We're kicking off the week by welcoming Seven Springs Mountain Resort to Business as Usual.
Find out how this iconic ski resort made it through the winter keeping skiers and visitors safe while looking at how the sport will evolve into a post COVID-19 world.
Plus, find out what other outdoor activities are planned for the spring and summer.
Transcription:
So good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Monday. And this is business as usual. I'm Audrey Russo, President and CEO, the Pittsburgh Technology Council and joined with us each and every day is Jonathan kersting is vice president of all things media, he is going to keep his eye on the chat and jump in. And I want to give a thank you to Huntington bank for their sponsorship with us right from the beginning of this journey of COVID. And here we are a year later, you might want to join us later this week, when we have Suzy Shipley, who actually is the president of this region on our show, talking about what's ahead, not necessarily what's behind us. So we're sort of excited about that. And thanking Huntington bank as well as 40 by 80. That's a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pittsburgh tech Council. And that's where we focus on all things that are related to talent and pipeline development. Soon, you're going to hear about an apprenticeship program in tech, as well as our work on entrepreneurship. So a couple of things. We've muted your mics, and we've allowed for you to have a chat, the chat is not for you to shine the light on your company or sell, sell anything. It's really our focus on our guest today. And our guest today. It's great on this day as we break into spring, to think about our friends who have joined us today. And that is Eric McElhone, and Jerry tagger, and they are going to talk about their business over at seven springs. So we're pretty excited about that. So welcome, Eric and, Jerry, thank you for joining me. And I know there are things going on there all year long. But first, let's talk about fun. Your team just informed us that you would like to help a few of our members enjoy access to seven springs. And we'll talk about seven springs in a second. But tell us about what you're going to be doing and what you're giving away.
So we have three things that we're going to be giving away today. Since golf season is upon us, we are going to be opening our golf course this week, actually on April 1. So one of the items would be a for summit seven springs golf course. Another another upcoming activity that we're going to be offering after Memorial Day is our summer adventure passes. So we're going to offer for those as well. So that way you can come with some friends or your family. Oh, that's nice. And then the last one is an overnight stay. So you can come in, enjoy a stay at the resort and and enjoy our breakfast buffet and slopeside. That's that's fate that we're famously known for on the weekends.
That's great. So we'll do that at the end of the show. So thank you, thank you for sharing that. That's a lot of fun. Appreciate that. So and I guess how are we going to run that, Jonathan? Is that actually going to be on top of that one, we're
gonna ask everybody to put their name and their company name in the chat. And then we're going to randomly draw the winners at the end, we'll announce them so
Ah, okay. So Taylor will be behind the scenes as I show every name on my team, but she will be behind the scenes. Excellent. So let's let's talk about let's talk about seven springs a little bit. What Tell us about it, let me many people know and are familiar, but you know, it's always good to sort of state what are your offerings? How big? Well, it's remedies. Yeah.
So something that people don't realize people always think of skiing when you think of seven springs just because of the long history here. But there's over 400 hotel rooms here. Over 1200 condos on property chalets, cottages, cabins, we have a large convention center here as well, that you know in a normal scenario, we do hope hold conventions here all throughout the year. And we also have a big summer adventures program here. So and that includes golf, sporting clays, and all the summer adventure activities too. So you have all that going on summer is almost become just as busy if not busier than ski season at times. You know, which a lot of people don't realize, but there's, you know that we have a lot of history in western pa in the Pittsburgh area where at least I think everybody has heard of seven springs to some degree.
And seven Springs is located how many miles from downtown Pittsburgh
probably 50 miles. Okay, pretty easy to get to because for me their direction we're pretty easy to get to because you can get off the turnpike either Go when you're coming from the west, or Somerset coming from the east, and then it's a short drive up to the resort, either way.
And so, so most people that what's the demographics to most people come from Southwestern Pennsylvania, or don't people come from all over to go to seven springs,
I think they come from all over, certainly western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, metro areas of major market for us, particularly group wise. But we also see, you know, a fair amount of group business coming from the DC, Maryland, Virginia area, which is, you know, a big market down there. And again, very easy to get to, we do a lot of work with state associations on the group side. So we're, we're pulling people from across the state regularly other than last year, so that that's a good piece for us. And then Ohio, the Cleveland market, and you know, is, is not that far away, it's kind of a three hour drive similar to the DC, Maryland, Virginia market.
