2019 Agenda

Below is the agenda for IFBC19 in Juneau, Alaska. All events will take place at the Centennial Hall Convention Center unless otherwise indicated.

Thursday, June 20

Pre-Conference Excursions: See the Excursions page for details.

• SOLD OUT! 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM Juneau Food Tours “Tour With Taste”
  • Pickup at Fishermen’s Memorial (530 N Franklin St., Juneau; in front of Twisted Fish Restaurant).  JFT culinary hosts will be wearing bright orange shirts or jackets.
• SOLD OUT! 12:00 – 3:00 PM Glacier Beer, Seafood Tasting, & Helicopter Tour
  • Pickup at host hotel
• SOLD OUT! 2:30 – 5:30 PM Alaskan Brewing Company Tasting & Tour
  • Pickup at Alaskan Brewing Depot (219 S Franklin St., Juneau)
• 2:30 – 5:30 PM Juneau Food Tours “Bites and Booze”
  • Pickup in front of the Mount Roberts Tram (490 S Franklin St., Juneau).  JFT culinary hosts will be wearing bright orange shirts or jackets.

6:30 – 8:30 PM Opening Reception (Alaska State Museum – 395 Whittier St., Juneau): Sponsored by Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute featuring premium Alaskan seafood small bites with a wine and beer open bar. With special appearances by Chef Beau Schooler and Chef Lionel Udippa, winners of the 2015  and 2017 Great American Seafood Cook-off competitions. The reception will take place at the Glass Atrium in the Alaska State Museum (395 Whittier St., Juneau), which is a nice 1/2 mile walk along the waterfront from the host hotel.

Friday, June 21

Breakfast On Your Own – Coffee sponsored by Sacred Grounds

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Registration & Expo (Ballroom Lobby): Check in to the conference and meet with these sponsors:

• Alaska Glacier Seafoods
• Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
• Alaskan Brewing 
• Amoretti
• GCI
• Juneau Food Tours
• Replica Surfaces
• Sabra
• Salmon State
• Sena Sea
• Travel Juneau
• Trident Seafoods

9:30 – 10:00 AM Conference Opening and Introduction to the IFBC (Ballroom 1): Travel Juneau and Allan Wright, Zephyr United owner, will welcome you to Juneau and the fabulous state of Alaska!  Plus, you’ll learn how to maximize your time at IFBC19!

10:00 – 11:45 AM Advice From the Experts (Ballroom 1): Hear from veteran, expert food bloggers Jason Logsdon from Amazing Food Made Easy, Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack of Muy Bueno Cookbook, and Toni Dash from Boulder Locavore who will expound on everything you can and should be doing as a food blogger to perfect your craft. These three will cover establishing a niche, identifying who your community is, improving your email newsletter, mastering social media, working with brands, and much more. Our moderator is Jana Seitzer of Whisky + Sunshine.

11:45 AM – 1:15 PM Lunch On Your Own: Check out these great restaurants within walking distance of the Convention Center: Sandpiper Café, El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant, Forno Rosso, Hangar on the Wharf, T.K. Maguire’s, Red Dog Saloon, Tracy’s King Crab Shack, McGivney’s Sports Bar & Grill, AK Fish & Chips (outside patio), Roma Bistro on the Wharf, Saffron and V’s Cellar Door.

There will also be an optional Open Boat Lunch sponsored by SalmonState (Meet in CHall Main Entrance for shuttle to Aurora Harbor – 1435 Aurora Harbor Way, Juneau): Visit with Alaska fisherman Tyson Fick on his boat located in Aurora Harbor (~1 mile from Centennial Hall) and learn how a commercial fishing boat works and some of the gear and techniques used to harvest wild Alaska salmon. Light lunch will be provided, including grilled Taku River salmon.  Free shuttle ride available; please reserve a shuttle seat at the SalmonState Booth at the Friday morning Expo.

