International Food Blogger Conference

The Future of the IFBC

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First off, thank you to everyone who sponsored, spoke at, or attended the 2022 International Food Blogger Conference in El Paso. We especially want to thank Destination El Paso, which was a stellar partner over the last years during the pandemic in helping us run the conference. If you have not seen the short summary video, it is worth your time.

So where does the conference go from here?

We have no plans at this point to bring back the International Food Blogger Conference. Obviously, the pandemic has been bad for conferences. Even conferences that have run have tended to have fewer participants and sponsors than in pre-pandemic years. And while we think conferences will return, we at Zephyr Conferences also faced the reality of losing 1/2 our four-person staff due to the pandemic.

In 2021 we experienced a surge in (mostly domestic) travel and this surge has only increased in 2022, as people are hungry to again travel around the world. This means the tour side of our Zephyr United business has been booming and requiring much of our time and attention. Which we are not complaining about!

In the end, we have decided to not plan a 2023 International Food Blogger Conference unless something changes. We are open to any suggestions from key food industry players or influencer groups regarding the future of the IFBC.

Is It Safe to Visit Mexico as Part of IFBC22?

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Our opening reception will take place Thursday, March 17 in Juárez, Mexico. Plans are underway and we think the event will be awesome.

We know some of you have concerns about traveling to Mexico so I wanted to address them here.

Safety in Mexico

There is a travel advisory for Mexico, as there are for many other countries. In fact, the US State Department currently has 213 travel advisories in effect. And in the state of Chihuahua, a carve out is made for the city of Juárez, which the US State Department specifically calls out for US government employee travel.

Millions of Americans travel to Mexico each year. I myself was just in Baja California Sur for 10 days to run a kayak tour, taking an extra three days to rent a car and drive around the area on my own, including in rural areas and at night. My experience in Mexico is similar to my experience around much of the world: it always pays to be alert and cautious but I never felt my safety to be in jeopardy. With the IFBC trip, we will be in a group and with local guides the entire time.

Border Crossing is Difficult

The reality is El Paso and Juárez consider themselves sister cities. Some people work on one side of the border and live on the other side, crossing daily. We don’t want to over promise but, in general, crossing the border from El Paso into Mexico and back is routine and presents few problems.

COVID is a Concern in Mexico

The Centers for Disease Control classify Mexico as a Level 3 country, with High levels of COVID-19. Sounds bad. Except the recommendation is that people be vaccinated before they travel there, which is pretty much the recommendation for the entire world. In fact, at the time of this writing most of Europe is at Level 4 and the US qualifies for that as well if it were given a travel advisory level!

On my recent trip to Mexico, I found mask wearing to be much more commonplace than it is in the various US states I have visited this year. Plus, US citizens and lawful permanent residents can return to the US via a land border without a COVID test, regardless of vaccination status, so there is no risk of getting trapped in Mexico.

 

We are very excited to be holding the International Food Blogger Conference in El Paso. A big part of the reason for our excitement is we think the Latin heritage and culture will make for a great host city with excellent local food. Visiting the sister city of Juárez is integral to this and we think you will love the pre-conference excursion and opening reception there, which is included in your IFBC registration.

COVID Safety at IFBC22 in El Paso

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Our Experience in 2021

At Zephyr Conferences and our sister tour companies we hosted 511 attendees this year. The reality is COVID is going to affect our tours and conferences; we have to expect that. However, our goal is to minimize infections on our tours and, especially, minimize community spread at our events. We were successful in this effort with ZERO instances of community transmission in 2021.

We did experience three cases of COVID:

  • One person tested positive before flying to a tour and thus canceled, which shows the effectiveness of pre-event testing.
  • A second person tested positive after returning from our Wine Media Conference but infected no one else while at the conference. This person came from a COVID hot zone and likely was infected prior to the event. Every person at the WMC was vaccinated.
  • A third person tested positive at the end of a tour before returning home, likely catching it when on her own before the tour started. This person was vaccinated and symptom free. All other tour participants were vaccinated and did not contract COVID.

So what does this tell us? We can’t avoid COVID. But our policies are working to keep our participants safe.

COVID Safety at IFBC22

Past success does not guarantee future success. But we are confident in our COVID safety procedures for IFBC22 in El Paso.

