Tradition

There are various Holiday and end of year traditions

Ours here at Backbone includes a holiday party and company ski day with end of year annual reviews hosted on the Gondola – aka 14 minutes of pain. This year the Jackson office rallied over tough road conditions each way to hit 10+ inches of POW on Aspen Mountain.

Can anyone spot Lindsay Brown?

Can anyone spot Lindsay Brown?

Stats included:  5 tele skiers, 7 alpine, and 1 knuckledragger; minimum underfoot width: 88mm,  2 pocket tequila shots and 0 backbone employee collisions (a first).

Best consumed chilled and before 12 noon

Best consumed chilled and before 12 noon

Happy Holidays!

Kästle Pro Team 2008 DVD “Comeback of the Year”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ud_DzOu0qU]

Kästle is back! With a new lineup of skis and some of the world’s best freeskiers, Kästle is here to stay.

The “Comeback of the Year” DVD follows each of the Kästle athletes through their 2008 season with a fine selection of the purest snow, a sweet sound and a load of action. Featuring Hugo Harrisson, Chris Davenport, Sascha Schmid, Giulia Monego, Griffin Post as the flying Postman, Martin McFly Winkler and Willie Volckhausen as a special guest with his 2 dogs. The DVD will be released come Christmas, so check it out!

Social Media Stats for 2009

I read an interesting profile on Bumped today on the overview of social media spending in Canadian markets for the coming year.

Keith McArthur, principal at com.motion comments on the state of spending.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOzcoIoZ4-o&hl=en&fs=1]

(Bullets from the article)
-Despite the economic slowdown forcing marketers to modify their spending, 82 per cent of Canadian business leaders and senior marketers say they will spend as much or more on social media in 2009 than they did this year. That’s more than for any other marketing communications discipline, as seen in the table below.
-Canadian business leaders say it would be a mistake to cut back on social and digital spending in tough economic times, with 7 in 10 recommending increased investment.
-Nearly four in five Canadian marketers (78 per cent) say senior management supports greater investment in social media. That’s up dramatically from 54 per cent a year ago.
-Facebook has established itself as Canada’s dominant social network. Among Canadians who use social media, 87 per cent say they have tried Facebook, compared with 33 per cent for MySpace and 13 per cent for Twitter.
-Two-thirds of Canadians (65 per cent) who use social media say social media is an important tool for developing, maintaining and nurturing friendships, up from 52 per cent a year ago.
-Two-thirds of Canadians (65 per cent) who use social media say social media tools are important for learning about products, services, organizations and brands, up from 59 per cent a year ago.

All Work and No Play…

Backbone did some “team building” Friday morning with 6″ of new on Aspen Mountain. The skiing was great!

On the drive home, geeking out on my iPhone, I was upstaged by an email from Black Diamond boot designer Thomas Laakso. He is over in Switzerland – which has been getting pounded by snow – for the Euro Sales Meeting. His note was not of note but the pic he attached from St. Mortiz sure was….

2mis backing it up in St. Moritz

2mis backing it up in St. Moritz