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. Led by 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. Sessions will include the following topics:

1. SEO for Recipe and Food Blogs: 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!
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: Led by Allrecipes.com and Harvard Common Press. More to come!
4. Online Advertising presented by SAY Media. More details coming soon.
5. Content Marketing and Distribution presented by Bill Flitter, Founder & CEO of dlvr.it.
6. Social Media

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 - Incorporating Structure and Detail in Your Writing: 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

Looking to advance your career in the food world? Don't miss this session! Make key connections with book and magazine editors, publishers, PR firms, and food-related businesses such as:

Allrecipes.com, Harvard Common Press, NorthWest Stir, SAY Media, Lisa Hill PR, Edelman, Maxwell PR, Harvest PR, Little Green Pickle, and more to come!

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. During this hands-on period you will have the opportunity to work alongside Andrew in a live photo shoot. You’ll also enjoy a live cooking demonstration from Chef John of the Allrecipes.com production Food Wishes, then practice your photography and post-production skills. Bring your cameras!