David LaPlante

Steve & Drew's Reno Adventure

                 

A great example of consumer-generated media consistent with Reno-Tahoe brand (sans the bathrobes).

LOST in Nevada: Bye Bye TDMA..you kept me married. Bye Bye Cingular.

So 2007 is going to be interesting in the mobile and wireless for a few things:

First up: ATT/Cingular to shutter TDMA by 2008! This is very relevant to Nevada and to those of us who spend considerable amount of our time out in wild wide open that is Nevada. Many of us have been lulled in to being tremendously dependent upon what used to be AT&T wireless' backbone and is currently Cingular's (and soon to be again AT&T wireless' again). In August, Cingular began enforcing a surcharge on customers who remained on its TDMA network. At the time of the announcement, the carrier said the $4.99 a month charge would only affect a small number of its customers since the majority (more than 90%) were already on its GSM network.

Cingular is soon to become AT&T again has announced that they intend to shutter all of their TDMA networks by 2008. So the question remains for all the hunters and fishermen and the bike riders and the people who motor around in the greater reaches of Nevada, what now? It seems that a lot of places that used to have cell phone access...may not. This may cause some trouble in calling the honey and letting her know you're coming home a "little bit late" while you stop off at Brunos...So I would like to see if anyone has any information that they can post or share on what we can do with regards to cell phone access out in the greater hinterlands of Nevada.

Second up: Here's a funny video from YouTube talking about the ATT/Cingular thing....oh wait:

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International, Inc."

This will be an interesting re-re-re-rebranding challenge that unfolds before us.

Happy Nevada Day! Why we love Nevada...

My boys woke up excited as this makes their 3rd (of 10 I believe) sanctioned events in which they can wear their Halloween costumes all day in public. Both boys began their Tigger-like bouncing at 6am this morning excited for Nevada Day.

Logan said, "Dad, we LOVE Nevada!!!" Then the boys proceeded to rattle off what they perceived to be their best reasons to love Nevada. I thought I'd share with you what 4 and 7 year old boys believe to be our State's best selling points: 

• Logan: "No school today!"
• Cody: "There's lot's of Eye-candy!" (He was referring to candy-eyeballs, however, he's not entirely incorrect <grin>.)
• Logan: "We get to go camping!" (Yep..we're headed out...)
• Cody: "Fireworks, marshmallows, and campfires!" (All true. Campfires are illegal in California, as are fireworks. I'm pretty sure they have marshmallows though.)
• Logan: "Clean air and water." (He's learning about ecosystems at school right now.)
• Logan: "Skiing!!!" (Except for Heavenly, Mt. Rose and Diamond Peak., all of Tahoe's resorts are in California. Logan hasn't figured this one out. But you can live in Nevada and enjoy them all within 20 to 45 minutes.)
• Cody: "Lots of chukar." (Yep, we're the chukar state.)

Of course things like no taxes and lack of traffic didn't make their list, but I was impressed!

Yes, it's Nevada Day. Actually, Nevada Day is October 31st. That's when Nevada became a state -- er, admitted to the Union -- October 31, 1864 to be exact. That was during the Civil War -- hence we're the "Battle Born" state. We celebrate Halloween and Nevada's statehood on the same day. Sweet.

Of course, with the passage of AB396 by the 1997 Nevada State Legislature we celebrate Nevada Day on the "last" Friday in October beginning in 2000. In other words, whatever it takes for a three-day weekend. That's today. Pretty much the whole State takes the day off -- unless you're a service-based business or the majority of your customers are outside the State.

So, unfortunately, most of the Nevada-based Twelve Horses team is working today. Contrary to popular belief, most marketers in New York and Boston are not as enthused about Nevada Day as we are.

I must note, however, that over the years, most of the Twelve Horses team located in other states and countries have kindly offered to take this day off too and celebrate Nevada Day with us -- how kind of them! ;-)

tags: Nevada, Nevada day, Halloween, holiday, Reno, camping, hunting, fishing, skiing, business

This just in: Snowing @ Heavenly Lake Tahoe

Let me just start by saying I'M DONE. DONE WITH SUMMER. DONE.

