Wilderness Medical Society snowmass 2005 Page 311
Contact local state parks, libraries, community centers, schools, youth groups,
universities and outdoor clubs. They will also take care of advertising the talk. Leave
your name, contact information, references, and a list of topics. Follow up with a call a
few weeks later to confirm your intentions and availability. Often these groups are
interested in a lecture but didn't know how or whom to contact. Making the first contact
imparts knowledge of community resources and expertise available to groups.
Be creative in seeking out opportunities to advertise your availability. Invite the local
newspaper to publish an article you wrote on a wilderness medicine topic or invite them
to cover a lecture you are giving. Offer to give an interview at the local radio station on
the general concept of wilderness medicine.
Once you start making contacts and giving lectures your referral base grows and so do
the requests. Groups you may not have thought to be interested will contact you for a
lecture. Use a website or email address for the contacts. Or if you have a community
education department where you work scheduling the lectures through them enhances the
experience for everyone. It is an easy and consistent contact source for a request and acts
as a central clearing house for you.
Making Trail Buddies - How to Find a Target Audience
As you build a network, word will get out and the next thing you know the local librarian
will have sent out a search and rescue team to find you for a lecture. But at the start you
have two choices. You can pick a topic and the audience finds you or you choose the
audience and tailor a topic to them.
In the beginning I found it easier to identify the target audience through networking and
choose a topic that fits a specific need of the group. For example, `First Aid for Campers
and Hikers' is a good choice for a campground program and `How to Stay Warm if the
Electricity Goes Out' heats up a senior citizen housing group.
Here are a few more examples of topics paired and timed for specific groups:
1. "Wild Animal Attacks" offered during hunter health screen workshop
2. "Things That Bite, Sting & Crawl" garden club meeting
3. "Outdoor Safety for Children" during a children's health fair
Attendance will vary depending on your geographic location, season, topic, timing of
lecture, lecture location and intended audience. It doesn't always work out as planned.
Once I was asked to give a lecture on Lyme disease and instead of my intended audience
of outdoor adventurers I had a room of Lyme disease hypochondriacs seeking the latest
alternative therapy and testing! I learned from that mishap to make lecture titles more
specific for the intended audience.
Direction Finding How to Map out a Topic
In the beginning choose topics you are most familiar and comfortable talking about either
related to your specialty or from personal experiences.
If you are having difficulties choosing a topic, start with one on the general concept of
Wilderness and Travel Medicine. This attracts not only exotic adventurers but also people
planning domestic and foreign travel on perceived less risky vacations such as a cross
country camping trip or a cruise to the Caribbean.
Examples of talks:
1. "Cruising and Health Safety" offered at a travel agency
2. "How to Maintain Your Health when Traveling Abroad" university students in study
abroad programs
3. "First Aid for Travelers" church group planning a mission trip
