International Food Bloggers Conference 2013 RECAP and GIVEAWAY

We rushed into Seattle from spending only 24 hours in Portland with Non-GFBF’s family (and our usual tour of gluten-free bakeries and carbo loading). I was starved and full of anxiety when I checked into the W to start my International Food Bloggers experience (aka #IFBC).

While the server at Chipotle told me that I couldn’t have the rice because it has gluten (it doesn’t, I promise), I really liked having a safe meal as soon as I got into the city. Thanks, Chipotle! PS extra thanks for hooking up bloggers with free burrito bowl coupons. I will be VERY happy to redeem those soon! #ChipotleLove

I went straight into the introduction to IFBC by Dorie Greenspan. I spent the whole time doodling some key quotes of my favorite moments.

Say Yes and Follow Your Dreams

Say Yes and Follow Your Dreams

Doodlebug

Doodlebug

She was a really inspirational speaker – from her times (before the internet) building a community and then hanging out with Julia Child (oh you know no big deal).

After the intro was the Live Food Blogging by Amazon.com Grocery. You can see some of the great products that I got to sample here!

Amazon Grocery Liveblogging IFBC

Amazon Grocery Liveblogging IFBC

After the Amazon.com Grocery liveblogging, I went in and out of a few sessions, but I was most excited about the Taste of Seattle vendor fair and gifting suite. Because, c’mon, who doesn’t like sponsored gifts that I can give to you guys for rockin’ giveaways?

We kicked ass in the gifting suite. There were SO many gluten-free brands there including Attune Foods with their new cereal, Sahale snacks, and Happy Family squeeze packs!

Then Charissa and I got to explore the Taste of Seattle vendor fair! It was a ton of amazing cooking equipment vendors, wine vendors, and then a lot of local Seattle vendors showcasing their amazing food.

Wusthof Knifes

Wusthof Knifes

Each vendor was required to have a gluten-free option – this is MY KIND OF CONFERENCE! Seriously, it was amazing to eat whatever I wanted to. I overloaded on sushi and gluten-free yummies. And wine. Always wine.

IFBC

IFBC

You can see my video from the Taste of Seattle here. The end of the video has a slideshow of some of my favorite items!

The rest of the time at IFBC was full of sessions that helped increase my love and admiration of food, and (hopefully) helped me become better a better blogger. To really get the full feel of my #IFBC experience, check out my twitter feed from the event here.

  • Pastry Smart presented the American Humane Association. They talked about the 5 tenants of animal welfare: Freedom from hunger/thirst, freedom from discomfort/pain/injury & disease, freedom to express normal behaviors,  and freedom from fear/distress. I never thought about a bakery like Pastry Smart considering humane treatment of animals when they were not outright slaughtering a cow for their products. But they talked about humanely getting eggs (including replacing any eggs they take with plastic eggs), and milk, etc. That’s awesome. I wish every bakery (on top of every place serving animal products, period) could tout this. 
  • Food photography sessions ran rampant at IFBC. Now, I take all my pictures on an iPhone. My shots look like a third-grader took them. However, I’m pretty okay with that because by nature I am not a baker or a chef by any means. I am terrible in the kitchen so even if I had awesome skills, I’m not sure you’d want to see my photos. However, I really enjoyed learning about this from Andrew Scrivini from The New York Times, and others throughout the conference. It was very inspirational, and ever since then, I’ve really been trying to think about my photos of food before posting them. No worries, I’ll still take photos of me without makeup though…
  • Wine and Writing: Live Blogging with Bordeaux Wines was amazing – truly one of the best sessions. I loved the hosts – Ward (@drXeNo) and Sam (@brokewino). After wine came more wine, the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery from Washington. I really dig their Ethos Late Harvest Riesling from 2011. Although I also liked their cab and syrah. Okay, so I liked most all of their wine. Seriously, I didn’t know that I could drink more wine – but I did. Again, I am not a super taster. I have a lot to learn when it comes to wine tasting and wine blogging. In fact, one of my FAVORITE tweets from my Bordeaux wine tasting experiences goes as follows:  @CELIACBEAST: “Someone was like “I taste cilantro” and I’m like “I taste alcohol.” –> story of my wine blogging life.” Seriously, my wine tasting notes are pretty much always like this:

Bordeaux Wines at IFBC

 

  • The final session, Tech: Google Plus, Author Rank, Google Search with Ian Lurie (aka “I for one welcome our Google overlords“) was way over my head, but that’s why I have people like Non-GFBF and Mary Fran at Frannycakes to help me out. Web nerds, every blogger should have a few readily available. All I know is that from now on, I will really attempt to be a badass with my G+ profile. Please find me there.

