Blog ​

News and behind-the-scenes updates from the team organising Snow Gum Summit.

The venue is revealed: Jindabyne Library! ​

30 July 2026

It's been locked in! Snow Gum Summit will be held at the Jindabyne Library, right in the heart of town.

Turns out, finding a venue is hard. ​

I basically spoke to every pub, club, and venue space around Jindabyne and on Perisher. Almost all of them fell through on one of three things:

1. Time - Venues can't afford to block out a space for an event like ours during a night of the winter peak season in the Snowy Mountains.
2. Cost - A first-year, not-for-profit conference does not have a venue budget that makes a commercial function room worthwhile.
3. Size - Some venues either weren't the right size, or didn't have the capability to host presentations.

The whole process was at times, demotivating, but it was nevertheless good research for future runnings!

Beautiful library came to save us. ​

The library was able to fit all the criteria we were looking for:

• Private meeting room - No interruptions from the public
• Access after hours - No need to bring people off the mountain
• Equipment to present slides - No need to bring a projector
• Support for catering - No venue hopping faff

And to top it all off, it's truely a spectacular building. The sustainable timbre interiors that contrast with the pitched roof really make you feel cozy. I can say all this after visiting!

It's a shame we'll only have access to the meeting room space, but that just means there's room for improvement 😊

Thank you to the Snowy Monaro Regional Council and the library team for having us ❤️

Exclusive Cool Contributor Swag Ordered! ​

29 July 2026

What is a Cool Contributor? ​

They're the... "coolest" attendees at the conference!

No but really, why Cool Contributors? ​

1. It's a way for the conference to recognise an attendee's additional contributions to help sustain and support other's attendance at the conference.
2. Who doesn't want a ticket priced at the Kelvin freezing point?
3. C'mon doesn't it sound fun?

What do they get? ​

1. Recognition at the conference and on the website 😮
2. Recongition on the slopes 😎
3. Exclusive custom made swag 👀

They got what? ​

I intentionally don't say what this is, so that there's no expectations set.

But hint: It's hand made, and related to the Snow Gum Summit 😉

Why an exclusive swag? ​

I wanted to give something to make them really feel thanked, and not like they were just getting easy recongition.

Actually now that I think about it, it's basically a mystery box isn't it.

Is it too late to join in on the fun? ​

Unfortunately yes. By the time you're reading this, the commissioner's deadline has passed.

But don't fret, all will be revealed at the conference!

Swag has been ordered! ​

24 July 2026

At most conferences, attendees walk away with some conference swag, like a T-shirt with a fancy design on them.

Why swag? ​

Swag is to conferences as souvenirs are to holidays.

Swag helps make the conference memorable, spread the word, and sometimes even provide value!

Of course, like souvenirs, swag can also provide negative value, and become another thing that collects dust or gets thrown away once you return home.

Having received (and rejected) swag over many years, I didn't want to contribute to adding more waste to the planet.

What were our goals? ​

So my goals for swag were three fold:

1. Meaingful - A story, not another logo on a bottle.
2. Valuable - Ideally something that will be useful on the snow. A cup loses it's individual value once your pantry is full of similar cups.
3. Showpiece - A conversation starter, not another pen you'll keep in your drawer.

One of the goals that was being targetted was "Environmentally friendly". Being the first event, time and cost pressures made achieving this difficult, and so this is a goal that will be sought in future editions.

Now that the deadline has passed for the Cool Contributor swag item, tune in to hear more about the process behind finising that up!

P.S. I recently learned SWAG is an acronym that means "Stuff We All Get"

Design has been finalised! ​

23 July 2026

To have swag, you need a design, and to have a design, you need goals.

Why did I set goals... ​

For the design, I spent way too long to admit around things like:

• How would it work with different swag items and applications?
• How would it look on a smaller scale?
• Do others like it, and not just me?
• How easy is it to print?
• Does it have meaning, a story, and relate to the conference?

I'm so glad there was a deadline ​

Now at our small scale, we don't really have the means to pay for a designer.

But oh, how much this process made me want to...

It was not easy. There was a lot of learning, and crutch leaning. I'm sure it's not going to be perfect and they'll be flaws, but I'm thankful for the delivery deadline because otherwise I wouldn't have stopped.

Experiencing the fruits of your labour ​

Having shown it to one attendee that could no longer come

So having passed all these goals, I'm really excited to reveal the design to all attendees!

For now, here's a sneak peak at one part of the design process.

Official ticket release ​

27 June 2026

After much organisation we've setup everything required to start officially selling tickets!

Over the past couple of weeks, this has involved things like:

• Setting up an unincorporated business entity with respective docs to claim non-for-profit status.
• Investigating public liability insurance.
• Creating waivers and code of conduct docs.
• Figuring out a budget
• Investigating different ticketing platforms before setting up Humanitix
• And much more!