Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) 2026 Conference

Nearly 59 million acres of protected public lands are at renewed risk as the federal government considers rolling back the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, opening the door to roadbuilding, logging, and mineral extraction as early as 2026. Iconic landscapes—including Alaska’s 17‑million‑acre Tongass National Forest, where 92 percent of the land could be affected, along with major forested areas in Montana and Utah—face threats reminiscent of past clearcutting and industry abuses. The Roadless Rule’s protections have been essential to restoring ecosystems, safeguarding wildlife, preserving clean water, and supporting local communities. Its repeal would increase wildfire risk, degrade habitat, and undermine outdoor recreation and small businesses. For 46 years, The Boat Company has worked to protect the Tongass through education, advocacy, and legal support, and invites communicators to help defend public lands by elevating these issues in their stories, reporting, and digital platforms.

This panel brings together creatives who’ve cracked the code on social media, turning posts into platforms and passion projects into sustainable careers. From building an authentic voice, developing a visual style, growing a loyal following, promoting work to the right audience, and exploring real ways to monetize online, our speakers will share practical strategies to level up your social media game.

Colleen Miniuk AKA Bubbles of "Dear Bubbles" | From Followers to Funders: Powering Your Storytelling Through Patreon
Are you looking to generate passive, but sustainable, income from your words, photographs, and videos? Outdoor photographer, writer, and educator Colleen Miniuk will share how tapping into Patreon can transform casual followers into a loyal—and contributing—community to help power your storytelling. Drawing from her real-world experience with her Dear Bubbles blog, she’ll walk through how to start a Patreon as a creator, develop a value-driven membership model, deliver content behind a paywall, and avoid pitfalls along the way. You’ll hear practical tactics to grow recurring revenue while amplifying your voice and deepening your connection with your audience.

Chris Paparo AKA the Fish Guy | More Than Monetization: The Real Value of Social Media
When he began his social media journey, like most creators, Chris Paparo had grand dreams of making piles of money by doing nothing more than posting about his wildlife encounters. Simple, right? Through a lot of hard work, he met the criteria to be monetized on various social media platforms, but the financial return was nowhere near what he had imagined.
However, Chris found something far more valuable online--community. By sharing authentic content, he built a tight-knit community of followers who connected with his work. His speaking engagements went from one or two per month to two or three per week, fishing lodges and dive resorts started inviting him to host trips to their destinations, and when he lost his drone and was not in a financial position to replace it, his community stepped up. In less than two days he had a brand-new one. In this session, Chris will share how building a community became far more valuable than a check from Meta.

Lina Lintemuth | Mastering LinkedIn Thought Leadership for Outdoor Media and Outdoor PR Pros
If you’re an outdoor writer, this session is for you: we’re customizing our examples so you can learn how to amplify your articles and interviews through LinkedIn, and drive outdoor trend conversations to stay top of mind with potential sources for your stories, hosts for press trips or to land new assignments.

Aldo Leopold, a Wisconsin icon, is considered by many to have been the most influential conservation thinker of the 20th Century as a result of his seminal work, A Sand County Almanac, in which he presents a vision for how to to live on and care for the land. This call for a land ethic -- a conservation ethic -- would eventually serve as the intellectual and emotional foundation for disciplines ranging from forestry, wildlife management, conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, restoration ecology, private land management, environmental history, literature, and environmental education and ethics. This panel begins with a quick history of the twists and turns behind the publication of this conservation classic: how it almost was never published but then sold more than 2 million copies and was translated into 14 languages, and how its message remains as relevant today as it was 75 years ago.

With just three months to go until the midterms, editors will be looking for timely and in-depth stories about the issues that will dominate the news cycle. This panel will bring together policy experts and advocates from around the outdoor, conservation, and climate space to discuss what’s at stake as Americans head to the polls in November.

Always one of the most popular sessions at conference, the Meet the Editors Panel brings together editors from leading outoor publications for a candid conversation about how they work with freelancers. Editors will share what they look for in pitches, how they discover new writers and photographers, the kinds of stories and visuals their audiences need right now, and how freelancers can build lasting relationships with their outlets. Panelists will also discuss the practical side of freelance collaboration: what kind of reporting they hope for, how many rounds of edits they expect, who retains the rights, and, most importantly, how much they pay.

Whether you’re new to the beat or an experienced freelancer looking to notch a new byline, this session will give you insight into how editorial decisions are made and how you can position your work to succeed. Come with questions—and leave with a clearer understanding of what editors want and how to stand out in a vast sea of emails.

REGISTER DIRECTLY HERE - Downtown Mini Best of Wisconsin Food Tour
Sunday, August 23 / 1pm-3pm
Cost:$55+

Explore Madison’s Capitol Square: Food, History & Local Flavor
Discover the best of Madison with a guided tasting and history experience around the beautiful Capitol Square.

What’s Included

• Three food stops featuring multiple tastings and a sweet treat
• Mini tour of the Wisconsin State Capitol
• Enough food for a light lunch (drinks available for purchase)
• Vegetarian options available

Dietary Notes
This tour is not suitable for guests with vegan, dairy‑free, or gluten‑free dietary restrictions.

