President’s Message
Happy May Day to you all!
I have a really important message today — one that includes a special request that you can help with.
Our little group of volunteers has been meeting, planning, calling, emailing, searching, pleading, cajoling and accommodating to bring you a fabulous symposium this year – and we have a STELLAR lineup.
We have an editors’ panel, writers’ panel, TWO sessions of breakout groups, and an amazing keynote appearance by the Travel Guys. It’s packed morning to evening with great material.
BUT we don’t have registrations! And that’s a huge problem. I know that West Coasters often like to wait until the last minute to sign up, but doing so poses a risk. I already know of one day-long conference on the Island that cancelled just weeks before the event date because people waited too long to sign up.
If you are going to the symposium, we need to know NOW. I know the early-bird deadline is still a few weeks away, but it would help us greatly knowing as soon as we can that we at least have break-even numbers.
Also, if you plan to renew your membership, please do it earlier, rather than waiting until the last minute in mid-May. We don’t want to cut off anyone who actually intends to stay.
This year many small groups seem particularly vulnerable to low numbers at conferences — let’s not lose this one due to slow enrolment. Please register TODAY! Your member discount code appears in your Buzz Call for Submissions email.
Thank you!
– Baila Lazarus, President, BCATW
BCATW 2018 Symposium Update
It is already May, can you believe it? Early-bird discounts for the 2018 BCATW Symposium will be expiring soon. Please make sure to purchase your discounted tickets by May 12th, if not before.
A few days ago, we released the information about the breakout sessions. Having the sessions repeated will give participants the opportunity to attend at least two of the three educational sessions. Or, one half of all of them.
Also, stay tuned for the upcoming announcement of the Editors Panel and Pitch Sessions. Signup for pitching will happen on the morning of the event, during registration, on a first-came first-serve basis.
We also need a number of volunteers for the day of and before. These positions earn you a free pass to the event.
- – Multi-Media Wrangler – manage one of two projectors as well as some sound. A front row seat!
- – Twitter Contest Wrangler – monitor the Tweets and List before, and determine a winner at the end. If you like, you can announce the winner at the event.
- – Registration/ Departure and Pitching Wranglers (2) – check in attendees, gather feedback and lanyards, and manage pitching sessions. You’ll meet everyone.
If any of these sound like fun and you want to attend for free as a volunteer, please contact us at symposium@nullbcatw.org.
More to come. We look forward to seeing you all at the BCATW 2018 Symposium!
– Fabiano Maciel, Symposium Committee Chair
Symposium Photo Contest
The Photo Contest is now live on the Symposium Facebook Page. The theme is Adventure, of course!
A 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize will be given in one category this year, for non-professional photographers. Symposium attendees may enter up to two images.
All entries will be displayed in a slideshow at the symposium. The winners will be announced at the symposium and must be in attendance to accept their prize.
The Photo Contest ends at midnight on June 5th, 2018.
To be eligible to enter, first register for the symposium at Picatic. After you’ve registered for the symposium, enter at the Symposium Facebook Page.
Twitter Contest
Our #BCATW2018 Twitter contest will be a Tweet Before event. There is one prize for the symposium attendee who tweets the most about the symposium before June 9, using our hashtag, #BCATW2018.
Please make liberal use of #BCATW2018, @bctravelwriters, and the link, bcatw.org/bcatw-2018-symposium.
Twitter contest starts today! Go!
New Member Spotlight
Barbara Cameron
Barbara Cameron is a professional photographer and visual storyteller who loves food & wine, photography and travel. She combines all three passions into an exciting career as a food & travel photographer.
Barbara fell in love with food when she started cooking family dinners at 11 years old. During her teenage years and into her business career, she explored the culinary world from cooking gigs in oil rig camps to tasting fine wine and food as the web manager for a boutique wine market in Calgary, Alberta.
After completing the Photography Certificate training at SAIT in Calgary, Barbara realized a childhood dream and became a professional photographer in 2008, with a natural talent for food photography.
Media Member News
Irene Butler’s story “Bulgaria’s Bounty of Attractions” was featured on Travel Writers Tales, and in Kamloops This Week newspaper. Irene and Rick are back from their first experience of “snowbirding” and found four months of California sunshine easy to take! Europe is in the cards for them this summer.
This May, Peppa Martin will be in London to cover the fourth edition of Photo London for the Canadian publication PhotoEd Magazine. Photo London is a major international art fair that brings together the world’s leading art galleries at Somerset House in London, and features an extensive array of public programming.
Joan (front row right) and her husband, Ken (back row left) with other biker-birders near Reifel Sanctuary in Ladner in celebration of Vancouver’s Migratory Bird Week co-sponsored by the Delta HUB Cycling Committee and Bird Studies Canada.
Joan Boxall’s ‘A Big Birding Year’ for Inspired Senior Living, May edition, includes two of over 31 Metro Vancouver venues to eavesdrop on, jot down or look up birds: Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Ladner and Maplewood Flats Conservation Area in North Vancouver. Also, this is the ‘Year of the Bird’? (National Geographic, Audubon Society and Cornell Lab say so) with an the IOC happening at Vancouver’s Trade and Convention Centre (the Olympics of all things ornithological). Stay tuned for August 2018 birding events!
Out with the old site, in with the new.
Mari Kane has rebranded her business and redesigned her website accordingly. The new brand, The Studio Web Design, seen on the site’s home page, represents her web design studio. All the things does for clients is described in the associated pages. The old brand, Blogsite Studio, received a fresh logo and page redesign, and is tagged as the DIY division of The Studio. Everything you need to know about using WordPress is there.
If you need a new web site designed, or need training in how to use WordPress, email Mari.
Randi Winter will be creating a monthly column for LuxeBeat Magazine and will be coordinating two special travel programs for the magazine and for the editor. One will be unique exclusive luxury experiences around the world for their readers and the other, will be geared specifically for writers, travel writers, authors who want to help be successfully published independently, and authors who are looking to have their books turned into film and TV.
Randi has also joined the team at NY African Restaurant Week and its parent board for A Taste of Africa to help garner media interest in covering the year-round activities and to coordinate the Customized Touring and Travel for those who want to learn more about African food, wine, culture and history in social, interactive settings. She is also facilitating for an exciting property in Evia, Greece. This includes bringing appropriate writers with a luxury, culinary and historical readership to experience the property and a special program between June and October. Airfare will not be included. She can be reached at randi@nullpassionatetravel.com
Industry Member News
Bestway Tours & Safaris has introduced an exciting new tour through Botswana and Zimbabwe!
Intimate Botswana & Zimbabwe Encounter explores some of the region’s best wildlife at close range in Hwange National Park and the Matobo Hills, the world’s largest concentration of elephants in Chobe National Park, the world-famous Okavango Delta and Victoria Falls World Heritage Sites and much more!
See the tour itinerary here. Special discounts available for BCATW members. Please contact Bestway Tours & Safaris at bestway@nullbestway.com for more information.
May Meetup
Developing a Web Series Around Your Travels
Thursday, May 3, 7-9pm
Red Truck Brewery, 295 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver
Erica Hargreave shares what she has learned in the past year with the release of Season 1 of her documentary web series, Naturally Ours, shot on Salt Spring Island.
She’ll discuss everything from how she and her team shot the series, their strategy in releasing it, building a niche audience to the series, and her team’s strategy as they look at funding and distribution on future seasons of the series.
Sorry for the last minute announcement, but please RSVP asap!
BCATW members are always free!
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