To help promote urban gardening, sponsor a blogger

Think of this not as a request for money, but as an experiment in new media (okay, and a request for money).  Oh, and as an investment in the future of our cities!

THE PITCH
Lewis Ginter Garden in Richmond VA is holding an awesome conference on Urban Gardening and I'm looking for sponsors - nonprofits, companies, or individuals - to chip in to pay my expenses to attend and then report thoroughly via GardenRant and elsewhere.  All the individual reports, by topic, will list and link to the sponsors and will be available for republication by the sponsors. 

The awesome conference with the compelling focus of urban gardening for health and  wholeness includes:

TALKS BY/ABOUT:

• Chicago's famous urban gardeners
• Three leaders from Philadelphia Green to report on their decades of greening through gardening
• The top guy at the New York Restoration Foundation (no, not Bette Midler herself but someone more in the trenches)
• What's happening in Richmond
• An African-American research historian from Monticello
• Tim Beatley, the professor of sustainable communities at U.Va.  I heard him speak at a green building conference once and he's a genius, I swear.

WORKSHOPS ON:

• Basics of Sustainable Gardening
• Urban Greening for a Robust Economy
• Creating Greener, More Resilient Communities
• Sustainable Land Use and Water Quality Management
• Food Security, Access, Nutrition, and Health

BUS TOUR OF:  Some of Richmond's best examples of urban gardening.

AT A GREAT PRICE:  $75 for the kind of event that usually costs three times that, or more, so my main expense is the hotel room.

HOW TO SPONSOR:
Just drop me a line (susanATsustainable-gardening.com) to pledge an amount.  Then if and when a total of $250 is pledged, I'll respond and we'll take it from there.

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BLOGGERS BEING PAID FOR THEIR WORK
It'll be interesting to see if soliciting donations to writing projects might actually work, and why not?  Bloggers know how to write for online readers and then get the results noticed, and that's a valuable service to a lot of folks.

Another way bloggers are earning money is by writing for someone else as a named columnist or sole author.  Seems the retail world is jumping on the blogging bandwagon and that's great, but lots (most?) of them aren't very good - usually because the perennial buyer or the marketing person is suddenly asked to perform in this new and different medium. 

Comments

[Shirley Bovshow "EdenMaker"]

Great idea Susan. You can count on my support. You are a terrific reporter...though you tend to share your opinion too! Just kidding.

Love your moxie.
Shirley Bovshow

[JeanAnnVK]

Hey Susan! Love your idea, I will pledge, too!

[meme]

You are invited to stay at my house 3 extra bedroom,area master gardener and about 10+minutes from LGBG. Not quite sure how to contact you w/o having my info out into the world of blogs.
I love guests host often but not often enough.

[susan harris]

"Meme," how gracious of you and thanks for the invite. If I were still young and adventurous I'd certainly take you up on it, too. Nowadays, I like being on my own, private room and all. Hope to see you there, though.

[Cindy Loo]

As one of the few remaining garden journalist I always say, (but can't say actually cause I work for a newspaper)...."Support your local garden writer. When garden writers write, readers garden."

[Frank Hyman]

Susan, I just signed up for the conference. I would be happy to pitch in, if you're still taking contributions.
www.frankhyman.com