All the details on my SXSW food blog panel

I'm so so so excited about SXSW! I leave Saturday morning and then return home on a 5:40 am (!!) flight from Austin Wednesday morning. Alamo Drafthouse, Humpday, BBQ, the Hilton, panels galore...

Will be blogging more about my must-sees, but first and foremost is my panel. Also: Cupcakes Take the Cake Cupcake Social 2.0 party Sunday, March 15, 4-6 pm, Tiniest Bar in Texas! FREE CUPCAKES!

My panel! All info also on Upcoming.

Nom Nom Nom: The Secrets of Successful Foodblogging (link to SXSW site)
March 17, 3:30-4:30 pm
SXSW Interactive
Room 18BCD

Learn the secrets of successful foodblogging. What does it take to build a successful food blog? From niche single-food specific blogs like Cupcakes Take the Cake to broader blogs like Midtown Lunch, we'll share the secrets of making readers hungry for more and attracting press and advertisers. Room 18BCD.

Some of the topics we plan to cover are:

Picking a specialty/area of interest
Developing/maintaining your readership
Building community online and offline
Generating advertising and press
Getting a book deal from your food blog

Zach Brooks



Fat man, likes to eat. Sorry, is that not enough? After spending 10 years working in radio at WFNX in Boston, and Indie 103.1 FM in Los Angeles, Zach discovered his true calling while working at Sirius Satellite Radio in New York City's Midtown Manhattan: finding good places to eat lunch. The blog Midtown Lunch was born in May of 2006 partly as a public service to help other office workers find good lunch, but mostly as an excuse for Zach to eat really fattening lunches every day. ("I had to eat at that buffet honey, it was for work!") Overwhelmed by the surprise success of the site (apparently there are a lot of fat people working in Midtown), Zach left Sirius in April of 2008 to work full time on Midtown Lunch, and as a food blog consultant for other companies. He is considering writing a book about how to be a food blogger without becoming morbidly obese; but wouldn't know where to start. Maybe a guide to all-you-can-eat buffets is a better idea.

Addie Broyles



Hailing from the Missouri Ozarks, Addie Broyles expanded her cooking (and eating) skills on the West Coast and Spain before settling in Austin, where she works as the food writer for the Austin American-Statesman and Austin360.com. Since she took on the food beat last year, Broyles has brought the newspaper's food coverage into the 21st century with her blog, Relish Austin (austin360.com/relishaustin), videos, food meet-ups and Twitter (@broylesa), where she befriends complete strangers who happen to like food 140 characters at a time.

Rachel Kramer Bussel



Rachel Kramer Bussel (rachelkramerbussel.com) is the founder and co-editor of food blog Cupcakes Take the Cake (cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com), an internationally renowned group food blog. Representing the blog, she has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, and been quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, The Independent (UK), National Post (Canada), the book Stuffed and many other publications. Additional, she is a freelance writer who has contributed to Cosmopolitan, Gothamist, Huffington Post, Newsday, Tango, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, and other publications. Rachel has edited over 20 anthologies, most recently Best Sex Writing 2009, Do Not Disturb, and The Mile High Club, and hosts In The Flesh Reading Series. She lives in New York City.

Cathy Erway



Cathy Erway writes about all things home-cooked on her blog, Not Eating Out in New York. Begun in 2006, it chronicled her two-year restaurant fast, while exploring communal cooking events throughout NYC. She is working on a book based on the blog, to be published by Gotham/Penguin this fall. She writes another blog on "green" living at The Huffington Post, and has written for Brooklyn Based, The L Magazine, Block Magazine, Serious Eats and Culinate. She lives in Brooklyn.

Please vote for my SXSWi Foodblogging panel "Nom Nom Nom"

The SXSW Interactive Panel Picker went live yesterday. I would really appreciate it if you'd do me a favor and register and vote for my panel proposal “Nom Nom Nom: The Secrets of Successful Foodblogging.”

(details below). And yes, I know there are dozens, if not hundreds of other worthy panels being proposed by my friends and colleagues. Do your research and check those out too, but, you know, please vote for mine. FREE CUPAKES! (Yes, I am up for bribing, plus I want to sample as many Austin cupcakeries as I can.) And if you can't figure out the Panel Picker system (it's easy, I promise), drop me a line at cupcakestakethecake at yahoo.com and I'll try to help.

Here's the official description:

What does it take to build a successful food blog? From niche single-food specific blogs like Cupcakes Take the Cake to broader blogs like Midtown Lunch, we’ll share the secrets of making readers hungry for more and attracting press and advertisers. Free cupcakes.

Panelists include (this may change slightly, but hopefully will stay as is):

Rachel Kramer Bussel (Moderator) of Cupcakes Take the Cake

Nichelle Stephens, Cupcakes Take the Cake

Zach Brooks, Midtown Lunch

Hunter Walker, Editor-at-Large, Digital City (formerly Associate Editor, Gridskipper)

Cathy Erway, Not Eating Out in New York

Voting closes on August 29th.

I’ve yet to peruse the numerous listings, so if you are pitching a panel I should vote for/know about, please let me know at rachelkb at gmail.com (put SXSW in the subject line). Same goes if you run a unique food blog and are interested in being on the panel; that’s iffy cause right now we have enough people, but there is a chance I may need someone down the road. Thanks!