1:15 – 2:15 PM Breakout Sessions: Choose one of two

• How I Survived the Influencer Plague (Ballroom 1): Jordan Catapano of This Girl Walks Into a Bar had a successful cocktail blog that was humming along from 2011 – 2014 with paid sponsorships, partnerships, trips, and appearances. But then influencer mania seduced her clients and she watched as her paid gigs started going to high profile influencers who had no expertise in cocktails. This forced Jordan to reexamine the goal of her brand, to reinvent her site, and to emerge with a business that exists both in the virtual and the real world. If you are looking to launch a real world business from the credibility of your food blog, you will want to listen as Jordan shares her journey and her tips for success.
• From 0 to 100K Monthly Page Views in Nine Months (Ballroom 2): Blogger Christine Pittman has perfected a strategy for creating and growing food blogs quickly. She grew her first site from 250,000 page views a month to 1.2 million a month in about two years; grew a second site to 100,000 page views in just nine months and to above 500,000 a month in 1.5 years; and launched a third site that is on target to hit 10,000 monthly page views in six months — the same pace that each of the other sites met on their ways to success. Even better, Christine is an open book about her strategies and will provide a clear blueprint on how you can do the same.

2:15 – 2:30 PM Break

2:30 – 3:30 PM Food Writing – A Professional View (Ballroom 1): Almost everyone attending the IFBC is a food writer via one medium or another. And many attendees monetize their blogs or social media followings. But getting paid to write stories about food is still a rarity. We’ll hear from two professionals about the realities of professional writing including finding paid assignments, working with editors, the changing world of print publications, and more. Katie Workman is a columnist for the Associated Press and Julia O’Malley is a James Beard award winning journalist who has written for many publications and currently writes a food newsletter for the Anchorage Daily News. Our moderator is Doug Levy of Wine & Food World.

3:30 – 4:30 PM Food Blogging Around the World (Ballroom 1): Hear from two different bloggers from two different countries about their experiences with food blogging, social media, working with brands, and more. Our panel will include Olivier Moulin of Papa en Cuisine (France) and Laura Lynch of Savored Journeys (UK). Our moderator will be Laura Muller from Las Recetas de Laura.

4:30 – 6:00 PM Gift Suite, Taste of Juneau, Alaskan Beer Tasting, and Expo (Ballroom 2&3): Four great events in one! At the Gift Suite you can pick and choose from dozens of local Juneau and Alaska products you would like to take home and try. The Taste of Juneau is an unparalleled opportunity to taste food from 15 – 20 Juneau restaurants, all serving small bites just for our attendees. Alaskan Brewing will be featuring a variety of their famous beers. And, finally, the Expo features our generous sponsors.  Taste participants to date:

• Alaska Fish and Chips Company
• Alaska Fudge Company
• Chef Stef’s
• Coppa
• Forno Rosso Alaska
• Hangar on the Wharf
• Hooked Seafood Company
• McGivney’s Sport Bar
• Pier 49
• Roma Bistro on the Wharf
• Saffron Indian Comfort Cuisine
• Salt Restaurant
• The Salmon Shoppe
• T.K. Maguires
• Tracy’s King Crab Shack
• Twisted Fish Company Alaskan Grill
• V’s Cellar Door Restaurant

6:15 – 7:15 PM Lightning Talks (Ballroom 1): Following on the success of the 2018 event, 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. Hear from these attendees about these topics:

