This past weekend I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend my first food blog conference, Food Blog Forum. And Bonus, it was at Disney World, one of my favorite places ever! Originally I went to sign up right when the tickets went on sale but they were sold out in like 5 minutes, literally! So I got put on the waiting list and Praise the Lord, a spot opened up! I was super pumped!! This conference was amazing! I was pretty nervous initially because I didn’t know anyone at all, well I knew some people from chatting online but had never met any of them in person. My nervousness quickly vanished because everyone was so friendly and engaging! This conference was especially great because it was a smaller amount of people so you really got to know a lot of the other bloggers attending.
We went down a couple days earlier and I’ll be sharing more about our actual Disney adventures this weekend, but here is a recap of the actual conference & the amazing food we partook of! The conference was held at The Grand Floridian and it was gorgeous!! They were super helpful and had great customer service, plus they had our room ready when we arrived at 9:00 am, that never happens!
We had an absolutely gorgeous view from our room and it even had a balcony to sit out on! The room was super spacious and they even had robes for you to wear! I love it when hotels have robes, do you? And they had a hamper to put your dirty clothes in, Disney is all about the details!
Friday night was the Welcome reception where we mingled and got to sample some amazing appetizers. My favorite was the pork dish, the polenta with mushrooms and the lobster salad cones! Also pictured on the far left was the fruit display from our Saturday morning breakfast. They had them in these fun cups with lit cubes underneath.
Saturday was the conference and we had some amazing speakers! Scott & Jaden of Steamy Kitchen started us off by talking about Redefining Success & Setting Goals. Then Diane & Todd of White on Rice Couple spoke about photography & videography. We also heard from a Disney Imagineer about how they design their resorts, restaurants & attractions which was fascinating! They take about 5 to 7 years from idea to completion! They are always focused on telling the story.
The main thing I took away from the conference was to be real, be yourself, tell your story and focus on what’s really important.
Lunch was the main attraction of the day! Disney put on an amazing display for us! They themed everything around their new initiative to offer healthier and better options for kids dining in their parks & resorts. My favorites were: (Pictured from top left)
Turkey Pot Pie served with a cheese biscuit from Cinderella’s Royal Table Restaurant
House made Meatballs with Orecchiette Pasta from the Yachstman Steakhouse
Multigrain Grilled Cheese Dipper with Tomato Soup from Whispering Canyon Cafe
Oven Roasted Altlantic Shrimp with Brown Basmati Rice from Narcoossee’s
And the piece de resistance were the desserts!! They had a fun and festive cupcake display with cupcakes decorated with different characters. Loved the Monster’s Inc ones and the Minnie Mouse! And they had a cake pop station where they were dipping them on site. And they also had a chocolate mousse cake with different food coloring that they decorated the plates with. A bunch of us got one of each dessert and then we all shared them, so much fun!
This was an amazing conference! Thanks so much to Julie at The Little Kitchen & Lindsay at Love & Olive Oil for putting this conference together! And we got an amazing “Swag” Bag full of all kinds of goodies from the amazing sponsors!
And I won a fun door prize from King Arthur Flour with cocoa powder, cinnamon and extracts plus an 8 x 8 baking pan.
Disclaimer: I paid for this conference out of my own pocket, but some of the items (swag bag, food, etc) were provided by the conference sponsors.
Welcome! I'm Stephanie, a thirty something girl loving life with my husband Adam and our two little miracles living in gorgeous Southeast Tennessee. I'm passionate about Jesus, traveling, sports (Go Titans!), and of course food! Read more about me 
This is the first conference that I actually wished I was at. You (& a few others) posted some great pics! It looked so fun. Plus, I’ve never been to Disney so I think that added to me wanting to go 🙂
Melissa, I so wish you could’ve been there!! 🙂
How awesome that you went to this conference! I was drooling over everyone’s pics from IG and FB! Did you get to meet any fellow bloggers?? Hopefully there will be a conference where we’ll be both at in the near future! Sounds like a wonderful conference and can’t wait to see the rest of your Disney adventures!
