Food Fete ‘09, the early returns…

Our fifth summer Food Fete event was Monday night in New York, and there’s lots to report on, but at this writing, I am (barely) running on about 3 hours sleep after a weather  delay at JFK last night that put me back in Portland at about 2:30 am this morning. Up at 6, so you do the math.

If you’re on Twitter, search for #foodfete for some updates.  Slashfood also gave a nice recap yesterday:  http://eaturl.info/6kzo.

More coming later…

Thank You

I’ve been truly humbled by the response to this summer’s upcoming Food Fete media event.

I have to admit that four month ago, when nothing but economic gloom and doom dominated the headlines and I was beginning the marketing for our flagship summer media event, I braced myself for fewer exhibitors and lower revenues than last year.  I knew budgets were cut and companies were scaling back the marketing and PR spending.  And sadly, some small food producers hadn’t survived the downturn.

Fast forward to this week when I wrapped up the exhibitor sales and media invitations, to see we have a record 50 companies involved and a media RSVP list approaching 165. The buzz is building to new levels, and chances are I may have to turn away some media, due to venue capacity limits.

Never before have I seen this strong level of interest in our event, and for that I am extremely grateful.  I thank the companies, PR agencies and members of the food media who continue to put their trust in Food Fete to deliver value.

One new addition to this year’s event is on-the-fly Twittering from Food Fete.  We’re having someone with one of those new HP Netbooks roaming the event floor, inviting exhibitors and media to tweet live from the event.  If you want to follow the activities, search for #foodfete on Twitter beginning June 29.

You can follow me on Twitter @foodfete.

The Food Fete Countdown

Whew, what a week.

It happens each summer about this time — when we’re about 30 days out from our media event — that a flurry of activity takes place both on the exhibitor side and media RSVPs.

Perhaps it’s those food and beverage companies that have been on the fence about exhibiting finally pulling the trigger to move forward, or maybe the PR priorities shift to the summer media activities, and Food Fete becomes top of mind.  In either case, it’s nice to see that despite a recession, food companies are still making PR a priority and turning to Food Fete as one of their platforms.

The media RSVP list topped 100 yesterday, and today stands at nearly 110.  I’m particularly impressed by the consistently high caliber of media planning to attend. As in years past, the consumer print food media are well represented, combined with online sites and food bloggers.  Three people asked me today what the ratio of print-to-online media is for Food Fete, and a rough calculation showed that about 25% fall into the purely electronic category.

We’re not quite sold out of exhibitor tables, but I hope to reach that threshold soon.  It was around this time last year when we hit capacity, enabling me to shift my focus from event marketing to event production and logistics. If you’re interested in one of the remaining tables, email me at jeff (at) foodfete (dot) com.

I continue to be grateful to the companies and media who keep supporting Food Fete each January and June.

Another Top Chef at Food Fete??

According to the Food Fete grapevine, a Top Chef winner will be attending Food Fete this summer on  behalf of one of our exhibitors.

This makes the second consecutive year that Food Fete has had the pleasure of having a Top Chef attend.  Last summer Chris “CJ” Jacobsen attended for the Calif. Strawberry Growers.

Very exciting!

I’m Relocating to Portland

I’m really excited about an upcoming move to Portland, OR.  In fact, I’ll be loading up and heading from Houston to the Pacific Northwest next week.

So, why Portland?  The reasons are both personal and professional, but I’m wanting to enjoy the benefits of living in a major “foodie” city — which definitely applies to Portland — plus be in a region that’s conducive to growing my food events and PR business.

Beginning April 27, I can be reached at 503-227-0601 or 281-727-8248 (mobile).

Smoking Smarties — I’m Speechless

(From Advertising Age)

I guess I’m just getting old. What kids today won’t do for entertainment. I’d love to know the sequence of events that led to this discovery the very first time.

http://tinyurl.com/cd6umv

Click through to the videos.

