Dear
The City of Portland’s River Renaissance Initiative and a number of partners are organizing Riverfest, a new annual celebration of the Willamette River. Our 2008 theme is: “The Willmatte: Respect, Reconnect, Renew.”
Riverfest will take place August 28 through September 7 and will feature the Portland Triathlon, the Portland Paddle, Dragonboat Races, a boat parade, a parade of Willamette species, sailing regattas, tours, and much more. (Please visit www.portlandriverfest.org for more information).
To round out our on-the-river events, we’d like to sponsor a Willamette Chautauqua—a series of talks to educate, entertain, and edify citizens on Willamette River topics.
We see the talks as being 30 to 45 minutes in length for audiences of between 40 to 75 people. The Chautauqua will be offered the evenings of September 3, 4, and 5th. We are in the process of selecting a venue and completing our design for the talks, which may feature more than one talk per evening and close with a panel to engage with attendees.
As a recognized expert in __________, we were hoping you might consider presenting a talk. _________________
Thanks for forgiving the informality of this email inquiry. If you’re interested and available on these dates, I’d welcome the opportunity to talk to you more as soon as possible.
Chet Orloff
Gordon Grant
Another alternative would be to use a topic and panel approach, where we get 2-3 speakers per evening, with a panel discussion and/or Q&A... For example, we might have...
• Willamette at Work--How has the River generated wealth in Portland--how will it in the future? (maybe Chet Orloff, Bill Wyatt or other PDXer (like former commissioner Michael Powell); possibly TravelPortland person);
• Willamette By Design--What does it mean to live in harmony with our river? (maybe Randy Gragg, PDC's Larry Brown, Homer Williams, Travis Williams, or Mike Houck);
• Willamette Wonder--The True Story of an Amazing River (Gordon Grant (hydrologist--how our river flows and what it means for the future); Brent Walth (how the Willamette was saved by Tom McCall--again); ...
• Willamette: Work Ahead--what we're doing to help the River (Travis, Dean Marriott/Rick Applegate, Jim McKenna, etc.)
Well, you get the picture...
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Willamette: River of History
Grand Ronde
Chet Orloff
Brent Walth
Willamette By Design:
Randy Gragg
Mike Houck
Gil Kelley
Willamette H2O
Gordon Grant
Stan Gregory