Exciting developments have occurred over the past week for next year’s Write to Publish conference. The biggest being that we’ve settled on both a location and a date. Break out your agendas and pencil us in—next year’s conference will be on January 31, 2015, in the Smith Memorial Student Union on the PSU campus.

Now that we have settled on a location, we are ready to dive into the next stages of the planning process. This week, we will present a rough list of programming at our weekly executive meeting in order to get feedback. This list will help us target panelists, workshop facilitators, and speakers for the event.

Lauren Lamson, a member of the Write to Publish team, will be spearheading the development aspect of the conference. She brings years of experience working with nonprofits to the table, and we’re glad to have her. With her help, Brandon and I have narrowed down a list of contests we plan on holding during the months prior the the event. We’ve settled on a rough outline of a budget, including ticket prices. We’ve even narrowed down the types of workshops we hope to provide at the conference—all with the intention of giving you, the attendees, the most out of the day.

Beyond these developments, we plan on contacting businesses for donations and sponsorships. As Brandon mentioned in last week’s conference update, this event is in part a fundraiser for Ooligan Press. But it is also a way for us to give back to the Portland community and pass on our knowledge of the book publishing industry. If this goal also interests you, please contact us at w2p@ooliganpress.pdx.edu to find out how you can get involved.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Write to Publish landing page, be sure to do so in order to sign up for updates about the conference. Tickets will be available for purchase at the beginning of the fall term. You can also follow the press on Facebook and Twitter.