The biggest event to hit Whistler in the wake of the 2010 Olympics – VentureWeb knew this site had to make an impact.
For 14 years, the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival has ridden the sweet spot where sports and art meet. Hitting the stage only months after the biggest event in Whistler's history – the 2010 Winter Olympic Games – the 15th annual Festival needed to be even more progressive to draw the crowds and once drawn, blow away their expectations. The same stood for the website.
The Festival boasts industry leading competitions and innovative never-seen-before contest formats, all of which needed to be reinforced online with the new site's interactive features and bold design. Capturing the intensity of a 10 day, 24-7 party and international sporting event and sharing it online made for an exciting challenge. Integrating social media such as Twitter and Facebook into the site brought that real-time presence, while extensive comment features really engaged Festival goers before, during, and after the action. The custom Drupal CMS platform allowed Festival staff to easily and frequently update the site, while blogs, videos, and photos were sewn into the mix to open online viewers eyes to the visual assault on the senses that you can only truly experience live.
It's no easy task being the follow up act to the biggest sporting event in Canadian history (yes, the Olympics). Olympic hangover anyone? The only cure was to "bite the tale of the dog" and buckle up for another wild ride. The Festival's new website had to send a shockwave of excitement and anticipation about another huge sporting event, and turn that energy into actual bookings, ticket sales, and crowds of spectators. We spiked the site with a healthy dose of community integration, commenting, and online ticket sales to make it happen, and the results speak for themselves. If you tried to get tickets to any of the flagship events, you'll know what we're talking about, and you probably hate us for selling the event out so quickly. Victim of success?