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International Food Blogger Conference

2018 Agenda

Below is our exciting agenda for IFBC18 in New Orleans. All events took place at the Royal Sonesta New Orleans unless otherwise indicated.

Thursday, August 23

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM New Orleans Drinks & Music Crawl | Meet in Fleur de Lis Suite: Meet us at the Royal Sonesta from where we’ll depart on a crawl in New Orlean’s French Quarter checking out the local drink and music scene.  The design of the Crawl is independent–we will distribute maps and then you’ll head out for a social media scavenger hunt. Food and drink will be pay as you go. It’s a great way to kick off our 10th anniversary celebration as well as meet your fellow IFBC attendees.

Friday, August 24

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pre-Conference Excursion: We have two optional pre-conference excursions that will explore the local New Orleans food scene. We highly recommend you participate! Click here for details and to sign up.

12:00 – 7:30 PM  Registration | Arcade Hallway: Our registration area will be open daily.

1:00 – 2:00 PM Breakout Sessions Choose one of two

  • Storytelling Through Video | Evangeline: Learn how to film food in the most mouth-watering and enticing way and how to capture the passionate human stories that surround our favorite dishes from around the world. Husband and wife team (who got engaged on the way home from IFBC14!), Maria Sierra and Alvaro Hernandez, will lead us through this high-tech video session and offer takeaways that we can all immediately put to use.
  • Setting Up for Success | Regal: Lifestyle and travel blogger and marketing communications pro, Jana Seitzer, will give us an overview of how to set goals for your blog and social media channels, what systems to put in place so you can track your metrics, and how to actually use these tools to further your success.

2:15 – 3:15 PM Breakout Sessions Choose one of two

  • Creative Blogging Income | Evangeline: In this session, our expert panel will explore the variety of techniques to create value for readers while growing your income including cooking courses, cookbooks, selling products & services, and working with affiliate platforms. They’ll get your blog working for you! Real all about our panel including Trish Lindemood from Kitchen Bloggers, Jason Logsdon with Amazing Food Made Easy, and Christen Evans from Apogee Agency here. Wendi Spraker from Loaves and Dishes will moderate this dynamic group.
  • FTC Disclosures (Yes, they matter!) | Regal: If you’re a blogger who wants to work with brands, you should know the rules of the road–food writer and blogger, Stacy Brooks, will lead this session covering everything you need to know to be in compliance with the FTC’s disclosure rules for bloggers and influencers.

3:30 – 4:30 PM Breakout Sessions Choose one of two

  • Travel Opportunities for Food Bloggers | Evangeline: Food and travel blogger extraordinaire, Chef Dennis Littley, will share the tools you’ll need to become a successful travel blogger and why you already have an edge over existing travel writers. After all, travel and food go hand in hand and these days and Travel Destinations are seriously interested in getting the word out about their Culinary Scene. Restaurants, Craft Breweries and Distilleries are moving to the forefront when it comes on deciding upon where travel dollars should be spent. And who better to tell that story than food bloggers. We know our business inside and out and can give honest travel advice to our friends and followers on the culinary scene at destinations we visit.
  • Put Your Food Photography to Work for You | Regal: Photographer Christina Peters shares how to sell your food photography without sponsored posts or recipe development! In this session she’ll discuss the two categories of food photography clients: Client Direct and Agency Clients, and how to find and approach them.

4:30 – 6:30 PM Expo & Taste of New Orleans | Grand Ballroom: Fabulous networking events with live music provided by Kid Merv and All That Jazz (@neworleansmusic & @kidsworldmusic), food and fun!

Meet the Speakers as you network your way around the room. It’s an opportunity to say hi, thank you or even ask any pressing questions you have for them.

6:30 – 7:30 PM Lightning Talks | Evangeline: New in 2018, we will have 10 of your fellow attendees get up on stage to deliver five-minute, Ignite-style “Lightning Talks”. With 20 slides each advancing automatically on 15-second intervals, speakers have to be on the top of their game to deliver fun, informative, often hilarious talks.  This year’s presenters are:

7:45 PM Unofficial After Party at Fulton Alley: Head to Fulton Alley, at 600 Fulton Street, for light appetizers and cocktails, with 25% of bar proceeds going to local charity NOCHI.

Saturday, August 25

Breakfast On Your Own

8:30 AM – 4:35 PM Registration & Expo | Arcade Hallway & Foyer: Meet these sponsors any time during the day and make connections:

9:00 – 9:15 AM Welcome by New Orleans & Company and the IFBC Organizers | Grand Ballroom

9:15 – 10:00 AM Keynote Speaker Michael W. Twitty | Grand Ballroom: (Congratulations to Mr. Twitty on his James Beard Foundation Book of the Year Award announced in May!) Read all about him here. @KosherSoul

10:00 – 10:15 AM Break

10:15 – 11:00 AM Instagram Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words with Stefani Pollack | Grand Ballroom: This session features Instagram guru Stefani Pollack. Stefani will explain the value of Instagram as a primary platform for bloggers to focus their social media efforts. She’ll then reveal some of the techniques she uses to organically grow her Instagram following 300-1000 new followers every single day. Read about her here! @cupcakeproject

11:00 – 11:45 AM Let’s Get Pinning with Pinterest’s Aaron Ru | Grand Ballroom: Pinterest’s mission is to help people discover and do the things they love. Every month there are roughly 2 billion searches for ideas—from recipes to vacation tips—across more than 100 billion Pins worldwide. Aaron Ru from Pinterest will outline the latest insights and best practices for content creators on Pinterest today and what’s to come on Pinterest tomorrow. Read about Aaron here.

