Just... WOW.

What an amazing three weeks it has been trying to crowdfund our EWF Digital Writers conference roadshow to Brisbane. The last two days has been particularly wild! We sent a newsletter to our mailing list yesterday updating people that we were still a smidge over 40% away from our funding target of $4000. That newsletter reinvigorated our campaign, and this morning we were still had 30% to go, $1250. But - WOW! - today was totally mad, and we reached our target at approximately 4.30pm.

It doesn't seem enough to say THANK YOU to you, our supporters. If we could hug each of you individually, we would. We have been overwhelmed, amazed, and astounded at the support you have shown for our project over the past few weeks - both financially, and through promoting our campaign. We understand that you, our audience and our writerly friends, are not necessarily the most cashed-up demographic, and we appreciate each and every dollar that was donated to this campaign. It means a lot to us to know we mean a lot to you.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated. Whether you gave $1 or $500, your contribution made a meaningful difference to helping us reach our target.

Really, we are at a bit of a loss about what to say. Thanks for your support. We heart you. And finally...

Brisbane, here we come!

Sincerely,

Lisa Dempster

We are currently three days away from the end of our crowdfunding drive to Brisbane, and we still need $1250 to make our $4000 target. If we don’t reach our Pozible target, we will not receive any of the donated money.

Today we at the EWF are considering the very real possibility that our campaign will not be funded.

Why $4000?
Though it is a nice round figure, the sum was not arbitrary. This is the money we needed to pay artists, cover travel and accommodation, and also include the low costs of creating rewards and covering the Pozible fees. Without it we simply don’t have the funds to run our Digital Writers conference in Brisbane.

What if your crowdfunding campaign doesn’t work?
That is the big question at EWF at the moment! If the crowdfunding campaign doesn’t work, we will need to consider the possibility that there isn’t enough interest in Brisbane for our Digital Writers conference.

That said, we are still keen to bring our festival north, somehow. We have excellent partnerships in place and will seek further financial partnerships to bring an EWF Roadshow to Brisbane. However, the clock is ticking as we are currently a month away from Queensland Writers Week.

Can you help?
There is still time to kick in to our Pozible campaign – every dollar makes a difference. We would love to see a sudden surge of support to bring this thing home!

Show your support by telling your networks about Digital Writers - just click the PROMOTE button on our Pozible page, just there below the video.

If you know any writers in Brisbane, you could direct them to our Pozible page!

If you are a company or individual who would be interested in being involved in a Brisbane EWF Roadshow, please drop us a line!

Why are you crowdfunding?
We are crowdfunding because we need money to take our event to Brisbane! We have created partnerships in Brisbane that are helping us fund the way, including with Queensland Writers Centre, If:Book Australia, and Avid Reader, but there is a shortfall that we need to make up in order to be able to bring the EWF north.

In addition, we have chosen crowdfunding because it’s a good way for us to be able to get a sense of whether there is a desire in Brisbane for our Digital Writers event. One of the rewards for the crowdfunding campaign is a ticket to our Digital Writers event. If enough people purchase their tickets through Pozible, we will know that there is a desire from Brisbane writers for us to run our event!

Where will the crowdfunded money go?
The money we are fundraising through Pozible is particularly money we need to pay our artists. The Emerging Writers’ Festival pays artists for all their events, and Digital Writers is no exception. There are also travel and accommodation fees we need to fundraise in order to bring Festival crew and guests to Brisbane for the event.

Why should we contribute to your crowdfunding campaign?
If you live in Brisbane, you can purchase your ticket to Digital Writers through our crowdfunding campaign. There are also options that will get you invited to our artists’ party and other goodies.

If you live outside of Brisbane but love the Emerging Writers’ Festival, you can donate a small (or large!) amount to ensure that Brisbane gets to enjoy a little EWF magic. Donors outside of Brisbane will receive fun rewards like LEGO poetry in the mail, or a handwritten postcard from Brisbane.

What if you don’t reach your crowdfunding target?
If we do not reach our crowdfunding target we will not be able to run Digital Writers in Brisbane.

Are you doing anything else in Brisbane?
We are creating a series of events in Brisbane, including an event at Avid Reader, and some fun events like our awesome Spelling Bee. But the only event we are crowdfunding is Digital Writers. If you’d like to see us in Brisbane but are not interested in Digital Writers, we encourage you to support that campaign to help bring us north!