Something about Convention Centers and Childhood...
Melbourne trip review: Snow Awards, Women of Winter Workshop, touristing, and what it's like to be a girl raised in the Snow Industry
There’s something oddly comforting and familiar about convention centres to me. Okay, okay, hear me out:
I found myself in one again last week, and it stirred up a memory I hadn’t thought about in years—being a kid, running through the wide carpeted corridors at Ski Shows, dwarfed and awed by the sheer scale of it all. Back then, I didn’t know what “networking” was. But I did know how to hand out a brochure and do an elevator pitch.
My dad had this slogan—“POW!”—printed next to a comic-book powder skier. My sisters and I (pocket-sized sales reps/mini marketers) would ambush people, yell “POW!” and hand them a flyer unexpectedly, then Mum and Dad would swoop in to speak to them, more professionally, about catskiing at Big Red Cats in Rossland, British Columbia. They were building a snow business from the ground up, and without realising it, I was watching what that took—creativity, connection, and persistence.
The ski conventions took our young family all across North America: Denver, Seattle, Portland, Spokane, San Francisco, Vancouver, Calgary—even Orlando, Florida once (which I now realise may have doubled as a tax write-off so my sisters and I, all under 10 years old, could go to Disney World). And it wasn’t just overseas—we did the same circuit in Australia too: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne. They were often paired with Warren Miller movie nights, which are essentially ski movies to hype people up for the season, start thinking about booking snow adventures and buy ski gear, and of course, to celebrate the magic of skiing.
Walking back into the Melbourne Convention Centre last week, to see the LUME Van Gogh exhibit, as I had more time after a cancelled flight, I realised it was the exact same venue I’d wandered through as a kid, buzzing with excitement over small things like my expansive and growing ski sticker collection, ski trivia, and all the possibilities and cool places around the world, where one day, maybe I could go ski.
My sisters and I would make it our mission to collect as many freebies, stickers, and T-shirts as possible. We played hide and seek behind banners and booths and made a game of who could score the best merch. I never missed the quizzes different booths would put—they’d hand out prizes for answering ski-related questions, and I was obsessed. It was a game, and even as a young girl, I was ridiculously competitive; I wanted to win.
Once, at a Whistler-Blackcomb stall, they asked this impossibly niche question about which skier appeared in what Warren Miller film and when. The crowd went silent and there were murmurs. I was standing in the back behind all the men eager to win. Me, a small, 5ft, blonde ten-year-old, yelled, “Mike Douglas!!!!” enthusiastically.
I guessed it right to the surprise of the room—not because I was lucky, but because I had seen the last 4 or 5 Warren Miller films at least three times each. I was an unlikely ski trivia nerd at ten years old compared to my young-adult and middle-aged male competitors, Mike Douglas had also come cat skiing with us once. And at the time, I didn’t think this was unusual; it was just my world.
Women of Winter Workshop
Fast forward to this past weekend, I was back in Melbourne for the Snow Australia Awards and for a Women of Winter Gender Equity Workshop to help create an action plan for the next 6 years, this was an absolute highlight for me.
We talked about female representation across the broader snow industry: coaching, leadership, and all associated roles that make up the Australian Snow Industry. We reviewed the current data, looked at where the discrepancies are, talked about personal experiences, influential women in the snow industry who have shaped our lives, and discussed ways we can create some change, not only with programs and events, but with needed cultural change across the industry underlying these efforts.
Besides professional ski racing, not many people know my broader snow background. As I mentioned above, I grew up in the industry, and the snow community helped raise me and make me into who I am. While dad was ill with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy in Australia during COVID-19, I flew to Canada and helped run Big Red Cats in my late teens. I also became an avalanche professional that year, having completed my CAA Level 1 Industry Ops Course, a one-week intensive course on snow science, avalanche risk, and strategies to mitigate risk in Lake Louise, AB. I also completed an advanced Avalanche Search Search and Rescue course to learn some more advanced rescue and triage methods in Revelstoke, BC.
As well as the avalanche side, I spent 3 Aussie ski seasons ski instructing kids of all ages and abilities at the Thredbo Resort, and got my APSI Level 3 Qualification in the process to upskill to learn how to be a better instructor and teacher. I also spent some time at Red Mountain, volunteering and guest coaching the Nancy Green Ski League teams.
