Join us at one of our intensive retreats our private writing retreat center at the intersection of New York’s Catskills Mountains and the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area:
July 28 – 30: Pitchapalooza
Pitching is the single best way to up your portfolio and income; get all of your questions answer and 25 ideas workshopped into polished pitches. If you know you can write and get good feedback from the editors you’re already working with but are having trouble moving up to bigger and better markets and stories, this event is for you. Read the full details from last year’s Pitchapalooza here, from the exact schedule to what you’ll learn to what is included. This is one of the best and most beautiful times of year at the retreat center, with the garden chock full of fresh tomatoes for ever meal and perfect weather to take lessons and individual writing time outside.
Full schedule and more information.
August 25 – 27: TravelContentCon
From who to target and how to reach them to building pitches and proposals and setting up your site for success with content marketing clients, we’ll set up you entire infrastructure for building travel content marketing gigs in one weekend through a mix of small group sessions, work time to put together your portfolio, pitch, and packages, and one-on-one coaching and work reviews. We’re scheduling this at the end of August so that you can hit the ground running in September when companies are wrapping up their summer tourism rush and planning their marketing for the upcoming year.
Full schedule and more information.
September 17 – 23: Weeklong Freelance Travel Writing Bootcamp
A brand new offering unlike any other travel conference or workshop aimed at those new to publishing their travel writing in print publications. Running from Sunday evening through the following Saturday afternoon, each morning we’ll cover idea generation, research techniques, and pitching fundamentals in group lessons, one-on-one coaching, and exercises, and in the afternoon we’ll head out to visit wineries, native plant nurseries, celebrated hiking trails, and historic sites from the dawn of the nation to put your new skills to use in the field, followed by a debrief over dinner. In addition to walking away with the tool kit you need to pitch, research, and write travel articles, you’ll also leave with a personal plan to grow your travel writing income and portfolio and transition into full-time freelance travel writing if you’re currently in another career. We’ve scheduled this at the end of September to make sure we have as optimal weather as possible for outdoor activities and photography.
Full schedule and more information.
October 20 – 22: IdeaFest
Whether you’re brand new to freelance writing, have a blogging background, or are coming to travel writing from another type of freelance writing, this weekend workshop is designed to make sure that you never run out of the travel writers’ most important currency: article ideas that are laser focused and a perfect fit for the magazine you’re pitching. As you learn how to become an idea machine and walk away with 100 ideas matched to magazines, we’ll discuss how to find and formulate ideas whether you’re on the road or cooped up at home with nothing to inspire you but the internet, and you’ll see how to take any one kernel of an idea and reshape and slant it for dozens of magazines. Read the full details from our last IdeaFest here, from the exact schedule to what each session will cover to what is included in the price.
Full schedule and more information.
Wondering which retreat is for you?