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YOU WANT TO GO WHERE?

How to Get Someone to Pay for the Trip of Your Dreams

By Jeff Blumenfeld

One man receives funding to climb a mountain in Antarctica named after himself; a Denver schoolteacher climbs the tallest peaks in each state in record time; and then there’s the crazed golfer who receives sponsorship for hitting a golf ball 1,319 miles across Mongolia. Is it easy to get someone to pay for your dream trip? No, not at all. But Expedition News editor and travel public relations professional Jeff Blumenfeld explains how with the right idea and proper advance preparation, it is possible to raise thousands of dollars in cash and outdoor gear and apparel for worthy expeditions in his new book, You Want to Go Where?: How to Get Someone to Pay for the Trip of Your Dreams . A section of the book even explains where there are thousands of dollars available in grants from sponsors such as W.L. Gore & Associates, Land Rover, National Geographic, Polartec, and Rolex.

You Want to Go Where? shares the story of a 35-year “adventure marketing” career spent linking corporations like Du Pont, The Coleman Company, 3M Thinsulate and Lands’ End with adventurers and explorers. Among other adventures, Blumenfeld takes readers on polar explorer Paul Schurke’s historic Bering Bridge Expedition; the planning for Will Steger’s North Pole and Trans-Antarctica Expeditions; and highlights the determination of an Icelandic sea captain, a descendent of Leif Eiriksson, who built a replica Viking ship and sailed it to New York.

It’s the only book that not only takes you behind-the-scenes of some of the most historic

and modern-day adventures, but also provides advice on how individuals can fund and arrange their own trips. Advice for budding adventurers and explorers, even armchair explorers with a dream trip in mind, includes:

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• Developing a newsworthy project—such as finding Amelia Earhart; locating the lost Kodak camera left by Everest climbers in the 1920s; or digging up the remains of an entire community destroyed by volcano in Iceland.
• How to identify likely corporate sponsors and impress them once they respond to your e-mails or telephone calls.
• The latest technology that allows instant communications with sponsors, media, family, and friends now matter where you are on earth.
• What happens when the project doesn’t go exactly as planned? Blumenfeld examines real-life situations where sled dogs have died; a freediver drowned; and an extended sea voyage almost ended prematurely when a crew member became pregnant.

Blumenfeld’s book turns to experts to explain how to negotiate sponsorships, provides advice from a professional photographer about how to take photos that will thrill sponsors and encourage them to participate in the next adventure, and lists guide services ready to help aspiring adventurers obtain the outdoor skills they’ll need to convince sponsors they have what it takes. After reading this, the only remaining question will be: “where do you want to go?”

About the Author

Jeff Blumenfeld is editor and publisher of Expedition News, an insider’s guide to the business of adventure marketing. A member of The Explorers Club and American Alpine Club, he is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London where he has presented on the subject of expedition sponsorship. He runs Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., a successful public relations firm in Darien, Connecticut that specializes in travel and outdoor-related clients. For more information, please visit www.blumenfeldpr.com.