So when people think about you, you do conventions, you do business meetings, what size, how big, I mean, before pandemic, right.
We do everything from, you know, a small board meeting of five to 10 people up to one group that comes annually now, in in every July that buys us out, basically for eight days. And they come and it's called the world board gaming Association, they actually come and play board games around the clock, which is a unique group. But that group, you know, we have a couple 1000 people here every day with that group. So we really have a variety of groups that come in.
Well, Jonathan, and I might want to go to that one. Jonathan's board games, how do we get my bicycle?
We'll put you in touch with them. They've they're very unique group. And it's funny because their group, you would think it's, you know, a group of interesting people, which it is, you know, it's anyone from, you know, a young, young teenager playing board games instead of video games up to we have a couple CEOs that we won't use their names of that are billionaires, basically.
I want to know more about this. So we're going to talk to you offline, Jonathan and I are going to go down there. Yeah,
we're on assignment right. Now. Let's go
for that. That's great. So you have a lot of amenities. How many acres is set? Seven springs?
Around 5550 500
acres, 5500 acres.
Okay. That's pretty massive. So there's everything there for the summer, if we wanted to come out in the summer, and I know we're going to talk about the pond skim, right, is that a summer activity, the pond skim?
Yeah, the the pond skin is a analyt end of winter celebration, so to speak of the end end of the ski season, where we build two ponds on the bottom of the slope. And people register, we have an online registration for it and you get a time and your your goal is to try to ski or snowboard across those two ponds. And a lot of a lot of people will wear costumes and different outfits and things or try to do a flip in between the two ponds just so it's a really fun time. This year's a little bit different, obviously with everything going on. So we have you have to pre register.
When is it?
It is April 10.
April 10. Jonathan, that's another thing for us to go down to say.
We have a trip, you got to plan it right now, Audrey,
we got to plan these. So April 10, is there still room for people to register.
The actual event itself is sold out for participants. For you guys, though,
however, if
you would like to do it, we'll make sure you get in.
There are a word in here, Jonathan, you heard it here. Let's look at our calendars for April 10. Love it. And then we can drag Brian with his broken foot right behind us. And you know, he can really add value to the pond scum. So that's just way fun. That's really cool. So what if we were to come for a summer, if people are thinking about the summer, what are some of the things that that people should understand that you offer? Because it surprises them that it's not the winter skiing?
Well, something that's really popular and that we're giving away today is the is that summer adventure pass. So that's really popular with families if you're looking to get away with your family for a couple nights, where a nice easy drive away where you can get here. spend the weekend. We have a lot of great packages to that will include the breakfast buffet, the adventure passes some of those things. So it's kind of you're taken care of in that regard. But those adventure passes are great because it gives you the ability to you don't have to make a reservation, you can just go and do whatever you'd like throughout the day. And it's climbing wall Alpine slide scenic chairlifts, our Alpine tower swimming, bowling, mini golf, this golf, kind of you name it with those activities. And what's nice is, if you enjoy doing the Alpine slide and want to do it again, you can just go do it again. So you can do things as many times as you'd like. And then you can't forget our golf, sporting clays is our sporting clays facility is the best in the region.
One of the top.
So yes, if people bring their kids, what about that people bring their kids do you have childcare? do you have? How does that work?
We do offer it but at the moment. We for this summer, we couldn't promise that right now. The governor works with us a little more. But yes, but I'll tell you, most families don't come up to you know, use childcare, they come up to spend time with their kids doing things they can do together. That's one of the neat things about seven springs, they can all do these things.
I guess that was a little Freudian slip on my end. So you know what kind of parent I am. So
we'll make sure your kids are taking care of
your kids while you're in the sphere at the spa. spa.
Okay, okay, well, that that does sound phenomenal. And you're really close. But let's talk a little bit. How has the pandemic impacted? You? I mean, I can imagine, but what does that mean? And what do you think? What's changed over the years? And what do you think about moving forward?
