We’ve got an awesome list of Speakers and attendees this year. We have founders, those who are in it for the long haul, some veteran Snowializers and some awesome newcomers we can’t wait to meet!

Here’s a quick breakdown.

NOTE: This isn’t a complete list of Snowcial Attendees. If you’re not on this list, and want to be. Hit the comments below…

Founders

These Snowcialites have been there from the Beginning

• Sonny Mayugba
• Eugene Lee, ChannelMeter
• Greg Prosl
• Eric Wagnon
• Rob Sandie, vid.io
• Christian Loredo
• Christine Loredo
• Aaron Slavik
• Rick Saake
• Ray Sidney
• Susan Bratton
• Dave Evans
• Bill Schwebel
• Robert Hamilton, Google
• Patrick Crawford, Mountain News Corp

Veteran Snowcialites

• Joe Meyers
• Jon Brelig
• Laura Lippay
• Dave Morin, Path
• Steve Krcmar, Mammoth Mountain
• Dave Amirault, Aspen Skiing Company
• Jeremy Tanner, MapQuest
• Harriot Manley
• Mike Slone
• Kristin Luna
• Matt Harvey, Freeskier
• Pete Hall, Room 214
• Jason Cormier, Room 214
• James Clark, Room 214
• Jenn Gleckman, Ski Lake Tahoe
• Jonathan Burns, Discovery Communications
• Laura Cochran, Gannett Digital
• Lee Crane, Boardistan.com
• Meredith Mckee, Aspen Skiing Company
• Corey Ryan, Ryan Solutions
• Morgan Bast, Vail Resorts

Speakers

• Justin Kistner, Webtrends
• Hope Frank, Webtrends
• Joe Fernandez, Klout
• Johnathan Crowley, Foursquare
• Porter Gale

New Blood

• Ed Lewis, SNOCRU
• Henrik Lampert, Freeskier
• Mark Ervin, IMG
• Jake Furst, Foursquare
• Dave Hall, SlopeSource
• Amy Josef, Ryan Solutions
• Gregg Blanchard, Slope Fillers
• Stephen Chipman, Media Funnel
• John McColly, Mountain High Resort
• Chris Moran, Nevada Commission on Tourism
• Norma Penner, SapientNitro
• Chris Rudolph, Stevens Pass
• Dan Sherman, Ski.com
• Cherise Smith, Red Hut
• Lawrence Smith, SnowIQ
• Mike Smith, SnowIQ
• Paul Smith, Aerotopia
• Todd Troxel, vid.io
• Matt Uffalussy, Uffa Media
• Tedd Wright, Fizz

Behind the scenes

Those of us making it happen.

• David LaPlante
• Russ Pecoraro, Heavenly Mountain Resort
• Elizabeth Batman, Heavenly Mountain Resort
• Mike Henderson, Arborglyph
• Kerry Hawk, Blue Sky Events
• Whitney Wall, Northstar @ Tahoe

Register For Snowcial with the Conference + Welcome Reception Ticket Here

Snowcial Conference With Welcome Reception Ticket Includes:

Snowcial Welcome Reception January 18th, 2012

• Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort
• Tallac Room
• Dinner and Drinks
• 8:00- 10:00

Snowcial 2012 Conference January 19th and 20th, 2012

• Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort
• Emerald Bay Rooms A & B

January 19th, 2012

• Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort
• Emerald Bay Rooms A & B
• Key Note: Joe Fernandez – Klout
• 1:00PM – 5:00PM

Lighting Round and Microsoft Film Fest

• South Shore Room
• 8:00PM- 10:30PM

January 20th, 2012

• Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort
• Emerald Bay Rooms A & B
• 4 different Panel discussions
• 1:00PM – 6:00PM

Check out the Full Snowcial Schedule here

If you have a Foursquare account, you can follow the Snowcial Foursquare list below now, or add some or all of the venues to your To Do list. Then during the event Foursquare can be your go to guide for getting around, finding conference venues and locating places to drink, eat and shake bootie.

Check out the map, follow the list and we look forward to see you at Snowcial!

-Mike

We could tell you about Young The Giant’s explosive live show, but there’s really no point. We could tell you what it’s like to be in the sticky, sweaty crowd, jumping up and down in perfect unison, but that’s neither here nor there.

There’s just too much to be shared, like how lead singer Sameer Gadhia’s pristine, powerful vocals translate as well live as they do on the band’s self-titled debut album, recorded and tracked completely live with the entire band sitting in a room and playing together, like they always do.

