last weekend, i attended the food media south conference right here in birmingham, hosted by southern foodways alliance. although i am not a food blogger, i am quite the food enthusiast, as well as a member of the media, so hey, why not? i went in expecting an insightful and rewarding experience, and i definitely got one.
the list of speakers was riddled with great names - bill addision of eater.com, jed portman of garden & gun, kyle tibbs jones of the bitter southerner, dorothy kalins (founding editor of saveur), erika council of southern souffle, roscoe hall of dreamland bbq alabama royalty, & so many more.
we were treated to a wonderful lunch from johnny's in homewood, and dinner later that evening from archibald's bbq, post office pies & syke's bbq. all in all, this was a stunning roundup of local food for the out-of-towners to sample.
key takeaways:
- dorothy kalins, on conducting interviews: "at the end of the interview... i usually keep one question in reserve. and then, with that question in mind, i thank the person, i start putting my papers together as if i'm ready to go, and then i kind of throw that question out, and by that time it's kind of a collegial environment where you're both in it together, like you've been working on something. revealing things happen in those moments."
- tina antolini, on podcasts: "if you're not gathering many times more tape than minutes of your podcast, you're probably not doing enough."
- kyle tibbs jones on social media: "social etiquette is social media etiquette. don't be the loud kid at the party."
- jed portman on short, list centric/"buzzfeed" type content: "there is a sweet spot between smart, informed & shareable content that doesn't have to be click bait."
- roscoe hall on the state of food, & how food needs to be "brought down" a few notches: "food is so good right now, it's disgusting."
what fascinated me was the lack of birmingham folks at this event. hey y'all, come to food media south next year! most everyone seemed to be from out of town, and all day i kept thinking about how many birmingham bloggers would have enjoyed this conference. though not blogging centric, food media south provided an enthusiastic space for creatives and entrepreneurs of all types, with gleaming insights from some hardcore professionals with years of experience writing, creating and putting their voices out there.
i'm looking forward to attending food media south again next year, and i strongly encourage some more birmingham folks to look into this conference. i left feeling motivated and inspired to pursue a few different projects. i also felt super inspired by birmingham itself -- hosting an event like this in this city reminds me that birmingham is a growing hub for not only food, but creativity and media in general. go birmingham!