Heavenly has seen its first snowfall of the season!!!! It snowed for much of the day today, Thursday, October 5th.

Just showed the boys this photo that Heavenly emailed to me. They're in their room now finding their ski gear. (I wish I had their concept of time!)

More snow in the forecast for the days to come. 43 days to go!

If you haven't got your season pass yet, what are you waiting for!?

  Technorati : Heavenly, heavenly lake tahoe, lake tahoe, powder, skiing, snow, snowboarding, tahoe

Mobile ESPN Fumbles...Is Disney Next? Or will Apple's MVNO Get the Content? Plus: Why Cabela's Should Acquire the ESPN MVNO Assets.

 

The news of today in mobile is that ESPN is cutting it's Mobile ESPN MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) service. I'm sure this was a supervise to many, however, a long list of industry pundits have been on the Mobile ESPN deathwatch almost since its birth.

Many will drumbeat this as a "lost game", however, I think that this was a merely a First Quarter fumble and ESPN is still poised to win the mobile and wireless sports content game.

(What I do know is that a lot of bloggers -- including myself -- will use this as an opportunity to write some really bad sports cliches in their posts <grin>!)

A notice to the Mobile ESPN Web site today states:

"Thank you for your support of Mobile ESPN. We have been proud to provide fans like you the best wireless sports content experience.

We have, however, decided to change the direction of Mobile ESPN. As of December 31, 2006, Mobile ESPN will cease its wireless service...

...good news is the Mobile ESPN content you have come to enjoy and expect will soon be available through the service of another nationwide wireless provider."

Hmmm. So let's look at some scenarios moving forward that explain today's actions. Comment back what scenario you think is most likely, or add your own:

1. Disney/ESPN thinking: Let's cut all the branding, billing and MVNO overhead and pitch it back upstream to Sprint for an exclusive carrier-on-deck content deal.
2. Disney/ESPN thinking: Let's cut all the branding, billing and MVNO overhead and pitch it out to all the carriers for a long-term non-exclusive carrier-off-deck subscription fees and/or consumption "taxes".
3. Disney/ESPN/Apple thinking: Apple will have their "MVNO/i-phone" out in the next year...we'll scuttle Disney's MVNO and roll ESPN/Disney content in to an Apple MVNO exclusive. An iTunes/Disney/ESPN content conglomerate that only Elliot Spitzer could stop. After all, the only reason Dad will move the whole famdamily over to an Apple MVNO for the Disney iTunes is if there's "something in it for me". (Not that I would know <grin>!)

Anyway, one could easily get carried away with trying to "over-guess" this.

Bottom line is really simple: not enough subscribers. For this, however, there will be no simple answer. (Yes, one will be given, however, we know it ain't always simple to explain away these things.)

Was Sprint the wrong partner? This is doubtful, they were clearly the best network for pushing the 3G video content.

Was the phone selection too expensive or not age-demographic appropriate? Again, not clear. The phones were great, however, amid the Motorola Razr tsunami and a Windows Mobile 5.0 launch, the initially expensive Sanyo was a brand and a price that sports fans may have found too much to digest to switch carriers for.

My guess is it simply came down to the paradigm shift and timing of the content distribution. Should ESPN be available for fees and subscriptions to all major US carriers? Hell yes. Just as ESPN content is not exclusively restricted to just cable operators and not available to DirectTV satellite providers. And from a paradigm shift, we're still trying to piece together the social aspects of why MySpace -- with a clearly inferior user-interface and kludgy functionality -- blew the pants off of Friendster, Ryze, Tribe, Facebook, Xanga etc.

So does this spell disaster for the myriad of MVNO's out there today? Yes and no. Disney may be up the same creek. They're probably better off long-term focusing on making their content as "widely" distributed over as many carriers as possible than "exclusive" deals.

Cabela's MVNO Would Work

I've been joking around for at least three years now that Cabela's should startup an MVNO. My partners would be stoked just so I'd quit yammering about it. The social demographics of Cabela's customers are compelling and they have the distribution channels nailed. I would soooo love to be sitting in a London coffee shop at some trade show talking on an Advantage Camo cell phone. The stares from the London business elite alone would be worth a 30% premium price for the phone.

