Yesterday I had the most mind-blowing conversation with Jackie Van Der Hout, the education and outreach director of CUSP (California Urban Streams Partnership). They are a wildly successful organization that is very interested in beavers, and wanted to take on my crazy idea. Jackie had great ideas for the beaver conference and took notes about my ramblings in a way that made it seem like I had great ideas too. I staggered away from the consult feeling excited, energized and more than a little overwhelmed.
Then I played around with Survey Money looking for the best way to get input from possible attendees without spending any actual money. This is what I came up with so far. The California Beaver Summit needs YOU. Click the image at the left to give feedback about your interest in the project. It will help a great deal to hear from you about the idea.
Part of planning something like this is thinking about who its for and what the goals area. I mean do we want biologists, stream-keepers, engineers or teachers to attend? Or all of the above? And what is the best way to package a conference like that? All in one fell swoop or in little chunks like brown bag meeting? Knowing who to speak and how to get them involved is the easy part for me, everything else is new territory.
Something tells me things are about to get very interesting.