Austin TECHmunch 2011!

What an exciting weekend!  Not only did I get to see the Lipizzaner Stallions up close and personal yesterday, but I got to hang out with my fellow food bloggers at TECHmunch on Saturday!

Where to begin?  Well, first, thanks to Babette over at bakespace.com and Whole Foods Market Austin for a WONDERFUL event and beautiful space in which to have it.

There was so much information to soak in!  I took a few notes as I could, and I’m hoping I captured the rest in my Tweets.

Socializing Content: How to Make Readers Passionate About Your Content

Ben Huh, Brett Erlich, Sean Percival, and Robert Scoble were a great panel to get us going Saturday morning.

• Time = money =crazy! You do have to have time or money to socialize.
• Learn the *way* people like to talk about food, not just *what* they want to talk about.
• Virality of your content is not necessarily a good thing for business.
• You will never be as successful as Bacon-Taped Cat.

Next up was Getting Noticed: Building your PR Plan

Eric Schwartzman, Sarah Evans, and Erik Deutsch

• Social media + social etiquette. Play nice out there!
• Develop press kit for your blog!
• Know the difference between a press kit and media kit. (I’m still working on this one.)
• Utilize editorial calendars to help you plan  your posts.
• HARO – Help a Reporter Out – free PR, free publicity to become a source for a news publication.

Yay! Food Break:

Social Media Optimization: The Art & Science of Social SEO for Food Content (or Recipe Content)

Lee Odden, TopRank Marketing

See my post “Social SEO for Blogs: A Recipe for Success” to see Lee’s slideshow.

Lunch

Next, we headed downstairs with our fabulous $10 gift cards from Whole Foods to find something tasty for lunch.  Corrin and I opted for the amazing salad bar along with chocolate mousse and tiramisu for dessert.  We dined al fresco on the plaza as pigeons strutted by, waiting for hand-outs.  Those were some well-fed birds!

Publicity: How to Leverage Traditional Media  and get on a Food Editors Radar

Rene Lynch, Jeff Houck, Kat Kinsman, and Addie Broyles

Recharged from lunch, we returned to my favorite panel of the day.  This group had some great chemistry!

• Be awesome on Twitter! –  from  Kat (whose Twitter handle, @kittenwithawhip is one of my faves!)
• Take it easy with the snarky Tweets and posts! (uh oh…might have to work on this one)
• What is the story only *you* can tell?

Then on to the panel with the coolest name:
Content: Creating Kick-Ass Multimedia Content
Nadia Giosia, Penny De Los Santos, and Andrew Warner

All of the multimedia talk gave me serious camera envy for some of the cameras people had brought with them to the conference.  I love my Canon Power Shot, but it was nothing compared to Corrin’s or others!  Size does matter. 😛

• Think about your instincts in photography!
• Strive to get to do your dream assignment. (Mine involved Anthony Bourdain and a trip to Florence, Italy)
• Enter contests to get your blog noticed. (Even better if you win a few!)
• Do some guest blogging for another blogger and return the favor.

For those striving to do online video:

• Script your content.
• Use music (from royalty-free sites like AudioMicro) in the video to set the mood
• Use bumpers at the beginning and end of the video to make it look more professional.

And so, Austin TECHmunch 2011 Day 1 came to a close.  It was a blast, and I can’t wait to see everyone again next year and hopefully sooner through the Austin Food Blogger Alliance.