Eat. Drink. Blog. 2010 Australia Food Blogger Conference (Part I)

Yep. It’s true. We, the food bloggers of Australia, take our blogging so seriously we actually had a conference about it! It was a great pleasure and honour to receive an invitation to the first ever Australia Food & Drink Blogger conference (see: Eat. Drink. Blog. official web site

Being a total nerd that I am, I took notes and wrote down a few things I would like to address on this blog. I guess my blogging manifesto, per se. But let’s get to what the food blogger conference was actually about first.

(grilled scallop with fish sauce dressing)

We arrived in the morning at Essential Ingredients at the Prahan Market for the morning and afternoon sessions where a few of our fabulous presenters talked about things like why we blogged, ethics of blogging, copyrights, photography, making money from blogging, hyperlocal blogging, search engine optimisation, how to be social and utilising social media etc. It was very informative and we had a great time discussing all the different topics.

(oxtail wonton in five-spice soup and snowpea sprout)

Because we are a bunch of Twitter addicts, the conference’s very own hash tags (#eatdrinkblog and #eatdrinkblog2010) on Twitter were moving non stop. It was the only conference I have ever come across where it was okay for you to be looking at your phone all the time!

After a lunch break (where I consumed an entire dozen of rock oysters from a fish monger at the Prahran Market – yes a dozen is just way too many for the one of me. And no, no one else wanted it because I ended up sitting with a table of vegetarians), we continued with our sessions on the topic.

(Mixed mushroom salad)

We exchanged tips, ideas, experience and stories. Some of us have been blogging for a while and some of us just started. But I think, best of all, is the social part of things. We found people who were like minded and had an absolute fabulous night.

Afterwards, we moved on to the SBS Food Blogger Photo Exhibition where we were served some interesting cocktails and mocktails while ogling at some really amazing photos taken by fellow food bloggers. The party atmosphere was in the air, shall we say, and everyone was just so excited to be there.

(grilled kingfish head)

We were then invited into St. Ali for a Bloggers’ Banquet (love the name) and had lots of food! For this post, I just want to concentrate on the sheer food pornography from the dinner at St. Ali in South Melbourne. And maybe a more thoughtful digest of what we discussed during the conference a bit later.

(lamb with coconut and shrimp paste sauce)

Suffice to say, we all had a fantastic (if the Twitter feed was anything to go by) and for myself, I learned a fair bit, had some few thought-provoking moments. But more on that in part 2. As someone had mentioned on Twitter, it was like being in a room full of soul mates (dramatic, but we like it).

And of course, there’s that video of my ingesting a fish eye ball taken by Jeroxie. I hope it doesn’t see the light of day.

For information on the attendees, panel, sponsors and the coverage of this food bloggers’ conference, head over to the official conference website

Update: now read about How and Why I Blog About Food (also known as Eat. Drink. Blog. 2010 Australia Food Blogger Conference (Part II))