Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) 2025 Conference

Creativity has always been about adaptation—whether painters feared the camera or travel writers faced the rise of short-form video and AI. In this keynote, photographer and storyteller Andy Austin explores how to evolve, capture attention, and thrive in an ever-changing media landscape.

Something happens to hunters when they pick up a rod and head offshore. Stepping aboard alone, with friends, on charter vessels, or party/headboats they feel the same anticipation and connection with the natural world, but all too often lose their sense of its finite limits. The sheer expansiveness of the ocean seems to alter their perspective.

But not for everyone. Charter captains and seasoned guides, who depend on healthy fisheries for their livelihoods, have long recognized the disconnect between perception and reality. “I’ve had guys who would spend an hour tracking a wounded duck onshore, but at sea, they toss back fish after fish until they land a trophy,” noted one Gulf captain. “They don’t see the fish dying below, but I do.” These professionals, much like hunting guides on land, have become crucial voices in shifting attitudes—helping clients recognize that conservation shouldn’t and can't stop at the shoreline.

Yet from Florida and Texas to New Jersey and Maine many others have begun to take a new approach. They seek to exercise restraint, engage one another in accountable stewardship, embrace pragmatic digital technology, share data with officials, balance rights with responsibilities, and extend many of the conservation approaches they already practice on fields and in streams to rebuild the mysterious and complex wild offshore.

Call it a genuine "Sea Change." Four hundred years ago, William Shakespeare penned The Tempest, a drama of people transformed by the ocean’s magic. To describe this altered state, he coined the phrase “sea change.” Today, that term has become overused and vague. But this talk embraces the Bard’s original meaning: the profound conversion of confused, divided, and broken coastal communities who discover how to thrive in an alliance that turns chaos into grace.

Audience? Anyone who has ever impaled bait on a barbed hook, cast it into the unknown, and wondered with bated breath what mysteries might be taking place in the dark world beneath the surface. But especially outdoor writers, who try and manage to translate that complex mindset into images, stories, and print.

What if your ideal reader or customer were always available—just a click away—ready to chat 24/7? In this session, I’ll show you how to turn that vision into reality with a custom GPT.

A custom GPT is a mini version of ChatGPT that you fine-tune for your specific needs (and no, you don’t have to be a tech genius to build one). We’ll walk through the process of setting one up to act as your ideal customer or reader, equipped with their demographics, preferences, and behaviors. When you engage with it, it responds as if it is that persona, giving you direct insights into their thoughts and reactions.

Imagine the possibilities:

• Test how an article or marketing copy resonates before publishing
• Brainstorm perfectly targeted content ideas
• Ask about product updates they want—or what new offerings excite them
• Identify potential pain points and how you can solve them
• Get direct feedback on pricing strategies

By the end of this session, you’ll have the tools to create a custom GPT–powered feedback loop that helps you refine content, products, and messaging with unmatched precision. Whether you're a writer, editor, marketer, or entrepreneur, this technology will revolutionize how you understand and connect with your audience.

We'll also announce who won the and Committee Volunteer of the Year and Outstanding Board Member of the Year!

People in the search mindset rarely stay in a single lane. They weave in and out of many platforms – not only search engines – to find stories and information. As an outdoor communicator, this can create overwhelm - or opportunity. This presentation can help writers, DMOs, vendors, publications, and outdoor communicators of all kinds to navigate the changing search/digital landscape in a digestible, easy-to-process way.

With Google’s long-time dominance, writers and publications have put all their eggs in the SEO basket. But the reality is much messier - and it's changing in real-time as AI changes how people discover information. This talk will tackle the fast-changing search landscape, and propose a more simple way to think about where you should focus your energy to make your work discoverable.

The OWAA Speed Connection will be a casual 'speed dating' networking, a highly efficient and time-saving approach to making the professional connections you need. During this event, you'll have brief, one-on-one conversations with multiple people and will meet many other attendees in a short period of time. Active and Life Members will meet with Supporting Groups (Student Members, Associate Members, Speakers, and others, may connect at networking tables onsite, as well.)