I also had a chance to check out a Seattle gluten-free bakery/cafe below Pike Place market with my #GFFs Adina & Charissa!

Coffee & Specialty Bakery Seattle Gluten Free

Coffee & Specialty Bakery Seattle Gluten Free

The last night of the event, Urbanspoon treated us all to “surprise” dinners all around Seattle. The interesting part of this event, was 1) it was a secret and 2) you were placed into a group of people you don’t know and 3) a dinner full of gluten-free people you don’t know. You can read about my night at Stumbling Goat here.

Stumbling Goat Seattle

Stumbling Goat Seattle

Overall, I LOVED #IFBC so much. They were very accommodating to my food issues. Even though I’m not a food blogger per say (I’m more of a lifestyle about food blogger), I LOVED learning about food photography, food and wine paring, and most of all – being at a conference where everyone has a love affair with food. Unlike most gluten-free/celiac conferences, when you talk about food at IFBC, it’s always about “the most amazing blank I ever ate” and the love and appreciation for food. At celiac conferences it’s all about how food is our enemy – it can literally kill us. It was refreshing to be at a conference that reminded me that you can love food, even if a small part of it can and will kill you slowly.

 

HOW TO WIN AN IFBC PRIZE PACK

PRIZE: 

International Food Bloggers Conference Prize Pack

International Food Bloggers Conference Prize Pack

Enter to win 1 (one) of two IFBC 2013 Prize Packs – for US residents only.

A prize pack will include random swag and gluten-free goodies from the 2013 International Food Bloggers Conference

WINNERS WILL APPEAR BELOW WHEN CHOSEN:

2 winners, picked randomly (via Rafflecopter) based on valid entries.

HOW IT WORKS:

Each person can be entered into this contest FOUR TIMES via Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CONTEST ENDS: FRIDAY OCTOBER 11th 2013 at 11:59pm EST

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Comments: 36

  1. Amie Huff September 28, 2013 at 10:47 am Reply

    Great way to try new Gluten free products !

  2. Kim R September 28, 2013 at 10:50 am Reply

    Sweet! Hope I win!

  3. Kelly September 28, 2013 at 10:51 am Reply

    What a great giveaway! Would love to win for my recently diagnosed daughter! Her ttiga level is currently 128!

  4. amanda September 28, 2013 at 10:58 am Reply

    I would have loved to be apart of the amazon.com flood bloggers part! I love amazon and get all of my cooking supplies from there if I can for gluten free and paleo cooking. The fruit leather looks delectable. Cant wait to try!

  5. Stephanie Rollman September 28, 2013 at 11:12 am Reply

    The Fruit snacks and dragon fruit

  6. Jennifer Mathews September 28, 2013 at 11:26 am Reply

    The food photography sounds coolc didn’t realize there were specific was to take pics of food haha, I just take them on my android lol. I also want to know what that monkey is doing in the pic haha

  7. Gigi September 28, 2013 at 11:53 am Reply

    Sounds like you had a great time! Lots of neat products to be on the lookout for. Thanks for a chance to win.

  8. Debra J. Gowlland September 28, 2013 at 12:10 pm Reply

    Would love to win this prize pack! 🙂 Thanks!

  9. Lorraine September 28, 2013 at 12:19 pm Reply

    It looks like you had a blast at the conference and the package your are giving away looks amazing!! 🙂 I want it! 😛

  10. Sarah Mayhew September 28, 2013 at 12:39 pm Reply

    Love all the yummy looking goodies and I wish I could been to all of it!!!!!!

  11. Lizzi September 28, 2013 at 12:50 pm Reply

    Thanks for being such and inspiration to us celiacs!!!

  12. Jenny September 28, 2013 at 1:40 pm Reply

    I wish I could have attended the WHOLE thing! I tried to swing it but with school just starting up I couldn’t go. Still so bummed about missing this huge event.

