Food Bloggers of Canada Conference (#FBC2017) Recap

I attended the 5th annual Food Bloggers of Canada Conference in Ottawa on October 20 – 22, 2017 after winning a last-minute ticket thanks to Ontario Apple Growers.

Read my blog post, Winning Tickets to FBC2017 for the full story!

It was a whirlwind three days. Everything was so organized, thoughtful, and efficient. I was pumped with energy and so inspired by the workshops, seminars and motivational speakers.

I was thrilled to meet Canadian foodie celebrities, Elizabeth Baird and Mairlyn Smith. I also got to know many of the FBC members, the fantastic FBC brand sponsors, and the FBC co-founders Melissa Hartfiel and Ethan Adeland. I just love being part of this Canadian food scene!

The highlight of this conference was the food of course. All weekend we had top Ottawa chefs and Canadian food brands come in to prepare our meals, snacks, and desserts.

Here’s my recap of the FBC2017 weekend:

Day 1: Friday

Registration & Swag Bags

The conference registration started on Friday afternoon. We all received swag bags overflowing with amazing goodies including these new Canadian cookbooks authored by FBC members:

• Yum & Yummer by Greta Podleski 
• Fuss-Free Vegan by Sam Turnbull
• All the Sweet Things by Renee Kohlman 
• Feast by Lindsay Anderson & Dana Vanveller 
• The Simple Bites Kitchen by Aimee Wimbush-Bourque  

After registration, we were whisked off to the Lift Lounge where the Lentil.org sponsor provided beverages, an assortment of savory lentil appetizers and delicious lentil brownies. Here we began meeting and bonding with fellow food bloggers from across the country.

Cocktail Reception & Dinner

Friday evening was the kickoff cocktail reception, held in the penthouse with a spectacular view of the city of Ottawa. There was a selection of beautifully presented Canadian food brand appetizers at various stations, and we got a chance to go around and try one of everything!

After the reception, the Lentil.org sponsor provided dinner in the International Ballroom where all the food was prepared by top Ottawa Chefs using lentils.

Day 2: Saturday

Opening Remarks by Elizabeth Baird

We started the day with an apple-themed breakfast sponsored by Ontario Apple Growers and a keynote address by Canadian food icon Elizabeth Baird.

She spoke about “Canada at the Table” including a history lesson in culinary Canadian cookbooks. There is very little about food that Elizabeth doesn’t know!

Workshops & Presentations  

For the rest of the day, we rotated through a variety of workshops and presentations – with snack and lunch breaks in between of course! For morning snack Crosby’s Molasses provided an assortment of tasty and healthy energy bites. Lunch was make-your-own Poke Bowls sponsored by Half Your Plate.

In the afternoon, Cookina set up a popcorn bar, using their 100% non-stick reusable heat-resistant cooking bags to microwave fresh popcorn kernels!

These are the workshops and seminars I chose to attend: 

• How to Snag Media Opportunities and Survive Interviews with Will Lamont, a public relations professional and Zannat Reza, founder and CEO of thrive360. Here we got tips on how to approach and pitch media to promote a blog or brand without having a nervous breakdown. A real confidence builder!
• Five Minute Tricks to Appetizing Food Pix: Unleash Your Editing Wizzard with Maha Munaf of Cameras & Cupcakes. Maha demonstrated simple tricks on how to take food photos from ordinary to wow by editing on an iPhone or computer. With little editing photos can pop!
• Standing Out in a Crowd: Building Your Brand Identity with Sam Turnbull of It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. Sam demonstrated the development of personal branding through blog design, writing style, photography and other small personal touches that can make you stand out. Her personal brand really shines through in her newly published book Fuss Free Vegan.
• Boots & Roots with Farm & Food Care Ontario: A panel of six farmers (representing dairy, egg, cattle, pork, mushroom, and grain industries) and their families were available to provide credible information on local food and farming. I learned a lot about our food production system!

Free Time

Late Saturday afternoon there was a break giving us the perfect opportunity to explore Ottawa, which was right at our doorstep. With the advantage of a seasonally warm day, a group of us spent the time walking through the Parliament building grounds, the locks at Rideau Canel, and the Fairmont Chateau Laurier.

FBC Dinner & Feast Book Signing

Saturday night was the FBC dinner in the Ottawa City Centre Delta Hotel penthouse. We had assigned seats (arranged by FBC) which gave us the chance to meet new people at our tables.

After dinner, cookbook authors Lindsay Anderson and Dana Vanveller spoke about their impromptu journey across Canada in a Toyota Yaris. Covering 37,000 kilometers and relatively broke, they blogged along the way about meeting fascinating characters and eating amazing food.

They shared the tales of their journey in FEAST: Recipes and Stories from a Canadian Road Trip, published by Appetite by Random House. It’s become a bestseller! I got a lot out of their motivating presentation (including a signed copy of the book) but the highlight was their incredible message: take a leap and just do it.

Day 3: Sunday

Motivational Speakers

Pailin Chongchitnant of Hot Thai Kitchen spoke about “Using Video to Build a Successful Food Business and Community”. She shared her road to success which was achieved by embracing video content and gave examples of how to find a video concept to suit everyone. Pailin has a real gift of educating and inspiring others to cook and succeed. I was captivated!

Dana McCauley, a front-end marketing executive at Food Starter talked about “Canadian Entrepreneurship and Food Trends”. She shared interesting information about the emerging trends of food products. She spoke about “sweets” with alternative sugars, “proteins” such as pulses, lentils, eggs, soy products, and the coming to market of products from small-scale producers. 

FBC State of the Union

Melissa and Ethan present the FBC State of the Union. Ethan encouraged us to write a “Dear Me” letter to our future selves listing our personal goals for coming months.

We sealed the letters and handed them in. This January, FBC will mail everyone their sealed letter. I’ve already forgotten what I wrote in mine, so it will be a nice surprise in the new year. I know that everything I learned over the weekend will help me achieve my goals next year.

Last came the big announcement – the one we’ve all been anxiously waiting for – the FBC2018 location.

It’s…a road trip!

FBC will travel to nine Canadian cities in three weeks, bringing the conference to many of their 2,500 members. This will give most people a chance to attend close to their home cities. More details on the nine cities are coming soon.

Morning Break, Lunch & Brand Networking

Mid-morning break was a tempting selection of vegan, gluten-free and nut-free scones provided by Strawberry Blond Bakery. Lunch was sponsored by the Dairy Farmers of Canada, and the energy in the room was buzzing as people continued to bond with other passionate food bloggers!

After lunch, we had the Blogger Brand Speed Networking Sessions. This was a chance to meet one-on-one with FBC brand sponsors to learn how we could potentially work with brands.

Conference Takeaways

The weekend was full of fun, learning, and new friends. I left with a new sense of purpose. 

I no longer view blogging as a lonely endeavor. With all the new and valuable friendships made at this conference, I finally have blogging buddies I can talk to!

The opportunity to network and build connections was invaluable. Being surrounded by the energy of creative and inspiring people with so much culinary talent was extremely encouraging for me. I’ve bottled up all this energy and intend to spread it out throughout the year to inspire me to succeed with this blog!

FBC is such a supportive community and I’m incredibly lucky to be part of such a wonderful group. Many thanks to Melissa Hartfiel, Ethan Adeland, the volunteers and the generous support of FBC’s brand sponsors.