I didn’t really realise, until this workshop, about the depth of knowledge I possessed across all areas of the industry beyond ski racing, but when I reflect across all of these experiences, there is a common thread that I was often the only girl, and experienced casual sexism, misogny all the time, and experienced many informal ‘boys clubs’. Also addressed in this workshop was how sometimes women may be as qualified as a man, but may not apply for the same things or go for things due to confidence levels and other factors. We also addressed the elephant in the room, many women decide to have children, and being in the snow industry may not be seen as a viable career option to support a family, and women do not have so much support (depending on the role), to be a mother and do their job concurrently, or come back after maternity leave.
Personally, growing up, I didn’t really care about these invisible limits that sometimes these unconscious biases can put into place; I cared about doing things well, and right, regardless of my gender. Though I do recognise, unfortunately, due to many reasons, we lose many promising women in the industry. It is very male-dominated in certain areas, like coaching, where 2/10 of coaches are likely to be women.
This workshop also brought up specific memories I hadn’t fully unpacked. Times I’ve been told “that’s really good—for a girl.” Or that, “this photo can’t be of you, the person is skiing like a man”, when the photo was in fact of me, dropping off a 20ft cliff for fun or acing a turn with big angles, as a young girl.
As a young girl, I heard the “really good for a girl” praise all the time across the many sports I did, and as a kid, I just accepted it. I don’t think the intention was poor, but I do think now it is not what we should say to young girls. Because I now know that my gender has little bearing on my achievements and who I am as a person. I think back to certain moments, and it felt like a statement where I almost had to prove myself more for being a girl, and sometimes it put unnecessary limits on me.
Why should anything I do carry more or less merit just for being a girl?
One time, when I was 14, I raced in the men’s division at Division 2 NSW State Interschools—because my school had no other girls my age, I wanted to help get our boys’ team through to nationals, placing second individually along the way for my school Lumen Christi Catholic College down the Far South Coast of NSW. At the time, I didn’t care that I wasn’t technically “meant” to be in that division; I was just trying to do my fastest and best skiing, as I usually do. It didn’t matter to me that I wasn’t a boy, and I didn’t think about the egos of some boys I may have bruised in the process of beating them. I was mostly just annoyed to have missed the win and the mistake I made that lost me some time. But I’ll let that one slide—Hugh McAdam won, and he’s now skiing World Cups, including Kitzbühel this year and some of the biggest races in the world. At the time I didn’t really think so much about my gender, when it came down to it, I just wanted to do my best skiing.
Those moments have stayed with me, not because they were exceptional, but because I never really questioned them, but other people did externally sometimes.
I was really lucky, I grew up having fantastic female role models in the snow industry, whether that was teammates, coaches, or colleagues. What came up in this workshop is that not many men and women experience this; sometimes, they have no female representation, and it can be hard to be what you can’t see. Being asked to be part of changing that, to make the path better for the girls coming up next, felt hopeful, and I was happy to contribute.
Melbourne Trip Recap
Outside the workshop, the trip was full of great moments. Catching up with friends, sneaking in some touristy exploring, and continuing my ACL rehab at a gym I found. I’m learning that while discipline is essential in recovery, so is perspective—getting outside your usual environment is healthy sometimes. Healing isn’t just about reps and progress metrics; it’s also about remembering who you are outside of the injury, not just the injured knee you are rehabbing.
One of my favourite moments came from a cancelled flight. With an unexpected hour to spare, I visited The LUME to see the Van Gogh exhibition. I hadn’t planned it, but it ended up being one of the most soul-nourishing parts of the trip. As his brushstrokes lit up and flew across the room—starry skies, sunflowers, cypress trees—I felt that same sense of wonder I used to feel running around snow expos as a kid. That feeling of being so small in a world that’s alive and brimming with possibility.
My flight was cancelled, and then rebooked. Upon arriving at the airport, my new flight didn’t actually exist, so I was flown through Sydney instead and given a free lunch. Which was slightly inconvenient at the time but lovely in the end, as I watched the sunset over the Sydney harbour from the window seat, and the golden glow touch the surrounding Canberra mountains as we came into land, as I reflected on the weekend.
This trip wasn’t just about ticking boxes—awards night, workshop, rehab sessions. It was a nice reminder of all the pieces that have shaped me: family, sport, and oddly, ski shows…
I left Melbourne a little sore, a little inspired, and a lot clearer on why I keep showing up for this weird and wonderful world of snow and the many fantastic people in it.
Have a lovely week, and maybe watch an old Warren Miller film and quiz me on it ;)
Sammie
