Food Blogger Connect 2010

Learnt how to shoot lovely pictures!

Had a brilliant time last weekend at Food Blogger Connect - a conference for bloggers but live! So nice to meet lots of others, all of them enthused about food and blogging and meeting to have a good time.

Flawlessly organised by Bethany from Dirty Kitchen Secrets I also managed to learn a lot while I enjoyed myself. A wine tasting in the garden first up presented by www.redwhiteorpink.com got the weekend off to a good start, then a high energy skype session with Jaden about monetizing a blog but what I got from it more was about understanding the blog as a brand that I own and can develop as I like. She had thousands of ideas and stories and left the whole room buzzing.

Saturday was sociable as you like and lots more interesting sessions - Jeanne drew on her lawyer background to talk about copyright then moved seamlessly into the form of recipe writing, which though some elements are subjective you can achieve a lot of clarity like the number you cook for with the quantities in each recipe, size of pans you need for baking, things I don't necessarily do. But will now!

Then there was Hilda dissecting the camera, she made the technical details understandable and I have since started setting the ISO on my little camera to have a little more control over my pics.

Last session of the morning was a group presentation. Jeanne, Kerrin and Jamie talked about writing style and voice - answering the big how and why questions in relation to their own very different blogs and getting all of us thinking. For me the questions are about who it's for and what I'm trying to get across and best of all - need to get myself a plan! It probably seems obvious to non bloggers but I find it is so easy to get caught up in the minutiae and totally lose sight of the big picture, that it's not only about the post being there but where it comes from and how it fits into an overall scheme and also what direction I want to be taking. They were brilliant - check out their blogs to find out why!

Lovely lunch back in the beautiful gardens and a good chance to meet lots of new people and find out about the vast myriad of blogs out there - some of which I knew but so very many that I didn't. It was just fascinating.

After lunch the irrepressible Meeta and the charming Mowie talked about the art of food styling and the shooting of food porn. And I was ashamed! At how bad most of the photos are that I use on my blog. But these two are so positive about making things beautiful that by the end of the session I was convinced I too could do better, and I had a list of things about colours and lighting and most of all attitude - think 'ready to eat!' - that should make the blog so much more interesting visually.

Sunday was grey but the conference continued to sparkle. First session with coffee was Julia and Kerrin spoke from their different perspectives about getting writing published. Julia detailed her journey from blog to book and Kerrin had lots of tales of pitching till the magazine commissions started to come her way. Basically, mostly the answer will be no but if you keep asking, creatively as you can, sometimes the answer will be the one you want to hear.

The last session was meant to be live but, due to the late running of ryanair flights from Dublin - boohiss! - Niall skyped instead from his office back to us about social media - how, why and you must. It all made so much sense. So follow me on twitter!

Then there was brunch but, fabulous as it looked I headed off, my mind reeling with such a great collection of ideas and the pleasure of meeting so many great people.

A big thank you to everyone involved.

And here's who else was there, a collection of great blogs.

Nando http://www.cucabrazuca.com/

Andrew http://winit-theblog.com/

Julie http://alkalinesisters.com/

Katharine http://www.agirlinmadrid.com/

Leen http://zibdeh.wordpress.com/

Carla http://domesticventures.squarespace.com/

Rachel http://www.cookyourlife.com/

Kelly http://www.tastour.co.uk/

Adrienne http://www.gastroanthropology.com/

Tiina http://www.sparklingink.com/

Pascale http://www.extrarelish.blogspot.com/

Cecilia http://onevanillabean.wordpress.com/

Tess http://www.foodmatters.co.uk/

Keith http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/

Matina http://www.fetaarepa.com/

Charlie http://eggsontheroof.com/

Ludger http://www.none.de/

Karin http://yumandmore.com/

Julia http://www.alwaysleaveroomfordessert.com/

Catherine http://www.thecattylife.com/

Kevin http://oneweekwinetour.wordpress.com/

Leila http://www.delishvillesemgluten.com/

Katie http://katielousbites.wordpress.com/

Valentina http://www.cupcakestrembom.com/

Tracey http://www.internationalfoodie.blogspot.com/

Michele http://www.5amfoodie.com/

Gemma http://dressingfordinner.blogspot.com/

Heather http://www.eggscreamandhoney.com/

Giulia http://www.julskitchen.com/

Arthi http://debugcooking.blogspot.com/

Anne http://www.anneskitchen.co.uk/

Pamela http://www.cookingninja.com/

Bron http://practicallydaily.blogspot.com/

Stacey http://peanutjealous.blogspot.com/

Natashka http://peanutjealous.blogspot.com/

Reena http://coconutraita.blogspot.com/

Aoife http://www.thedailyspud.com/

Elisa http://www.aussiefoodie.blogspot.com/

Eunice http://heavenwildfleur.blogspot.com/

Suzannah http://www.officelunches.blogspot.com/

Mayssam http://www.deliriouskitchen.com/

Sarka http://www.cookingyourdream.com/

Sharon http://www.seasontotaste.co.uk/

Jasmine http://www.labna.it/

Manuel http://www.labna.it/

Giulia http://en.julskitchen.com/

Jeanne http://www.cooksister.com/

Meeta http://www.whatsforlunchhoney.net/

Mowie http://www.mowielicious.com/

Jamie http://lifestafeast.blogspot.com/

Kerrin http://www.mykugelhopf.ch/

Hilda http://www.saffronandblueberry.com/

Julia http://www.asliceofcherrypie.com/

Sarah http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/

Chris http://www.soulmekanik.com/

Bethany http://www.dirtykitchensecrets.com/


Such delights!