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Monday, March 15, 2010
SXSWi Weekend: Bacon, cupcakes, Yelp and food blogger workshop
My apologies for the massive post, but it’s been a massive weekend.
I’ve been at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference, covering panels (including Is Technology Weakening Our Relationships?, E-Food Revolution and Cooking For Geeks) and parties. Seems like daylight savings time has eaten more than just one hour because I haven’t had time to blog the awesome videos Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon has been shooting or sharing pictures of all the cupcakes and bacon I’ve consumed.
Here’s a fly-by-morning report because we’re only just past the halfway point with SXSW, and I have a day of panels and the Austin360 Food Blogger Bash to attend today! (Gulp, coffee, gulp gulp.)
Saturday’s Foodspotting Street Food Fest hit some road bumps with parking permits outside the convention center. Not all the trailers were able to park in the first place, and after a few hours, a SXSW team member informed the Foodspotting folks that the parking permit that they have trumps all others the city might have given out.
Under the stern eye of a police officer, Sugarstar, TaKorea and Mmmpanadas packed up and moved along, and the Foodspotting team ended up handing out the rest of Sugarstar’s cupcakes.
Also on Saturday was the ridiculously successful TECHmunch Food Blogger Workshop at Parkside. I presented with Anna Gonzalez of News 8 about how to work with traditional media and then had to split back to the conference, but every food blogger I’ve talked to said this event, which the organizers plan on hosting in other cities, was even more educational and inspiring than they’d hoped it would have been.
Props to Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, Babette Pepaj of Bakespace and Natanya Anderson of Fete and Feast for putting on such a great event.
On Sunday morning, I hosted the core conversation called “The Yelp Effect: When Everyone’s a Restaurant Critic” at the convention center, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the result. Lots of good questions and comments. A pretty balanced discussion in a packed — and fairly large — room. You can read this write-up by Melanie Haupt and check out the hashtag stream on Twitter to get an idea of what we talked about.
On Sunday afternoon, bacon and cupcakes were the name of the game.
After the second cupcake social at the Tiniest Bar in Texas, I got to meet the now-legendary @SXSWFreeNoms, as well as “The Icing on the Cupcake” author Jennifer Ross, I hit the Bacon Takedown at Emo’s, hosted by Matt Timms of The Takedown, who is taking his throwdown-style events on a national tour, starting with Austin.
I had the pleasure of judging so many delicious bacon dishes, including more desserts than I’d expected, with Emily Fleischaker, multimedia editor of Bon Appetit.
Even James Boo, a member of the Ice Cream Man team, showed up to pass out treats to guests and our energetic host Timms.
UPDATE: Bacon jam on shortbread, bacon-laced pecan pie, blueberry- and maple-glazed bacon in a tortilla and bacon-filled guacamole sandwiches won the judges’ vote. People’s choice was almost the same, with the exception of a bacon chocolate bar from Hilah’s Cooking. Here is Matt’s report, with a complete list of winners as well as participants.
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