But, don’t take it from us.

Take it from Morrissey, who himself said he’d be kneeling with gratitude on a hardwood floor for many years to come over Young The Giant’s “perfect” record, which the band co-produced with Joe Chicarelli (The White Stripes, My Morning Jacket, The Shins). Or from Incubus, who handselected the band to rile up the crowd as the opening act on their first US tour in three years.

Better yet, take it from their main stage set at Lollapalooza or upcoming performance at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards as the only non-nominated band on the bill— all exciting twists of events that only occurred once bookers, agents and directors saw the group play live, and unquestionably knew they needed to see them again.

Hailing from separate states, countries and continents before meeting 55 minutes south of Los Angeles in Irvine, California as teenagers, their addictive, hooky songs and varietal nationalities oft leave them pegged as “radio friendly” “multi-cultural,” or a small handful of other misdirected monikers that place the five piece’s widely adored sound in a too-tight container.

Even though they collectively left school and multiple academic scholarships behind to pursue their dreams, including Sameer, who was enrolled as Biology/Pre-med at Stanford University, this isn’t a story about five boys who meld together as a French Canadian-Persian-British-Indian-Italian musical melting pot. Nor is it of a group whose alternative rock chart-topping, anthemic explosion of a song “My Body” hits you like a kick in the back of the knee.

It’s about a band that has meticulously written and crafted songs together for three years, lived out of shared bedrooms and messy suitcases for two years, and hopped on and off of planes, buses, vans, cars and their beloved bicycles for over one full year, having played more than 150 shows in the past 365 days.

And, whether they’re playing to a sold-out House of Blues in their hometown or to 15,000 festival attendees in the middle of Indonesia on one of their multiple worldwide tours, they never fail to consistently and constantly resonate. Last May, after Young The Giant performed just two songs on Later…With Jools Holland, their entire UK tour immediately sold out.

They had been in the country for less than six hours.

It’s that dedication, soulful essence and collaborative sensibility coming out on stage when they play their collection of songs that has proven to be, quite simply, impossible to ignore.

From the slightly unnerving tranquility of “Islands” to the captivatingly up-tempo take on the theme of transition in “Apartment,” their music ebbs and flows from innovative refrains to heavyhitting melodic smashes and back again, making their debut effort not only engaging, but entrancing. To date, the band has received innumerable “Band To Watch” accolades from outlets like The New York Times, Spin and Nylon to name a few, and were selected by MTV as both a Push and Freshman 5 artist. And, with “My Body,” the first single off the album which hit #4 on the Modern Rock charts in the U.S. and #1 on the Rock charts in Canada while reaching over 1.3 million YouTube views and “Cough Syrup” just beginning its radio ascent, there’s something undeniably special about this band.

So much so, you may just have to see it to believe it.

Young the Giant – \”Cough Syrup\” (Official Video)

The Tahoe Snowcial is back for its fourth big year and this one-of-a-kind festival celebrating the worlds of digital storytelling, technology and snowsports continues to be the premier event for connecting networks, sharing passions and linking turns.

Snowcial 2012 Keynote Speaker

Snowcial has established itself as the event for the connected snowsports enthusiast, attracting Ski.E.O’s like Path‘s Dave Morin, Gowalla‘s Josh Williams, and Vail Resorts‘ Rob Katz, just to name a few. This year, we’re stoked to have Joe Fernandez, the CEO and co-founder of Klout, the social media analytics site that measures a user’s influence across their social network, headlining the keynote speaker line-up. Not only is Joe a leader in social media, but he’s also a South Lake Tahoe native who grew up skiing at Heavenly.

We’ve heard your comments and have expanded the conference into a second day of compelling panels that will investigate a variety of topics on social media and snowsports. But, in true Snowcial tradition, we haven’t forgotten about the skiing, snowboarding, concerts, entertainment and networking opportunities.

If you consider yourself to be a leader in social media, digital marketing, consumer electronics or mobile technology, and have a passion for the snow, this event is not to be missed.

Register for Snowcial 2012 here

Snowcial stepped it up this year thanks to an amazing group of presenters, great entertainment by MC Hammer and OK GO, all combined with phenomenal snow and weather conditions. The event has grown from a small group of ski bumming tech nerds @ One to One and Heavenly, along with a few industry people we all wanted to hang with in 2009, to a group of 150+ Snowcialites in 2011. The overall buzz and reaction on social media and in-person leaves us speechless.

