The Wireless Ski AreaHow Technology and Connectivity are Impacting the Guest Experience

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Hi, I’m Dave• Director of Marketing & Sales for Sierra-at-Tahoe

• Previously Aspen Snowmass, Freeskier Magazine, Sunday River

• 16th Year in Skiing / Winter Sports

• Nickname: “Digital Dave”

• Usually staring into a screen, clicked into skis, or behind handlebars

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Thank You, NSAA

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On The Social• twitter.com/ozskier

• instagram.com/ozskier

• damirault@sierraattahoe.com

• facebook.com/davidamirault

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A Show of Hands

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64% Of American Adults Own A Smartphone

(Pew Research Center, Oct 2014)

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Connectivity has quickly become a

utility.

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It is no less critical to modern living than water or electricity.

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The Internet of Things

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United States Average Residential Download

Speeds

Measured in Mbps from Ookla http://www.netindex.com/download/2,1/United-States/

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35.8 Mbps 11.3 Mbps (Upload)

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What About Mobile?

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14.2 Mbps 6.3 Mbps (Upload)

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Whatever, Nerd

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Video Streaming Speed in Mbps Source: Netflix

SD Video

HD Video

UHD (4K)

0 7.5 15 22.5 30

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Hand Computers

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AT&T Park• 41,915 Capacity

• Completely Free

• No Information Required For Connection

• Sponsored by AT&T, Duh

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We Get It, Dave. Gosh.

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Sierra-at-TahoeWARNING: It’s going to get very nerdy from this point forward.

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Wait, Where?

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Our Customers

• San Francisco

• San Jose

• Sacramento

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They’re From The Future

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So, What About Sierra-at-Tahoe?

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Two T1 Lines• Access for administrative network.

• External access for Siriusware e-Store.

• Credit card processing.

• Webcams.

• VPN Access for Senior Staff.

• Heavy amounts of network QoS to prioritize and block certain components of web traffic. (YouTube vs. mission critical data.)

• Guest networks powered by a random assortment of DSL lines. (More about that later.)

• Incredibly costly compared to coaxial and DSL based broadband service.

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OH F&#K!!

• Tested After-Hours

• 2.15 Mb/s Down

• 0.57 Mb/s Up

• It Was Drastically Slower During Business Hours

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Digital Handcuffs• Video? Yeah right.

• Streaming audio? Dream on.

• Screen sharing? No way, Jose.

• Uploading photos & video from conditions shoots? Drive home and upload from there.

• Skype interviews with The Weather Channel? Send the satellite truck.

• Dropbox / Google Drive? Oh, you mean USB memory keys? Yeah, let’s use those for “file sharing.”

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No Bars In More Places

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Guest Perspective

• Their phones don’t work on the property.

• What little guest WiFi Sierra-at-Tahoe does provide is incredibly slow and has an extremely limited capacity for users.

• Buys eTicket through a vendor like Liftopia, can’t even load their barcode for redemption at the ticket window.

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Why So Slow?

• Coaxial based high speed services are not available.

• Just about at the maximum distance for DSL services.

• Considerable costs to bring in fiber optic backhaul from Highway 50 due to installation costs - digging & burying fiber.

• It’s what they were used to.

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Aside From Driving Me Insane, What Are The

Impacts?

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NPS Takes A Hit

• We’re being held accountable from our guests for the current cellular and WiFi infrastructure.

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The Website Is Sloooowwww

• It’s like having lines at your ticket window, but in a web browser.

• Abandoned shopping carts like whoa.

• Screw coming back, this site is the worst!

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Customer Service As Marketing

• Customers aren’t tweeting, posting, or communicating you in realtime with social channels.

• They’re waiting until they have connectivity to address in-resort problems.

• You can’t correct guest issues as they happen.

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Social Post Density

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0

12.5

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37.5

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9AM 11AM 1PM 3PM 5PM 7PM 9PM 11PM

MARKETING!

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We Don’t Have This Guy’s Number

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So What Do You Do?

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You Get Creative

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WAN Bonding

(I told you it was going to get nerdy.)

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BOOM!• 2.15 Mbps to 19.2 Mbps

• Those network spikes are marketing trying to take the network down.

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Fiber Optic Backhaul (Internet)

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These Are Not Easy

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Public WiFi Access

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Public WiFi• It’s a guest expectation.

• No need to re-authenticate when you roam around the resort.

• Required opt-in for your guests when they accept the terms and conditions.

• Opportunity to pass people to a “You’re Connected” page with the marketing promotion of your choice.

• Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure that everyone has a fair connection speed.

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You Just Captured Their Email Address

And Name

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Where Else Do You Have That Data?

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CRM Database

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You Already Know A Lot About These People

• First / Last

• Address

• Purchase history

• In-resort scan activity

• Arrival date

• Email opens

• App Usage

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Pair To Their Guest Record

• Additional data fields to be added to their guest record.

• See if they are an in-resort WiFi user or not.

• Routers give the ability to show how long they were connected for, and where in the resort.

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While They’re Selfie Sticking

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Triggered Messaging

• Specific behavioral actions from your guests trigger emails.

• Dynamic content from your existing content management platform.

• Up-sell opportunities, weather, events, F&B, retail, etc.

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Personal Timely

Action Based

Creates context for your guest, which leads to higher open rates.

Don’t Be A Creep

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iBeacon / Bluetooth Beacons

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Integrating Into Your App

• You need to integrate the capabilities for iBeacon / Bluetooth Beacons into your app.

• Strategically position the hardware across the resort for specific messaging that benefits your guest.

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Hardware Is Cheap

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Thank YouQuestions, Comments, Death Threats?

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