A quick update and the final program

Now that it’s under a month to the second Australian Food & Drink Bloggers Conference, Eat. Drink. Blog. 2011, I think it’s time to reveal the final program!

But first, I ‘d like to address some of the questions the Organising Committee have been receiving. So here’s a quick update –

The Organising Committee

There is no formal ‘Australian Food Bloggers Association’ as such. This conference is the result of the success of Eat. Drink Blog. 2010 held in Melbourne, and the initiative of the bloggers who pulled the conference together and those who participated. The 2011 Organising Committee was formed in March 2011 based on a process of volunteering. The 2011 team in the early stages consisted of Reem, Trina, Simon, Danny, Becca, Petra and myself. Due to work and personal commitments, the team was reduced to Reem, Trina, Simon and myself.

We’d like to take this opportunity to recognise the enormous amount of effort contributed by Reem, who had to pull out of the Organising Committee a few months ago, and actually won’t be attending the conference as she is expecting a baby!

Also thanks to these new volunteers who will be assisting us with the running of the conference – Thang, Christina & Tammi.

How We Started

As the conference is solely for the benefit of bloggers, we conducted a survey in mid March to best understand how we should structure this conference. And based on this feedback, the Organising Committee have been meeting up regularly, 1-2 times each month, to formulate the program and secure sponsors and presenters.

Attendence and Costs

There is no payment required to participate in the conference or attend the dinner. We’ve relied heavily on the generousity of sponsors to make this event happen.

We opened up registrations for attendence last month and put in place some criteria to make the selection process as fair as possible. There is a cap on the size of the conference due to organisational constraints.

Communications

It has come to our attention that not all bloggers have been aware of the conference. We (the Organising Committee) were under the assumption that we’d covered all the bases, as announcements were made via the Australian Foodbloggers Google Group as well as promoted via our personal Twitter accounts. Our apologies to those who’ve missed out on information regarding the conference.

To steamline this process, we’ve since created an official Twitter account: @EatDrinkBlogAU.

The official hashtag for the 2011 conference is: #eatdrinkblog2011.

It goes without saying that you should also check the official website or subscribe to the RSS for other formal announcements.

What’s Next

We’ve just confirmed all the presenters and sponsors, so below is the final program! Woohoo!

If you haven’t done so yet, we highly recommend everybody entering the photography competition! We’re looking into some potential changes to improve the competition. Keep an eye on this site and on Twitter for updates and further details.

So that’s pretty much it. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions, otherwise on behalf of the Organising Committee, I look forward to seeing some of you soon!

The Final Program

MC: Tammi Jonas (Tammi Tasting Terroir)

Time	Activity
9:00am – 9:50am	Registration and Breakfast at Electrolux Demonstration Showroom
9:50am – 10:00am	Formal Welcome
10:00am – 10:30am	Seminar: Legal When it comes to blogging, is the law a friend or foe? Pick the brains of our resident food loving legal experts on all matters relating to blogging: Dominic Villa (@Under_Exposed), barrister and owner of the Seven Wentworth Chambers; and Stephen Estcourt QC (@stephenestcourt), who has held esteemed positions from chair of the Tasmanian Independent Bar to President of the Australian Bar Association.
10:30am – 11:00am	Seminar: SEO How to think like a search engine optimiser – Michael Gall (My Aching Head) will demonstrate how an SEO approaches blogging and how that can apply to us as Aussie food bloggers.
11:00am – 11:30am	Morning Tea
11:30am – 12:30pm	Seminar: How to make your writing shine Writing seminar led by Valerie Khoo; journalist, author, entrepreneur and founder of the Sydney Writers’ Centre in Milsons Point.
12:30pm – 2:00pm	Meat Masterclass and Lunch Lunch will be provided by MLA and prepared by Nonie Dwyer, who has just returned from a long stint as chef at the reknowned River Cottage with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. This will be followed by a lamb butchery masterclass run by Nonie.
2:00pm – 3:00pm	Concurrent Workshops I – Food styling; Food photography; Crab Masterclass
3:00pm – 4:00pm	Concurrent Workshops II – Food styling; Food photography; Bread Masterclass
4:00pm – 4:30pm	Afternoon Tea
4:30pm – 5:00pm	Panel Session: Monetising and Professional Blogging You’ve got a well-read blog – now what? A few of Australia’s leading bloggers [Jennifer Lam (Jenius), Jules Clancy (The Stone Soup) and Michael Shafran (Gosstronomy)] talk about ways to commercialise your efforts.
5:00pm – 5:30pm	Panel Session: Food Culture A rare one-on-one session with Simon Marnie about the evolution of food culture in the media
5:30pm – 6:00pm	Audience Q&A Session: Ethics Blogging and ethics – are they mutually exclusive? Hear thoughts from Zoe Bowman (Progressive Dinner Party) and voice your own thoughts on the matter
6:00pm – 6:10pm	Wrap-up and Prizes
8:00pm – 10:30pm	Dinner at Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse

Concurrent Workshops -

Each of the different workshops run for an hour and will cater for about 20-odd attendees. Simply choose which workshop you would like to attend on the day.

Food Styling Workshop

When it comes to getting that perfect shot, Peter Georgakopoulos (Souvlaki For The Soul) will show you how to “mix and match” props to make the food the real star.  This session aims to be fun with a “no rule” approach and allowing your personal creativity to shine. Includes hands on exercises with food and props.

Food Photography Workshop

Quentin Jones, photographer for SMH will share his professional eye for food photography.

Crab Masterclass

Join Lars Svensson, Group Executive Chef of Kingsleys Restaurant Group, as he demonstrates how to select, clean and prepare a Singaporean Chilli Mud Crab (Queensland Mud Crab in a sticky sweet chilli tomato sauce with coriander, ginger and lime) from scratch.

Bread Masterclass: Sensory Evaluation Techniques for Sourdough

From ingredients, process and finished product learn how to evaluate the perfect sourdough. We’ll show you how to assess and grade all the sensory attributes for sourdough we look at Brasserie Bread so you can be the judge of a perfect product. This will be a hands on work shop so bring your taste buds with you.

Special thanks to these sponsors -

• Electrolux for the conference venue
• Toby’s Estate who will be providing tea, coffee, a barista and a prize giveaway
• Breville who will be providing a juice bar and a prize giveaway
• Daylesford and Hepburn Mineral Springs Co. who will be providing non-alcoholic beverages
• Brasserie Bread who will be providing breakfast as well as morning and afternoon tea and prize giveaways
• Meat and Livestock Australia who will be providing lunch and a prize giveaway
• Pacific Restaurant Group who will be providing dinner
• Lindt for providing a Delice Macaron Tower and three prize giveaways
• Impact Communications Australia for providing a fruit stand & sponsoring the photography competition

Post conference dinner –

The conference dinner at Kingsleys is the last of Eat Drink Blog 2011 official organised conference activities. For those looking to kick on after the conference dinner or others seeking to meet up with conference attendees, the closest venue to Kingsleys is the nearby Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel on Bourke Street, which conveniently stays open until 2am.