• Lisa Wilk, Taste Cook Sip: Wine and Craft Beers: I’m a wine educator and craft beer enthusiast. I love to talk about wine pairings and great crafts beers, I’m here to demystify wine and beer one sip at a time!
• Saffron Hodgson, Bush Cooking: Not Enough Words for Food: Has the English language let us down when it comes to cooking? Often struggling to find words to easily describe cooking recently I have been dismayed to find other languages that are far more descriptive and useful in explaining their cooking. At the same time people have started to use the terms we do have in completely the wrong places.
• Lauren McElwain, Cooking as a First Language: Cooking as a First Language: Cooking as a First Language is now an official nonprofit organization in Tupelo, MS. The purpose of it is to break down barriers and build up community over food and cooking. Every month, we offer an authentic and interactive cooking class taught by a community member from a given culture. Our main goal is to celebrate food traditions and cultures and form relationships that might not have formed any other way…even when those involved don’t speak the same language. Food is our first language. Where there is a cutting board, there’s community!
• Gail Barnes, Personify LLC: Hydroponics, the ocean and feeding a hungry planet: Researchers from the University of Guelph in Ontario, found that if the global population followed the United States Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines, there would not be enough land to provide the food required. In fact, current findings published in PLOS ONE, showed global adherence to USDA dietary guidelines would require 1 giga-hectare of additional land — roughly the size of Canada — under current farming practice.  This lightning talk will discuss how hydroponic farming, the method of growing plants in nutrient – rich water rather than soil, may be the future of farming since land and chemicals are not needed, 80 percent less water is used (compared to agriculture), and plants can grow twice as fast. Beyond growing plants hydroponically by means of “vertical farming” on land, vastness of the ocean also offers a major opportunity for feeding a hungry planet.
• Tara Mayberry, TeaBerry.life: Self-publishing and why it’s important to hire a professional designer
• Jonathan Hartig, JonsMoveableFeasts: Pivoting from Food Blog to Food Business: When I first started food blogging, I figured it would be a great place to test some recipes and share my thoughts on what I’ve eaten. Fast forward a few years later, and I’m running J2Food a growing, successful boutique catering company in NYC. In my session, you’ll hear all about how I used the skills I honed as a food blogger, to not only write about food, but sell my food too! We’ll talk about how to cross-utilize marketing techniques including photography, social media, as well as ways to branch out from the page to parties.
• Susanne Duplantis, Makeover My Leftover: Trash or Treasure: How much money is in the trash? On average, 20 lbs of food is wasted per person EVERY month translating into about $50 dollars a MONTH! What a waste! Let’s take a dive into the dumpster and see what treasures we can find as we explore the issue of food waste.
• Jason Logsdon, Amazing Food Made Easy: The Keys to Successful Blogging: Everyone has to take their own path to becoming a successful blogger but there a few universal truths.  Over the last 12 years of blogging, these are what I’ve found to be the most important keys to successful blogging.

Saturday, June 22

Breakfast On Your Own – Coffee sponsored by Sacred Grounds

8:30 AM – 4:50 PM Registration & Expo (Ballroom Lobby): Meet our Sponsors, register, or let us know if you have any questions.  Participating sponsors:

• Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
• Alaskan Brewing 
• Amoretti
• GCI
• Sabra
• Salmon State
• Sena Sea
• Travel Juneau
• Trident Seafoods

9:00 – 10:00 AM Breakout Sessions: Choose one of two.

• Professionalizing Your Video (Ballroom 1): We all know video is supposed to be queen of content and within the last few years this seems to have happened in the food world. But while once a homemade video shot and edited on your cell phone would be sufficient, now brands and many viewers are demanding more professional work. Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack of Muy Bueno Cookbook will walk us through finding, hiring, and working with a videographer; using virtual assistants to cook and record your recipes for you; and pitching videos to brands to recoup your investment.
• Successfully Representing Brands Without Being a Star Food Blogger (Ballroom 2): Speaker Raj Thandhi from Pink Chai Living will provide a blue print for how you can represent food brands without being one of the few stars out there with an amazing Alexa rating on your blog and over 100,000 social media followers. Raj would consider her blog only semi successful yet she is under contract to represent three companies on a long-term basis and is a social media ambassador for her city.

