BlogHer Food 2013 – A Delicous Recap

I’m not sure I knew what to expect from a BlogHer Food conference, but I was certainly not underwhelmed. Having been to six or seven other blogging conferences, I was impressed that this one had so much to offer. Bonus: It was practically in my back yard – in Austin, Texas. It helps when you don’t have to spend a fortune on travel, for sure.

Below I’ll fill you in on all the yummy parts of my foodie weekend… and I might twist your arm if you were wondering whether a blog conference is worth the trouble and expense.

Highlights:

I got to work with one of my favorite blog-conference junkies evah: Tonia aka The Chatty Momma. She used to write at the Homeschool Post for me before she became so busy that movie stars invite her to fly out and meet them. She’s kind of a big deal on the internets. She also happens to be the diva in charge of all BlogHer Volunteers, so for this weekend, she was also my BOSS. She was easy to work for and I so enjoyed getting to know her better.

I got to meet the infamous Pioneer Woman and her sweet sister Betsy. I wasn’t prepared for how tall she was. And how speechless I would be. I’m pretty sure I just asked if we could take a photo with her – who knows if I even introduced myself – and let Tonia do all the talking. { It helps to have Tonia with you at a blog conference. }

Betsy was so gracious, telling me it was no big deal and they didn’t mind if we snapped a few photos (even though I know at least 599 of the other 600 guests did the same thing to them over the weekend). Can you die of paparazzi? I cant’ imagine being famous – it would totally suck. Ree handles it well. You know she has to have a support team that is out of this world. I’m sure it helps when you travel with an entire posse of cowboys, cousins, and even grandma. It would have been neat if my daughter could have met her. She loves to make Ree’s cinnamon rolls. I think it ultra awesome that Betsy, who also shares the blessing of having a 4 year old little boy, lives here in Austin with me. Who knows? Maybe I’ll run in to her at Tacodeli someday.

Speaking of Tacodeli (my favorite taco joint in Austin)…

Pictured here: Sangrit, Tonia, Patti, Lisa, and me!

After finding out where all the other ladies were going on their food excursions Saturday for lunch, I made a call… I created my very own home-grown Austin taco excursion and kidnapped some attendees to go with me to Tacodeli off Spyglass. After arguing with Siri and taking a few wrong turns, we arrived. There was a much shorter line than we would have had to stand in if we had joined all the other 600 conference attendees and went to South Congress; and I’m certain we enjoyed a lot more shade.

Best of all, I was able to share the taco love with my friends. We ate some of the best tacos Texas has to offer. Poor Tonia was on Prednisone and wanted 8 more to take back to the hotel with her. I thought we might have to leave her there at one point – she ate pretty much everything she saw all weekend. She said she was pregnant with a “BlogHer Food Baby”.

I was a live-blogger for the event. I worked along with a small team of volunteers. I was lucky that I was able to live-blog in the sessions that I was wanting to hear anyway — all food photography sessions. A cool thing about BlogHer Food is they put transcripts of the sessions up on the same day as the event programming (most of the time).

This was my view for at least 3 hours of each day of the conference… kind of anti-social, but important to the overall function of live-blogging. You have to have some private space, quiet, your laptop, and a plug for your cord. I wasn’t complaining about the view from our hotel room… it was a nice spot to decompress and edit. Unfortunately, these four sessions listed below were the only sessions I was able to make it to. They were about an hour and a half long, and then I had to spend that much time editing the live-blog so it could be posted. It was a lot of work, but it certainly helped me pay close attention to each session!

All four of my live-blogging sessions are up on their site:

1. Todd Porter & Diane Cu  … the Whiteonricecouple.com (their photography is amazing!!!)

Making Mobile Photographs that are Print and Cover-Worthy (Advanced)

Quote: This panel is about Making Mobile Photography That is Print and Cover Worthy. My name is Diane Cu and he’s Todd Porter. We want to help you learn how to see your image and not just take a picture. Your camera is just a tool. What’s important is the art of seeing. It doesn’t matter if you are shooting with a very expensive DSLR Canon or Nikon, or an iPhone. It’s about what you see and your food story.