That's a loaded question. Obviously, the pandemic is what our industry the the hospitality is a took a beating, obviously, everywhere in Pittsburgh all over the world. We're all kind of, yeah, we're all kind of in the same boat. What it's really done other than, you know, we've lost a tremendous amount of business that we had. What is done, though, it's kind of fundamentally changing the way we're going to move forward, which is not necessarily a bad thing at some point. But I think it's, you know, reset things on the hospitality hotel restaurant world as to what used to be, you know, customer service is extremely important. That's what we all strive for, is the best we can provide. But now, cleanliness, hygiene, you know, all those things that come into play. When you think about spas and doctors offices, that kind of thing. has entered our world so that we anticipate moving forward will not change. We'll have to incorporate that into our, you know, our typical routines for all groups, weddings, receptions, meetings, that sort of thing.
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it's interesting to see how different places different states are reacting. And I think for sure, this is going to be people want to come back, though. Are you are you attracted? Have you attracted people who are actually working some seven springs for a little bit? working?
A little bit? Yeah, you must unique. It's kind of funny. Yes. So this winter, our ski business was extremely good for a couple of reasons. One, the best regular snow winner in probably 20 years who are stirring a pandemic. But a lot of people just want to get out wanting to get out of the house and go do something particularly outside. We saw a lot of skiers come back to the ski business that haven't skied in 20 years or 15 years. So they kind of got there. You could tell someone by their outfits. You could tell some by their skis. I could have been one of them. So but it was really fun to see them get back out and enjoy a sport they you know, loved a while ago.
Wait a second. What about their outfits?
Oh, I don't know if you just Google says the 70s one piece ski outfits. Yeah, if you have one of those, let us know and send us a picture.
I think I have one with little straps. Oh,
everything one right pillars. pillars.
Yeah, come on, you know, at least they're reusing it in this day and age was sustained. ability and, you know, close loop sustainability. I think that's a good thing. Right.
I you know, I think it's starting a new trend, but we'll see what happens next year with the with the with the ski industry.
So do you have an Instagram account?
We do. Yes,
you do. So there's probably some cool pictures that are out there.
Yes. Yeah, Abby way is in charge of our social and she does a great job. A lot of people think she might have the best job here were in the wintertime, because you'll see on her Instagram, she's out on the slope snowboarding daily almost to give people a, you know, real life experience of what it's like out on the slopes. So she does a great job of getting out there every day to show people what the conditions are like and to go over all the terrain that's open as well for people.
So I'm wondering if we can volunteer Jonathan kersting to do that for cycling lair?
Absolutely, certainly. And everybody take a look at the Instagram account. And we had a really cool thing happened this year, we had a snowy, great snowy white owl, come and visit our slubs the last month like regularly, people would send pictures in of it. And we were actually ski and Eric and I we did that every once in a while this winter. And and the owl just sitting there on the snow below the chairlift. It almost looked like it was fake. But it wasn't. So it was really cool to have that kind of thing happen.
Well, I'm getting notes from my team saying they'll all volunteer for any of the services, if they can come down and help you with your Instagram account. So that could be spa, restaurants, etc. We're all happy to come down there and hang out for the day, the entire PTC team needs to come down here for for a night or two.
Now you're talking
about that we all go down there, that sounds great. All right, we will take that under advisement. So what does it look like? Right now from a workforce perspective? Are you back to you know, full capacity? You talked about the hospitality industry? We know, everyone's been hit. So when people come tell us what kinds of precautions, you know, have been implemented? And are you at 75% capacity. Now, are you up to that?
We are in the in the restaurants. And for private events, which, you know, was take the biggest hit We're at 25% occupancy for indoor spaces. Okay. So that makes you know, that makes it tough to for any of the some of the group events that we're working through, right. But we had to put, we have a link on our website called clean and safe. Where it pretty much outlines the entire operational plan for when it comes to the hotel rooms, to restaurants, to skiing, to golfing to sporting clays, each each section of the resort has its own plan in place so that guests can see and know when they look online when they're looking to book here that they can be comfortable. And what the expectations are for our COVID plan here at the resort.
