Using AI for Ski Resort Management

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:08)
You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

**Carol Massar** (0:14)
You may know Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for its terrain, its unmatched vertical. Are you a skier?

**Emily Graffeo** (0:21)
I am.

**Carol Massar** (0:21)
You are, do you know them?

**Emily Graffeo** (0:23)
Well, I know Jackson Hole, they're on my bucket list. I haven't been skiing there yet. I've been there in the summer, which is great.

**Carol Massar** (0:30)
All right, so you need to probably get there. You could even go now because they are known for their year-round destination against the majestic Tetons. But with anything, technology, the cloud, increasingly part of doing business, doesn't matter who you are, including a ski resort. On that, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort this spring took a step toward what it says was, modernizing resort operations and embracing a truly connected guest experience. So here to tell us all about it, in studio, in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio, is Joe Hession. He is CEO and co-founder of SnowCloud, also founder and CEO of its parent company, SnowPartners. And then we've also got with us from Teton Village, Wyoming at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, is Doug Pierini. He is CEO of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Gentlemen, so good to have you here.
I want to start with, first of all, tell us, Joe, about what you guys are doing, what you're doing on a platform, because you do a lot of different things, but you said the last few years, you've really been thinking about technology and what's needed, especially when it comes to, it sounds like, resorts and hospitality.

**Joe Hession** (1:36)
Yeah, so we're resort operators from heart. That's kind of our background, where we come from.
We focus on the experience, the process.

**Carol Massar** (1:43)
Mountain Creek in Vernon, New Jersey, American Dream.

**Joe Hession** (1:45)
Big snow, American Dream, yes. I spent a long time actually in Lean Six Sigma, designing learning areas to try to get more people their first time to come back a second and third time across the industry.

**Carol Massar** (1:57)
So Jack Welch of you.

**Joe Hession** (1:58)
Yeah, variations evil. Love all these Jack Welch quotes. Love Lean Six Sigma. But what I found is working with some of the greatest brands around the world, trying to improve the guest experience, technology was the thing they were missing.
You hear it time and time again, legacy platform has been around for 20, 30 years, aren't evolving to the guest experience that people want today and ski resorts are complicated. So it's taken a while to get it dialed in.

**Carol Massar** (2:24)
Doug, so come on in on the conversation. Tell us how you got together with Joe and his team and what were you guys looking to do at your resort?

**Doug Pierini** (2:34)
Yeah, yeah, thanks.
So Joe and I had known Joe for a bunch of years. He's been well known in the industry and definitely always kind of on the forefront looking for what's new and what the opportunity is.
And we were really looking to uplevel our guest experience. The mountain speaks for itself. It is world class. The terrain is amazing. And we really want a platform that could help us meet the guests where they are and improve the technology side of this to make it easier for the guests. And what Joe had going on with SnowCloud seemed like right up our alley. So it's been a great process so far.

**Emily Graffeo** (3:10)
Yeah, talk a little bit, Doug, just about exactly what part of the guest experience, maybe was falling flat behind this partnership and really what, maybe an example of something that has changed now and enhanced the guest experience.

**Doug Pierini** (3:27)
Yeah, that's a great question because our guest experience has always been a priority of ours. No matter what we do, we're always looking to make it easier, make it more fun, just not inhibit the guest experience in any way through a negative experience. And that platform, the platform we had, it was great. It did, like it worked really well for us for a lot of years. We were just looking for something different. And an example of what SnowCloud allows us to do is more of what guests expect in the world these days. We can, guests can buy and purchase for themselves on a mobile phone. We can sell on a mobile phone anywhere they are. We're not tied to a PC, to a POS, a point of sale in an office anymore. Now it's like we're unleashed and we can go wherever and sell anything we offer almost. So yeah, it's been great.