Few things are as daunting as feeling unprepared to chase your dreams. And yet, that's a nearly universal experience for beginners in the outdoor media landscape. This course will cover some harsh realities, early-career hacks, and helpful mantras and mindset tips in a safe, honest environment, led by someone who, in many ways, is still a struggling beginner herself. Attendees can expect to take a deep breath, build actionable plans for sustainable near-term growth and success, and find a welcoming space for any and all questions they might feel too scared to ask elsewhere.

Valuing Your Work and Negotiating Fair Compensation as a Professional Writer

Writers are often told that exposure is payment enough. But professional storytelling, whether through journalism, essays, books, photography, podcasts, branded content, or public speaking, is skilled labor built on years of experience, creativity, and hard-earned expertise. Your work has value. Learning how to advocate for that value is essential to building a sustainable career.

In this practical and candid workshop, award-winning author, journalist, and media producer James Edward Mills will lead a conversation about the business side of creative work. Participants will explore how to realistically evaluate the worth of their time, talent, and intellectual property while developing the confidence to negotiate fair compensation for writing assignments, speaking engagements, consulting work, partnerships, and multimedia projects.
Drawing from more than three decades of experience in publishing, outdoor media, brand partnerships, public speaking, and nonprofit collaboration, Mills will share real-world strategies for setting rates, navigating difficult conversations, identifying hidden labor, and avoiding the common trap of undervaluing your work. The session will also examine the unique challenges facing freelance creatives in outdoor and travel media, where passion is too often used to justify underpayment.

Topics will include:

• Establishing professional rates and fee structures
• Understanding the true cost of freelance work
• Negotiating contracts and deliverables
• Knowing when to say yes and when to walk away
• Building long-term professional relationships without sacrificing your value
• Leveraging expertise, lived experience, and niche authority into sustainable opportunities

Whether you are an emerging freelancer or an established storyteller looking to strengthen your business practices, this workshop will provide practical tools and honest insight to help you protect your work, advocate for yourself, and get paid what you’re worth.

What makes a photograph a keeper? It depends, of course, but on what? In this supportive image review session, Colleen will lead a thoughtful discussion aimed at helping you see your photographs—and your storytelling potential—with greater clarity and confidence. Using attendee-submitted images, we’ll examine what’s supporting our intended message, what’s undermining it, and how deliberate visual design choices shape the viewer’s experience through the frame. You’ll hear practical insights into composition, storytelling, and technical decision-making. All skill levels, camera types, and outdoor-related photographic genres are welcome—from wildlife to recreation, sweeping landscapes to intimate macro studies. Bring your images and your curiosity! Leave with sharper eyes and a stronger visual voice!

Most creatives don't use AI, because they over-fixate on its ability to "create" content. If that's you, you are really missing out!  AI excels at handling the back office drudgery creators struggle with every day to ship great content.  Join me as we discuss how to implement AI and automation responsibly and in a brand authentic way and tackle specific day-to-day use cases.

Throw away your packaged meals and come along with Chef Corso of Outdoor Eats for this hands on cooking workshop. He will share fast, easy and tasty recipe ideas that are perfect for any outdoor activity. All recipes are 10 ingredients or less, ready in 30 min or less, easy to shop for and pack up. We will cover camp stove equipment, packing tips and tricks, dietary restriction considerations as well as cook up and taste multiple recipes for all times of day. Elevate your meals with Outdoor Eats!

Feeling stuck in our writing can be rooted in boredom, especially as seasoned professionals but also for newbies who feel overwhelmed with information or pressured to sound like other writers. Using a combination of science-backed exercises to boost neurological activity and language play, writers will walk away energized with the act of writing, excited to dive back into a project that had felt stale, and smiling. The goal is to bring creativity into writing in a way that feels energized, fun, and productive.

This generative writing workshop explores tools to connect our readers more deeply to the narrative we’re writing and the intention of our work. We’ll explore the difference between giving readers the experience and our experience, and how those methods can serve independent purposes. We’ll practice bringing sensation, observation, and perspective to our writing, developing our craft to produce compelling stories.

This interactive workshop will help outdoor writers understand how to collaborate effectively with PR and communications teams while maintaining editorial independence. Drawing from real-world outdoor storytelling examples, Melissa Benhaim will break down how pitches are developed, how press trips are structured, and how writers can navigate interviews, hosted experiences, and inbound opportunities professionally. Participants will gain practical tools for working with destinations, brands, and tourism partners on their next great story. Ideal for new writers or those looking for a back-to-basics overview.

Do you need to provide photos for a project you will soon be working on? Learn how to create outstanding photos that are publishable and profitable. This course will teach you several practical techniques that you can use with anything from a cell phone to a DLSR. Many examples are provided to help you improve your photography skills. The underlying key is to help you make more money by selling better photos.

The skills necessary to be a successful author translate well over time. The course will examine the work of the masters of writing about nature and the environment. Their content, techniques, styles and structures will be dissected and models offered for today's communicators.

This workshop explores why podcasts and audio content are uniquely effective tools for reaching active outdoor and adventure enthusiasts and how brands, destinations, and organizations can use them strategically. We’ll cover audience behavior, storytelling formats, trust-building, and how to integrate natural calls to action that drive awareness, engagement, and conversion. Attendees can expect practical guidance on developing audio concepts, choosing the right platforms, and aligning stories with marketing goals. By the end of the session, participants will understand how to use audio to create authentic connections, extend content lifespan, and reach their audience wherever their adventures take them.