Club Med Insider

Food Blogger Camp Agenda

AGENDA (updated 1/10/09 10:00am)

Saturday, January 9
6:00pm Welcome Cocktails at the Main Bar by the pool
7:30pm Group Dinner at Main Restaurant/El Encanto. Look for Food Blogger Camp reserved tables.
9:00pm After Dinner cocktails at Miramar

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Sunday, January 10
8:30 a.m. Breakfast at Main Restaurant/El Encanto

9:45 a.m. Mixology demo TBD

10:00 a.m. to 12 noon Location: Theater
Michael & Donna Ruhlman
Making Your Blog More Valuable to More People
Discuss different approaches to writing for blogs, everything from reporting and other forms of information gathering, to creating a consistent compelling voice, restaurant reviewing, blogging ethics and effective recipe writing. Lots of Q&A, good dialogue and participation. Donna Ruhlman who shoots the photography, will also be on hand to discuss photography, her techniques on shooting and lighting, and food photojournalism generally.

12:15pm-1:15pm Lunch at Main Restaurant/El Encanto

OPEN AFTERNOON

7:00pm drinks at Main Bar by the pool
8:00pm Open dinner

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Monday, January 11

10:00am to 12:00pm Location: La Serena Mini Club Restaurant (children’s restaurant)
Adam Pearson, Food Styling
In this class, professional food stylist Adam Pearson will show you tips and tricks for plating and styling for the camera. Using everyday kitchen tools and stylists techniques Adam will show you how to take your real dinner and style it so that you get a great photos every time and you can still eat it! Making chicken.

12 p.m. to 1:30pm Lunch

2:00pm to 4:00pm Location: La Serena Mini Club Restaurant
Matt Armendariz, Matt Bites Food Photography
Focus on using real-world professional photography techniques tailored for the blogger and for shooting at home. Using what you have on hand, you'll learn how to create stunning photos using objects you have on hand and natural light with an emphasis on keeping it real and — most importantly — edible. Still life.

7:00pm Drinks at Main Bar by the pool
7:30pm Miramar restaurant (hosted by Diane Cu & Todd Porter)

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Tuesday, January 12
9:00 am to 1:30 pm MARKET TOUR
TOUR GROUP 1: Tour of market & taco stands in Zihuantanejo. Meet in main lobby at 9:00am.

3:30-5:00 p.m. Location: at the Theater
Jaden Hair & David Lebovitz
From blog to book
Candid conversation of how both writers decided it was time to take their work to book form – from proposal, working with agent, working without an agent, the process of writing/photographing, managing recipe testing, editing and book tour/publicity. They'll talk about what publishers are looking for and hand out a book proposal worksheet. Discussion will also cover how much money first time writers should expect and benefits and downsides of working with a publisher, or self-publishing.

7:00pm Drinks at Main Bar by the pool
8:00pm Open dinner
8:00pm La Luna Azul— (hosted by Michael & Donna Ruhlman)

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Wednesday, January 13
8:30am Breakfast at Main Restaurant/El Encanto

OPEN MORNING

2:00pm to 4:00pm at the theater
Elise Bauer
Food Blogging Best Practices – How to build traffic while building the food blog of your dreams.
Successful food bloggers didn't get where they are by accident. Learn what approaches, ideas, and practices work the best for creating a blog that gets recognition, builds a sustaining readership, and makes you proud.

7:00pm Drinks at Main Bar by the pool
8:00pm Open dinner
8:00pm Miramar (hosted by Elise Bauer & David Lebovitz)

***

Thursday, January 14
8:30am Breakfast at Main Restaurant/El Encanto

10:00am – 12:00pm at the theater
Dianne Jacob
Food Writing with Your Senses
Food writing is not just about how food tastes. It engages all the senses: touch, smell, sound, appearance, and taste, so readers are right there at the table, enjoying the experience with you. It's easy to get carried away with adjectives, but too many will weaken your story. Learn how to use action verbs, metaphor and simile to make writing elegant and sensuous. With Dianne, you'll read examples of sensuous writing and talk about the techniques famous writers use to capture all the senses, plus you'll have a chance to practice your writing and get pointers from a seasoned editor and professional writing coach. Dianne Jacob is the author of Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction, and More; and co-author of Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas, with chef Craig Priebe. She is a regular judge for the Beard and IACP national book awards, and the Bert Green Food Journalism awards.

2:00pm – 4:00pm at the theater
ROUNDTABLE –

7:00pm Drinks at Main Bar by the pool
8:00pm Open dinner
8:00pm La Luna Azul (hosted by Matt Armendariz & Adam Pearson)

***

Friday, January 15
9:00 am to 1:30 pm MARKET TOUR
TOUR GROUP 2: Tour of market & taco stands in Zihuantanejo. Meet in main lobby at 9:00am.

OPEN MORNING

2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Location: La Serena Mini Club Restaurant
Diane Cu and Todd Porter ,
Building a Better Blog with Multimedia
Learn how to make your blog more interactive and visually enticing by integrating various forms of Multimedia. With applications such as video, graphics, text, and podcasts, readers will be fully immersed in your content through the virtual multimedia experience. Technologies, softwares and applications will be discussed to give a basic understanding of different options to create all the sensory experiences on your blog. Basic tutorials on creating a video and podcasts will be demonstrated, as well as discussion on basic applications of other multimedia forms. Topics on editing and creating an editing workflow with PC and Mac will also be covered. We'll do a quick demo of video and audio during the sit-down conference and immediately throw them on the editing bay. Participants will get a quick, but informative idea on how to create a workflow for video and podcast.

7:00pm Drinks at Main Bar by the pool
8:00pm Group Dinner at Main Restaurant/El Encanto

***

Saturday, January 16
8:30am Breakfast at Main Restaurant/El Encanto
DEPARTURE