Oh my dear, they were cute. They finished each other’s sentences. I loved their session.

2. Panel of 4 Food Bloggers:
Christine Pittman, www.cookthestory.com / Sommer Collier, www.aspicyperspective.com / Sabra Krock, www.everythingbutwater.com / Samantha Seeley, www.samanthaseeley.com

 Pro Food Photography On the Fly

 Quote: One of the tools I use constantly is a color scheme tool online. It’s called Color Scheme Designer. You just plug in a hex code and it will give you triads, complimentary colors, etc.  You might need to get ideas to use with a blue and red – what to add. This is a great tool that can help you find great props. I use it for choosing font colors on Pinterest text for my photos that I want to be pinned for a recipe, and I can add a hex color relating to something in my photo and it spits out a lot of other color options for me to use in my backgrounds and text combinations.

There was a lot of talent in this session. I was especially amazed by Sabra Krock’s tips on workflow and how she avoids the need to edit by working harder at her shots while she’s making them. All of the speakers had some great tips.

3. Whitney Lauritsen, the EcoVegan Gal

Video Bootcamp, Part 3: Post-Production & Editing

Quote: Let’s talk about why video is important. It’s great to establish yourself as a brand and build trust with companies and your audience. I consider every person involved – your audience always comes first but you can also impress and build relationships with companies, too. It’s a great way to share your personality and for people get to know you on a whole new level. It shows your energy. Not a lot of people doing this right now. It’s fresh. Everyone has their own unique thing to bring to the table.

Whitney is crazy talented with video creation and she made this intermediate tutorial pretty easy to navigate and understand. There was a lot of audience participation and tips, and by the end of the session, I felt like I could spice my videos up without much effort. I can’t wait to try out some of her tips!

4. Panel of 2 food bloggers:

Regan Jones – founder of Healthy Aperture / Stephanie Quilao of Noshtopia (one of the best mobile food photographers I’ve seen)

Ooey, Gooey, Gorgeous and Healthy Food Photography

Quote: We all have to ask ourselves – if an image is worth 1,000 words, what are your images saying about what you are eating? Unlike a few of these other sessions whose speakers blog about a story, my blog and sites are really about helping people make a change in their diet by using my recipes. You do that through stellar images. … With a healthy food focus, we really want people to visualize sitting down to eat the meal – which is easy with cake, but a little trickier with brussel sprouts.

I loved these speakers. Totally. So enjoyed getting to talk with them a little after the session, too. Regan has such a sweet southern charm, and Stephanie is so humble and has such amazing talent at “seeing” a great photo.

The vase in this photo is from the Canadian Lentil Recharge Lounge – a nice bit of Texas glam (cactus and colorful “lentil soil”) and plenty of chargers to plug in your laptop and smart phones while you relaxed on the white leather couches and put your boots up to rest. { After all, this was a Texas conference and all. } They had some neat little pouches that make a great nook or iPad cover. I think Canadian Lentils would really like my lentil taco recipe.

“A cow doesn’t have to die for you to enjoy the yummy taste of a taco for dinner.” ~ I always say.

The vendors at BlogHer Food were fab. Almost all of them were relevant to my life and therefore relevant to my blog. Healthy foods, organic foods, kitchen tools and appliances, snacks, farm-friendly initiatives and more! { I love farmers… and HEALTHY food – heavy on the healthy food. }

I enjoyed how they displayed their materials, their colorful booths, the food they shared with us (hello, Wisconsin Cheese and Baileys Mudslide Creamer) and how friendly and interesting they all were. I didn’t win any of the big ticket items, but I came home with bags and bags of “swag” – a couple hundred dollars worth of groceries more than covers my parking costs at the Hilton, for sure!

In all honesty, I still have a sack of things on my dining room table that need to be put somewhere… but I want to look through it all again. The brownie bites from Whole Foods, the chocolates from Kikkoman, and the cookies from Udi’s Gluten Free are all gone. Mmmm! I gained at least three pounds over the weekend. If I hadn’t been so busy, I’m sure it would have been more like six.

