Club Med Insider

Agenda for the Club Med Ixtapa Pacific Food Blogger Camp

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January 9-16, 2010

Welcome to the first annual Food Blogger Camp at Club Med. This is an event created by food bloggers for food bloggers, hosted by Club Med. We'll be spending a fabulous week at the all-inclusive Club Med Ixtapa Pacific on the lush western coast of Mexico. Each day your favorite bloggers will lead workshops on how to improve your blogging skills. We'll also conduct a walking tour of the colorful Zijuatanejo market, taste tacos and tequilas, visit the fisherman's market and check out some local sustainable agriculture if we can tear you away from your computers!

Here is a tentative agenda, please keep in mind that scheduled dates and times may change slightly.

Sunday, January 10
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.


Monday, January 11
10:00 a.m. to 12 noon
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!

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
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.



Tuesday, January 12
9:30 to 1:30
Blogger led tour of market & taco stands in Zihuantanejo

3:00-5:00 p.m.
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.

Wednesday, January 13
10 a.m. to 12 noon
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.


Thursday, January 14
2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
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.


Friday, January 15
10 a.m. to 12 noon
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.

Saturday, January 16
Departure