Food Blog Forum Atlanta – Two Thumbs Up!
Wow! It’s hard to believe that Food Blog Forum is over! After months of planning, the response from attendees of Food Blog Forum was two thumbs up! (By the way, Mr. Bunkycooks happened to catch Chef Rathbun doing that at the kick-off party Friday night, so we couldn’t resist using this photo!) While I know you cannot please everyone, I do think that the attendees that came to our event in Atlanta this weekend had a really great time and learned a lot.
I actually came across the first email contact that I had with Jaden Hair (Steamy Kitchen) this morning. Back in May, I asked if she would be interested in bringing Food Blog Forum to Atlanta and she said yes! Putting this event together was so much hard work fun! It’s sort of like planning a party in high school and hoping everyone will come…and they did!
Pouring wine at The Viking Store Atlanta
Chef Donna Brousseau (Viking) and Chef Kevin Rathbun (Rathbun’s, Atlanta)
I have to thank both Jaden Hair (Steamy Kitchen) and Diane Cu (White on Rice Couple) for being so wonderful to work with! Diane and I must have exchanged hundreds of emails over the course of the last few months. It was pretty crazy, but I am so glad that we did this. It was great to finally have a food blogger’s conference in the Southeast!
Jaden Hair (Steamy Kitchen) and Me!
Alison Lewis, Virginia Willis and Debra Smith
I also want to thank everyone that attended Food Blog Forum (many of you from far away!) and our sponsors. None of this would have been possible without all of you! Getting to meet and network with other food bloggers and sponsors is definitely one of the benefits of coming to these events (besides the wine, food, swag and giveaways, of course!).
Now, to show you some of the fun…here is my recap of the festivities!
Chef Jessica Ray (she is the pasta making master!), Chef Donna Brousseau and Me
Rob and Harry Beecham from Montaluce Winery -They brought the good stuff!
Our kick-off party Friday evening was hosted by The Viking Store in Atlanta. They truly went above and beyond anything that I could have anticipated! Thank you so much to Chef Donna Brousseau for coordinating the whole evening and preparing all sorts of delightful food! Thank you also to Chef Jessica Ray for all the great pasta dishes and to Analia Serebrenik for managing the store that evening. I know that we kept you there late. I hope you got to eat and drink all of the leftovers!
Rawle, Patti and Yasin from Tank Goodness Atlanta – They brought cookies!
Reginald Warner – Thank you for all of your help!
Of course, a huge thank you goes to Whole Foods and Montaluce Winery for providing wine and cheese for the evening (this would include some cheeses from our other sponsors at Woolwich and Jarlsberg). You all were extremely supportive of the event! A big thank you also to Tank Goodness Atlanta for some of the best cookies I have ever had. Mercy!
Looks like a fun event Gwen!
This conference was really put together well from beginning to end. Kuddos to all that made it happen. I have some great take aways from it not only from a learning standpoint but also great products in the swag bags. Excellent recap and big thanks!
Gwen, You truly put together the perfect food blogger’s weekend. The food was delicious, the speakers were amazing and the swag was plentiful. I loved meeting all the bloggers (and finally getting to meet you!) and can’t believe how much I learned. I can’t wait to apply it to my blog! Thank you SO much again for all the work you put into making this the success that it was!
Gwen ~ just want to say again just how wonderful this event turned out to be and I am so happy we made the effort to be there! Everything was just outstanding and you did a terrific job – CONGRATS!!!
Wow, looks like you guys had fun! I wish I was there! 🙂
Thank you for all of your hard work. I had a fabulous time – it was just way too short!
Thanks Gwen for ALL of your hard work. This was an amazing event and I’m so glad I was able to attend. Please keep in touch. We are so close with me in Birmingham. Great Recap!!!
I miss you guys already!!! thank you so much for everything…it was one of the very best food blogging conferences ever! xoxo
It was all because of your hard work that we all got to have so much fun Gwen! Two thumbs up to you 🙂
You’ve summed up everything beautifully and now I want to attend the conference again! Great knowing you and meeting you in person. We’ve got to stay in touch.
Looks like everyone had a great time. Hopefully I can make it to the next one!
