WienSki Business Club: Win-Win For Skiing And Business

With a high-calibre panel discussion and around 100 ski enthusiasts from sports, business, media and culture, a new chapter in Viennese winter sports was opened. Conclusion of the successful kick-off event for the WienSki Business Club: "Let's tackle it together to bring more young people to snow sports again."

The WienSki Business Club is an initiative of the Vienna Ski Association (Vienna Ski). The aim of the platform is to create an innovative network of sport and business. Regular meetings and joint activities are intended to create new business contacts and valuable synergies. In addition, a financial contribution is also to be made for the support of young winter sports. The kick-off took place in the extensive ambiance of INTERSPORT WINNINGER in Stadlau, where the largest selection of ski models in Austria can be found on an area of 1,000 square metres, as host Manuel Winninger emphasised.

Equally impressive was the list of panellists: Patrick Ortlieb, FIS and ÖSV board member, Olympic champion; Christina Wilfinger, Managing Director of SAP Austria; Martha Schultz, Vice President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce; Barbara Bleier-Serentschy, Head of Marketing Volksbank; Gerhard Hrebicek, President of the European Brand Institute. The topic of how to attract more young people to snow sports again and what role conurbations such as Vienna play in this was primarily discussed. The audience was hosted by such prominent names as football coach Peter Stöger or musician Andy Lee Lang.

Creating infrastructure, preserving cultural property

Before the start of the discussion, Roland König, new president of the Vienna Ski Association since June 2022, explained where the trip is to go in the coming years. For example, a new economic advisory board has already been established in the association. We want to keep up the fascination for skiing in Vienna and partly bring it back. It is about a corresponding widespread effect in the population, so that more children learn to ski again. Therefore, we must create the framework conditions and infrastructure in order to be able to practice sport successfully - even at a high level," König explained.

Another main initiator of the WienSki Business Club is Martin Dolezal, chairman of the Snowsports Academy. Snow is an Austrian cultural asset - and it is a connecting element, because people come together when skiing. And with the Business Club, we want to create exactly this breeding ground - with the primary goal of promoting snow sports and its importance in eastern Austria and in the federal capital Vienna."

This also applies to the so important area of integration, as Martin Dolezal illustrated by an example during the Covid pandemic at Semmering: "Many people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds drove up at that time and you could clearly see the great enthusiasm they felt when in contact with snow. Everything was slipped down on every free surface - whether with plastic bag or just on the bottom of the pants."

Key experiences in kindergarten age

Martha Schultz, Vice President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and owner of six ski resorts in Tyrol, also sees the first contact with snow and sport as a key experience. In our ski resorts, we also operate gastronomy and accommodation - from the youth hostel to the 5* hotel. 25 years ago I started to look at the topic of school ski courses. At that time mainly because of the so-called January hole. Today, 60,000 students come to us from Germany every year, from the very north to the south. And it is precisely this enthusiasm that is our task - for example, with kindergarten weeks, which we also carry out and receive the great popularity."

FIS and ÖSV board member Patrick Ortlieb, who works as a hotelier in Vorarlberg, hits the same notch. The fact is that there are fewer and fewer school ski courses in Austria. But in Vorarlberg we are now starting again with kindergarten ski courses - because bringing the children to snow at all is the most important thing." In general, the ÖSV grassroots sports department and the state associations also play an essential role in this. Ortlieb therefore sincerely thanked the Vienna Ski Association for taking over the organisation of the WienSki Business Club.

Especially in conurbations like Vienna, a ski hall is also an issue, Ortlieb added. A basic prerequisite for this is clearly energy self-sufficiency - not only in times of an energy crisis like now. But it's just about this first contact with snow - and about a second, third and so on, then skiing in Hochfügen or on the Arlberg."

Heros, digital media and simulators

Christina Wilfinger, Managing Director of SAP Austria, learned skiing as a native Styrian in Joglland and is still enthusiastic about it today. Austria is a skination - and that is incredibly attractive. Internationally, this also offers an opportunity to get skilled workers to Austria." Another point is to inspire families again, especially in the conurbations. In order to make these people fans, I need to know them and their needs exactly. Event marketing and hero effectiveness, for example, are important - in the past there was a parallel slalom at Rathausplatz."

In order to win these new customers, you should also use technical means and digital media such as TikTok or SnapChat to get into people's minds in a positive sense - especially if young people today have an attention span in the millisecond range, says Wilfinger.

Barbara Bleier-Serentschy heads marketing at Volksbank and is responsible for cooperation with the ÖSV ski jumping team. An advantage of this sport is that I am not dependent on snow. This means that I can implement them easily and quickly with mats. Simulators are also a good asset. This alone gives me a good feeling of how it feels when I jump down with skis." For example, the great success of the Vienna city eagles, which are among the most successful junior teams in Austria, shows how sustainable this strategy is. But there is also an excellent team spirit in the entry-level area. Equipment is exchanged among themselves. In addition, I can create new motivation and enthusiasm for sport if I tell it among acquaintances," says Bleier-Serentschy.

Skiing as an identity

For Gerhard Hrebicek, President of the European Brand Institute, "skiing is an essential identity-creating brand for Austria. It is a successful export item and we see this especially in international relations when we invite customers to ski. They know us everywhere for this. This is not only economically important for industry and tourism, but also emotional in the sense of cosiness, music and conviviality." In order to anchor this spirit even more strongly in a metropolis like Vienna, he had already developed a concept for a ski hall together with Martin Dolezal from the Snowsports Academy in 2010. But I find projects with carpet or plastic slopes just as important, Hrebicek explained. There are also swimming pools and not everyone goes to a lake.

At the end of the official part, Martin Dolezal drew his summary. The topic of snow sports is currently very emotional and should be considered more objectively again. But if something is strongly present in the media, it also offers opportunities. Of course, there is room for improvement in many ways - for example, when travelling by train to the ski resorts."

He sees another decisive point in a general rethink. We are not used to roller and plastic slopes as well as ski halls in Austria, but in countries like the Netherlands the situation is quite different. There, many people learn to ski in this way and thus get the desire for a holiday in Austria's mountains. And we should take this as an example in Vienna and bring the fun directly into the city." Dolezal's motto for this is #SnowConnectingPeople - whether on the snow or at events such as the WienSki Business Club.