Blogher Food 2014 - Miami Recap

Despite having this great view of the Miami skyline from my hotel room, my experience at this year's Blogher Food Conference felt a bit more muted than last year's funtastic Austin affair for the following reasons.

I took a red eye flight and on the early AM of my arrival, the sky looked like this. Bad weather was imminent. There were thunderstorms the first day which put a damper on any excursions.

I stayed in the room and enjoyed my goodie bag. 

The next day, after conference events, we went to the elegantly decorated Applegate, Stonyfield, and Organic Valley party. It really felt like a wedding reception. That's a bacon bloody mary pictured above.

Not to mention, they gave us so much food!

During conference events, the sponsors also gave so much food including the Indian themed lunches with McCormick spices. This is chicken with a tomato sauce, spiced cauliflower and sauteed vegetables.

Off we went to the Epic hotel for the epic Crunchpak Party! This hotel was trendy and chic and the party room was also decked out to the nines. 

On one of the days, I decided I didn't want to be an explorer and I just wanted to vege out. I walked over to the local supermarket, Publix - it looked like a version of Whole Foods - bought myself a small platter of food from the hot bar and ate it in my room.

I also got this Cuban guava jam and cheese puff pastry which was so good! That was lunch and then I laid out by the pool. You don't always need to jam pack activities into your schedule to have a good time.

Blogher Food's closing party is the biggest event of the conference. This year's was held at the Cafeina Wynwood Lounge. It's part art gallery, part lounge, and has a cool outdoor patio.

One thing I learned from Austin was not to worry about taking DSLR photos while on the go because the point is to network and have fun. All these photos are from my phones. Excuse the quality.

This makes my 6th food conference in my blogging career and I have to say, I'm conferenced out for a while. The people I meet are always great. The brand exposure is incredible, especially with a big conference host like Blogher. The sessions in this Miami conference were especially informative. I was assigned to liveblog the Food Ethics, Book Publishing, and Product Line sessions and I found them be led by very useful and knowledgeable panelists. As usual, it's always inspiring to be around women and moms who have turned something like blogging into gainful employment. The power of bloggers!

Here's a shout out to a handful of inspiring bloggers I met that weekend:

Abby | thefrostedvegan.com
Amy | Amyshealthybaking.com
Amanda | helenalockey.blogspot.com
April | Foodnfocus.com
Dani | theadventurebite.com
Dianna | thekitchenprepblog.com
Jane | theheritagecook.com
Karis | karisann.com
Melissa | hungryfoodlove.com
Ruby | growingupblackxican.com
Xenia | raisedbyculture.com

Apologies if I missed anyone. I kept all the business cards I got in different pockets. Was totes not prepared to network.