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Lake Placid, adirondacks, usa — The SUNY Technology Conference is giving back to the Lake Placid community with a donation of playground equipment.

During its fifth annual conference at the Conference Center at Lake Placid, the SUNY Technology Conference organizing committee and attendees installed on June 22 new playground equipment at the Lake Placid Elementary School.

The equipment was purchased as part of a professional development give-back campaign, and is a result of SUNY Technology conference attendees’ generosity in donating to the community fundraiser campaign.

This is the third time that the group has donated to the community while engaging in a team-building exercise. In past years, the group has conducted team-building exercises that included donating bicycles to area children and baskets of food to local residents. 

“Lake Placid has embraced us and made us feel as if we are part of the community,” said Dan Sidebottom, Director Administrative Computing Services, SUNY Cortland. “And as part of the community, it’s an honor to give back.” 

“Dan contacted me to find out what opportunities to contribute to the community were available,” said Mary Jane Lawrence, Director of Sales for the Conference Center at Lake Placid. “I informed him that Lake Placid had identified a need for new, safe and updated playground equipment for Paw Print Park at the Lake Placid Elementary School, and SUNY Tech immediately began their own fundraising effort they called ‘Project Playground’ to contribute to the cause.”

“This is another great example of how, in addition to the direct economic impact that lodging, dining and retail sales from conference attendees has on the community, many groups also choose to give back to the community as part of their conference agenda,” added Lawrence.

The SUNY Technology Conference welcomed more than 600 attendees and vendors from June 19-22.

The sales strategy for the Conference Center at Lake Placid is conducted cooperatively by the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) and the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). The strategy includes attracting a combination of regional day business, and multi-day, town-wide conferences.

For more information about the Conference Center at Lake Placid, visit meetingslakeplacid.com.

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PHOTO: Dave Powalyk, left, and Dan Sidebottom, right assemble a quattro see saw for use at the Paw Print Park at the Lake Placid Elementary School.

The Conference Center at Lake Placid opened in the spring of 2011, and was designed with its location in the Adirondacks and contemporary meeting market needs in mind. Technologically savvy and environmentally sound, the center incorporates optimized energy performance, renewable, recycled materials and natural daylight, and offers over 90,000 square feet of flexible meeting and exhibition space, with a total of 12 breakout rooms available for concurrent sessions, state of the art audio visual technology, a ballroom and a full service production kitchen.