Thank you for sharing your passion for snow sports and social media. Snowcial above all is meant to be a great experience, and as Dave Morin and Josh Williams said, the social web is a great place to share, relive and validate life’s experiences. Here’s what you’ve shown us.

• Blog posts about Snowcial 2011
• Photos from Snowcial 2011
• Videos from Snowcial 2011
• Snowcial Thanks and Recommends (Be sure to like, tweet and share this post!)

Thanks again for coming to Snowcial! Please stay tuned to our blog and email for updates on Snowcial 2012!

Snowcial Lightning Round Montage

MC Hammer’s Intro to the 2011 Snowcial Conference

Poker Tournament Practice Session

Rob Sandie’s Thuggie Life

• Snowcial on Flickr
• Susan Bratton on Flickr
• Snowbuzz on Flickr
• Strebel on Flickr
• Joshwa on Flickr
• Welcome Reception on Reno Metromix
• Every photo tagged #snowcial on Twitter
• Snow.com’s best of gallery
• RGJ Blog U @ Snowcial
• Photo John’s OK Go photos (MAN IN PAJAMAS WARNING)

Joe in PBR Jammies. Photo by John Shafer

Matt Harvey kicking off the Lightning Round

Jenn G Shredding above the lake. Photo by John Shafer

Chris Elliott, Rich Beattie and Johnny Jet

OK Go concert by Josh Strebel

Sonny Mayugba and Christian Loredo

Jenn Gleckman dropping a knee @skiheavenly @ Snowcial. Photo by Mike Henderson

“What do you get when you add the snow industry’s top social media minds, the social media game’s biggest players, Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly Resort fresh on the tail of a 20-foot dump, MC Hammer, and a whole lot of extra curricular activities? An EpicMix of great ideas, takeaways, and a visionary look at the future of the ski and snowboard industry that was the third annual Tahoe Snowcial.” Mike Lewis, Transworld Business

“I have been to my share of conferences. And the #snowcial event I just returned from was the highlight of them all. The concerts, the snowboarding, the people, the good times, the content.. all top notch. But the planning and execution also got my attention.” Josh Strebel, Page.ly

“if you are looking for a way to satisfy your intellectual craving (or inner nerd) the conference portion of the event is everyone’s high point. The list of speakers this year was another who’s, who in the world of social media.” Lars Ames, Porters Tahoe

“It’s a unique blend of people from various industries that you don’t see all that often, making it all the more of an experience. Beyond the socializing (and there was plenty of that), the event featured a conference, skiing at Heavenly and plenty of entertainmnt.” Jenn Gleckman, SMG

“We logged two seven-hour ski days over the weekend, and once we headed back to San Francisco on Sunday, every muscle in my body throbbed. ” Kristin Luna, Camels and Chocolate

“You all think I’m a geek, but I skiied with some badass skiers, won a contest and got paid to ski every lift @ Heavenly in a single day. Plus i got to know know some awesome new people, Sondre Amdahl of Skistar Trysil, Kenneth Larsen of Skistar Hemsedal. and Ryan Cantrell of RTP Interactive.” Mike Henderson, Team Bacon Strip

“Gone are the days of boring conferences filled with trading business cards, power point presentations with no personality and stuffy ballrooms. Tahoe Snowcial, the conference where social media meets snow sports, is changing everything.” Morgan Bast, Snow.com

“I was in Nevada to speak at the third Annual Snowcial conference. I was on a panel with Chris Elliott (National Geographic Traveler, Washington Post…) and Rich Beattie from Travel + Leisure. Wow–what a beautiful place Lake Tahoe is.” Johnny Jet, JohnnyJet.com

Less than three months later, Shannon Johnson, of shayboarder.com, was on stage at the first-ever Blog U at Tahoe Snowcial telling us a free box of energy drinks will not get you from Shannon to Shay to Shayboarder. It’s your authenticity and consistent voice that will help you keep readers she said. Then, maybe, one day you’ll be able to say people read your blog. And I’m not talking about your mom. Laura Cochran, Gannett Blog U

Here, it is like Burning Man and South by Southwest and your family reunion all mashed up. It’s like old friends coming together to share some time on the slopes, drinks, and knowledge with a hearty helping of brotherly and sisterly love. Jim Scripps, Personality & Disorder