Hmm. Okay, so has what have you learned though, you probably have learned some really great things over this last year that you had, are there particular activities that people have been more interested in? What are what are some of the things that you've learned that you think is going to take you into, hopefully post pandemic days.
kind of really unique thing. So last summer, normally our summer business is geared around our groups, weddings, reunions, corporate, you know, and some really large groups. And most of them if not all had to cancel last year or change their dates, obviously because of what was going on. But what we found was a lot of people, we were pretty well filled on weekends, because a lot of people came in what's called a transient business, meaning just you bringing your family up or you getting away something that I think like Eric mentioned earlier, people don't realize what's here in the summer, and all of a sudden, now they got out they came to the mountains and they found out all these things to do the hiking, the biking, the fishing, the sporting clays, even being in the area close to flight 93 in Ohio pile and falling water, just things that people I think, didn't really or took for granted and didn't realize they was all here up. So it was kind of neat to get that vacation type business, kind of build in and now we can hopefully combine the two. You know, we'll get back to a normal more normal business here by by summertime is our goal.
Well, you know, i'm john Yocum, ask a question. I Just thinking about the same thing is that, can you comment at all about this real estate? quote unquote, boom in the Laurel Highlands? Do you know about what I mean? I know, I have a friend who just bought like a little farm out there.
And it's, it's, yeah, it's incredible. We, I, the only explanation, you know, we kind of can guess that is that people you know, are looking for a lot of a second home, like something they're going to use and get away. But it's not just that it's in the I live in the Somerset area, even in the residential, you know, market, it's, there's not much on the market, it doesn't stay. If you put your house on the market, it doesn't stay on the market long. So it's pretty interesting. And and if you want to try to get anything done from a contractor, you're you know, you're looking at six to eight, nine months to get somebody on your, on your project, which is interesting.
Yeah, that is interesting. I mean, we're experiencing that in the suburbs and parts of the city here in Pittsburgh, but I am seeing like the x orbs, as they're called, people really wanting to be out there. Here's someone who says they own the house, seven springs, in southwind. And their property values way up, he got a call if he would consider selling. That's the same thing that's happening here in the city, too. So really, that's exciting. I mean, it's exciting for us to get some exposure on all the amenities of southwestern Pennsylvania. That's one of the things when people think about Pittsburgh and relocating here, we have to do a really better job to, you know, explaining what these amenities are, and they're not far and they're really in our backyard. So did we cover everything early? When we talked about cycling? You've downhill? Right, you've got amazing trails. I mean, how you no longer these trails? And can you describe them a little bit? I know, Jonathan, you've probably been on every trail out there.
I knew them all. And I know them well.
Right, so So can you tell us Eric and Jerry and Jonathan pipe in on the trails on the bike trails in particular?
Yes, there's a we have a great section of we have a downhill bike course here, which you get a chairlift pass or season passes for that you can get a daily lift ticket to in order to access the chairlift for that. But we also have cross country trails here, too, that are on top of the mountain that, you know, are really beautiful. I like to spend time on those trails, either hiking by or running or biking. And I mean, you can go on a section, that trail you're on top of the mountain, and then one chestnut Lake, it leads back to a lake that's on top of the mountain in the middle of a forest. So it's there's things like that, that we have maps and everything online and here are available for people to if they ever want to come down and access some of those trails that and even some of the trails on top of the slopes. If you're coming to the mountains, you kind of want that view the Mountain View. So it's very accessible on top of the slubs to be able to have a spectacular view, kind of right at your fingertips at all times while you're here. And even on top of the slopes. There's some great trails, but another significant one is the Laurel Highlands hiking trail that actually cuts right through the middle of our property. And that's a 70 mile trail that goes from Johnstown to Ohio pile. Oh,
no,
there's there's some trout, there's some trails, but with 5500 acres, there's a lot of opportunity here to spread out and get outside and, you know, be comfortable to.
Yeah, Jonathan, do you want to say anything about any of those bike trails,
the one thing I would add that it's really kind of a hidden treasure of seven springs in the whole area is that from seven springs, you have access to numerous numerous logging roads, and so forth. gravel riding is becoming very popular in cycling, where you're on more of a road bike to ride some of the trails so you can get a little bit of ruggedness added was an efficiency of a road bike. And we do rides that are 6070 miles long, with the seven to 8000 feet of climbing in them all from seven springs, and we talk about getting away from it all. It's a great place to do it and so much fun. Great.
That's great. So, Jonathan, have you ridden your bike directly from Pittsburgh? Two, seven springs?
Oh, we've done that too. Absolutely. It's a lot easier to ride to seven springs and then get off and start riding from there too.