The Salt Lake City Cabela's store pulled in more visitors than the Mormon Temple in its first year. Cabela's is an Internet commerce, direct-mail catalogue, retail success story like no other right now:

• Cabela's is the nation's largest direct marketer
• Cabela's is the leading specialty retailer for
• hunting, fishing and camping (the nation's pastime)
• (more folks do these activities than get ESPN on cable, that's for sure)

Hunting, fishing and camping are social-oriented lifestyle brands that Cabela's can easily capitalize on, more than content like Disney, ESPN, or the Outdoor Channel for that matter.

Reno has promised our collective first-born sons (well at least their college education funds in my case <grin>) to get Cabela's to open a retail location here.

I can hope by the time it's open here they've acquired the ESPN MVNO assets and are offering cell phones in Wetland, Advatage and Scent-Lok! If you're from Cabela's and are reading this...give me a call. I've got three years of thought in to this one!

 
  Technorati : Apple, Cabela's, Disney, ESPN, ESPNMVNO, MVNO, Nevada, Reno, SLC, Salt Lake City, Sprint, carriers, marketing, mobile, mobileESPN, subscribers, wireless
Del.icio.us : Apple, Cabela's, Disney, ESPN, ESPNMVNO, MVNO, Nevada, Reno, SLC, Salt Lake City, Sprint, carriers, marketing, mobile, mobileESPN, subscribers, wireless

Crazy Bike Video: Girl Riding Fixed Gear

So I'm sitting at the Chocolate Bar finishing up the post below and my friend Noah swaggers in and shows me this sick video of some German girl doing amazing things on a fixed. This absolutely confirms it: I'm building up a new fixed gear this fall. This was filmed in the year 2000 or 2001 in Wuerzburg, Germany.

    Technorati : bicycling, bike, fixedgear

Backseat Blogger: Staying Connected from Reno to Heavenly, Lake Tahoe in a Car

I hope that the collective marketers responsible for the Reno/Lake Tahoe destination become more aggressive in trumpeting its connectivity and ability to serve the 'Always On' crowd. While we're a far cry from Philly or the SF Goofleplex and our RNO airport wifi isn't free...from a cell service perspective we're blanketed. It's pretty hard to play in the Tahoe basin and not have great cell service.

The conventional thought is that "staying connected" is not appealing to people who are trying to play in Reno-Tahoe. This is misguided. The Travel Industry Association recently released results that concluded:

• "While the point of a vacation may be to “get away from it all,” travelers bring a surprising amount of technology with them in order to stay connected during their leisure trips, according to the latest Voice of the Traveler survey by the Travel Industry Association (TIA) and Synovate."
• "Thanks to technology, travelers no longer have to wait until they return from vacation to share their stories – 18 percent use the Internet to stay connected with family and friends while traveling. Nearly as many use the Internet while traveling to find places to visit or things to do (16%), or choose accommodations based on availability of a high-speed Internet connection or Wi-Fi access (15%)."

Clearly we wired business folk like to have our connectivity. Nothing STRESSES out an 'Always On' executive more than being 'OFF'. (If you happen to be the proprietor of an establishment in Reno-Tahoe, I politely remind you that it is 2006 and it's about time to get that wifi thing licked.)

So, I recently had a meeting up at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe. So.Lake is about 50-60 a minute drive from my office in south Reno. (From 1996 thru 2000 Martin, Matt, Johnny and I raced the R.A.T.S. town league ski races and routinely made it from Reno to the base of Heavenly in under 50 minutes twice a week leaving at 4pm for a 5pm race-start.)

Carson City is much larger now and that's no longer possible to do it under 50 minutes without serious risk to yourself and others.

Now, it's no secret that I suck at driving. I really do. I just don't care. Hey - I grew up in Crested Butte. The only need for a car was to drive after the bus closed, to get 4wd somewhere to ride your bike, or to drive to Gunnison to go to school. Parallel parking is still one of my greatest fears. Before I graduated high school I'd totaled two of my Dad's cars...yeah. Best to let me ride in the back seat...

