Update 6/30: Amber Broadaway, who is the President & COO of Solitude, published a letter today, apologizing to the local community for the mistake. You can read that letter here.
Last week, Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah hosted its second annual town hall. During the meeting, Solitude discussed how this past winter went, what they’re planning for next season, and their planned investments during the next five years. We’ll cover those plans in a future article, but there was a moment during the meeting that caught the local’s attention.
In the middle of the meeting, Solitude had a presentation slide that gave a SWOT Analysis of the ski resort. A SWOT Analysis defines a business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. For threats, Solitude defined these as things that have the potential to cause damage to the ski resort if they aren’t addressed. For them, this included government entities, removal of roadside parking, canyon congestion, climate change, and local’s concerns.
On the slide though, rather than saying “not listening to locals” or “locals concerns,” they listed it as “locals.” In addition, on the slide, the following question was included in the Threats tab: What could prevent us? Ultimately, by just looking at the slide, you would assume that Solitude fears that locals would prevent them from making capital improvements.
The poorly worded SWOT chart led to some angry people on the official home of civil discourse: Twitter. This is unsurprising, as there’s tension between locals and the ski resorts in the Cottonwoods over the past decade due to rising crowds and traffic issues.
On Friday, Solitude attempted to clear the air, explaining their intention of the SWOT Chart and Town Hall meeting on Twitter:
2/6 We are fully aware and appreciative of how important the local community is to Solitude. And from the feedback that we collect each season, we are also aware that much of the local community is not satisfied with some aspects of a visit to Solitude.
— Solitude Mountain Resort (@SolitudeMTN) June 23, 2023
4/6 These are all concerns frequently raised by locals.
— Solitude Mountain Resort (@SolitudeMTN) June 23, 2023
6/6 It’s important to us to remain transparent in our goals and efforts and we encourage those who would like to be part of the conversation to attend our Town Hall at the end of each season, which you can do in person or virtually.
— Solitude Mountain Resort (@SolitudeMTN) June 23, 2023
Ultimately, the situation is a great reminder to review your PowerPoint a couple of times before showing it to the public, or else some locals might take something out of context and get upset.
Image Credits: Solitude Mountain Resort