Okay, okay. That's great. So see got some good advertising from a serious cyclist here. So do you think there's anything else that you want people to know about what's going on? When are you going to be back at some sort of capacity? Are you anticipating anything, you know, changing over the next month?
We're hopeful that you know, may will bring You have kind of the next step forward, we're kind of at the mercy of the guidelines and restrictions that are put out on our client. And, you know, we've got a lot of clients hanging in there through May, starting in May for sure. through the end of the year, so I think there's a big anticipation in the market for things to open back up, and you know, so we're kind of prepping based on that. But again, we're kind of at the mercy of, you know, where we go statewise
Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm excited about that whole area, you know, really growing in terms of exposure, marketing, and people understanding how close it is in right in our backyard. I think it's one of the things we just don't do a great job of inclusively branding. So I'm excited about that. So the whole PTC team is going to volunteer to come down and help on all different things there. We're excited to do that. We should it's about time for us to go down there. Anyway. Thanks, Jonathan.
Let's go.
Yeah, so I we do we did our our wizard behind the scenes Taylor. She has done her magic by these giveaways. So let's hear what they are. We have the first winner. is Bill Krause of PC doctor. is Bill here. Need bill to be here. If Bill's not here. I go to the next one villas here. And yes, there you go. We got a yes. And he just won a foursome at seven springs golf course.
which opens on Friday. All right, opens
on Friday. How about that? Yay, Bill. Congrats, says Jill. Okay. Hopefully bill is happy. I'm hoping I'm hoping bill is happy about that. Thank you so much for your generosity. Fantastic. He said great course. Okay, and the next one is for which I this is a good one. For seven Spring Summer adventure passes. So remember, they said you can go back and forth on all these different things all day long. And the winner is Darryl Underwood of KPMG. Okay, Darrell, are you here? Because if you're not here, that's one someone else will definitely want to have. Okay, Darrell, might not be here. Okay, Darryl. Okay. Wait. He said he's here, Darrell. You're down. He's here.
Is that a word?
I know he in here. You like that? Darrell Underwood. Are you there?
I'm here. Audrey
said Do you want something?
I did?
Are you excited?
I am. I'm a seven springs Season Pass holder. I'm over seven springs.
Hey, Carol,
thank you for being thank you for being a guest. We'll see you down here for the summer. Adventure passes. Sounds good, guys.
That's great. Thank you. Then we have one overnight, stay with breakfast for two. And that goes to Caitlin fajn. Pittsburgh downtown partnership. here she's here look. Then those are the winners. Thank you both for that. Really appreciate that. So is there anything else that you think we need to know
that we want? Yeah, one last thing you know we got a lot of you are familiar with we do typically do a lot of our own festivals during the year which had to be postponed mud on the mountain, river wing Fest, those kinds of things. So we're hopeful we're knocking on wood that as we head into summer, we may try some unique ones. outdoor concerts we did one last year where you could watch it from the your hotel room. So you could socially distance but you were still at a concert. So we're looking at a couple of those. We're also hopeful we'll get wine fest back at the end of August. So stay tuned for more on all that bought on the mountain may move to the end of September. So PTC team get ready.
Oh, yeah, was ready
on the mountain. So just stay in touch with all those things kind of lighten up. We will be right back into some of those fun festivals that people people like.
Well, listen. Thank you, Eric and Jerry, thank you so much for being with us today. Being good sports, staying safe, doing a little bit of dog and pony show about the greatness of seven springs. I think I'm motivated. Jonathan's motivated and getting notes from from the team at the PTC saying they're all motivated. So, really appreciate it. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. Thank you seven springs for your generosity and your partnership. It's just been terrific. So Jonathan, what's up what's cookin? Well, tomorrow
before we celebrate our one year business as usual on Wednesday with Huntington bank and Susie Shipley tomorrow, we have Justin McElhatton from industrial scientific as a return guest so much to update us on with that really cool company and the impact they have in keeping everybody safe and their work environments.
Well, that's great. All right. I want to thank again, Eric and Jerry, thank you so much. Stay safe. This was a ton of fun. Hopefully everyone got a little bit invigorated about being in the outdoors. Spring is here. Thanks, everyone. Stay safe, and we'll see you tomorrow.
Thank you, guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai