The Food Allergy Bloggers Conference 2014 was amazing – yet again- as this was only the 2nd year of the conference. However, with two amazing ladies in charge of it all, it seemed like they’ve been doing this their whole lives. FABlogCon is one of the best events for me personally, because I get to connect with everyone in the food allergic/GF community from across the country. I also get one-on-one time with amazing gluten-free/food-allergy-friendly sponsors like Enjoy Life Foods, Pascha Chocolate, Nature’s Path, Sunbutter, and more (check out the full sponsor list here).

Luckily, some of these bloggers are from my home state! I even had a chance to fly to LAX with Holly from My Plant Based Family. She’s such a sweetheart, and I’ve really loved getting to know her better. Hopefully a Jewel’s Bakery & Cafe date is in our near future!

Food Allergy Bloggers Conference is always full of superstars. FABlogCon is truly where you can meet the movers & shakers in the food allergic/gluten-free community. If you are a blogger in the food allergic world, you need to be at this event. Just meeting all of the amazing bloggers that are making a difference in today’s world is a blessing. Here are some highlights of the great superstars that presented during the event! (If you would like to see an agenda of all of the sessions that were presented, visit it here!)

Yeah, that’s Jerome Bettis. He works with Sanofi, but more importantly he has a food allergy. And he is a professional athlete with a SuperBowl ring! You don’t have to be held back by your food issues, you can be a champion – on or off the field! Very inspiring – great to see champions that have a food issue!

Charissa Luke and Michelle Palin were champions of the cupcake decorating session. You know the photos of the fall-inspired fondant cupcakes that received lots of likes on Instagram – Charissa was the vision behind those! Participants learned how to work with fondant and tools to decorate your cupcake for any occasion using allergen-friendly fondant!

Bento box superstar, Keeley McGuire had a packed session about how to creatively pack allergen-friendly lunches. While I don’t have a kid (or a job where I leave the house for that matter), I totally wanted to make my lunches with her fun cut-outs!

Chandice had a great session all about Pinterest – and how to make your site more Pinteresting! While she is better known as Gluten Free Frenzy online, she is also the head lady in charge of Gluten Free Calendar!

With all of the great sessions happening all at once, I didn’t get a chance to present to bloggers about how to connect with brands. Knowing that ahead of time, I just created an eBook for everyone at FaBlogCon for free (you’re welcome – head to the FB group for your free download). If you are a blogger who couldn’t make the event, you can find this book at my Celiac and the Beast SquareUp Market online – under the SWAG section. It talks about how you can perfect your writing craft and branding based on archetypes, as well as how to create a media kit and when to present it to brands.

Kelly (aka Raising Jack with Celiac) presented on using your blogger skills to actually affect change in your own community – face to face. Often times, this is a scarier situation than blogging safely behind a computer screen. I give kudos to those who are out in the community making real changes!

I presented in the Self-Publishing: From Pen to Publicity panel. While self-publishing really isn’t relevant to post about here, I do consulting if you’re looking to self-publish! I had a great time on the panel with amazing fellow panelists. The Enjoy Life Foods team was in the audience – and I couldn’t have asked for better support! If you’re not familiar with Enjoy Life Foods, 1) you’re missing out and 2) visit their new and improved website here.

Speaking of Enjoy Life Foods, the CMO Joel Warady was on the panel with superstars in the community like Jules Shepard and Annelies Zijderveld (former Attune Foods Community Manager). It’s always great to keep learning how to be a better blogger and how to better work with brands (believe me – it benefits you as the reader most of all).

Another great session was about Labeling and Legislation with Jules Shepard, Robyn O’Brien and SnackSafely.com. If you’d like to know more about this session – I recapped it on Living Without’s Gluten Free & More Magazine online blog here.

I’m so fortunate that I had an opportunity to visit another FABlogCon with great change-makers in the gluten-free and food-allergic community. Thank you to all of my fellow bloggers and writers for changing the world! It just takes one person to make a small difference, but together – we can make it happen!

PS I’d also like to say – THANK YOU FOR THE MONEY, LAS VEGAS!

If you’d like to get as lucky as I got in Vegas, you’re in luck! I’m offering a giveaway of some great product from the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference. This giveaway is only open to US residents. Please see the Rafflecopter widget below with information on entering and the terms and conditions of the sweepstakes.

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Tagged: FABlogCon, food allergy bloggers conference, Las Vegas