Every year for the past 12 years, something amazing has
happened. One or two people with no particular event-planning experience have
raised their hands and volunteered to host the Garden Bloggers Fling. And every
year for the past 12 years, garden bloggers from all over North America and
beyond have been able to attend an amazingly fun and exciting garden tour in a
new city.
Next year the Fling will be hosted in beautiful Madison,
Wisconsin. But after that, we don’t know
if there will be a Fling. Why? Because we don’t have a volunteer(s) to host
in 2021.
We’ve been working behind the scenes to find a host city for
2021. But unless someone steps forward to say, “I’ll do it!” the Fling won’t
happen. It’s that simple.
Maybe YOU can be the one to keep the Fling going! If you’ve
ever attended the Garden Bloggers Fling and you have an active (or even
semi-active) garden blog, then you can host. You don’t need prior experience in
hosting a tour. You just need to be an organized person, a team player, budget minded,
and someone with staying power who doesn’t quit until a job is done.
Having contacts in your local garden community is a plus for
finding gardens for the tour, but if you’re willing to reach out to people
(plant societies, garden clubs, designers, master gardeners, garden
writers/communicators), you’ll find great gardens. We can advise you on the
rest. In fact we have a handy-dandy Hosting Handbook with all the details so
you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
It’s easy to take an annual event like the Fling for
granted, assuming it’ll always be there. But the Fling happens each year only because someone steps up to host. Will
YOU be that person in 2021?
If you’re interested or have any questions about hosting,
please contact Pam Penick. We hope to hear from you!
Fling Advisory Committee