FBC Weekly News for September 23, 2013

Five Spice Ginger Cookies from Bakers Beans | www.foodbloggersofcanada.com — This week's image from the FBC flickr pool comes from Bakers Beans with her Five Spice Ginger cookies

We finally get to say it - it's officially fall!! We hope you've all got lots of fun fall plans with apples and turkeys and pumpkins and goblins in the works!

We have lots to keep you in the loop about this week including lots of FBC happenings that you may or may not be aware of so let's go!

Dianne Jacob - Toronto Writing Workshop

FBC2013 speaker, Dianne Jacob, has been named the Stratford Chef School's Gastronomic Writer in Residence. Dianne will be holding the post for the 2013-14 school year. As part of her posting she will be conducting a one day writing workshop in Toronto on November 23rd. If you would like to register you can contact the Stratford Chefs School at 519-271-1414. Congratulations on the new post Dianne!

Fall on Pinterest for Our Members

We're working on building some great Pinterest boards for fall, showcasing our members' posts. It may be early but we've got Thanksgiving, Apples and Pie all up to give you maximum exposure and they're getting lots of repins and likes from outside of FBC. Stay tuned for Pin It Thursday on Facebook this week when we get started with Halloween. If you would like to contribute a post to one of the boards already up and running you can leave a link in the comments on FB for Thanksgiving and Apples.

And, if you are a member and are following us but haven't received an invite to our group posting board, leave a comment down below on this post and we'll get you an invite asap!

Call For Submissions - Thanksgiving Roundup

We will be hosting a Thanksgiving Roundup here on the site on Tuesday, October 8th . To participate, send Melissa a link to a Thanksgiving related post on your blog along with a .jpg file of the photo you want displayed. Your photo must be 620px wide - no less, no more. Vertical and horizontal images will be accepted. The post can be a recipe, a restaurant or a holiday entertaining post. Deadline to have your links and images in to Melissa is Friday October 4th at 5pm pacific time. Can't wait to see all your great posts!

Join Our Flickr Group and Be Featured

Flickr may have waned in popularity over the last few years but, since their major revamp a few months ago we are starting to see some really stunning work show up from people who had been dormant for a while, not to mention increased traffic stats! We have a small but very active group in our FBC Food Photos Group and that's where we source the image at the top of the news each week. If you'd like to have a chance to have your image posted, join us.

FLICKR TIP: Leave a link to your blog post in your photo's description field on flickr to capitalize on that increased flickr traffic and get them coming to your blog!

New Columns on FBC

After surveying a small number of members, we're looking at rolling out two new monthly columns in the next two months and we're coming to you for participation.

Are You An Entreprenuer?

We'd like to feature you if you are an FBC member who runs your own business, either solo or with a team. Is your business food related? Are you a freelance writer, photographer or designer? Do you run a bakery, a farm, or a non-profit? Are you a dietician or nutritionist working for yourself? Do you have multiple hats - a little freelancing, and little consulting? It doesn't have to be food related - if your business revolves around a service bloggers might find useful, that's great too. You might be a bookkeeper, a web/graphic designer, a social media consultant, even a lawyer. If you're interested in being profiled on FBC, please contact Melissa directly with a brief description of what you do as well as links to your website or facebook page if you have them.

RELATED: Weekly News for May 28th

Bloggers and Blog Designers - We Want You!

Need help with your blog design but don't really know where to start? Or, are you a web designer who might be up for offering a little constructive feedback? We would like to start a monthly blog critique for those of you who want to make changes or know you need some help but just aren't sure what or how. This isn't about tearing apart your blog - it's about a chance for some free, constructive feedback that will show you what's working and where some simple changes might help you take things to the next level. If you'd like to have your blog get the once over and are ok with it being done in a public space, let Melissa know. If you're a member and a designer who would be interested in performing a critique, we also want to hear from you.

Member Ops Currently Happening

We have lots of great things open to members right now. In case you missed them, you'll want to check them out!

A chance to win one of three copies of Knickerbocker Glory from Matthew Robinson - take your recipe development up a notch!
A chance to attend a live taping of CBC's In the Kitchen with Stefano Faita in Toronto on Oct 2nd (FBC Exclusive)
A behind the scenes tour at Summer Fresh - RSVP by Oct 6th (FBC Exclusive)
Attend a Bellini Kitchen Master demo in Toronto (Sept 26th) or Burlington (Oct 19th)

Bellini Master Testers

We have the names of the Bellini Kitchen Master Testers to share with you this week. Chris Pires, Mardi Michels, Marisa Raponi and Bernice Hill will all be putting the Bellini Master through its paces for Cedarlane Culinary.

New Members

A big welcome to all our new members over the past two weeks (we're catching up!). We're so happy to have you join us.

Business Members

And remember, if you have anything you’d like to share with your fellow members in the news, please let us know about it. To have your submission appear in a Monday news post, the deadline is Friday at 5pm Pacific time. You can send your submissions directly to Melissa.

As always,

Melissa and Ethan