10:00 – 10:15 AM Break

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM All Group Session sponsored by Sabra (Ballroom 3): Join Sabra and create your own Hummus Toast!  Sabra invites you to visit their Hummus Eatery at IFBC which will feature several types of breads ready for toasting and topping with your favorite flavors of hummus and vegetables, fruit, nuts, or spices.  A buffet of toppings awaits you, including a gluten free area.  #HummusToast

11:15 – 11:30 AM Break

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Breakout Sessions: Choose one of two

• My Love Hate Relationship With Instagram and How to Beat the Algorithm (Ballroom 1): Dara Pollak is a food blogger and photographer at The Skinny Pig and has used Instagram extensively to communicate with her followers. She will talk about how to find your “voice” on Instagram, food photography tips and tricks, and how to use the site to create compelling content and stand out amongst the crowd. But there is more. Dara has found Instagram’s new algorithms tend to hide her content from her followers and force her to produce not what she wants to post but what Instagram thinks she should. We’ll hear both the good and the bad about Instagram in this session.
• How to Self-Publish — Concept to Paperback! (Ballroom 2): Raise your hand if you have thought about publishing a cook book! We know most of our audience has thought of this and many of you have already done so. In this session, Jessica Stier from Desserts With Benefits has helped her turn to food blogging and writing as a full-time job not too far removed from college. Jessica will share her blueprint for self-publishing a book that she has already used to produce two cookbooks with a third on the way.

12:30 – 2:00 PM Lunch On Your Own: Check out these great restaurants within walking distance of the Convention Center: Sandpiper Café, El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant, Forno Rosso, Hangar on the Wharf, T.K. Maguire’s, Red Dog Saloon, Tracy’s King Crab Shack, McGivney’s Sports Bar & Grill, AK Fish & Chips (outside patio), Roma Bistro on the Wharf, Saffron and V’s Cellar Door

2:00 – 3:20 PM Small-Group Discussions: This session allows you, our attendees, to drive the discussion. Ask your questions and provide your input. All ideas are good ideas, so leave your expectations at the door and come in with your ears open and be ready to participate. This is a way to reverse the typical one-directional flow of communication at a conference and puts our attendees in charge. We will have four different small-group discussions and you are free to wander in and out or stay in the one that motivates you the most. Each session will have a leader/moderator who is an expert in the subject matter but the idea is to share knowledge for everyone’s benefit. Sessions include:

• Technology (Hammond): This includes topics such as Wordpress plugins, SEO, Google Analytics, site backups, caching, database maintenance, or anything else that is on your mind. Our Small Group Discussion leader is Lisa MarcAurele of Low Carb Yum.
• Social Media (Egan): We can discuss everything from Instagram to YouTube and gaining followers to scheduling your posts. Our discussion leader is Shannon Epstein of Fit Slow Cooker Queen.
• Making Money (Hickel): There is more to monetizing than simply using an ad network. Let’s discuss how to make monetization work for you! From creating books and other products, pitching to brands, creating paid courses, joining affiliate programs, and licensing recipes, we’ll talk about all the other interesting ways to make money while serving your readers. Led by veteran blogger Jana Seitzer of Whisky + Sunshine.
• All Things Blogging (Ballroom 1): This is the only small-group discussion not oriented towards advanced bloggers. This is your opportunity to ask anything you want about blogs and blogging. Our group leader is veteran food blogger Vianney Rodriguez from Sweet Life.

3:20 – 3:35 PM Break

3:35 – 4:20 PM Keynote by Dr. Julia Nordgren (Ballroom 1): Please see our announcement post for details.

4:20 – 4:35 PM The Life of a Food Blogger (Ballroom 1): We will have a final, light-hearted look at The Life of a Food Blogger by Heather Johnson, The Food Hussy.

4:35 – 4:50 PM Announcement of 2020 Location and Conference Close (Ballroom 1)

4:50 – 6:30 PM Closing Reception hosted by 2020 Location (Ballroom 3)

Sunday, June 23

Breakfast on Your Own

Post-Conference Excursion: See the Excursions page for details.

• SOLD OUT! 8:20 – 11:30 AM Whale Watching Tour With Juneau Tours
  • Pickup at Juneau Tours Office (76 Egan Drive, Juneau – beige building) on the waterfront across the street from Four Points Hotel
  • Tour: 30 min. ride to harbor, 2 hrs. on the water and 30 min. ride to Tracy’s King Crab Shack for lunch
• SOLD OUT! 12:00 – 3:30 PM Water to Plate: Alaska Salmon Fishery Tour & Beach Picnic
  • Pickup at host hotel