Create compelling value for your customers and for your business

• Keynote: Real Adventure: Why Rendering Authentic Experiences is Critical to the Future of Your Business
  Drawing from his book Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, Jim Gilmore argues that as reality is qualified, altered, and commercialized, customers increasingly respond to offerings that are engaging, personal, memorable - and above all, authentic. This keynote presentation will demonstrate how the emerging sensibility for Authenticity is sure to have a major impact on the design of adventure tourism. Sharing examples from across the spectrum of business and society, Jim will show why travel and tourism operators must evaluate their offerings and render the most authentic experience from their customer's perspective.

• Transform Your Business with Recruiting, Hiring, and Interviewing Techniques to Get the Right Employees, Beverly Bahmanyari
  In today's market, hiring the right employee is more important than ever and also more of a challenge. The current workforce is changing dramatically and you need all the best tools in front of you to help ensure you hire the right person - one aligned with your company's mission and goals. America Outdoors and American Management Association invite you to a 3 hour session on, Hiring the Right Employee. This session starts with a morning breakout and continues after lunch. You will focus on 3 key areas: recruitment, interviewing techniques, and legal considerations for the small business. Learn to attract talent through innovative recruitment sources and how to effectively use telephone screening and other methods to filter out the wrong applicants. Learn interviewing techniques to refine and develop your skills as an interviewer along with understanding how to ask the right questions to find out the information you need to know. We will look at the legal issues concerning performing background checks and sharing resources. And we will create sample questions so you can become familiar with legal questioning techniques.

• Breakout: Get Real: an Authenticity Workshop, Jim Gilmore
  Following his morning keynote presentation, Jim will help participants grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. This session will challenge participants to create more memorable, compelling, and authentic tourism experiences, which can ultimately change the nature of relationships between customers and tourism operators.(Preregistration required, seating will be limited to 75 participants, one person per company)

• Breakout: Relieve the Headaches of Managing Lodging Properties through Best Management Practices
  Cancellation policies, handling difficult customers, how to build green, energy conservation, green purchasing, incentive pay, online reservation systems, best practices in laundry, maintenance, landscape, deck products, the pro's and con's of discounting, and after hour issues are just some of the topics that will be discussed in this interactive forum of lodging managers and operators. Each topic will be discussed with solutions provided by those who have actually engaged in best practices. After the group prioritizes the subjects, a facilitator will be on hand to make sure the agenda stays lively and gets to the issues you want to discuss. A record of the session will be transcribed and made available to all participants. Operations Network

• Breakout: Overcome the Stress and Uncertainty of Tragic Events with an Emergency Response Strategy
  When a significant accident or tragedy hits your business, who do you call for help? America Outdoors has an emergency communication plan for members on our website, which can be the foundation for your internal and external communications. However, the grief and the media attention can overwhelm many businesses during and immediately after the event. Colorado outfitters have developed a strategy which they have put into practice and refined over a three-year period. It includes immediate legal assistance and support from colleagues with experience with similar tragic circumstances. Attend this session and learn what they are doing and how you may replicate it locally. This interactive session will provide plenty of time for discussion and Q & A. Operations Network

• Breakout: Staging Real Experiences - An Authenticity Workshop, Jim Gilmore
  Following his morning keynote presentation, Jim will help participants grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. This session will challenge participants to create more memorable, compelling, and authentic tourism experiences, which can ultimately change the nature of relationships between customers and tourism operators.(Preregistration required, seating will be limited to 75 participants, one person per company)

• Transform Your Business with Recruiting, Hiring, and Interviewing Techniques to Get the Right Employees, Beverly Bahmanyari
  Continued from morning session.

• Learn How the New Forest Service Permitting
  Directives Impact Your Bottom Line
  By December the Forest Service should have published their final directive on the new Forest Service Outfitter and Guide Permitting Directives. You'll get the low down and have an opportunity to ask questions and get clear answers straight from the Director of Recreation and Cultural Resources for the Forest Service, Jim Bedwell. If you operate in National Forests, you can't afford to miss this important session.

• What Changes in NPS Concessions Management Are in Your Future? Jo Pendry, Director of Concessions for the National Park Service
  Ms. Pendry and her staff will provide an update on the changes pending for concessions and commercial use authorizations (CUA). This is a great opportunity for you to ask questions and provide feedback on concessions management, reporting issues and fees. Risk management strategies and commercial use authorizations are in flux at NPS. Ms. Pendry and her staff will advise concessioners regarding the latest on these initiatives. If you operate in National Forests, you can't afford to miss this important session.

• Trade Show Grand Opening
  Show doors open at 3:00 PM, cocktail reception begins at 6:00 PM

• Are Your Products and Services in Line with Emerging Lifestyles and Travel Trends
  This enlightening and compelling presentation of the highlights of the widely-acclaimed National Travel Monitor™ will provide attendees with an introduction to the latest lifestyle, leisure time and media consumption trends influencing the travel habits, preferences and intentions of Americans. This is one of the best overviews on consumer travel trends and the window into the near future of travel that you will see this year. Peter Yesawich, of Yesawich Partners, will engage and entertain you with the results of their research and where consumers are spending their dollars.

• Learn to Write Basic HTML to Enhance HTML Editing
  This special all-day session will provide you a background in HTML, which will be useful for anyone using an HTML editor to update their websites with information or content. You'll learn basic HTML in a hands-on computer workshop and actually get to practice writing and publishing HTML content. Hanna Shapira

• Keynote: How to Expand Your Market, Grow Your Business, and Have More Fun! Secrets from a Mystery Shopper's Diary, Ron Rosenberg
  What would happen if a marketing expert "stowed away" on your next trip, took extensive notes, and identified specific strengths and weaknesses? Would it make you flush with pride...or fill you with panic?
  In a program customized for our 20th Anniversary Celebration, marketing expert and "mystery shopper" Ron Rosenberg (along with members of his family) participated in rafting, guest ranch, bicycle touring, and international multi-sport trips. Best of all, he documented the entire experience with the specific goal of expanding the adventure-travel industry's market reach and revenue potential.
  Business owners sometimes get so caught up in operating their businesses that they completely miss the customer's perspective - often losing business in the process. Ron Rosenberg has thoroughly documented these trips, from initial inquiry to follow-up from the outfitter, and will reveal specific marketing observations, trends, and recommendations you can put to use immediately.

• Workshop: Management's Self-assessment - Identifying and Improving Strengths and Weakness in Your Management Style, Harry Chambers
  This session utilizes a self-assessment tool to identify your leadership style, strengths and weaknesses so you can optimize the performance of your employees and get what you want from them. You'll have the opportunity to improve your management potential by identifying additional opportunities to maximize your strengths and improve upon your weak points. You will develop strategies for improving weaknesses and identify complementary skill sets you need from your employees.

• Workshop: Lower Your Loss Exposure by Applying Essential Eligibility Criteria for Participation in Your Trips
  As the population ages more people are showing up for trips and experiences who may not be able to perform or endure the physical exertion necessary to participate. Every commercial recreational activity requires the application of essential eligibility criteria to all potential participants in order to comply with ADA. The federal Interagency Accessibility Guidebook for Outfitters/Guides Operating on Public Lands is five years old and is being revised. It contains samples of essential eligibility criteria for horseback riding and float trips. This session conducted by Tracey Knutson, of Knutson and Associates and Janet Zeller, National Accessibility Program Manager, U.S. Forest Service, will explore a generic set of criteria for participation in these and other types of trips. The application of such criteria in your screening may provide a defense against claims if someone later finds they are unable to endure the stress of an event. While there are regulations regarding facilities, how you interact with your customers on these issues is not cut and dried. Learn how you can provide reasonable accommodation without exposing yourself to undue risks. Join in this session to provide your input on this important risk management topic.

• Outfitter Expo Trade Show
  

• Reunite with Old Friends at the 20th Anniversary Party and Reunion Celebration sponsored by Morrison Printing
  2008 marks the 20th Anniversary of Confluence. From less than 180 companies between the two founding organizations in 1989 to more than 550 companies today, America Outdoors has grown into the nation's leading representatives of outfitters and active travel companies operating in 43 states and 50 foreign countries. On Thursday night December 4th, we will celebrate the first joint convention of America Outdoors predecessors in New Orleans in 1989, an event that led to the formation of America Outdoors. A reunion of some of the principals in those organizations and a special DVD celebrating some of the industry's founders will mark the party and celebration

• Outfitter Expo Trade Show The AO Trade Show is well known for a variety of vendors offering fabulous show specials. Join us in the exhibit hall at the Knoxville Convention Center to take of advantage of one-stop shopping for your outfitting needs. This year's show features new products and new exhibitors along with your favorite AO member vendors

• Increase Sales with Telephone Reservations Sales Training, Karla Flores Gomez
  "We had a great year. Sending our reservations staff to the telephone reservations training was a big part of that success," said one reservations manager whose staff attended a Signature telephone training session sponsored by America Outdoors. The customer service experience begins with the phone call to your business, and this useful, hands-on program provides you and your staff with the tools to help you build sales and great customer service to go with it. In a fun and highly interactive format you and your team will learn how to convert that phone call to a reservation and get your guests excited about their upcoming adventure. At last year's meeting these seminars received overwhelmingly positive evaluations with over 95% of participants giving the program the highest marks for value. Even today, months after the training the participants believe the program made a positive difference in their performance. This is a six hour workshop with extensive preparation and mystery shopping required, so you must register before November 1st. The class is limited to the first 18 to register and an additional charge applies. The fee is $150 for registered attendees. Others may attend this event as a standalone for $295. Currently, one class is scheduled for December 5, so register early. If it sells out, as it did last year, and there is additional demand, another session may be added.

• Updates from BLM on Energy Developments, Fees, the New National Landscape Conservation System and New Regulations
  Join Gary G. Marsh, Deputy Chief, Bureau of Land Management, Recreation, & Visitor Services Division for this informative update on management of BLM lands. In an open session Mr. Marsh will cover BLM's new rules for permitting wilderness therapy programs and the implications for other educational programs involving children. Fee and permit issues and the impact of the new Forest Service permitting directives on BLM's policies will be discussed with lots of time left for questions and answers.