I did get to meet several other bloggers, but I totally failed to get any pictures with them, haha! Got wrapped up in just meeting everyone! I hope we get to meet in person in the near future!! 🙂 Hope you are doing great with your new little cupcake! He is precious!
This was such a great conference! I have been to a number of them over the years and sometimes I end up leaving frustrated or feeling like I didn’t get enough information/inspiration. Not the case with this one! They really did a fabulous job, from the accommodations to the food to the speakers! Now, to save money to attend the next one….
I agree! They did such a great job and had such great topics, plus you can’t beat Disney World!:) So great meeting you!
I want to go back!!! Fun weekend, love your pictures! Good thing the cupcake overload pictures didn’t make it! Wonderful meeting you! So excited to have a new blog to follow!
Me too!! Haha, I wanted to put that picture in but I couldn’t fit it without having picture overload!;) It was so wonderful to meet you as well, I am really enjoying your blog!
Hi Stephanie! I am so so happy we had a chance to *finally* meet in person after all these years! One of my regrets of the weekend was not taking more pictures with fellow bloggers when we had the chance – I was too excited to just chat and talk to pause for any pictures lol. It’s so good to put an in real life face/person to a name and blog you’ve been following for years. I hope we get a chance to see each other again and more time to connect… but until then, I’m thankful to stay connected virtually 🙂
Joelen-It was wonderful to finally meet you in person too! I was thinking the same thing as I left FL, that I didn’t get any pictures with any fellow bloggers! I definitely need to make sure and do that next time and I hope we get to meet up again in the future and have some more time to talk! 🙂
I’m just….so….jealous
Wish you could’ve been there!:)
So jealous! I was on the waiting list and never got in 🙂 Maybe next year! I would also be super nervous about attending my first blogging conference that’s for sure!
Oh I wish you had gotten to come!! Hopefully next year for sure! I would love to meet you in person!:)
SOOOOO JELLY you got to go to FBFOrl! I had tix but couldn’t afford airfare 🙁 next year, I am SO going. And I’m totally meeting you and we’re going to ride a bunch of rollercoasters and eat until our pants pop! Look at all the delicious treats you had — and awesome swag!! Glad you had fun and I enjoyed following along on IG:)
Oh I so wish you had gotten to come!!! Definitely next year! We will have so much fun!!:)
It was so great to meet you!! I wish we’d have gotten a picture together….so many people I didn’t get pictures with. What an incredible weekend. I’m glad you got a spot off the waiting list. 🙂 Fun, fun times! Disney and FBF sure know how to do it up.
Hugs,
Denise
Yes it was so fun!! So great to meet you!! I definitely wish we had gotten a picture, I failed to get a picture with anyone haha, too caught up in talking!;) wish we were still there!!:) hugs to you as well!
It was so great to meet you!! What a jam packed weekend, your pics are great! I just posted a pic of you on my blog, I’d be happy to email it to you if you want!
Hope you’re feeling good!
Thank you! So great to meet you too!! I hope you are feeling great as well! I would love the picture, I completely failed to get pictures with anyone-got too wrapped up in meeting and talking to everyone!:) My email is macaroniandcheesecake@gmail.com
So fun! Wasn’t it a wondeful weekend! I loved the lobster salad cones too! so good!
Yes it was such a fabulous conference and mini vacation!!:)
So jealous that you were able to score tickets! I tried signing up but it was sold out. 🙁 Maybe next year!
Oh I so wish you could’ve been there! Hopefully next year!!
It was so great to meet you this past weekend, Stephanie! What an amazing weekend we had! I’m with you – there were so many exciting things going on that I missed photo opportunities with long-time blogging buddies! Hopefully, we’ll all meet up again soon! 🙂
It was so great meeting you to Jessica! I hope we can meet up again soon too! 🙂