SAVANNAH SURVEY COMMENTS

Some random thoughts from those who attended this year’s conference:

I was treated to two exceptional speakers on topics relevant to our industry and I had the opportunity to share and discuss with esteemed writers/editors in the industry. It was fantastic!

The ethics discussion was outstanding, and Ted Gup gave us a real world view of writing and reporting.

An ideal mix of networking, learning and TOCA business.

A wonderful opportunity to share in a non-competitive environment.

Great professional development! Great tours! Great banquet!

Some suggestions for next time:

Other speakers from top journalism schools [such as Don Ranly] would be good.

[Let’s hear from] a current publisher who started out as an editor and moved over to the dark side.

More best practice sharing from award winners.

Better name tags!

Thanks to all who took the time to share their thoughts. We’re always looking for ways to improve the TOCA experience. See you next year in Minneapolis!

MEMBER NEWS

TOCA greets the following new members:  Andie Belfry, Padilla Speer Beardsley; Steve Bruss, EPIC Creative; Eric Bryan, The Parish Group; John Crossman, EPIC Creative; Brooke Engelhardt, EPIC Creative; Andrea Goodall, Padilla Speer Beardsley; Adam Gross, EPIC Creative; Chad Kempf, EPIC Creative; Dan Jacobs, Questex; Scott Leiphart, EPIC Creative; Sherry MacDonald, Professional Landcare Network; Richard May, Tree Care Industry Association; Jim McLoughlin, TMG Golf; Tom Mentzer, Mentzer PR Group; Kristen Morabito, Questex; Emily Mullins, Lawn & Landscape; Ronnie Musselwhite, Golf Course Industry; Maryann Parish, The Parish Group; Bill Parish, The Parish Group; Mark Phillips, GIE Media; Adam Slick, Jacobsen; Bill Stringfellow, Quest Products.  Welcome, everyone!

EWING AND KIDS ENCOURAGE CONSERVATION

Ewing Irrigation teamed up with WeWrite LLC to develop “All Dried Out,” a book that follows a set of young twins on an adventure to find the causes of a water shortage as they attempt to find solutions to this very important problem.

The novel part? The book was written by kids in a workshop led by WeWrite’s Rita Brodland. Twelve-year-old Adam Favela, one of the co-authors said, “I want to let people know we need to conserve water now because our world is running out and we need water for the future.”

Speaking of the future, perhaps Adam and his friends will be part of the future of TOCA. Congratulations and thanks to Ewing for supporting this worthy project.

HELEN STONE, TOCA’S ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATOR OF THE YEAR, SAYS THANKS

I would like to thank TOCA and Project Evergreen for the tremendous honor of being named Environmental Communicator of the Year. As I said, it’s like a dream come true.