(March 2017) San Francisco, CA – Today the Wine Bloggers Conference Scholarship Foundation and EthniFacts, announced the third annual “EthniFacts Diversity in Wine Writing & Content Creation Scholarship,” to encourage ethnic, gender, and cultural diversity in the Wine Bloggers Conference attendees.
This year, the Ethnifacts Scholarship has been expanded to support two individuals in attending the conference this November in Santa Rosa, California, the heart of Sonoma’s wine country.
“While it is clear that America is changing, the amount of blogger diversity hasn’t kept up with the changes in the American mainstream,” said Mike Lakusta, CEO and Founding Partner of EthniFacts. “For the past two years, we’ve seen our scholarship recipients go on to do great work in expanding their reach and readership. This scholarship is meant to encourage participation and support of diverse candidates who write great blogs while providing expanded knowledge of wine regions throughout America.”
Candidate requirements include having a blog that maintains an active status and has been in existence for at least one year, demonstrate a clear financial need, and meet the multicultural guidelines set forth by EthniFacts and the WBC Scholarship Fund.
- First Year Attendee
- Citizen Blogger with no paid wine writing experience
- Diversity Candidate
“We appreciate the long-time partnership with EthniFacts and are excited to double the impact this scholarship will have in 2017,” said Thea Dwelle, chairman of the WBC Scholarship Committee. “Many bloggers do not have the ability to fund a trip that may cost more than a $1,000 by the time hotel, flight and conference registration are totaled, and this newly established scholarship will remove financial barriers.”
The Wine Bloggers Conference Scholarship was founded in 2009 to provide well established “citizen bloggers” with a stipend so they can attend the wine bloggers conference, further their knowledge, their network, the wine blogging community and the wine industry as a whole. The recipients are bloggers who are not affiliated with a winery or other company in the wine industry with a demonstrated financial need. Specific attention is paid to bloggers who post regularly, have never attended the conference before and who are students with a particular focus in wine.
The tenth annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference is scheduled for November 9-12, 2017, and brings together hundreds of wine bloggers, social media educators and leaders, and wine industry members in Santa Rosa. This year marks the tenth conference and brings some exciting changes to format, including in depth focal tastings, video content creation sessions, and a diverse group of writers, video makers, and podcasters.
The Wine Bloggers Conference Scholarship is partnered with Enobytes, an organization dedicated to sharing passion and knowledge of wine and food. This non-profit organization serves a global audience of wine lovers, and takes innovation to the next level with interactive maps, in depth wine reviews, and wine business analysis.
For more information please contact info@wbcscholarship.com and visit wbcscholarship.com/America
