America Outdoors Association's Marketing & Management Conference Programs

Confluence: | Information | Exhibitors | Agenda| Speakers | Register

Strategies to Find New Customers & Grow Demand

Program Highlights

• Marketing to Reach All Ages and Generations, Matt Thornhill
• Web Strategies for 2013 to Help You Beat the Competition, Jeremy Cameron
• What to Expect When You Are Sued, Tracey Knutson
• Trip Costing Model to Control Expenses, Greg Henington
• Pay per Click (101 Level), Elizabeth Marsten
• Advanced SEO and Google Analytics to Achieve and Measure Better Results, Jeremy Cameron
• Stand Up Paddleboarding, Chris Stec
• Which Social Media Can Really Benefit Your Outfitting Business, Patrick O'Malley
• Benchmarking: Revenue and Expense Ratios, Michael Becher
• Advanced Level Maximizing Pay per Click, Elizabeth Marsten
• YouTube Tricks and Techniques to Grow Your Business, Patrick O'Malley
• Effective Leadership during Changing Times, Harry Chambers
• Selling to Ecotourists, Doug Motel
• The Trial and Jury Decision, Tracey Knutson
• 7 Essential Strategies for Tourism Success, Susan Sweeney
• Learn How to Use Pinterest for Huge Tourism Traffic, Doug Motel
• Formula for Facebook Marketing Success, Susan Sweeney
• Coaching Employees and the Effective Use of Discipline, Harry Chambers
• Coverage and Credits. The Affordable Care Act and Your Business, Tracey Roseman
• Groupon, Living Social, Trip Advisor and Great Online Tools and Gadgets, Susan Sweeney
• The Outfitter Expo Tradeshow and Much, Much More

Plus Networking at these great peer-led Cracker Barrels: Women in Marketing and Management, Adventure Resort Discussion, Paddlesport Rentals, Whitewater Rafting, and More!

AOA's Marketing and Management conference and trade show is a forum, a think tank, and a networking experience designed for professional outfitters and active travel companies. Join us for:

Keynote - Marketing to Reach All Ages and Generations, Matt Thornhill, the Boomer Project

Thornhill will explain how to develop a "universal" target instead of an "ideal" target, discuss positioning that works across all ages, and share examples for "how you say it" to reach all ages with heavy emphasis on what to do and how to do it. He'll cover the importance and power of:

• Responsible Consumer Tourism
• Adjusting Your Marketing to Changing Household Composition
• Ageless Travel Marketing

Instead of a more complex marketing strategy, you should be able to reach more generations without losing sight of your target. Thornhill's wrap-up will provide you with more specific action and steps to solve the multi-generation marketing riddle. You'll be inspired with a powerful story/metaphor about how plan for the future in a nervous world. Matt Thornhill's presentation is sponsored by RESMARK.

2013 Web Strategies to Help You Beat the Competition, Jeremy Cameron, President of Simple Solutions

Competition on the web is fierce. Beat the competition with more efficient technology processes, effective content merchandising strategies and better calls to action. Transform your passive brochure-ware web presence into a 24/7/365 proactive lead generating sales machine. Make everything sharable, mobile, searchable and simple. Reach new broader audiences by developing innovative customer centric tools, optimizing your navigation and turn more visitors into new and better customers using conversion metrics. Make every page on your website a finely tuned and highly optimized landing page to increase your conversion rate by 40% or more. Learn best practices for creating and archiving content, using custom lead generation forms, getting reviewed, monitoring your competition and being the best at speaking your customer language to gain more trust, credibility and sales.

What to Expect When You Are Sued, Tracey Knutson and Michael Curry

In the first of this two part Mock Trial Series (Including the 12/5 Session 'The Trial and Jury Decision') using live role-playing techniques we will look at what happens procedurally and legally when you - as the recreation provider/operator -- get sued or have a claim made against you. In this opening session, we'll see what happens when a commercial operator receives formal notice of a claim or lawsuit, what actions need to be taken to respond to the suit, and how evidence develops on both sides of the case as the suit proceeds through the 'discovery' phase. We expect this to be a fast-paced session that will demonstrate some of the realities and nuances of actual claims/litigation.

Trip Costing Model to Control Expenses, Greg Henington

Ever had one of those trips where the customer was making reservations for 100 people and wanted the "best" price"? And the best you could do because you are spread too thin was to take a wild guess at what the price should be? Here is a tool that takes about 2 minutes to load and will give you a quick snapshot of your profitability on that mega group. Or use it to update your everyday pricing. Either way, join Greg Henington as he explains the meaning of gross profit and how to set up a program that best fits your organization.

Pay per Click (101 Level), Elizabeth Marsten, Director of Search Marketing, Portent, Inc.

This session is for those new to PPC and would like to know more or get a "best practices" start on an account of their own. We'll cover how PPC works, structure, how to choose keywords, write ads and at the end, you'll get a checklist to take home to start your own account with or review your current account to see what's missing!

