1. Strategic Development

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This convention will be beneficial to not only our business, but also the community involved. By holding an event for the disabled community, we hope it will put our company in a good standing with those in attendance.  Due to our ability to accomodate special needs on a daily basis, we hope that it will bring them back for more business as well as spreading the word to others in the community. With partnering with the disabled community, it will hopefully put our company in a good light and thus bring in more business from those who feel passionate about this cause. This will then bring us more business and more people to The Resort itself. It will also open a door for us to hold more conventions and do more business with those in the disabled community, thus having the L'Avalanche name be spread.

This convention will also bring a sense of good will and well being to all involved. The primary goal of the convention is to inspire those with disabilities to be unlimited, specifically in skiing. We hope that by giving them a day to do something they normally couldn't do with out hassle or concern, that it will be a joyus experience for them. Many will be in the middle of therapy and some difficult situations; this convention will be an outlet for them to get away from the troubling world and engage in a weekend all for their own pleasure. The convention will also host many people without disabilities, such as volunteers. By inviting volunteers, we not only hope to get more people involved with L'Avalanche itself, but for them to also take away a limitless mindset. The overall message of joy and inspiration we hope will flow through not only the attendees, but also the staff.

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2. Creative Development

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Our plan is to host a three day convention, each day focusing on creating a special experience for those with disabilities. The first day will have a featured event of a mock olympics, where guests will be able to participate in different races throughout the day. The second day we will have keynote speakers and a special panel, Q&A, and meet and greet for those in attendance for the convention. The third day we will have more of a relaxed event, where participants will be able to participate in s'more making, snowman building, and movie showings. All three days the slopes will be open for assisted skiing and we will have a special handicap accessable toboggan run.

Creating this plan will be the more challenging part. To begin, we will need to reach out to specialists in the special needs area who can assist with helping those with the disabilities ski. While certain members on our instructor team are trained in this area, more will be needed to accomidate the attendees. We will also need to contact the speakers for the second day panel and convince them to join the event. Staffing will be high for this event, as we will need more people watching the slopes to ensure safety, as well as those ready to assist anyone who may need additional attention outside of the slopes. Volunteers will be heavily relyed on, as we expect our attendacne to be high. These volunteers will work in the merchandise areas, special assistance locations, and food areas. While our resort is disability friendly, we will need to ensure that it can over accomidate every specific need; allergy menus will be broadened, quite and warm locations will need to be acccessable,  and getting around the resort will need to be made a little easier. With these things in play, we will be able to create this event successfully.

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3. Event Development

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Many lines of business will support this convention.

The Merchanidse area will be a main spot of business for this convention. We will have limited edition specialty merchandise with the convention logo and tagline, such as t-shirts, koozies, ski goggles, and other items. Portions of the profits of the merchandise with the convention logo will go to the Special Olympics, and the rest will be saved towards other Dream and Ski Conventions.

Food and Beverage locations will play a large factor in this event as well. Many of our participants will be coming with specific food allergies. Our Food and Beverage locations will be equipped with speciality allergy menus, as well as possible refridgerator storage for medicaitons or home made food.

The Operations role will be critical to this event. Making sure our slopes as well as toboggan run are in working order are a necessity for this event to run smoothly. Before the convention, all operations staff will get a briefing on how to assist those with disabilities, and how to accomidate their needs. Ski instructors will also available for no additional charge.

The Recreation team will support the convention by running specific events, such as the races, pannels, and movie events. They will be incharge of making sure the events run smoothly, and that the particpants needs are met with each event. They are the core of the convention, for without them, it wouldn't be more than another ski slope.

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4. Communication Strategy

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Our key message is that people with disabilities can do anything. We want to encourage them to not let their disability stop them or keep them from trying new things. Our tagline, "You are limitless" generalizes this message and with it, we try to encourage them that nothing can stop them from doing what they want, and that they are, infact, limitless, regardless of their disability.

We will communicate this in numerous ways. This will be on every commercial and poster that we use to advertise. We will also have this tagline on all of our specialty merchandise and banners in the resort. Our speakers for the pannel on the second day will be encouraged to base their discussion around this topic to encourage those listening of our message. We will also have a convention song that will be played at various times that participants will have access to after the convention so that they can use that be reminded that they are limitless.

Our target for this convention will be people with disabilities as well as people who are affected by others who have these disabilities, such as family, friends and colleagues. While this convention is primarily for those with the disabilities, we want to also reach out and encourage those who are affected by them, because their road can be just as difficult.

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5. Event Execution

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This convention will exceed our guests expectations, and we will make sure of it in a varitey of ways. We will be properly staffed to accomodate every guest; we will have many volunteers, some trained in specific area, specially trained ski instructors, and our regular staff. Our events will be fully planned before hand so that they run smoothly. For our race, we will have pre set the races as well as who is registered for them, and we will give detailed itineraries to those participants. Other events will also have itineraries that guests can pick up, and for events such as the pannel, announcements will be made before hand over the loud speaker. Accomodations will also be able to be made for people staying the entire weekend at other locations in the resort. Dietary accomodations will be available and quite places are going to be offered.

We will host a pre registration on our website that will allow participants to sign up before hand, and keep them updated by email leading up to the event (walk ins will be available as well). This will allow them to come to the event and not have to worry about waiting to register and fill out forms. By the preregistration, we will be able to have their rental equipment ready for them when they arrive so that their time on the slopes is optimized. The events and offerings at L'Avalanche will be those that will not be offered in other locations in the Shreveport area, making it an unforgettable experience for our participants.  

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6. Event Evaluation

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Our potential learnings from this event can include overall guest satisfaction, overall accessible accomodations, staff feedback, participant feedback, and volunteer feedback, to name a few. Other things that we could learn from are how well the events are organized. If the races have a problem, we can learn what the problem was, and then change it for the next race or next event. Also, is there is a problem with getting the projector and movie playing outside, on the spot we could determine what the problem isto assist in future uses.

Our main form of recording the information will be response cards and emails. All participants will have to option to fill out a response card at the event, as well as receiving an follow up email where they can express the things they enjoyed, as well as the things they would have liked to see improvement on. We would give all staff as well as volunteers as response form as well to see from a staffing standpoint what went well and what did not. 

As far as food and merchandise, numbers in sales will be recorded to see what was the best selling item or food item. We will also have some people staffed in the food and merchandise areas with survey questions to ask participants quick questions about the food and merchandise. We would be able to see from this as well as the sales, what was good and sold, and what we probably shouldn't sell for next time.

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