Great write-up, Gwen! Thanks for getting all the details posted. It not only helps those of us that were there to remember, but I’m sure those that couldn’t come feel like they weren’t left out. Hope to see you again, soon.
Well done Gwen!!! What a massive achievement – you should be proud of yourself, I sure am!!! 🙂 Btw – you are absolutely GLOWING in the pictures!!!
thanks for organizing a fabulous event! and kudos to your hubs Roger too for the great photographs!
You should be so very proud of yourself! I was thinking about you and the conference this weekend, and it was so exciting to see all the pictures and to hear about how it went. Everything looked amazing, and I only wish I could have attended. I’m sure you are tired…so rest up and enjoy some peace!
Gwen – it looks like you put together an awesome event that spanned a couple of days! I can tell by your perfectionism and organization you display on your blog that it carried over to the planning and management of this forum. Thanks for recapping the event!
I am truly amazed at how much hard work (and love!) you put into this event to make it happen. And it could not have gone any more smoothly. It was seriously a blast, and I can’t stop thinking about how fun it was! You totally deserve so much credit, and I can’t say thank you enough for taking the time to do this! I learned so much and met some amazing people (you included!) Can’t wait to meet you again sometime! 🙂
Gwen, Thank you so much for all your hard work in putting together the event! The whole experience was wonderful and so memorable!
I love those cookie boxes!
Gwen, Thanks for the recap. I was too busy soaking in all of the information, I didn’t take any photos.
You did a fabulous job planning and coordinating this event. Thank you for all of your efforts. All of the speakers and participants were wonderful! I learned so much my head is still spinning.
Gwen this was a great recap! Thank you so much for organizing this event and making it possible for those of us on the East side of the States to be able to attend a wonderful event!
Thanks for organizing such a spectacular event. I had a wonderful time and I learned a lot. It was nice meeting you!
looks like a lot of fun
Gwen.. like everyone said here, thank you so much for your dedication to making this event such a great success – REPEAT! I took away so much information with it.. but most of all, it gave me the opportunity of meeting such great new friends and peers.
Pat yourself on the back, girl… lots and lots of times.. you truly deserve it!
Looks like a great event. I’d like to come next time…Atlanta is not far from So Florida.
Gwen, thanks for all of your hard work! We learned SO much in such a short amount of time! And met SO many new friends too!!
What a fun and informative way to learn more about food. I want to go next year!!!
Gwen, from the beginning I knew I would kick myself for not attending but I just don’t know how I could have done so, looks like it was a great success and very powerful. thanks for this followup, the leads will give me some insight of what I missed….
Gwen,
Thanks for inviting us to “live stream” the Food Blog Forum”.
Thanks to the great program by Jaden, Diane, Scott and Todd.
It was a fabulous day!
John
ShowcasePhoto&Video
I wish I could have made it but we had a big deal in the works for our business and while I love my blogging, the IT business is what brings in the money so I can buy the food I make. ::sigh:: Being an adult and having to set priorities stinks sometimes. Thanks for such a helpful recap. Makes me really intent on going next year.
Gwen, looks like all that hard work paid off!
And thank you so much for a recap! And for the other bloggers who did a recap… That way, the west coast kiddos could read up and pretend we were there. :o)
[K]
I smiled my whole way through reading this post. After speaking with you this summer I know how much hard work you put into organizing this event. It looks like and A+++ Five star success. It is so fun to see how many great folks attended. Wish I lived closer I would have been there in a heart beat 🙂
Love what you say here:
“limit your focus, love what you do and to be authentic. Positive thinking and energy plays a large part in your ability to be successful.”
By the way: you look radiant in these photos.
Hi Gwen:
Thanks so much for your hard work in organizing this fantastic event. We learned so much and had so much fun! The Food Blog Forum definitely exceeded our expectations.
Thanks for helping to bring such a great event to the southeast! Your hard work was evidient in the success of the weekend and all of us greatly appreciated it. It was great to meet you!
I’m still sad I missed what seems to have been one amazing forum. Thanks for such a wonderful recap. Fingers crossed that this event will happen again. No doubt this would have been incredibly helpful to me!
Great job!