• What is PPC, how it works
• Pros and cons of using PPC advertising
• PPC account make up/vocabulary
• PPC account settings at the campaign and ad group levels
• Choosing keywords, tools and how
• Keyword match types
• Writing ads, best practices
• Dynamic insertion in ads
• Quality score, what it is and how Google and MSN are different
• How to maintain a PPC account
• A To-Do checklist to use when they get home

Advanced SEO and Google Analytics to Achieve and Measure Better Results, Jeremy Cameron

Panda, Penguin and the 500-600 anonymous Google search algorithm updates have made SEO more challenging. Achieving and maintaining better quality search results requires timely analytic, marketing and branding insight. As human and personalized rankings become the new algorithm cornerstones expect social and real-time search to play a bigger role in search marketing efforts. Links with historical and long term value will trump reciprocal link schemas while quality and newness of content will matter more than quantity. As search engine users become more sophisticated they don't want to browse, they want answers. Learn the techniques you need to successfully improve organic search sales. From using paid search strategies to incorporating rich snippet markup to naturally attracting more and better links without reciprocation, capitalize and convert clicks into sales.

Stand Up Paddleboarding, Chris Stec, ACA

The ACA's National Paddlesports Instruction Program is recognized as the primary resource for paddlesports education, and this session will share the latest developments in ACA's national SUP curriculum that is helping teach SUP skills to new enthusiasts everywhere. We'll also focus on the important topics of lifejackets and leashes. These two "L" words are being discussed from the water's edge to the halls of Congress. The ACA will provide an update on the latest legislation and what it means to you. After the brief presentation, we'll hit the water to demo a range of boards!

This presentation is open to everyone interested in, or directly affiliated with the SUP industry: manufacturers, sales reps, instructors, retailers, or anyone who just likes to get out there and paddle!

Keynote - Which Social Media Can Really Benefit Your Outfitting Business, Patrick O'Malley

You've certainly heard lot about social media at this point, but you may believe that social media is more hype that advertised, is a waste of time, and can't give you business results.

In this session, you will see social media from a different perspective, and we will focus on how to get real, tangible business results and get real ROI, especially in B2C. We will discuss tricks and techniques to use with Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, YouTube and possibly others to increase sales and improve your business.

It can be time consuming, but I have discovered time efficient ways to do it. In this session, I'll show you how can be used to improve your business. You will learn:

• when Twitter is a waste of time, and when it's a powerful tool for sales and marketing
• how to use Twitter to get thousands of followers in your target market
• how to potentially get your business ranked on the first page of Google results, in as little as a day
• the dark secret about having a Facebook business page, why most of your posts aren't being seen, and how to fix it
• techniques you can use to implement social media in your business plan
• many undocumented tips that I have discovered

And you'll have fun learning it. I'll also add some of the most current developments in social media which aren't even known at the time this was written. Learn how to use Social Media to transform your business before your competition transforms their business. Patrick O'Malley is sponsored by Outdoor Ventures

Benchmarking: Revenue and Expense Ratios, Michael Becher

In 2012 AOA conducted an industry benchmarking study using 2011 financial data. The study was coordinated by Industry Insights. Michael Becher, CPA, Senior Project Director of Industry Insights will present on the findings of the overall industry results and how the industry may obtain the greatest benefit from the survey results. This presentation will show how the information can be used to maximum advantage without needing to be a financial or statistical expert or requiring a substantial amount of time in analysis. In addition, the presentation will provide tips about how to best complete the questionnaire, the deliverables participants will receive if they participate in the future. No individual company data will be revealed in the report, only an industry wide compilation. Companies who subscribed to the study will receive an individual report comparing their results to the overall industry.

Advanced Level Pay Per Click, Elizabeth Marsten, Director of Search Marketing, Portent, Inc.

Already doing PPC? Need to "level up" or feel like you're not getting everything out of it that you could be? Come check out what's new in AdWords and adCenter, get some tips and tricks to try, advanced strategies and explore other PPC outlets like Facebook, Amazon Ads, LinkedIn and more.

• Extension ads in Google and MSN
• Advanced bidding (CPA, enhanced, incremental) Using ad scheduling to your advantage
• How and when to use modified broad match
• Making the most out of the display network
• Remarketing on the display network
• Advanced geotargeting
• Mobile PPC, what's new
• Using offline editors like Google AdWords Editor and adCenter Desktop Editor
• Going beyond Google and MSN: Facebook, Amazon Ads, LinkedIn, adMarketplace

YouTube Tricks and Techniques That Can Give Real Business Results, Patrick O'Malley

YouTube may be the most powerful type of social media, but very few companies are using it properly. Don't think about YouTube as just a silly repository for garage bands and cat owners with cute pet videos.

Start thinking about YouTube as a place for you to put a TV commercial that can be seen by any client. Think about it as an opportunity for you to tell a prospective client why they should choose you rather than a competitor, or an opportunity to show your expertise, or an opportunity to show some client testimonials. Videos can also rank in Google results 50+ times faster than a normal web page can. I have tricks that have gotten some of my videos to the top Google result in just a couple of days. In this session, you will learn:

• how some companies have had great success at increasing sales with YouTube
• the 2 or 3 types of videos that every company should have
• the biggest mistake every company makes when creating online videos
• how to set up your videos so they rank higher than most web pages on Google

Come learn a different perspective on how easy it is to create useful YouTube videos for business and how you may be in trouble if your competition has videos and you don't.

