Agenda

Friday August 24, 2012

In this fun session, you will have the opportunity to taste, review, and blog or Tweet a delicious variety of Oregon food and beverage products. Each brand will have five minutes to serve you their product, give a short explanation, and answer questions while you blog or Tweet about the product live. After five minutes, a new brand will move to your table to do it all over again!

• Topic 1: Gluten-Free Living: Great Changes to Enhance Your Healing, Health and Recipes! Led by Dr. Jean Layton from The Gluten-Free Doctor.
• Topic 2: Building Community Online and Offline. Led by Keren Brown of Foodportunity.
  Learn to foster the best relationships online and off. In this session, Keren will discuss: How do you take networking to the next level? How do you make use of all these relationships? Where can you find more readers? How can you think outside of the box?  How do you foster relationships in blogging and create opportunities?
• Topic 3: How Bloggers, PR Pros and Brands Can Best Work Together. Lisa Hill (PR), Cheryl Sternman Rule (author/blogger), Carrie Welch (PR, Little Green Pickle), Lisa Golden Schroeder (photographer/stylist/blogger) and Heather Jones (Heather Jones Consulting) .
  Partnerships between bloggers and PR pros can be a complicated dance. How can you as a blogger suss out suitable partnerships, and when (and how) should you say no? What do PR pros seek in blogging partners? This session will focus on the shifting dynamics in this space and will empower bloggers to choose their partners wisely.
• Topic 4: Mixology for Dummies: How to Mix Cocktails at Home That Will Make Your Bar Tending Friends Take Notice. Led by Warren Bobrow.
• Topic 5: Sweet and Spicy, Salty and Cheesy: A Wine Pairing Adventure: Wine guru Jameson Fink will take you on a tasting journey with wines from dry to sweet, light to bold to find out what works (and what doesn't) with some basic flavors. 
• Topic 6: Niche Blogging: The ladies of Vida Vegan explore the methods and reasoning behind niche blogging--vegan, gluten-free, kosher, they’re not for everyone! As a niche blogger, how do you define your focus? How do you handle the extra pressure of writing for those outside your niche? Is your blog part of a mission? How do you develop a sense of community among like-minded bloggers?

Saturday August 25, 2012

During this period engaging speaker will guide you in the world of technology. Each 1-hour 20-minute session will be given twice, so you’ll have the opportunity to sit in on two. Session 1 is from 9am-10:20am, Session 2 is from 10:30-11:50. Sessions will include the following topics:

1. SEO for Recipe and Food Blogs (now at 10:30am ONLY!)
   Content is King, but structure is Queen. In this session, Rand Fishkin, CEO & Founder of SEOmoz.org, will cover common search engine issues, how to make your blog more findable, and more! (*Due to an unfortunate schedule change Rand will only be available for the second session at 10:30. We apologize!)
2. Creating Supercharged Content to Drive Traffic and Build Your Brand.
   We know that SEO and keyword research are important for building traffic, but many bloggers aren't quite sure how to apply these practices to everyday writing. In this interactive session, Marissa Brassfield will show you how to create traffic-driving content that won't sacrifice the spirit of your blog. She'll cover how to craft sizzling, SEO-friendly titles that stand out in RSS readers and social media streams, share content repackaging strategies to breathe life into old blog posts, and help you navigate the murky waters of listicles and linkbait.
3. E-Book Publishing
   In this exciting session, industry leaders will shine a light on the world of digital publishing. They'll take you on a deep dive in content creation (on both the publishing house and self-publishing side); e-book sales/marketing, distribution, and monetization; and what the overall landscape looks like for cookbooks, cookbook publishing, and recipe content. Join Martha Holmberg (journalist and cookbook author) as she moderates a panel with Judith Dern (Allrecipes.com), Adam Salomone (Harvard Common Press), and Amy Worley (VP of Marketing at Andrews McMeel Publishing).
4. It’s not selling out, it’s getting paid: the evolution of food publication monetization. Moderated by Sarah Stringfellow (SAY Media), featuring Gabi Moskowitz (BrokeAss Gourmet) and Tori Avey of (The Shiksa in the Kitchen).
   So you love food. You love the Web. You love writing articles about, taking pictures of and generating discussion around food and everything delicious. Problem is, this hobby is turning into an obsession turning into a part time job, and it’s time to help pay to get that grub on the table. Enter monetization. Join Sarah Stringfellow (SAY Media) as she moderates a panel with Gabi Moskowitz (BrokeAss Gourmet) and Tori Avey (The Shiksa in the Kitchen) who will discuss how you can utilize your own excellent content to have it start paying for itself. Covering everything from custom content to brand building to perfect partnerships, Sarah and the panel will help you understand how best to engage your audience while making the most of your financial opportunities.
5. Stress-free Syndication: Content Marketing and Distribution. Presented by Bill Flitter, Founder & CEO of dlvr.it.
   If you wrote a blog and no one read it, did you write a blog? In this session Bill Flitter, co-founder of dlvr.it, will explore ways to create a successful content distribution program that leverages the fragmented markets that exist online. With a myriad of new services, features and social media channels, it is a daunting task to update every platform and distribute the content that you create. Your audiences, friends and followers are fragmented across the Web, and often, messages get lost in the constant real-time stream. How can you get the most impact out of your content online without it getting lost? How can you publish your content without having to manually update across the Web?
6. Break Out of Your Recipe Routine: Where to Discover New Meals to Blog About
   As a Food Blogger, your recipes need to consistently stand out among the crowded world of food blogging. Whether you're just starting out, have been blogging for a while, or you've been hitting a road block lately, Alexa Malott from Foodie.com and Currin Berdine from StumbleUpon will give you practical tips on how to keep the ideas coming, write with a seasonal calendar and your unique voice in mind, find inspiration in the unusual, and more!