11:45 AM – 1:30 PM Lunch on your own: We know you’re in New Orleans for a reason – to experience the amazing food. So take this time to check out some of the great restaurants nearby the Royal Sonesta.  Here are some great options within walking distance: Arnaud’s, Galatoires, Deanie’s Seafood Restaurant, GW Fins, Oceana Grill, Restaurant R’evolution, Broussard’s Restaurant.

1:30 – 2:30 PM Facebook “How to Go Viral” with Rachel Miller | Grand Ballroom: Rachel will discuss how to get more attention without spending a fortune on ads by honing in on what your audience wants to see and then delivering it in a way that gets it seen. Read about her here!

2:30 – 2:45 PM Break

2:45 – 3:45 PM Food Photography & Food Styling | Grand Ballroom: Karen and Gavin from Couple in the Kitchen photograph content in their home studio as well as at various restaurants and hotels around the world. They will share the 5 P’s to Perfect Photos: Prep, Props, Positioning, Photography, and Process. Whether you are a recipe developer conducting a photo shoot at home, or a food blogger striving to get the perfect shot with uncontrollable restaurant conditions, this workshop will provide you insights and tips to strengthen your food photography and image editing skills.

3:45 – 4:00 PM Break

4:00 – 5:00 PM Influencer Networks | Grand Ballroom: Join Izea‘s CEO Ted Murphy and Chicory‘s CEO Yuni Sameshima to discuss the ins and outs of Influencer Networks and Influencer Marketing! During this moderated panel discussion, featuring two CEOs of growing media sales and influencer marketing companies, we’ll share insights from the frontline of selling to America’s advertisers (major CPG companies, leading retailers and more). From Izea, we’ll get findings on their latest content marketing and influencer marketing research. And from Chicory, we’ll hear about how influencer marketing is helping to drive a new wave of consumer habits, namely online shopping. We’ll talk about how sponsored blogger work gets packaged into a larger program for advertisers, how we position influencer marketing in today’s market, and the latest must-knows for influencers.

Takeaways will include:

  • What are advertisers most concerned with today and how can bloggers respond? (Video, GDPR Compliance, Voice, Personalization)
  • How can a blogger demonstrate their value to an advertiser? (Pricing, Effectiveness, Showcasing Your Audience)
  • What is your unique sell and how do you maximize your relationships? (Going Brand Direct, Befriending Ad Networks)
  • Best practices, from the other side. What are your clients concerned with that maybe you have never thought of?
  • Being a business owner. (Our CEOs will offer tangible advice for running your blog as a business.)

5:00 – 6:00 PM Live Food & Drink Social | Grand Ballroom: Live Food & Drink Social (previously called Live Food & Drink Blogging) is becoming the signature event of the International Food Blogger Conference. We will invite 20 local food producers to come in and present to our group. The key is the format is sort of like speed dating, with each producer having five minutes to present their product to a table of attendees, all while the food influencers taste, evaluate, and write about, photograph, and video their thoughts, posting to blogs and social media as they go. After five minutes, producers rotate to a new table and we do it all again for 10 rounds in total. Live Food & Drink Social is fast, fun, and sometimes crazy!  Taste from these amazing local companies:

6:00 – 7:30 PM Hosted Reception by 2019 Location | Fleur de Lis Suite & Courtyard: We’re extremely excited to announce our 2019 host.  It’s a unique city full of culture and delicious food and libations! This city has never hosted a food bloggers conference before and we can’t wait to take #IFBC19 there!  Join us at this reception to taste the local food and beer, ask questions, and gather information.

Sunday, August 26

Breakfast on Your Own

8:30 – 11:00 AM Registration

9:00 – 11:00 AM Pros in Practice: Where Marketers and Bloggers Converge | Grand Ballroom: This panel will pair expert bloggers including Jenny Melrose, Kristen Chidsey and Toni Dash with successful marketing professionals from Zehnder Communications to discuss a range of topics pertaining to the integrated marketing necessary for success in blogging. Read more about our panelists here and the sessions below.

  • Google Analytics: “Make Sense of Data”
    What can Google Analytics tell you about your blog? How can you use the data to help improve your traffic and grow brand?
    Discussants: Kate Lundin, Associate Media Director, Zehnder Communications @zehndercom
  • SEO: “Those in the Know, Know SEO”
    SEO is one of the biggest drivers of blog and website traffic. We’ll review some actionable steps to begin implementing SEO on your site today.
    Discussants: Allison Stiel, Social Media Manager, Zehnder Communications @zehndercom
  • Social Media: “There’s an App for That”
    It’s no secret that social media apps are a great way to enhance your brand, but are you using them efficiently and to the fullest potential? We’ll take a look at social media strategy, scheduling, do’s and don’ts and how to take it live!
    Discussants: Allison Stiel, Social Media Manager, Zehnder Communications @zehndercom
  • Paid Media: “Media Blitz”
    Looking to push your posts through paid media? It’s a valuable way to increase traffic and brand awareness. We’ll review how promoted posts, sponsored posts, geotargeting and AdWords can help you to advance to the next level.
    Discussants: Kate Lundin, Associate Media Director, Zehnder Communications @zehndercom
  • Brand Pitches: “For Hire!”
    Ultimately, we’d all love to make money doing what we love and working with brands is one way to do that. But how do we get started? Who do we contact? What do we say? We’ll help you simplify and strategize your brand patches to achieve success.
    Discussants: Elliot Hutchinson, Public Relations Manager, Zehnder Communications @zehndercom
  • Media Relations: “Read all about it!”
    Media coverage is a great way to garner free visibility and credibility! But how can you get in front of editors? Will they be interested in your story? We’ll talk media pitches, editorial calendars and how to make you and your brand a valuable source for local, regional or national media!
    Discussants: Elliot Hutchinson, Public Relations Manager, Zehnder Communications @zehndercom

11:00 – 11:15 AM Conference Close | Grand Ballroom

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