Good morning,

 

After much deliberation over the past few months, we have made the difficult decision that the 2021 International Master Gardener Conference will be a virtual event. We conferred with others in weighing our options and concluded this was our only feasible option with all things considered. Though a virtual conference was not our original plan, we are excited for this new opportunity to bring our speakers, workshops, and networking opportunities to even more Master Gardeners at a greatly-reduced cost from attending the in-person event.

 

Based on our experience planning and executing an extremely successful virtual state conference in June, we believe we can create a virtual event that will be truly unique. We are hard at work planning opportunities for the networking and socializing usually absent from virtual events, and we have some exciting ideas for other sessions that take advantage of our online format.

 

We know you might have questions about our switch to digital, and I want to take the opportunity to address a few here:

• Keynote and concurrent sessions will be recorded and available for viewing later. The session recording library will only be available to those registered
• In order to prevent webinar fatigue, each day will only feature a few hours of virtual sessions (instead of filling the entire day, as with our in-person event)
• There will be opportunities for socializing and networking with Master Gardeners from around the country and further abroad
• Registration cost will be substantially lower than the cost of attending the in person event
• Full schedule will be released in March 2021 and registration will open April 5, 2021
• Registration will be first-come-first-served and capped at 2,500. Workshops offered during IMGC will have lower capacity limits

 

Thank you all for your support of our conference! Now that we have officially made the switch to virtual, expect to see more regular updates. If you do not yet receive IMGC emails, please subscribe here.

 

For more information about our virtual conference: https://www.internationalmastergardener.com/about/

For sponsorship information: https://www.internationalmastergardener.com/sponsor-imgc-2021/

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/606582003519182

 

We hope you’ll join us next September!

 

Best,

Kathleen Reed and the Virginia EMG Program

 

 

Kathleen Reed

State Coordinator, Extension Master Gardener Program

Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences (0327)

490 West Campus Drive

306F Saunders Hall

Blacksburg, VA 24061

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