During this period engaging authors and editors will guide you in the world of food writing. Each 1-hour 20-minute session will be given twice, so you’ll have the opportunity to sit in on two. Sessions will include the following topics:

1. Writing and Selling a Winning Book Proposal
   In the competitive marketplace of cookbook publishing, a tightly written and compelling book proposal is the link that sells a book idea. What does a winning book proposal look like? What are the components of the proposal? And how does one get the proposal in the hands of a discerning cookbook editor. In this session, award-winning cookbook author Diane Morgan explains the fundamentals and gives you all the tools for writing cookbook proposals that get noticed.
2. The Insider’s Guide to Recipe Writing and Development
   Writing and developing original recipes is an inventive process spanning from your initial inspiration to final publication. But how do you make the jump from “adapted from” and “inspired by” to a totally unique culinary creation? The answer lies in the fundamentals of effective recipe creation, which includes every element from mastering the art of headnotes and striving for stylistic consistency, to embracing the importance of cross-testing while deciphering the six essential components of every recipe. Attend this session, led by Kelly Senyei, for the ultimate insider’s guide to finding success in the worlds of recipe writing and development. 
3. Hungry for Words: The Devil is in the Details, God is in the Framework
   Writing is about more than words. Great food writing often comes down to the ability to describe magnificient details, but what a reader never gets there? Any writing, no matter the medium, requires certain building blocks: a great lead, a solid middle and an end that quench a reader's literary thirst are key.You'll take part in a series of innovative exercises, and leave armed with a series of "workouts" to strengthen and flex your culinary writing muscles. Led by best-selling author and writing coach Kathleen Flinn.
4. Bloggers as Cookbook Authors: What Do Publishers Want?
   More and more, bloggers are getting their start online with the intention of turning their online content into a cookbook. But, more often than not, bloggers don’t know what publishers are looking for, or even where to begin. Join Adam Salomone, Associate Publisher of The Harvard Common Press, as he talks about the process of sourcing, evaluating and working with bloggers from the publisher’s perspective. He’ll delve into questions about how to distill your online presence into a pitch and proposal, how bloggers can work with agents and publishers to maximize their impact, and what publishers look to when deciding whether or not a blogger is a “fit” in their publishing program. Along the way, attendees will explore issues around branding and vision for their blog, how that fits into a holistic approach (both online and off) to their content endeavors, and what questions they should ask before embarking on any publishing process.

5:00 - 6:30 Career Fair and Industry Networking

Looking to advance your career in the food world? There are many companies looking to hire and partner with bloggers. Don't miss this opportunity to network with those in the food industry who are looking to work with food bloggers. Make key connections with editors, publishers, PR firms, and food-related businesses, such as:

Allrecipes.com, Harvard Common Press, Jenn-Air, The International Association of Culinary Professionals, Lisa Hill PR (Stone Buhr, Tipu's Chai, Diane Morgan, Moonstruck Chocolate Company), Maxwell PR (Pacific Natural Foods, Travel Oregon, Columbus Foods, Pamela's Products), Little Green Pickle (Organic Valley and Hungry), Northwest Stir, Oxmoor House/Time Home Entertainment, Foodie.com by Glam/Glam Media, Lisa Golden-Schroeder, Sandridge, Culinate.com, Andrews McMeel Publishing, OXO,  Harvest PR, IZEA, Gruman-Nicoll PR.

Sunday August 26, 2012

Renowned The New York Times food photographer Andrew Scrivani will open this 3-hour Food Series with the A-Zs of Digital Food Photography. You’ll also enjoy a live cooking demonstration from Chef John of the Allrecipes.com production Food Wishes. He'll be whipping up five dishes for you to then photograph at numerous stations. Bring your cameras! Thank you, Jenn-Air, OXO, Anolon, Wüsthof, and Ninja Cooking System for your generous support!