  13. DIana September 28, 2013 at 1:52 pm Reply

    All these goodies look so good. And your posts about the even sounded like so much fun.

  14. Shauna September 28, 2013 at 1:58 pm Reply

    I would have like to attend the Taste of Seattle vendor fair. The variety of new products in the swag pack is what appeals to me.

  15. TJ September 28, 2013 at 3:08 pm Reply

    I so wish I could’ve been there for that last night experience I dining with strangers…food is one of the first ways I connect with people! What an awesome experience!

  16. Katie September 28, 2013 at 3:35 pm Reply

    Either the vendor fair or the gluten free bakery…can I pick both?!?

  17. Kari Frazier September 28, 2013 at 5:53 pm Reply

    Sounds like you had a blast! I loved exploring the gf options in Seattle this summer. So many great places to choose from!

  18. Karol September 28, 2013 at 6:33 pm Reply

    The Sahale snacks look amazing. And I would have loved to have had gf sushi at the fair. The whole thing sounds like a blast.

  19. Merissa September 28, 2013 at 7:50 pm Reply

    Great article! It’s made me think of a really random question. You brought up eating at chipotle and I have been too fearful to try it. When getting toppings how do you ensure that the spoon hasn’t touched flour tortillas and then been placed back into the container? Do they have special procedures for it? We have a chipotle in my town and I’d love to finally give it a try!

  20. Tim September 28, 2013 at 8:57 pm Reply

    Those dragon fruit snacks look tasty!

  21. Julie September 28, 2013 at 10:19 pm Reply

    I love so many of those products and so does my daughter!

  22. Monica Cox September 29, 2013 at 8:39 am Reply

    It all looks good and would love to try it all out 🙂 I would have loved to be able to be around and chat with others that are gluten free and understand what you go through daily would be awesome. And being able to try all those different treats.

  23. Todd Bliss September 29, 2013 at 8:54 am Reply

    Sounds like you had an amazing time and i enjoyed you posts about it

  24. Molly Stone September 29, 2013 at 3:03 pm Reply

    Wish I could have gone! Loved reading everything about it

  25. Susan Martin September 29, 2013 at 3:27 pm Reply

    The Amazon part. LOVE shopping there so easy and in Phoenix such a small wait for anything in stock!

  26. Shelby September 29, 2013 at 4:21 pm Reply

    I always love trying new GF things! That all looks so good!

  27. Michelle @ My Gluten-free Kitchen.com September 30, 2013 at 1:18 pm Reply

    I looked and looked at the IFBC and really thought about attending. If I had known how gluten-free friendly it ended up being, I totally would have gone. Now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t. I’ll definitely consider it in the future, based on your review. Sounds like a ton of fun!

  28. Jaemie Gyurik September 30, 2013 at 3:01 pm Reply

    I have been loving your tweets and posts about the conferences. Thank you so much for sharing the information for those who can’t attend!

  29. Beth Wilkins October 2, 2013 at 1:38 pm Reply

    Thank you for all of the great info from the conferences!

  30. julie October 3, 2013 at 6:29 pm Reply

    i love yum earth snacks, I would love those

  31. Laurie October 5, 2013 at 7:19 pm Reply

    I have tried the Sahale peas and they were amazing. I can not find other Sahale snacks in my local Kroger. I would love to try these.

  32. Rachel October 5, 2013 at 7:26 pm Reply

    Winning these would be awesome!

  33. Kate October 5, 2013 at 8:00 pm Reply

    Blow away by all the new innovations in gf products!

  34. Kassie October 6, 2013 at 1:18 pm Reply

    I just came across your blog, I’m new to the GF lifestyle, recently diagnosed with Celiac. Thanks for all of the info

  35. Devin October 6, 2013 at 6:18 pm Reply

    The Taste of Seattle part looks so fun! Shoot, who am I kidding, it all looks awesome!!

  36. Jessica Welch October 11, 2013 at 11:41 am Reply

    I think I would have enjoyed that secret dinner at the end… the cut of meat in the picture looks mouth-watering! (I’m thinking fish?) The best thing in the swag pack IMHO are all the individual, grab-and-go snacks since I am always on the go!!! Great post.

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