Weekly News for Sept 17 – Anniversary Edition!

brought to you by Janes Family Foods

Today is a pretty special day.  You see, it's our birthday.  Our very first one!  And we're pretty excited for a lot of reasons.  So this week we're doing a special edition of the news - we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming next week.

First of all, the three of us think this is pretty cool.  You see, a year ago, when the site went live we really didn't know what to expect or where it would go.  We just wanted a place for all of us to feel connected and get a little help with our blogs.

It sorta took on a life of its own.  Wow.  Did it ever.  683 members later we're going strong and still trying to make the Canadian Food Blogging scene (and the food blogging scene in general) a better place.  We've had some bumps and we've made mistakes and we probably will continue to do so as we keep on learning.  But we like to think we got a few things right along the way!

And so, we would like to thank some people.  First, we'd like to thank all of YOU who've joined us.  You're the key.  Without you there is no FBC!  Keep being active and vocal and supporting the food blogging community in Canada!  Second we'd like to thank our sponsors, many of whom jumped on board before we had even proven ourselves because they could see the value in what we were trying to do.  That was such a huge boost to our confidence!  And last but most certainly not least... all our contributors and volunteers who've helped us this past year.  We've had some incredibly helpful, thought provoking and fun posts, contests, events and most importantly: HELP!

Thanks to all of you - we couldn't have got this far without everyone's help and support!  We can't wait to see what the coming year has in store!

FBC 2013 Conference!!

So what better time than now to make some very exciting announcements surrounding our very first conference:  FBC 2013 at Hockley Valley Resort in Ontario.  From April 12-14th, 2013, we have some great fun planned for all of you and we hope you can join us for what is sure to be a fun and informative weekend in a pretty amazing setting!  So, how about introducing you all to our Keynote Speaker?

David Leite - Keynote Speaker

We are thrilled to be welcoming Mr. David Leite, 2008 James Beard Award Winner and author of the 2010 IACP First Book/Julia Child award winning The New Portuguese Table: Exciting Flavours from Europe's Western Coast.  He is also a contributor to many culinary publications including Bon Appétit, Saveur, MSLiving, Gourmet and The New York Times, among many others.  You can read David's full bio on our Speakers Page and you can visit his award winning website Leite's Culinaria for some outstanding examples of food/drink writing.

David will be our conference keynote speaker on the Friday night and will also be hosting an open Q&A session on the Saturday.  He has also very generously offered to stay with us and participate for the entire weekend.  We couldn't be more excited to have him with us and we know that attendees are going to learn a great deal from this highly acclaimed food journalist and author!

FBC 2013 Presented by Canada Beef

We are also very excited and appreciative to announce our Presenting Sponsor, Canada Beef.  Canada Beef has been one of our biggest supporters from before day 1 and we couldn't be happier to have them as our presenting sponsor.  They have long been a supporter of Canadian food bloggers, sponsoring their attendance at food blogging conferences in the US and we know they are as excited as us to be able to work on the first Canadian food blogging conference!

Our Very Generous Sponsors

We've been very lucky to secure some wonderful sponsors who will also be helping us make this event the best it can be.  Many of them have also been supporters from our early days and we are very happy to have them with us for the conference. We would like to introduce you to our first group of sponsors:

Gold Sponsors

• Janes Family Foods
• Manitoba Canola Growers
• Mushrooms Canada
• Wine Country Ontario

Silver Sponsors

• Delta Faucets

Bronze Sponsors

• Eat In Eat Out Magazine

We will be announcing additional sponsors and speakers in the coming months so stay tuned!

Additional Conference Information

Starting today, we have a new section on the website for all things relating to the conference, including a sponsors page, a speakers page, general information, and an area for conference updates as they happen.

We will be announcing ticket pricing the first week of November and ticket sales will begin in January 2013.

We are currently working on filling our speaker roster and planning our sessions.  We will be announcing those over the coming weeks but we're pretty excited about some of the things we're planning for you all!  The conference will be designed to appeal to both "kitchen bloggers" and "restaurant bloggers"  - there will be something for everyone!

New Members

And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with old friends AND new friends!  So please welcome to all our new members this week - so happy to have you all on board!

• Savour Sisters (BC)
• Living Mint Green (AB)
• Foodie In Quebec City (QC)
• Cooking Dangerously (ON)
• Char Eats Greens (ON)
• Super Kitchen Machine (BC)
• A Cook Not Mad (BC)
• The Healthy Bies (ON)
• Twice As Yummy (ON)
• Shallots and Chalets (ON)
• Culinary Zest (NB)
• Every Day is a Food Day (BC)
• Thibeault's Table (BC)

A big welcome to our newest member from abroad: Shy Desai from Cooking with Shy. Shy is from Toronto but now blogs from the UAE.

And last but not least, a welcome to our newest business members, Crosby Molasses and The Cooking Studio.

As always, if you have events or news items to share, please don’t hesitate to let us know about them – we’d love to give them a shout out!

As always,

Melissa, Mardi and Ethan

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