For those of you who aren't able to be at this great conference, I'm going to give you some highlights over the next few days. The Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) is one of the best conferences for outdoor education professionals. The reason is that it is totally focused on one topic, risk management.

I get a lot out of other conferences like the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Conference and the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) the workshops and speakers are covering a huge range so I find these stimulate diversity, the drawback is that I go from one very different topic to another and it's harder to synthesize what I'm learning.

The WRMC lets me spend 3 days with workshops, speakers, and networking with colleagues all around one topic. I find that I make a lot more "programmatic progress" this way.

To start off, this year's conference is in the beautiful Banff Mountain Centre in Alberta, Canada. Nestled in a beautiful valley surounded by the Canadian Rockies the Centre is a spectacular location. The Banff Centre is a leader on the local, national and international stages in the development and promotion of creative work in the arts, sciences, business, and the environment. Many people know of the Banff Film Festival which happens next week here at the Centre and whose award winning films tour around the world each year.

The conference opened with keynote speaker Ross Cloutier. To quote from part of his bio

 "Ross Cloutier is an internationally acclaimed risk management consultant in the adventure tourism and outdoor recreation industry. Ross works as a consultant to government, school districts, businesses, and law firms in the areas of legal liability, risk management, curriculum development, product development, and international adventure tourism development. He is a presenter at numerous symposiums and conferences around the world each year.

As a consultant, Ross has managed accident investigations, conducted program reviews for school boards, written strategic plans and operating standards for governments, and conducted post-accident investigations for government and law firms.

Ross has been involved in organizing climbing expeditions and adventures to 35 countries. He has first ascents in many of these countries. He was the climbing leader for the 1991 Canadian Everest Expedition on the North Ridge of Mount Everest in Tibet.

Ross has worked as a climbing and ski guide since 1978 and operated his own lodge-based helicopter ski tour business in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia for many years. He was the Provincial Search and Rescue Training Coordinator for the Justice Institute of British Columbia between 1989 and 1992. He founded the Adventure Programs Department at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia and was the Chair of that department from 1992 to 2004.

Ross has studied Recreation Administration and Outdoor Pursuits, and has an MBA in International Business.

Ross is the author of dozens of publications, including the books The Business of Adventure: Developing an Adventure Tourism Business and Legal Liability and Risk Management in Adventure Tourism"

Ross opened the by talking about his work with Parks Canada in developing a risk management plan for the latest Canadian National Park, Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve. This park has a unique risk, polar bears, hundreds of them, who will hunt and kill anything, inlcuding people. Ross explored for us the challenges of managing this kind of overwhelming risk.

This afternoon I went to a legal workshop by Frances Mock, a recreation attorney from North Carolina. Frances' talk was entitled "Legal Issues after an Incident." She did an extremely thorough job of outlining the critical issues that should be considered after an incident occurs including:

  • Managing Communication

  • Investigating the Incident

  • Dealing with Criminal Investigations

  • Dealing with Land Managers

  • Internal Communications about the Incident

  • Communicating with Family 

This was a really helpful workshop for all program managers. 

The rest of the day was networking with colleagues and friends. This and other conference settings are one place where I get to see some friends only once a year. Besides learning new things, that's the best part of any conference. Okay, more to come.