This past weekend my Mom and I hopped in her new car and drove down to Austin. It only takes around 3 hours to go there… Her destination? Shopping. Mine? TECHmunch.
What is a TECHmunch? A 6 hour food blogger workshop I attended that brought me up to speed on SEO, how to grow my audience, tactics for building buzz, how to build my brand and also how to make money from my blog. It was very informative and I wish I had recorded every moment so I don’t forget anything, though I took plenty of notes! Jaden from Steamy Kitchen and Babette from Bakespace organized the event. I don’t know how those ladies do everything they do, but they totally rocked it. If a TECHmunch is coming to a town near you, I suggest you go.
It was a cozy, not too large, sized group at the event which made it comfortable to ask questions, and easy to get to meet other bloggers. Not to mention this was a Texas event, and I’ll just go ahead and say that Texans are the nicest people you will meet.
Care to see what goes down at a TECHmunch?
This panel consisted of Addie Broyless, Anna Gonzalez and Erik Deutsch as the moderator. Addie is a food writer for Austin 360 and Anna is a Sr. Web Producer for News 8 Austin. They covered traditional media and went over what makes a great story, and also ways to reach out to our local media. This really sparked my interest. (You hear that Dallas Morning News?)
The next panel consisted of Nichelle, Emily and Cathy. Nichelle is the co-founder of Cupcakes Take the Cake, one of my favorite blogs. Emily is the author of Casserole Crazy Cookbook and Cathy from The Art of Eating in. They covered how to select content to blog about, build buzz and gain readers.
We even went over the FTC guidelines with Brian Solis of the newly published book Engage, and Sarah Evans, the president of Sevans strategy. If you receive any product of value, you must disclose that. Good to know!
Ben from ICanHasCheezeburger! That website gets over a million hits a day. Trust me, I listened to every word he said.
Now you can’t host food bloggers for 6 hours and not feed us! The event was at Parkside Restaurant conveniently located on 6th street (convenient as in right next to the bars) and they also provided the food which tasted fresh and delicious. The vicyssoise was smooth and creamy.
Sorry I cut off the description. Bad Natalie.
The cauliflower had so much flavor. I want to recreate this.
I met some cool people! Including Babette from BakeSpace, Natalie from The City Sisters (a Dallasite that I have met before) and Jaden from SteamyKitchen.
Just look at her face. I saw that Jaden from Steamy Kitchen was taking a moment to sign her cookbook, and look how pleased she is! I don’t know who she is, if you are out there identify yourself!
And look, Chaya from Vegicurean won the pink kitchenaide mixer. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.
If a TECHmunch rolls through your town, I suggest you go.
