If you read my recent post with the recipe for Nanaimo Bars
you will have seen me mention that I was recently at a food blogger conference.
It was actually Food Blogger Connect, held in the lovely Battersea Arts
Centre.
FBC was founded in 2009 and is the world’s foremost food
blogging conference. Bloggers come from all over the globe and listen to guest
speakers, network with companies, fellow bloggers and FBC is invaluable in terms of
its international reach.
There are interactive labs to take part in, knowledge hubs
and classes on photography, marketing and food writing and so on.
There is also a street party – called strEat party,
featuring new foods and drink from
across the globe, for all attendees to enjoy as the day goes on.
My original intention was to bring you a few posts over the
next few weeks on FBC, but other bloggers are doing this so much better than I
could. I shall just give you a quick run through of my weekend and some
photographs from the weekend along the way.
Jac (from Tinned Tomatoes) and I flew down on Friday morning
to London and reached the venue, Battersea Arts Centre, just before midday. Jac
introduced me to lots of fellow bloggers. It’s quite strange knowing so many
people by blog alone, then meeting them in the flesh.
From midday to 2pm was a meet and great where founder
Bethany Kehdy opened the conference and everyone sampled the delicious foods on
offer.
My friend and fellow blogging baker Lisa from United Cakedom
then arrived and we chatted and got to know each other before the classes
started.
The afternoon was filled with talks and seminars before the
first of the labs I had booked. This was hosted by Urvashi Roe and was about
blog content planning. Have a look at Jac’s post on this seminar.
The strEat party followed after this where we drank tequila
(lot’s of it!) and tasted the different foods available. Canada was featured
heavily and there I met Anna Olson from the Food Network (I know I mentioned
this in my last post, but I was star-struck!!).
The day ended, I was exhausted (I had been up since 4am!) and I hit the hay before
another day of classes.
The first of which was food photography and styling with
food blogger and photographer Donal Skehan and stylist Sharon Hearne-Smith.
This was really interesting and taught me loads about the ways to present your
food and take those all-important drool worthy snaps. Read Jac's post about this.
There were more talks
throughout the day and in the afternoon was an interview session with Yotam
Ottolenghi. I have to admit that although I had heard of him, I didn’t really
know much about him. Other bloggers clearly did and were so excited to see him.
More talks in the afternoon before another strEat party and
I headed back to the hotel fairly early as I was shattered.
Sunday started a bit later for me, I headed for a Starbucks
first thing and took a few snaps around Clapham, where I was staying before
wandering up to the Art Centre.
After a few more classes, the closing ceremony
took place. There I met another male baker Luca who goes by the twitter handle
@chuechebueb – which translates as cake boy in swiss german! Luca and I got on
really well (pictures can be deceiving) and shall be collaborating at some point in the future.
Jac and I grabbed our goodie bags and headed straight back
to the airport and the weekend was over. It was a late night, I was
really tired but had enjoyed a fantastic, educational and food friendly weekend!
I love Anna Olson - I am sooooo jealous. Her baking series was the most relaxing, instructive show ever!
ReplyDeleteI was very starstruck CC!
DeleteHa ha, I think we were both tired. It was really great to meet you, and what a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like a distant memory now Luca. Great to meet you too
DeleteSounds like you had a fun packed weekend. There is always so much going on at these events and so much to take in, I can imagine it being a bit tiring. Every year, I vow I will go next year - one day!!!
ReplyDelete