Kick off the excitement of the conference with a cooking class experience the evening before it all begins. This hands-on event brings attendees together for an unforgettable night of creativity, collaboration, and delicious food—setting the perfect tone for the days ahead.

Tastemaker Conference feels strongly that community over competition is the key to success. Creators of all levels can benefit from interacting in a small-group setting with one another. The goal of these roundtables is to provide a more personal setting in which creators of all different backgrounds, niches, and experience levels can discuss industry topics with one another. And who knows–you might just meet your new creator bestie!

How do I participate in Networking Roundtables?

While participation is optional, ALL conference attendees will be randomly assigned to a roundtable group. Each group will have approximately 15-20 members and be equally distributed with bloggers of all experience levels and backgrounds. Roundtable groups will meet on both Day 1 & Day 2 from 9:00-10:00 in the main stage area, with designated tables for chatting over coffee! 

A discussion facilitator will be assigned to each group (by Tastemaker Conference, ahead of time). Facilitators will spearhead virtual introductions one week prior to the conference, so everyone will have a few friendly faces to look out for at TC26!

We spend nearly half of our waking lives at work. Yet far too many people view their work as something to be endured or tolerated rather than something more. At its best, work is our biggest opportunity to make a positive impact on our families, our communities, and on the world at large. But in order to create change, we have to take look at work through the lens of service. Your work as a food creator matters. Food is one of the most universal and important of human experiences — it brings us together, gives us nourishment, and allows us to share a part of who we are. But most importantly, your work matters because it’s a tool for helping you become the person, partner, parent, and leader you were meant to be.

When you leave this session, you’ll be reconnected with why you got into this work, why food matters, and how your work reflects who you are. Because while making an impact with your work is something the world benefits from, it’s also what helps you become the person you were made to be.

Grab lunch and network with Tastemaker Conference exhibitors!
To help facilitate flow and reduce lines lunch will be divided into two groups.

• Group 1 (Last names A-K)
  • Lunch: 11:50 am – 12:40 pm
  • Exhibitor Networking: 12:40 – 1:30 pm

• Group 2 (Last names L-Z)
  • Exhibitor Networking: 11:50 am – 12:40 pm
  • Lunch: 12:40 – 1:30 pm

You know what hurts the reader’s experience that’s never talked about in recipe SEO circles? Mismanaging reader expectations.

It happens often because of keyword research that’s done incorrectly — even though the keyword research is being done with the very best intentions! In this session, Liane Walker, representing Siftr, shares real-life examples of recipe keyword research done incorrectly, and offers corrections too.

Network with all of the amazing Tastemaker Conference sponsors or head to the Tech Hall to get 1:1 help with your favorite tech brands!

Tastemaker Conference feels strongly that community over competition is the key to success. Creators of all levels can benefit from interacting in a small-group setting with one another. The goal of these roundtables is to provide a more personal setting in which creators of all different backgrounds, niches, and experience levels can discuss industry topics with one another. And who knows–you might just meet your new creator bestie!

How do I participate in Networking Roundtables?

While participation is optional, ALL conference attendees will be randomly assigned to a roundtable group. Each group will have approximately 15-20 members and be equally distributed with bloggers of all experience levels and backgrounds. Roundtable groups will meet on both Day 1 & Day 2 from 9:00-10:00 in the main stage area, with designated tables for chatting over coffee! 

A discussion facilitator will be assigned to each group (by Tastemaker Conference, ahead of time). Facilitators will spearhead virtual introductions one week prior to the conference, so everyone will have a few friendly faces to look out for at TC25!

Knowing your audience will take you from overwhelmed and trapped in comparison to feeling focused and valuable, all while earning more. The first day will go over the power of your niche, the value formula, and how to use your audience’s pain points to build out your content calendar. We’ll go one step further to learn how to build an offer to both generate another revenue stream and build your brand.

By the end of this session, attendees will now how to narrow in on their niche, poll their audience, organize their answers, come up with a content strategy that serves them, and create a list of product ideas to sell.

