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At the Bioneers 2019 -- 30th Conference Opening and What a Trip It's Been

Growing Transformative Solutions, Everyday a Vision of Possibilities and Change

https://bioneers.org * https://bioneers.org/about/history * https://conference.bioneers.org * https://bioneers.org/the-green-new-deal

Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, co-founders of the Bioneers --- Welcoming all to the annual conference in Marin, California

Three Decades +, On We Go

The Bioneers conference is considered a preeminent international gathering of environmental groups, NGOs and individuals, held annually since the early 90s. The Bioneers is a unique network and source of environmental solutions.

A Note from Kenny Ausubel as time goes on and we keep on keeping on...

Steve Schmidt, now at GreenPolicy360, was a founder of the publishing division of Seeds of Change in the early 1990s and had a key role in the start up of the Bioneers.

Years after the launching of Bioneers, Kenny wrote of Steve as "modest" and so he wanted to describe some of Steven's early contributions that helped the success of the Bioneers work over decades:

Steve Schmidt, Seeds of Change and Bioneers Publishing & Envisioning ... From: Kenny Ausubel

I did two major book deals with Steve Schmidt, as well as working with him in many other capacities over a period since about 1991. I continue to work close and actively with him today. Steve served as my agent for my first book deal related to my work with Seeds of Change, the company I co-founded. I developed a proposal with him, and he was invaluable in the proposal development and refinement. He then went out to multiple publishers, and rapidly garnered very high interest that he leveraged into a pre-emptive offer from Harper Collins (1992). It was a two-book deal respectively for $125,000 for the Seeds of Change book, and $50,000 for a smaller book on Bioneers.

He further negotiated a groundbreaking package that included a 12-city book tour, and a large media campaign that resulted in interviews, reviews and articles from the NY Times and Wall Street Journal, to CNN, ABC and a huge volume of other press. He collaborated with the publisher and me on other innovative strategies. I do not recall the cost of the tour, but it will into six figures and was contractually obligated on top of the advance and money.

Steve built on the first deal for a subsequent two-book deal with Bantam that was at the top level of deals being done in that time, around 1994. He obtained a contract for $400,000 for the two books, a rarity for nonfiction. The deal was successfully completed including a substantial marketing budget...

I am currently working again with Steve on multiple media projects including the Bioneers e-book imprint where we are developing a stable of innovators and titles. He is also acting as agent for my new book, which is with publishers now.

I have found Steve to be not only highly effective, but also one of the smartest, most strategic and most editorially insightful people I’ve ever known. He has unwavering integrity, deep vision, and lots of street smarts.

His background includes many other areas including interactive digital agenting, work in the feature film business, and a major role in both the US and European Green Party platform.

Kenny Ausubel included a number of references and links to Kenny's and Steve's collaborative work on Seeds of Change-Bioneers books and their work together: