So here I am at the International Food Bloggers Confertence 2017 in beautiful Sacramento, CA. I took Amtrak from Denver and the trip across the Rockies, the Continental Divide, the Sierra Madres was beautiful. And I met such intersting folks on the train. Two were traveling all over the US to celebrate a 70th birthday. They were from England and were truly enjoying their adventure. Another couple was from Australia and China, also take several weeks to travel all over the US and Canada. Another couple was from Denver, and as they put it :Our kids are all grown and out of the house, so we're being totally irresponsible spending their future inheritance."
There were some excursions yesterday, but the official conference started this morning. It included my three favorite "Ps" - Presenters, Products, and Participants. The keynote speaker this morning has been collecting stories and is starting to videotape them. To paraphrase, facts, figures, opinions, plans, and goals are all worthy topics, but it is people and their stories that make those topics come alive. I look forward to reading more stories and seeing his videos in the future.
Melissa and Abeer spent an hour telling us how they have monetized their blogs and gave us some ideas and suggestions of various money streams. For me, some were obvious (find a food-related company to pay you to blog about them) and others less so (find small, probably local, companies and propose to them to help them write content for their websites or blogs or you write for them). Gave me some good ideas.
In the afternoon, I had to choose between Balsamic Vinegar from Moderna and Lamb. I chose balsamic vinegar and was glad for it. Federico gave us lots of details bout how balsamic vinegar is produced and explained why the taste differences and price difference among brands. We got to taste cheese dipped in a fresh balsamic vinegar and and aged balsamic vinegar and went hone happy with a small bottle of aged balsamic vinegar.
We then again had to choose either more about monetizing your blog and getting paid for food writing in general presented by Babi. The other session was about increasing you Instagram followers by Stephani. I chose monetizing my work again and we got into depth on the topic. I learned a lot!
Finishing the day, was an extravaganza of food tastings from local establishment - chicken cole slaw, seviche, truffles, potatoe chips, lamb burgers, cake, and more. And then a trip through the Goody Room - tables full of free products ranging from oatmeal, to popcorn, to cutting boards, water bottles with fruit/veggie infusers, cheese, salsa, and on and on.
The fun contnues tomorrow and I can't wait!
No comments:
Post a Comment