Effective Leadership during Changing Times, Harry Chambers

Identifying effective strategies that focus on what it takes to be a "Truly Effective Leader" in today's economic environment.

The "agencies" of effective leadership:

• Avoiding the leadership traps
• Guiding the organization through times of uncertainty and ambiguity
• Focusing on the controllables
• Nurturing the leadership style that is most effective for you
• Increasing flexibility (yours and others!)

Selling to Ecotourists, Doug Motel

Ecotourism is the fastest growing movement in travel but who are these "ecotourists" and do they require any special marketing approach? In this session Doug Motel, author of 101 Marketing Tips for Tourism will show you how to "speak eco" and make sure that you know the essential elements of conveying your message to this very important demographic and make sure that you can deliver a travel experience that meets their demands.

The Trial and Jury Decision, Tracey Knutson and Michael Curry

In this second of the two part Mock Trial Series we will conduct an actual Mock trial where Plaintiff and Defense attorneys will present evidence they discovered in the first phase of the proceedings (witnesses, exhibits, etc.). We will see how witness testimony is conducted, how difficult direct and cross examination testimony can be for the witnesses, how experts are used at trial and what evidence (like release and waiver documents, etc.) is used to build or destroy a case. Following the presentation of the evidence at trial, we will allow a jury of our AO peers to render a verdict as to whether the commercial operator has liability for the incident that is the subject of the lawsuit

The 7 Essential Strategies for Tourism Marketing Success, Susan Sweeney

82% of businesses do not have a documented marketing strategy. There are actually 7 essential strategies you must have to ensure marketing success. In this session Ms. Sweeney will walk you step-by-step through the 7 strategies, using plain English. Leave with immediately implementable techniques to be able to develop the strategies for your marketing success. This session is a must for all travel industry professionals who want to know what it takes to ensure marketing success.

Learn How to Use Pinterest for Huge Tourism Traffic, Doug Motel

One of the newest, hottest things in social media is Pinterest. With its visually dynamic structure, it is quickly becoming a staple in travel marketing strategies. In this session Doug Motel, author of 101 Marketing Tips for Tourism will show you how to take advantage of the vast array of possibilities that are available through Pinterest, explain the Do's and Don'ts and show you how to turn your Pinterest account into a massive web traffic referral engine.

Formula for Facebook Marketing Success, Susan Sweeney

Susan will walk you through the deciding factors to determine if Facebook should be part of your marketing strategy. Then Susan will lead you through the formula to be successful in Facebook marketing - Facebook strategy development, Page set up, essential Facebook elements, Fan building, appropriate posts to maximize conversion and achieve your objectives, Apps, Facebook management, Facebook measurement, and the real deal on how much time this should take for your business.

Coaching Employees and the Effective Use of Discipline, Harry Chambers

Developing successful strategies for dealing with performance and behavioral issues with members of your seasonal and permanent staff.

• Increasing employee accountability
• Successful coaching strategies
• Addressing problem situations before they become disciplinary actions
• The strategic use of the discipline process
• The disciplinary process checklist
• Guidelines for effective documentation

Groupon, Living Social, Trip Advisor and Great Online Tools and Gadgets, Susan Sweeney

This seminar will be in two parts - Part 1 will be about using flash sale sites like Groupon and Living Social to increase sales - the if, when, and how questions will be answered. In this first part we will also talk about Trip Advisor and how to maximize your exposure as well as handling negative reviews. In Part 2 Susan will take you on a whirlwind tour of the latest and greatest online tools and resources (most of them free) that you can use to market more effectively, wow your web site, social media and mobile visitors, improve your conversion, save time and do more business. Don't miss this session!

Coverage and Credits. The Affordable Care Act and Your Business, Tracey Roseman and David Byrd

Every company will have some obligation to fulfill under the Affordable Care Act, (ACA) before the end of 2013. Some companies will have to file reports and gather data while others will have to install systems to keep track of employee's hours. Only employers with 50 or more full-time and full-time equivalent employees on more than 120 business days in the preceding calendar year are subject to the shared responsibility requirement. Companies with 25 or fewer employees which provide coverage to workers may be eligible for tax credits. Seasonal employees may be counted as full time unless you understand the nuance of the law and recent IRS guidance that allows averaging hours worked over a 12 month "look back" period. These resholds and other issues related to the health care reform legislation will be covered in this session. You'll learn strategies to lower or eliminate your compliance costs and what you need to do in 2013 to prepare for the enactment of the legislation in 2014.

2012 Sponsors:

Copyright America Outdoors Association 2012

General Conference Information – Trade Show Exhibitors – Online Registration

WHEN: Registration December - 3 & 4, 2012
SEMINARS: December 4-6, 2012
TRADE SHOW: December 4-6, 2012
WHERE: Daytona Beach Hilton, Daytona Florida

Look for the AOA conference page on Facebook.