Finding A Home for All Those Ideas

Josh Morgan, a former colleague and author of a terrific PR and Marketing blog called “Don’t Eat The Shrimp” knows me too well.

He read the news on Wednesday about me launching a new permission-based PR consultancy called FoodSmart, and blogged about it.

Of course, I appreciate Josh spreading the love about my new venture, but it’s the last line of his piece that really captured what people know about me, and truly made me laugh.

Discussing about how I’m known for coming up with somewhat unconventional ideas, Josh wrote, “His latest idea seems like a very good one.  I think it’s going to work out well. And if it doesn’t, don’t worry, Jeff will have another one.”

Thanks Josh.

Food Fete SF Blog Coverage

Some new blog coverage has emerged recently for Sterling Confections, which exhibited at our January Food Fete in San Francisco.  See, it does pay off!

Food Gal Blog:  http://tinyurl.com/azu8qw
Typetive CandyBlog: http://tinyurl.com/csklcv

If you missed the general Food Fete overview by Cooking with the Single Guy, here’s his recap: http://tinyurl.com/7q2z2y

I Swore I’d Never Do It Again

After running my own technology PR agency in San Francisco during the rise and fall of the dot-com boom in the late 90s and early 2000, I swore I’d never get back in the PR agency business.

At its peak, I grew my tech firm to eight people; reached a couple million dollars in annual revenue; and rode the wave of Internet startup PR. Then the bottom fell out.  At the end of the day, I was burned out and needed a break.

In 2004, I came up with the idea for my Food Fete media events, which fortunately have really caught on and continue to grow.  I can honestly say I’ve never had a job that’s so much fun as producing these events.  As you might guess, Food Fete has enabled me to build some solid relationships with a good number of the editors who have attended Food Fete over the past four years, plus I’ve come to know a lot of innovative food companies and good PR agencies along the way.

Reinvention: Phase II

I’ve now decided to put those relationships to work for food companies that make amazing products and who want to reach the press with their stories, but with my brand of PR. Here’s a link to the release http://pitch.pe/5073.

Today, I am launching a new food PR and communications consultancy called FoodSmart Communications.  Some might say I’m nuts for launching a new agency in this shaky economy,  but I already have a couple clients on board, with several prospects in the pipeline.

So, why start a new food consultancy, and why now?  After looking at what’s going on in the food PR industry (and being on the receiving end of a lot of PR pitches because of this blog), I identified a need for what I believe is a smarter way of serving clients.  For a couple of years, I’ve also been paying attention to all the PR and media chatter about unfocused, irrelevant PR pitches, which for some editors reached a tipping point, branding anything coming a PR firm as spam.

Permission-based PR

That’s why with FoodSmart, I decided to take risk and implement permission-based PR, meaning I will only send client information to food writers and bloggers who have opted-in to receive it.  I suspect I’m not the only one doing this (and this approach won’t be right for everyone), but I do believe (and based on early feedback from food writers), it will be well-received by the media, not to mention creating a lot of value for clients.

At this writing, more than 160 food writers and bloggers have opt-ed in, which blows me away.  Among them are nearly every major food, women’s and lifestlye magazine that covers food.  There are still a few holes in the list, but it’s a matter of time before it’s where I want it to be.

To learn more, visit my “beta” blogsite at www.foodsmartpr.com.  It’s still a work in progress, as I imagine the entire agency will be as I roll out this new way of reaching out to the media.

If you’re a food company and want to talk about how I might help you, drop me a line at 713-862-2771 or hello (at) foodsmartpr (dot) com.  If you’re food writer and want to opt-in, click here for the online form.

I invite comments, as I’m sure some will have an opinion about my approach.

World’s Top 50 Food Blogs

My friend Dirk Spiers pointed me to this link from The Times of London, giving their take on the top 50 food blogs.  I’m glad to see some of these are regular Food Fete attendees.

http://tinyurl.com/akgq8s.