I had the opportunity over the weekend to attend the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC) in Santa Monica, Ca. Hopefully you guessed from the name that it was a conference for and about food blogging. It was hosted by Foodista and Zephyr Adventures. I made the decision to attend this year with the hope that I would learn a thing or two about the world of blogging. What I got out of the weekend was so much more.
I met many fabulous people who share my love of food, wine, writing, and photography. I was inspired creatively and emotionally by all of the sessions I attended. I picked up some food photography tips from Matt Armendariz. Follow that up with a sampling of local food and drinks, paired with a keynote speech by Jonathan Gold and you have the menu for a great evening. I was particularly excited to see Jonathan Gold in person and hear him speak. He is such a beautiful writer and I admire him greatly. He gave a great talk about his love of food that turned into a career and some experiences he has had along the way. Of course his keynote speech was full of Los Angeles restaurant recommendations that I am eagerly awaiting the chance to try.
Day Two of IFBC included panels about finding your voice, writing about culture, and being true to yourself in your writing. Kathleen Flinn and Olga Massov provided a light and entertaining panel about writing with plenty of tips and anecdotes to take home. I can’t wait to get my copy of The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry (it’s currently on my wish list, you know). We had a great food truck lunch on Saturday featuring yummy samples from The Grilled Cheese Truck, Steel City Sandwich, Rosa’s Bella Cucina, and Chomp Chomp Nation. Post lunch I learned so much about SEO from Rand Fishkin. I am certainly not an expert, but I feel this session gave me enough information for a great start into the world of SEO.
Perhaps the highlight of the conference for me was getting to meet several bloggers that I have been following for a while in person. Between the wine tasting and the beautiful dinner hosted by The Crusher and Chef Micheal Moore I got to hang with the cool kids while enjoying more wine and delightful conversation. It was so great to meet Annelies, Kimberly, Andrew, and so many other great bloggers. If I named them all this would just be a giant and delicious list of food bloggers to follow instead of a blog post. I am eagerly awaiting a post from Bethanie of Kitchen Tangents with the results of her “Foodie” survey.
A close second, actually, on par with meeting all these great people was getting my sourdough starter from Pinch My Salt. I can’t wait to start experimenting with homemade sourdough bread! I am also looking forward to implementing all the tips I learned over the weekend as I continue to write about what brings us all together and which I love: food.
[...] November I attended IFBC where I got a two-hour refresher of the class I had just finished in school. The panel was [...]