After two years of pandemic, organizations are eager to gather in-person when they think the time, and COVID-19 transmission situation, is right.
With many team members still working remotely, lots of staff turnover during the last two years and lingering concern about social distancing, many organizations may prefer the relatively sequestered atmosphere provided by mountain destinations, with their ample outdoor options, to get their people back together.
Apart from the obvious benefits of meeting in wide-open spaces, what key team member wouldn’t be excited to travel to a mountain resort—perhaps with family in tow—for their first foray back with their colleagues? And in the age of The Great Resignation, business travel that doubles as a perk is always an employee-retention winner.
Following are some lofty Western U.S. mountain resorts and the key meeting and activity options available for groups.
Lake Tahoe
Tahoe has weathered the pandemic with aplomb, at least in terms of an exploding real estate market fueled by tech industry workers buying homes in order to work remotely in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
But like everywhere else, Tahoe has had to deal with staffing shortages during the pandemic, which is only exacerbated by the real estate crunch. Paradoxically, that has resulted in area resorts eagerly courting the meetings market, according to Andy Chapman, president and CEO of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau, which represents the newly coined “Palisades” region and both California and Nevada properties as a single destination.
Chapman added that large-scale group business is starting to pace better, but the resorts still rely on leisure business to keep their coffers healthy.
“The properties look to that group business to help offset staffing needs—it’s easier to feed 300 in a ballroom setting than a house filled with [leisure] travelers,” he said. “That teambuilding, incentive type of travel, top producers—50 people to Tahoe—has always been a sweet spot for that.”
[Related: Reno and Lake Tahoe Embrace the Great Outdoors for the Return of Meetings]
Major meetings properties include The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe, and Resort at Squaw Creek. A prime group-dinner option includes High Camp, perched at an 8,200-foot elevation. More daring groups can also test their meddle on the mountain climbing system at Olympic Valley’s Tahoe Via Ferrata, which is led by professional climbers with safety the paramount concern.
Tahoe also boasts several state parks and a beach in Tahoe City that can be pressed into group-activity duty.
The destination traditionally draws a hefty amount of drive business from the San Francisco Bay Area and its Silicon Valley.
“Being in the Bay Area’s backyard, we already do see a lot of retreat business and incentive business coming to Tahoe, with all of the great tech and finance [companies],” said Ashlee Barton, area director of sales and marketing for Resort at Squaw Creek. “We are a great retreat for those companies to get together. And specifically at Resort at Squaw Creek, I like to call it a sort of an adult playground—it really is set up for all sorts of teambuildling opportunities and is truly year-round.”
The resort’s ski-season teambuilding offerings are called “Wacky Winter Games,” during which teams of six to 10 people engage in challenges that include snowman- and igloo-building competitions, snowshoe relay races, snow softball and other activities. Teams can also hold a sled regatta where teams build sleds from materials such as cardboard and duct tape and then race the contraptions down the resort’s sled hill.
In summer, of course, practically any manner of meeting can be held outside and also combined with warm-weather games such as cornhole tournaments and various lawn games.
“Bringing a conference or incentive program allows everyone to see each other in ‘3-D,’” Barton added. “And it’s magical to see each other in 3-D these days.”
Snowmass, Colorado
Meaningful connection is also on the minds of those promoting meetings in Aspen, Colorado’s Snowmass resort, which offers a plethora of outdoor event venues and attendee activity options, such as its miles of mountain biking trails.
[Related: Ski to Success at These Two Meetings-Friendly Mountain Getaways]
“Snowmass creates a special environment for guests to grow and feel renewed. We understand the significance of making memories with colleagues and, most importantly, re-connecting with yourself,” said Margot Ellis, national sales manager for Snowmass Tourism. “Nature has that healing effect.”
“The pandemic has given everyone perspective to genuinely value relationships and experiences,” Ellis added. “This could mean creatively moving a meeting outdoors—maybe a mountaintop cabin or connecting with peers on horseback, hikes deep into the stillness of the woods or laughing around a campfire looking up at the twinkling Colorado night sky. Whichever fits your group, we can help bring the spark back.”
Some popular outdoor group venues in Snowmass, which also offers more than 18,000 square feet of indoor space in Snowmass Village, includes the following:
- Viewline Snowmass Resort: This contemporary, up-mountain resort offers more than 250 guest rooms and 25,000 square feet of meeting space. Outdoor options include its rooftop terrace, which can be tented and accommodate up to 250. The Viewline Deck is located slope-side right outside the lobby bar and can accommodate up to 100 attendees.
- Viceroy Snowmass: With more than 170 guest room accommodations in a variety of levels—including residential suites and penthouses—this luxe ski-in, ski-out Viceroy Hotel Group property gets groups outdoors via its 4,000-square-foot pool terrace and 1,000-square-foot The Terrace venues. A thoroughly satisfying indoor option, however, does include its 7,000-square-foot spa. The property’s largest indoor venue offers 7,200 square feet of space.
- Destination Residences Snowmass/Top of the Village: Featuring a 30-by-30-foot deck, the Gatehouse Tent event space at the Top of the Village can be tented for up to 70. The space is also adjacent to the venue’s fireplace room and additional event space. Groups must arrange for catering.
- Lynn Britt Cabin: Set at the top of the Burlingame Lift and accessible via snowcat in the winter and shuttle in the summer, this year-round space with panoramic mountain views can accommodate up to 60 in its cabin and up to 200 in its meadow during non-snow months. Bonus: Groups can also press the snowcat into service for dinner rides during the winter.
Snowmass Highline Trailhead. Credit: Tamara Susa.
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