• Convert Leads into Customers and Stand Out Online:
  Make Selling Fun, Leesa Barnes
  Tired of waiting for someone to fill in your online form on your website? Still relying on cold calling to fill your business pipeline? If so, you need to develop fun and unique ways to connect with prospects that will make them spend money with you no matter what your price is. Join Leesa Barnes as she shares with you the easiest ways to attract prospects to your business and convert them into customers. Using analogies, case studies, and visual aids, Leesa will help you understand how to connect with prospects in an entertaining way that will prompt them to choose you over your competition.
  In this interactive session, Leesa will show you:
  * How to attract attention to your business and stay on budget,
  * What you must have on your website that will instantly grab the attention of prospects,
  * How to generate leads quickly without spending more on paid searches,
  * How to develop the right type of content on your website so you entertain and connect with prospects, and
  * The #1 conversion tool you MUST use to turn leads into repeat customers.

• How to Use Social Media to Drive Thousands of Customers to Your Website, Leesa Barnes
  You've heard about Facebook, MySpace, blogging and podcasting. You even have a profile on one of these sites, but you haven't paid it much attention. Aren't these tools just for the Gen Y crowd, you know, those in their 20s?
  Not anymore. These tools are being used by working professionals, senior executives and baby boomers and they're using social media to share information about finding their next great adventure.
  There's an easy and intelligent way to use social media to attract customers to your business online. Join Leesa Barnes as she shares the various methods outdoor and adventure businesses are using social media to boost their business. Leesa will demystify social media so you can leverage these tools to generate leads and find new customers effortlessly..

• The Legal Implications of Online Reservations and How to Deal with Them; Are You Covering Your Exposure when Collecting Customer Medical Information? Tracey Knutson
  As more companies move to on-line bookings, what disclosures are necessary and how can you assure that your customers understand the information, including warnings, refund policies, and essential eligibility requirements for participation. Many outfitters collect medical information in the event of an injury, but the collection and use of that information is governed by HIPPA. Learn the steps you need to take to reduce your exposure and properly deal with this evolving technology.

• Manage for Performance to Create a Culture of Achievement, Harry Chambers
  Getting what you want from your employees requires you to identify specific roles and responsibilities for you, management personnel, and staff. Monitoring and measuring the right performance parameters will help your employees achieve what you expect from them to create a culture of performance and achievement. In this session, you'll learn how to install a system that delivers these results and how to deal with issues like micromanagement.

• Learn the Secrets to Dominating Organic Search to Increase Qualified Visits to Your Website, Teddy Garcia
  Learn how to look at Google and the other search engines with a completely new set of eyes. Watch and learn how Google will tell you exactly what you need to do to rank your site #1. Come and learn the hidden secrets to dominating your competition in this fun and entertaining session.
  You'll discover:
• Google's "Invisible Tabs" and how you can leverage them to achieve top rankings.
• How to use Web 2.0 to take over the entire first page of search results.
• The most important change to the Google algorithm in years and how it can improve your rankings.
• A simple 5 step system for easily re-purposing your content and effortlessly converting it into audio, video, and text.
• How to reduce your pay per click costs by using "site targeting" and "enhanced matching".

This isn't your typical presentation full of "here's what you can do…" without any of the "here's how you do it". This is an in-depth and detailed walkthrough of the exact steps to take. An Internet veteran with over 10 years of hands-on experience helping business owners leverage the power of Internet Marketing to grow their business, Teddy Garcia is the founder of Cybermedia Marketing Inc., one of the top website development firms in North Carolina and GearedLocal.com, an Internet Marketing firm that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, Local Search Marketing, Web 2.0 Marketing, and Online Profile Management. Before becoming enthralled with the Internet in 1996, he owned a retail bicycle store and competed in various BMX freestyle competitions. He's still an avid mountain biker and musician and is currently working on his first book, "Don't Let Your Competitors Steal Your Customers"

• Energize Your Staff with Management Leadership and Motivational Strategies, Harry Chambers
  Understanding motivation requires knowledge of the primary drivers of employee's dissatisfaction. Maximizing employee satisfaction leads to better customer satisfaction greater success and profitability. In this session, you'll learn, and take home, tested communications and motivational strategies to improve employee morale and help you build customer satisfaction and word of mouth.

• Pay Yourself First with a Retirement Planning Strategy, Jay Schurman
  At the close of this session, you will walk away with the tools necessary to plan, execute and fund your retirement. You will be well on your way to creating a plan that will get you the assets you will need to retire. In an interactive session, you'll determine your income needs and use a worksheet to calculate how much you need to start saving now to achieve your goal. You will learn strategies available to small businesses to pay yourself first in a tax advantaged way. The presenter, Jay Schurman from Smith Barney started his work career as an outfitter. He understands the cash flow issues that sometimes confound retirement planning for seasonal businesses. Jay's course will provide everyone with the opportunity to start or adjust their retirement plan. If you already have a retirement plan, you'll find out if you are on track to meeting your income goals. At the end of this program, you will know what steps you need to take to create the retirement you are looking forward to.

• Wine and Cheese Reception