SnowSeekers Go-Guide app 2.0 no slouch on the slopes

January 6, 2011

By Greg Gazin
Technology Writer
Troy Media

EDMONTON, AB, Jan 06, 2011/ Troy Media/ – Sunday 7AM. Head tucked under the covers, you snuggle into your pillow, ignoring the cold outside.

But then, your iPhone chimes. There is a message waiting. Under normal circumstances you’d mutter, well, you’d know what you would mutter, but it is winter after all, and this is a Sunday. And you love to ski.

The iPhone alert is actually your very own personal powder alarm system and it is telling you that “Jasper received 15 cm of new snow.”

To snow enthusiasts, it’s music to their ears.

Winter guide to western Canada

“As a skier, snowboarder (or any snow enthusiast),” says Jim Barr, co-founder of SnowSeekers.ca, “you want your finger on the pulse of what snow is arriving – just like hockey fans want scores and stats.”

And that is what Snow Powder Push Notification provides. But that is just one feature of the newly redesigned and enhanced SnowSeekers Go-Guide app, a guide to winter in western Canada. And it’s now free.

Version 2.0, Barr says, is “a digital concierge service” unlocking what is best about those winter destinations.

It all began in 2007 when Barr, looking forward to the upcoming 2010 Olympics, started a work on a guidebook to share information on what he believed makes winter destinations unique. He then met with journalist and co-founder Barb Martowski who, after 30 years in newspaper, knew what her readers wanted.

The partnership resulted in the December 2008 launch of SnowSeekers.ca. It’s now home to thousand of pages of winter activity content, and has a community of 25,000 twitter users and eNews readers. SnowSeekers also produces a weekly three minute TV series that’s broadcasted to four million homes.

But it wasn’t long after launching their web site that they came to see the potential of wireless and mobile technology. The next logical step in the company’s growth was the SnowSeekers Go-Guide app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The original apps, however, released in December 2009, simply consisted of the guidebooks in digital form, Barr says. While it enjoyed moderate success – recognized by Digital Alberta in 2010 as one of the best new wireless apps – he admits is was somewhat static – offering listings with trails maps, current conditions and RSS feeds. But because each destination had its own app, twelve in total, it was inconvenient if you needed to access more than one at a time.

The next step, they felt, was to totally redesign the app to improve a user’s overall experience, both on and off the slopes. They established an alliance with one of the world’s leading app developers, Michael Sikorsky of Calgary, and formed a partnership with his company, Robots and Pencils, to develop version 2.

“Sikorsky helped us deliver,” Barr says. “(He and his team) figured out a way to get the snow feeds from the resorts and deliver (ie: push) them out to the audience.”

To maximize the snow seeking experience, notifications were expanded to include retail notices, coupons and other activities.

Megan Gibson, Marketing and Communications Coordinator for Marmot Basin in Jasper, Alberta, says the app, especially its push notifications, is an ideal way for snow seekers to conveniently receive offers such as discounted lift tickets for promotions such as its “Jasper in January” campaign and announcements like new snowfall alerts.

“It’s exciting! The app is able to talk directly to clients and knows when they’re in Jasper. It’s a whole new audience for us.”

And that’s good news for everyone – the app helps to bring snow seekers and destination operators closer together.

But it took time and effort to achieve the results they wanted. Barr says Snowseekers.ca held a series of focus groups during development and included their input in the final product. In fact, it was from information gleaned from them, that SnowSeekers and Robots and Pencils decided to design a real-time “heat map” which cleverly charts out aprÃ¨s nightlife dining opportunities at 19 different winter destinations. “People now have an opportunity to check in to a destination and, in real-time as more people check in, (the heat map) gets redder and redder so you can really see where the hot spots are,” says Barr.

In that way, Barr adds, SnowSeekers Go-Guide app is ideal for anyone who is seeking out other snow seekers or is simply unfamiliar with the area.

The app also features a digital coupon book offering frequently updated deals and discounts on a wide variety of goods and services.

But the guts of the app, Barr says, remains the guidebook. “We’ve invested over 800 man hours in the last 15 months into our guidebook – adding Google maps, phone numbers, web addresses, descriptors and more,” Barr says.

From within the app you can, from the comfort of your bed or on the slopes, explore all 19 destinations, including a comprehensive and categorized listings of accommodations, transportation options, eating establishments, attractions and more. It will also inform you about current temperatures and snow conditions for the last 24, 48 hours and seven days, as well as the amount of snow to date and the mountain base.

Select a mountain and you can, at a glance, see everything you need to know to arrive at a decision: its elevation, the number of runs, the longest run, the number of lifts and the type of terrain difficulty, all broken down into beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert levels.

One-stop shop for all things winter

Each destination also features terrain maps and, coming soon, Nordic trail maps, which come in handy for places like Jasper, Barr says, which has 60 km of groomed trails. The app will answer all of your questions, including how to get there and where the trailhead is, which is especially helpful when the parks office is closed and there is no one to ask.

Barr insists all of the information packed into the app will help turn your experience into a memorable one. “Without the guide,” Barr says, “you may give the destination a six out of a ten while with the Go-Guide, you may give it a nine.”

But now that version 2 is hot off the press and onto the slopes, Barr says they’re not stopping there. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. Go-Guide for Android and BlackBerry are around the corner and the iPad and other tablets are next.”

Their ultimate goal is to become a one-stop shop so that all the information you need for any winter activity is at your fingertips.

But Barr has a word of warning if you download this app:

“Try sleeping past 7am on the weekends.”

SnowSeekers Go-Guide 2.0 is available here.

To read more about it, click here.