win" ... much.

Not having been to a tremendous number of trade shows in my professional life, the Mountain Travel Symposium offers a great deal of insight to why they are appealing. Free coffee, sodas and ice cream sandwiches are a big plus. Only the most jaded trade show attendee would scoff at Starbuck's on the "between meetings" breaks.

It's also a time for constant chatter between teammates (for lack of a better term). Not only do you learn things in the workshops, you also learn things about your co-workers. Invariably, hanging out doing workshops together will give you a sense of togetherness unmatched by any business lunch with clients. Simply that bonding makes work more fun and, in turn, increases profitability. High concepts from a flaky journo-type, but swirl it around in the ol' tobaggin noggin', there might be a nugget of truth in there somewhere.

"jameshurley's FrostWire tunes" is another shared collection showing up on on the I-Tines. I couldn't listen to his tunes because of some "shared firewall" thing, but it was worth a try. Drop me a line, jameshurley, let's hare a tune.

Web editor Austin Richardson will be skulking around the Mountain Travel Symposium with a video camera, looking for blogs and blog-related ... stuff.
You'll find me sitting at the laptop just behind the coffee station or milling around the floor with a video camera.
Ask him about is broken finger. He loves to talk about it. Reach Austin Richardson at arichardson@vaildaily.com or at (970) 376-8011.








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Austin Richardson
Web Editor, Vail Daily
arichardson@vaildaily.com
(970) 748-2911
(970) 949-0555 ext. 14311
(970) 949-7096 - fax