Friday morning kicked off with the Blog University in the morning where I was able to meet new faces and familiar faces from twitter like Skiingexaminer’s Eric Wagnon. After I spoke, I listened to the rest of the speakers involved: Jon Burns, Laura Cochran, Michelle Ponto and Beryl Love. Definitely for the bloggers present, I found the presentations very informing and interesting to listen to. Shayboarder

And for any attendees who thought this was just a white fluffy excuse to hit the slopes for a weekend, the keynote, Dr. Duncan Berry, Principal of Buyology Inc., gave an in-depth neurological discussion of brain processes as they relate to consumer behavior. Tanya, Fizz Corp

I didn’t attend CES as I was at the Snowcial social networking and tech conference in Tahoe. John Shafer, PhotographyReview.com

We’ll keep this post updated as new reports come out.

-Mike

Blue Sky Events

First and foremost, Kerry and Jason Hawk of Blue Sky Events worked with us all year to create and execute a perfect event. Their friendly smiling faces greeted attendees and solved problems. We’d rather go snollerblading than run Snowcial without Blue Sky Events. Thank you!

PSAV Presentation Services

Peter Sereno was the man in the back of the room with a pile of laptops, a fleet of thumb drives and the organization to keep it all straight. Most of our presenters either turned in their decks in the last week, or last minute before going on stage. PSAV managed to keep them all straight, got the title and sponsor slides up and get all the Lightning Round decks running perfectly.

Harrah’s and Harveys

They are a sponsor of the event, as you know, but they went above and beyond to make things work for Snowcial. The conference and hotel staff @ Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino are great to work with from the boss down to the guys serving chocolate mousse in an edible mug. Early in the planning for Snowcial 2011 we gave Harrah’s Entertainment a top 3 list of bands to play Saturday night. OK Go was on top. And they got them!

Reno Gazette-Journal

Laura Cochran and Jon Burns from Gannett and Beryl Love from the Reno Gazette-Journal contacted us mere weeks from Snowcial interested in partnering with us to add a blogger focused track to Snowcial 2011. With time EXTREMELTY limited, they pulled together speakers, attendees and advertising for Reno Gazette-Journal’s Blog University, which tool place just before the Snowcial Conference @ Harveys while some of you were out skiing. The event focused on providing tools and information for bloggers to enhance their content and grow their audience. For us, it extended the reach of snowcial to a whole new audience. Next year we’ll continue to work with RGJ and Gannett to bring more content to a bigger audience and bring the community as a whole closer together.

Sapporo

Sapporo was the official beverage sponsor for Snowcial this year and they hooked us up with a tall can of Sapporo and pint glass in every room as well as a ton of Sapporo bottles for all our gatherings. Eugene Lee was LATE to Snowcial, and the first thing he did was crack his Sapporo tallcan and run up to dinner. Thanks to Sapporo, our shoes runneth over…

EyeFi

I was given an Eye Fi WiFi enabled SD memory card by Eye Fi several months ago and have been using it to upload home photos to my flickr account. Since we had conference wide WiFi @ Snowcial I set it to upload to the Snowcial Flicker account. So as I was snapping photos at the checkin desk, welcome reception and conference, it automatically tagged and uploaded the photos to Flickr and posted a note to Twitter. While you have to be careful with that (imagine if Digi had gotten hold of that camera…) we definitely recommend an Eye Fi card for conferences, and any other event where having real-time high-quality photos of speakers getting iced on stage is important.

EpicMix

In years past the scavenger hunt was tons of fun, but a logistical nightmare for the guy who had to tabulate and calculate winners (me). This year it was all, mostly, automated through Vail Resort’s EpicMix. What manual work needed to be done was done by Mike Slone while I ate chocolate mousse from an edible mug. We definitely recommend using EpicMix with groups and events as it provides a fun way to engage visitors with the mountain and the experience of skiing and riding.

Helly Hansen

The Snowcial jacket this year is a nice mid-weight fleece from Helly Hansen. Everyone loved it. It’s comfy, warm and a perfect layer under a shell on the slopes, or on it’s own while drinking beer from a shoe. We had a bunch of extras, but they mysteriously disappeared, so don’t bother asking…

Cube Pass

Cube Pass is a Reno, Nevada based concert and event credential supplier who supplies most of the back stage passes for major us concert tours from Miley Cyrus to OK Go. They cut us a great deal on our conference badges, turned them around in no time and were great to work with. General Manager David Evans is a cycling buddy of ours in Reno and a great guy to know. Check him out @DavidNev.