At the end of day 1 we’ll quickly poll our audience. Day 2 will be dedicated to understanding and organizing the answers, finalizing an editorial calendar of recipes, creating a month’s worth of email newsletters, and narrowing down a list of products/offers you can sell to your audience.

Grab lunch and network with Tastemaker Conference exhibitors!
To help facilitate flow and reduce lines lunch will be divided into two groups.

• Group 1 (Last names A-K)
  • Lunch: 11:50 am – 12:40 pm
  • Exhibitor Networking: 12:40 – 1:30 pm

• Group 2 (Last names L-Z)
  • Exhibitor Networking: 11:50 am – 12:40 pm
  • Lunch: 12:40 – 1:30 pm

This course will focus on building a well-written recipe that appeals to a broad audience with clear, concise recipe writing and engaging headnotes. We will explore how attendees can meet their readers where they’re at in their culinary journey by teaching them how to incorporate substitutions to support economic insecurities, dietary restrictions/preferences, adjusting to a new impairment, those looking to add more diverse cuisines to their repertoire, or searching for a link back to their culture through food. Attendees will learn how to be featured as a subject matter expert in newspapers, magazines, or digital outlets.

Attendees will be able to walk away with the skills and insights needed to strengthen your culinary content, such as recipe writing principles and why they matter, creating recipes that are truly accessible, and using these skills to earn income as a freelance recipe developer, writer, or tester.

Using techniques learned in the lecture portion, attendees will edit one of their recipes to make it more efficient and user-friendly and participate in a skill-building writing exercise. Attendees will contribute editing suggestions to a sample recipe to make it accessible by determining how to offer substitutions for those with accessibility issues, financial constraints, or dietary restrictions. Attendees will collaborate on editing a poorly-written recipe to learn what to watch for and avoid and practice the art of abandoning over-used words like “delicious,” “tasty,” or “perfect.”

Hands-On Portion:

• Optimize Existing Recipes: Edit an existing recipe on your blog to streamline instructions and improve user experience.
• Enhance Accessibility: Modify text to offer substitutions for accessibility issues, financial constraints, or dietary restrictions, making your recipes inclusive for all readers.
• Global Appeal: Incorporate measurements and ingredient names that cater to a global audience, ensuring your recipes are easily understood by readers worldwide.
• Identify Common Pitfalls: Analyze and edit a poorly-written recipe to learn what to avoid and how to enhance clarity and readability.
• Creative Descriptions: Practice abandoning over-used words like “delicious,” “tasty,” or “perfect.” Engage in an exercise to describe a recipe in unexpected and unique ways, adding freshness to your writing.

Join us to refine your recipe writing skills, make your content more inclusive and engaging, and learn techniques to stand out in the crowded food blogging space.

Unlock the secrets to creating visually captivating food photography by diving into the psychological principles of art and design. In this intermediate session, you’ll discover how to uncover your unique style and learn advanced composition and styling techniques to make your images truly stand out. You’ll gain confidence in how to arrange your scene, including working with napkins, cutlery, dishware, glassware and adding more color.

By the end of this session, attendees will be excited to jump into their next photoshoot, equipped with tools to problem solve even the most challenging of food items. They’ll see food photography with new eyes and understand the visual world on a deeper level.

Get hands-on with Joanie’s go-to photography setup. Problem solve tricky scenes using the concepts learned in the lecture. Practice quick sketch skills, composing a scene and adding in cutlery and napkins so that they look effortlessly incorporated and elevate your food photos so that they grab a viewer with design techniques based in human psychology.

Network with all of the amazing Tastemaker Conference sponsors or head to the Tech Hall to get 1:1 help with your favorite tech brands!

Designed for website owners, developers, and digital marketers, this course will teach you how to leverage powerful analytics tools to enhance user experience, boost engagement, and increase conversions.

Transform your website into a user-friendly, high-performing digital asset. Whether you’re looking to increase conversions, reduce bounce rates, or simply understand your users better, this class provides the knowledge and skills you need to succeed.