  • Everyone will be required to be fully vaccinated or tested. In 2021, 100% of our WMC conference attendees were vaccinated.
  • Our meeting location is outdoors.
  • We will recommend mask wearing at any time indoors.
  • El Paso as a city is taking the pandemic much more seriously than Texas as a state, with more mask wearing and higher vaccination rates (currently 94%)

Flying Safely During COVID

We know many people are uncomfortable flying. I personally have been on many flights during the pandemic and have yet to catch COVID. Statistics show flying is relatively safe and my experience backs that up. Please see this blog post for my take on flying safely during COVID.

Update on COVID Safety at the IFBC

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Things have changed again in the world of COVID with the dominance of the Delta variant. It is more contagious, might be more serious, and can cause increased “breakthrough” infections in those vaccinated.

Our Safety Procedures

Our safety procedures are sound. We require everyone attending the IFBC to be vaccinated, have a negative PCR test, or be recently infected and recovered from COVID. We have an outdoor venue, meaning most of the conference will take place outside. We are now increasing our mask wearing to require masks on buses to excursions and recommend them at other times when indoors.

Wine Media Conference as an Example

Will this work to keep you safe? Based on our success at the recent Wine Media Conference, we believe it will.

At the Wine Media Conference in early August in Oregon, we had the same basic safety procedures. Except that we held the conference indoors and did not require mask wearing. There were many instances of wine tasting when people simply could not wear masks. The result? After much emailing with attendees, we are not aware of any cases of community spread of COVID at the conference. If we did this at the WMC, we can do it at the IFBC.

What About Texas?

Texas has been in the news a lot, none of it good, with respect to COVID. Hospital beds are filling or full and the governor has forbidden counties, cities, and school districts to impose mask mandates. However, we should keep two things in mind:

  • The state law does not ban private businesses from imposing mask mandates. We will mandate masks when in buses transporting to the Juarez excursions and recommend them at any other times while indoors.
  • El Paso, which was hit hard last fall by COVID, has embraced vaccines and now has a significantly higher vaccination rate and fewer hospitalizations than the rest of the state. The situation in El Paso is simply not the same as what you are reading in the news about Texas.
  • With our policies requiring vaccination or testing, you will be in a group that is entirely different from the Texas public at large.

Date Change

We very recently changed the date of the IFBC from October 2021 to March 17 – 20, 2022. This was not a response to our concerns about keeping participants safe. Instead, it was by request of our outstanding partners, Visit El Paso, who wish to have all of you attending their city without concerns from the peaking Delta variant.

We were extremely heartened that every single individual who showed up to the Wine Media Conference was vaccinated. We were thrilled there was no known community transmission of COVID. Let’s do this again at IFBC22.

IFBC Virtual Summit a Huge Success

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The IFBC Virtual Summit was a huge success. Consider these numbers:

  • 220 people purchased an All-Access Pass allowing them to watch all 14 sessions multiple times at their convenience
  • 1,055 people participated in the summit
  • The sessions have been watched a total of 2,300 times so far and counting
  • The Virtual Summit scored 4.19 by attendees on our very tough five-point rating scale

In fact, I am a bit shocked and humbled to relate that the June, 2020 Virtual Summit scored higher by attendees than did 11 previous in-person conferences. That is true for both the overall rating and the content. The event clearly met the needs of the food blogging community.

Our thanks go out to Jenny Melrose, who put together 80% of the content. Jenny did a stellar job finding speakers who delivered content that appealed to you. In addition, I want to thank Sarah Wohlner, in her first job out of college, who did an amazing job running the show through all three days.

We will be reprising our Virtual Summit from January 13 – 15 in advance of our in-person event in El Paso, Texas in October 2021. In the meantime, I will leave you with a few comments from the Virtual Summit attendees.

“I signed up for a couple of key topics and was blown away by the amount of resources provided or accessible by each speaker.”

“Well organized and engaging. Great speakers with content that was actually meaningful!”

“I was impressed with the level of organization and the speakers lineup. The optional fees ($20) was a complete gift and I thank you for that.”

“Much better than I expected from an online conference. Great topics and smooth transitions between sessions.”

“Such valuable and timely information from such a great array of speakers.”

“Really enjoyed it. I learned so much and it definitely gave me a lot of ideas on how to work on my own business.”

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