• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 7, 2008

Even so, this week's Email Insider Summit is taking place in Park City, Utah -- just weeks before Hollywood converges on the spectacular ski resort for the Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 15-25). Two things are for sure: Oscar winners will walk the streets and hotel room costs will skyrocket. (At the Stein Eriksen Lodge, where the Summit is taking place, a standard room will go for $835 a night.)

Less certain is whether Park City -- a 2002 Winter Olympics site -- will have enough snow to satisfy the downhillers. Saturday marked the official start of the ski season and locals -- already wary that the economy could hurt tourism -- are bit concerned since the rate of natural snowfall has been slow.

But rest assured Summit attendees ready to hit the slopes: Manmade snow will make the ride down just fine.

Deer Valley Resort head Bob Wheaton told the Salt Lake Tribune low humidity levels have allowed snowmaking, even with temps as high as 35. "In the last 7-8 years, snowmaking technology has increased at the same rate as the technological advancements in skis," he said. "The dry climate not only makes for better natural snow, but it lets us make better manmade snow."

Back to the film festival, opening night in January will bring the world premiere of "Mary and Max," a clay animation film about a long-distance penpal relationship, with Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman doing voiceover.

One of the final films to premiere might have Al Gore in attendance: "Earth Days," described as "a history of our environmental undoing seen through the eyes of nine Americans whose work and actions launched the modern environmental movement."