Fish Out of Water
Ever feel out of place? I did initially while attending a wine writers' symposium at the bucolic Meadowood resort earlier this week. Me with my three feature clips and programming day job mingling with fifty food industry and food journalism veterans like Karen MacNeil and Frank Prial and Sam Gugino. Gulp. My anxiety diminished once I started chatting with the other attendees, of course. These are just people, and I kept reminding myself there was a time when they didn't have any clips. It also helped when the participants realized that I'm a "domain expert" on food and wine blogging (ironic given I was there on behalf of my paid work). Only about a third of the group understood blogs well and a few didn't even know the term. Between me, Carolyn, and Le Roy, I think every participant left with a new understanding of this modern writing outlet. The attendees were definitely curious about the subject, and I gave a mini presentation on the last day to help them understand my take on wine blogs. (As an aside, I used to be fairly decent at public speaking, but years of disuse have reduced that particular skill; I'll need to redevelop it).
I explained that blogs democratize the wine experience. I talked about how my posts often start discussions with my readers, either via email or comments. For most pubs, the audience can only write a letter to the editor, which may or may not get a response. I pointed out that thirty-year-olds write the two top wine blogs in terms of volume (my guesses were Alder and Lenn) and speak to a demographic that most wine magazines can't reach. Finally, I described Wine Blogging Wednesday, to my mind the ultimate in making bloggers and our readers feel comfortable about wine and about voicing our own opinions about the subject. I think that got a lot of people's attention; it's not something you could pull off at a newspaper or magazine.
I won't say much about the event in terms of the actual dialog or the schedule of events, mostly because I didn't get permission to do so, but I'd highly recommend next year's for wine writers at any level (even upstarts like me). It's run by Toni Allegra, who started the famous Greenbrier conference for food writers. I listened a lot, conversed a lot and made a lot of good connections. Will I get assignments from my contacts? Well, maybe, maybe not. But I got some story ideas, and broadened the base of people I can use as resources. That's got to be worth something right? Oh, and we drank a lot of wine.
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