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he Winter Olympics are coming! Does your rink have a solid programming and promotion plan ready to take advantage of the interest and excitement created by the Olympics? The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, will receive an enormous amount of national media coverage. Newspapers, television and radio stations in your local area will also be looking for stories related to the Winter Olympics, but they won't know what you have going on at your rink if you don't let them know about it. Our industry and ice sports only get this level of mass media coverage every four years, so make sure that you send out weekly press releases and make frequent posts to your social media pages highlighting all of your Olympic-themed events and promotions. Hopefully you will be successful in getting some free press out of your efforts. As always, we expect that the positive byproduct of the Olympic media coverage will be a large group of people looking for opportunities to give ice-skating and hockey a try for the first time. The end goal for your Olympic plan should be to get these people to your rink and then convert them into repeat customers. If you still need some ideas then look no further than our "Going for the Gold" article starting on page 20 for suggestions on how to prepare for this once-every-four-years event. Speaking of planning, do you have a plan in place to achieve your continuing education and professional development goals for 2017? Hopefully you have the 15th annual North American Rink Conference & Expo on your calendar. I encourage you to take a look at the event brochure included with this issue of RINK, and give some serious consideration to joining us for what will certainly be the premier ice rink industry event of 2017. I wish you all great success, and remind you that if you need help, don't hesitate to reach out to us here at the United States Ice Rink Association (formerly Serving The American Rinks - STAR). We are here to serve you. — Jeff Theiler, Chief Operating Officer, United States Ice Rink Association Opening ADDRESS Welcome from Jeff Theiler 12 / JANUARY.FEBRUARY.2017 USICERINKS.COM Make 2017 Count—With Proper Planning THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE UNITED STATES ICE RINK ASSOCIATION JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 // VOL. 20, NO. 1 USICERINKS.COM // INFO@USICERINKS.COM C E O Steve Farbman P R E S I D E N T James McEwen S E N I O R V I C E P R E S I D E N T David Jensen C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R Rob Johnson A RT D I R E C T O R Mike DeArmond D E S I G N E R S Brandon Favre, Karli Seman, Annie Clemency A D S A L E S Bryan Nelson E D I T O R S : Aaron Paitich, Jessi Hinrichs M A R K E T I N G C O O R D I NAT O R : Elizabeth Boger RINK Magazine is the definitive business publication for professionals in the ice rink industry and is the leading source for information on facility management, operations and programming. Mission of USIRA: "To advance the ice rink industry through membership, world-class education, training, resources and events." C H I E F O P E R AT I N G O F F I C E R Jeff Theiler D I R E C T O R , E D U CAT I O N John Monteleone O F F I C E A S S I S T A N T Tom Wacker PUBLISHING PARTNER 505 North Highway 169, Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55441 P H : (763) 595-0808 FA X : (763) 595-0016 E - M A I L : info@touchpointmedia.com W E B S I T E : touchpointmedia.com P H : ( 719) 538-1149 FA X : (719) 538-7838 E - M A I L : info@usicerinks.com W E B S I T E : usicerinks.com A P R O G R A M O F E D I T O R Aaron Paitich M A NAG I N G E D I T O R Jessi Hinrichs C O N T R I B U T I N G W R I T E R S Kelly Erickson, Jessi Hinrichs, John Monteleone, Casey Murdough, Tom Sellwood E D I T O R I A L B OA R D Mike Bauer, T.C. Lewis, Craig Petersen, Ben Ruggles, Dave Wescott D E S I G N E R S Mike DeArmond, Karli Seman, Brandon Favre, Annie Clemency T If you have any ideas for RINK Magazine or would like to contribute, contact us at info@usicerinks.com