What do Australian food bloggers think about starting an alternative independent online food festival?
Another Outspoken Female over at Confessions of a Food Nazi makes a good point about the upcoming Melbourne food and Wine festival totally ignoring bloggers. In fact the all day session Out of the Frying Pan: A Conference on the future of food and media totally ignores all new media apart from new fangled newspapers, cookbooks and TV.
Obviously the person who organised this conference has been in a cave growing mushrooms:
“On TV, in print and at the news stands, food has never had a higher profile in the Australian media and publishing worlds. Similarly, Australian cook books, TV shows and magazines are setting the culinary agenda around the globe.”
I can’t beleive they haven’t noticed, outside blogs, all the restaurant search sites, recipe sites, online forums and bulletin boards.
So why don’t we show them and come up with some great ideas. Just post them in comments.
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Ed, I think this is a fantastic idea! It has the potential to include far more bloggers and have far more varied content than existing blog events. Having said that, I have no idea how it would be structured, but I’m sure you already have some ideas. You are just the man to organise it ……
Ed, What a brilliant master stroke in foode media and awareness. Keep is in the loop.
Not sure about what would be involved cost wise Ed but as an online (and traditional) providore of high end chefs ingredients in Melbourne and Sydney with very little funds or capacity, I’d be happy to see if we could do something.
http://www.kirkfood.com.au
Love the idea, but can it be ‘Australian’ not just Melbourne? We’ll have to think of another acronym, of course!
It’s a great idea – I’d be up for it, if being from Melbourne rather than being in Melbourne counts. I could at least rally the Melburnian food bloggers from my corner of South East Asia.
Obviously I am in on this one, having ranted about it already
Options: directly lobby the festival and point out the error in their program.
Arrange an online ‘the future of food and the internet*’ blog day/forum (that way there will be little or no cost and wide availability…and heck, it is our medium
* Virtual food and beyond?
Interesting idea Ed, although the fact that food blogging and the internet in general doesn’t rate much of mention in these kind of worlds probably has more to do with the lack of organisation and a central point of focus than anything else.
Who exactly would be the blogging representatives, and what would be their focus ?
Of course that doesn’t excuse the complete ignorance on the part of the organisers of this event to the wider food loving community and the work they are doing. I guess it’s just another instance of ‘embellished’ media having no clue about what happens on those crazy Internets.
The worth of something like this is clear and I’ve talked to a couple of people in Sydney about it as well, having has some thoughts along similar lines in the last 6 months. I could possibly access the funds and technology to help mount it. The idea is an absolute winner, Ed.
Janet, I think you are right and i’ll post some thoughts for online and offline ambushes.
Steve, I will and see what I can think up.jamie at The Breakfast Blog had the idea of auditioning for a new celebrity chef show/reality horror and posting on youtube and everybody’s blogs. It’s good to see an important food industry person taking an interest. Do you have some kind of kitchen we could use?
Little M, Good idea we should make it Australia wide for the online part.
Phil, International is good and it would be great if you could take part. i’ve been thinking how we could do something that demonstrates the ethnic diversity of food in Australia/Melbourne but haven’t formed any proper ideas yet.
AOF Big tick to “Virtual Food and Beyond”.
DrReb, we must have been commenting at the same time! What sort of things were you thinking of? Should we have a chat offline? My email’s at the top menu bar.
If i can get my act together or more likely get used to the trackpad on Lola, my new macbook….I will post something soon about what foodblogging means to me. Hey – that’s a challenge to us all – to write about the experience of writing about food
Who’s up for the challenge.
In many ways, the last thing I want to see is food bloggers doing ‘master classes’ on home cooking. We are not (well I’m not) trained chefs – we are people who like to eat and cook or write about other people cooking. We have a point of difference and each one of those indeed is different to – the tv chefs, the high profile restaurant reviewers, the celebrity restaraunteurs. We need to celebrate that difference.
Am putting my hand up if you need to form a committee on this one
AOF, Lucky you. The new macbooks are great arne’t they. A committee! That’s the last thing we need. How about a collaborative wiki. I can set one up easily. i think you are right about writing about what food blogging means to each of us. But what about being inclusive and also writing about our food and drink habits and media consumpton habits?
I don’t think we plan any conventional type food TV show (the are so fucking twee) but something that is outrageous and humiliating and funny. No cooking tips and plenty of bins full of custard.
Committee in real life code for an excuse to eat, drink and gossip
AOF, now I understand but you’ll have to reveal your identity! The ideal spot: Gertrude St Enoteca with free wireless.
Oh good you can show me how to use Lola wi-fi! Enoteca is good for me, especially on mondays and thursdays. Mail me if you want a meet up.
Will do although whether I can help with wifi depends on if it is a Telstra connection.
Hey AOF,
This meeting next week sounds really interesting and I thought I’d come along. Also, being an IT techy, I should be able to show you your wifi if Ed can’t help.
As a recent entry to your ranks, I would love to get involved. Count me in for the Enoteca thing. See you all then.
Liz,
if it’s Telstra youmight be able to help me to.
Mairead, welcome on board.
Ed, many of the speakers at Out of the Frying Pan (today) spoke about blogs, restaurant review sites and even mentioned eGullet. Many chefs, publishers and media people there clearly acknowledged the online food world and indeed some have plans to develop their involvement in it (sounds like Fairfax has big online plans). However, bloggers weren’t spoken of (for the most part) as being ‘in the industry’, but viewed instead as the clientele of the chefs and media.
Hi
I was at Out of the Frying Pan yesterday too, and was pleasantly surprized at the support by the traditional media of food blogs. The forward thinkers of the panels I sat in on (Chefs and media) where daily viewing and responding to on-line “UGC’s” -user generated content, (the way blogs where refered to). One stand out point of difference was that the traditional media had the upper hand in the reviews of restaurants etc as they had the ‘brand, integrity and trust of the readers’ and that perhaps blogs were a bit faceless and at times lacking quality experience in food to be giving advise to the general public. Many noted that food blogging was the way of the future,(some of the US chefs were very excited about whats happening with food blogs over there) yet need more structure for the general public to trust the source. There was also concerns about all reviews being legitimate and not about sneaky marketing. In the US some restaurants are employing people to be media monitors, checking for feedback etc on line. Will Goldfard from Room 4 dessert in NYC refered to being “reviewed with images on-line before the chefs had even packed up and left for the night”!
Very interesting day
Jack