There were off-site parties and events with brands after the sessions let out each night. I am not sure which ones were BlogHer sponsored, and which weren’t… but I just followed the crowds towards the food and tried to blend in. Well, as much as you can blend in when you are hogging the mac and cheese, that is.

(Oh, and P.S., Parkside – it tasted even better and creamier WITH the yogurt!)

Thursday we attended a shindig at Whole Foods. The loot from that gathering is in the picture below. The photo above was taken at Parkside off 6th Street, as are the pictures in the photo booth below…

They had an international flare to the Whole Foods party. They invited local food artisans to come and create little bite-sized dishes for us to sample. My favorite was the chorizo and cilantro corn cake. It was so yummy. It inspired me to get some chorizo this week so I can make my Spanish Paella. I’m definitely adding cilantro to the finished dish. Yum!

We attended two parties at Parkside (they have really nice valet parking attendants and I met a nice local on the street who gave me her email so we could talk about mac and cheese places in our fair city and compare foodie notes). The party on Thursday was hosted by Stonyfield and Organic Valley, and on Friday the hosts were Mann Packing, CrunchPak and butter LONDON. { If you ask me what nail polish has to do with food blogging, I’ll tell you – everything! You have to look fabulous when you photograph your dinner! }

I would have to say that one of my favorite swag items from the event was my shiny new nail polish (or 5). I kind of have a nail polish fetish, and so does my 14 year old daughter. She also has an infatuation with all things London right now, so she immediately stole the two blue colors they gave me and painted her nails when I got home.

Here Tonia, Patti and I are acting goofy in the photo booth (a fun addition to any event). I loved being a kid at heart with my bloggy friends. It was like a big girl slumber party Friday night. We had so many really great conversations with each other. We were inspired and we connected. It is such a blessing to spend time recharging with friends who understand what makes you tick.

The best part of the conference was the people. God puts people in your life just when you need them. I was so happy to get to know Tonia, Lisa, Patti, Sangrit, and many of the other bloggers I got to talk with at parties and while networking.

Lisa even spent the night at my house twice (although we didn’t have much time to talk because we were in transit back downtown or getting in really late). I was able to take her to my favorite breakfast taco joint in Cedar Park, Texas – J&J’s BBQ Catering. Their Migas Plate is the bomb.

And while I didn’t get to hang out with some of these speaker-types more often, I certainly cherished the brief moments I had with them:

ELISE the awesome Bauer – author of SimplyRecipes (she was as nice in person as she is online)…

…and Rachel Matthews – author of A Southern Fairytale (my southern Texas foodie belle favorite)… she lives in Houston, y’all!

Rachel is in the middle next to me. She’s a hoot. And that green dress she wore from Stein Mart was the best kept beauty secret of the weekend. She rocked it, yes she did! Patti and Tonia are crackin’ me up here. Sangrit isn’t sure what she’s got in to hanging out with us weirdos.

We had fun in the few moments we had to mingle. Can you tell?

And then in a blink, it was all over… and we were eating BBQ at Stubb’s watching the Pioneer Woman give away prizes and saying goodbye.

We loaded the car down with our loot… hearts and tummies satisfied… and went our separate ways back home.

WHAT AN AWESOME WEEKEND!!! If they host another BlogHer Food next year, I’m there, baby. I’d love for it to be in Austin again…

…but you just never know. It was certainly a worthwhile adventure. I learned a lot. I met some great people… gave away about 75 business cards and collected just as many… spoke with great sponsors… devoured delicious food… and had a blast with some of the sweetest ladies in the blogosphere.

In case you were on the fence about whether you should attend next year, I hope my post has pushed you to join us!

See you in 2014!

In Him,

Heather

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Credits: The photos sponsored by Ninja were taken by Le PhotoBooth Company. I have a Ninja blender… and wow — what a cool job to take fun photobooth shots of people. That’s my kind of photography! Loved these. You can see the rest of them at the link provided here.