Which is why I was STOKED to note that I was able to sustain a permanent VPN connection over Sprint's 3g EVDO cellular network from Reno to So. Lake without so much as a hiccup in service. I was able to instant message over Yahoo and Skype the whole time and iTunes was downloading the Brian Krolicki podcast Robert and Josh had just laid down. Pretty cool.

 

tags: Reno, Nevada, Heavenly, Lake Tahoe, tahoe, Sprint, cell, 3g, wireless, wifi, alwayson, connected, vacation, travel, skiing, snowboarding

Time-lapse video of Reno Balloon Races on Front Page of You Tube

renobaloonraces
Originally uploaded by dave_laplante.

There's a very cool video time lapse video of the Reno Balloon Races on the front page of You Tube this morning. Put up by a user called tlapse, the video is time-lapse photography of what appears to be Sunday's race. With over 110,000 views, ~700 comments and a 4.5 star rating, this is a Reno marketer's dream come true. Somebody give this man a free weekend at the Siena!

The Reno Balloon Races is one of Reno's best events...not that we have a shortage of them. You simply can't go wrong with hundreds of brightly colored balloons and kids. (Side note: the front cover of this week's Business Week Magazine is hot air balloons. Josh & Robert blog about it here.)

While we as a family didn't make it to dawn patrol this year (getting up at 5am on a Sunday is hard!!!), we made it there in time to watch the whole gaggle go off while we kicked back and drank hot chocolate and coffee.

renoballoonraces_family
Originally uploaded by dave_laplante.

The boys and I enjoying some hot chocolate at the Reno Balloon Races.

Technorati : balloon, cgm, marketing, races, reno, rscva, screenshot, social, youtube
Del.icio.us : balloon, cgm, marketing, races, reno, rscva, screenshot, social, youtube
Flickr : balloon, cgm, marketing, races, reno, rscva, screenshot, social, youtube

Dreamin' of a White Memorial Day...Fresh Snow in the Sierra

We woke up this morning to a blanket of fresh snow in the Sierra. About 5 inches in the campsite at Lake Davis.

Cody said, "Well I guess we get to go skiing!"

Looks like we'll definitely get to go skiing in June. Squaw Valley closes this weekend, but Mammoth stays open until July 4! It's a rather cool Memorial Day weekend this year. Even the deer are bewildered.

RIP Greg Smith

I've always said life comes down to two things: Making stories and telling them. I'm glad I was able to be a part of a few of the perhaps 100,000 stories that include Smitty Fugate as the protagonist hero, hardman, bandit or Casanova.

The story of Greg Smith, Jay Smith and John Bridwell's first ascent of Cerro Standhardt is up there with Joe Simpson's Touching the Void.

RIP Smitty Fugate

Published in The Courier-Journal on 10/8

SMITH, WILLIAM "GREG" GREGORY, 45, of Ketchum, Idaho, died Tuesday, September 27, 2005. He was a native of Louisville. He was a world renowned rock climber and paraglider, an entrepreneur, a carpenter, and a Mason. He is well-known in climbing circles for having made many first ascents in the Eastern United States including Red River Gorge, Seneca Rocks, as well as in Patagonia. He was a member of the American K2 Expedition. He was the North American Paragliding Champion in 1988, a USHGA Class III Paraglider Instructor, a member of the 1989 US World Team and the #1 US pilot in 1993. He was the former President of the EDEL USA, a distributorship and the former owner and operator of Sun Valley Paragliding. He is survived by his mother, Mary Smith; his father and step-mother, Coleman and Jean Smith; his sister, Kelly Cowles; his nieces Whitney and Rachel Cowles; and his step-brother, Jack Baldwin. He will be missed by his family as well as an immeasurable amount of friends world wide. His memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, October 17, 2005 at the Chapel at Highview Baptist Church, 7711 Fegenbush Lane. Another memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, October 29, 2005 in Hailey, Idaho. Memorial gifts may be given in Greg's name to Highview Baptist Church, Whitefield Academy, or to the Idaho Youth Ranch 7025 Emerald Boise, ID 83704.