In October, I attended my first ever blogging conference. It was an awesome experience and I have to say that the committee – Amanda Whitley {HerCanberra}, Tara Cheyne {In The Taratory}, Rachi Perera {Le Bon Vivant}, Guilia Porro {Love At Every Bite} and Belinda Neame {creator of the street food event, The Forage} – just did the most amazing job! We were wowed from the minute the event opened at The Hamlet until the curtain was drawn close at Two Before Ten. And, I think, all the participants felt like we were coming down from a high on Monday morning when we returned to our normal lives {why wasn’t their a little bespoke coffee van in my front yard on Monday morning to make the transition easier?}.

Basically, I think that I couldn’t possibly put everything I want to say about #EBD15 into one post – so I am breaking it down into five posts and I will release one every morning this week {along with my normal scheduled content}. I hope you enjoy this mini series on Eat.Drink.Blog.

If I had to pick my favourite five parts of the Eat.Drink.Blog conference they would be:

1. The Hamlet:

I was a little nervous as I drove to the registration, I didn’t know what it would be like or who I would actually know. I parked the car, jumped out to grab a ticket and was instantly aware that I was queuing behind Smaggle. I wanted to be like ‘O M G – you’re Carly from Smaggle’, but I had a total Mummy brain moment and mind-blanked on her first name. This kinda killed my confidence mojo and as she turned around to inform me that the ticket machine was extremely slow, I said ‘that’s okay, thanks for letting me know’.

But as I enter the Hamlet, I was met with so many familiar Canberra Blogger faces {and the wonderful face of Simone from ‘Play with Food’}, that I quickly moved on from my lost fangirl moment and got on with enjoying the event.

I’d been to the Hamlet before – I’d previously eaten at 10″ , the Spit Shack, Broddog {brother to Brodburger} and the Brathaus… But never like this. Every stallholder put on quiet the show and I don’t think anything passed my lips that wasn’t delicious – although special shout out must go to Mr Papa for the delicious passionfruit and ginger beer drink that was extremely refreshing and just the right palate cleanser after their amazing pork belly roll.

2. Listening to keynote speaker Matthew Evans

The key message that I took away from Matthew Evans speech was that ‘the industry grows food that they want to grow – not food that we want to eat’. For example, he stated that as consumers we want to eat the ‘melting peach’ – you know, the one that you need to eat leaning over the sink, because as soon as you bite into it, it practically explodes, sending juice running down your chin and your forearms. Where as, the industry wants to grow the ‘rubber peach’ {although he did say that they probably don’t use this term any more} – this is the peach that travels well, lasts an extremely long time and looks good under supermarket lights.

I can tell you now that the peaches that we grow in our backyard look nothing like the peaches in the shop – but they taste amazing. We {the boys and I} eat the ones that fall on the ground, whilst we are standing in the backyard and then we use the hose to rinse off our hands and our chins before returning to our backyard adventures. I love that this will {hopefully} be part of their childhood memories.

Oh and maybe he could help us out getting #EDB16 to Tasmania {I mean that’s where it has to be next year, right?}.

3. Smart Phone Photography and Videography by Alice Lau

This session was one that I was really looking forward to as all of my photography for the blog is done on my iphone {otherwise, I really wouldn’t have that many images to go with my posts}. Alice was short and punchy – hopefully that wasn’t because she had to cut down her content as the conference was running behind schedule. I was really impressed with what Alice could do on her iphone and videography is something that I would like to have a go at in the new year.

I actually ended up starting a conversation with Alice over Instagram and then we met up at our local the following week for brunch. Her son is the cutest! And it was awesome to talk to her about motherhood and blogging and food {because Mums need to eat too!}.

4. The Regional Produce Dinner at A.Baker

A.Baker really put on a fantastic show for the Eat.Drink.Blog dinner. For those of you who do not know, A.Baker only use produce from within 80kms of the restaurant – so everything is super fresh and seasonal. Here is what A.Baker have to say about it all – ‘The use of an open kitchen in the main dining space exists to further break down physical barriers between raw product, chef and consumer, emphasising ideas of traceability, product origin and the artisan approach entwined in the design and operation. The establishment narrates a story of origin and the journey a product takes as it moves through each generative process. It goes without saying that each menu is seasonal and sourced from the Canberra district including grain milled on-site, locally roasted coffee and a large list of growers and producers who supply the venue each week.’ Oh, and the wine from Mount Majura was outstanding!

I enjoyed sitting and talking with all of the amazing bloggers at my table {and even grabbing a snap shot with all the bloggers from my Department}. I was a little disappointed when I turned around at 10pm to see that a few tables had already headed home for the night. We’d be laughing and enjoying each others conversation so much that we hadn’t noticed people leaving – and I really had wanted to network a little more that night. Never mind, I head home around 11pm and at least I was fresh and ready for the next day.

5. The Panel Discussion: Is Fulltime Blogging the Holy Grail {featuring Amanda Whitley from HerCanberra, The Merrymaker Sisters and Liz Posmyk}.

Moderated by the amazing Tara – this was something that I was really looking forward to hearing. Each blogger on the panel gave their honest reply to all of the questions and I was really interested to see where they answers were similar and where their answers differed. One of the major points I took away from this discussion was from Liz when she stated that ‘although she didn’t draw an income from her blog, it did open up opportunities for her’. And that’s where I am at. Although I don’t draw an income from this blog – it has opened me up to some awesome opportunities and I am extremely grateful for that {and for Liz who has opened some of those doors for me!}

Tune in each morning this week for more information about the amazing Eat.Drink.Blog conference that was held in Canberra last month {and showcased all that my hometown has to offer in terms of food – actually, we just scratched the surface}. I think this conference helped to give Canberra a little bit more street cred in terms of our position in the foodie scene. And I hope that these posts encourage you all to be part of #EDB16 next year {COME ON TASMANIA!}.