This week will mark my first ever visit to one of those places I have always wanted to know and yet had eluded me for my entire life. New Orleans had always sparked my curiosity for various reasons. There’s the city’s rich Spanish and French heritage that I feel so attracted to (my father being French, and my husband a Spaniard). Then we have the vibrant musical culture and, of course, the unique culinary styles that New Orleans is home to. And last but not least is the fact that New Orleans is home to large Honduran population –so one can hope to find excellent baleadas there. All of these things were attractions to want to visit New Orleans. What I needed now was an excuse to justify such a trip. Finally, that excuse came, and it couldn’t be more perfect.
This year’s International Food Bloggers’ conference, or IFBC, will be held in The Big Easy. We jumped at the chance to attend and speak at the event. The truth is we were ecstatic to do so, as this conference holds a dear place in our hearts. Of the past editions, Alvaro, (my husband and business partner) and I have only attended the 2014 IFBC, which was held in Seattle. As far as conferences go, this one was extremely worthwhile. We had recently decided to turn our amateur food work into a full-time professional endeavor, and our decision to make the LA-Seattle road-trip in my 2003 VW beetle proved to be a splendid one. The conference was an invaluable fountain of knowledge and insight, as well as the venue where we established many meaningful relationships with other peers in the ever-expanding field of food content. To top it all off, on our way back to LA, Alvaro proposed to me on the beautiful beaches of Oregon. In short, that is why that intense September weekend of 2014 remains to this day one of the best in my lifetime.
Four years have passed and IFBC 2018 in New Orleans is calling. There is something beautifully poetic about attending this year, this time as featured speakers. IFBC 2014 fueled us with ideas and energy to keep pursuing what we love, and in the past four years, we have gone from amateur go-getters to successful food content creators. Through our brand La Cooquette, we have cultivated an audience of over half a million worldwide, while collaborating in important campaigns with the likes of Tabasco, Pebbles Cereal, Pixar, Hellman’s, Johnson & Johnson, Knorr… We have explored different formats across the diverse social media platforms, and learned from our successes as well as our misfires. On YouTube, La Cooquette has grown into a leading food channel in the Spanish language, with fun family-friendly videos that celebrate the joys of cooking, from regional Latino dishes to fun hacks and experiments in the kitchen. The series La Cooquette Travels, about exploring world cuisine on location, has also garnered acclaim for its dynamic style and polished production values. In the Facebook realm, my husband Alvaro has collaborated with clients such as Tastemade and We Are Mitú, directing the successful series “Latinos don’t do basic snacks” and the first season of “What’s Good in Your Hood”. His last project involves turning a lush and delicious salsa recipe book by acclaimed chefs Jaime & Ramiro into a series of videos for social media.
In conclusion, and to refrain from blowing our own trumpets further (we needed to provide links, you see!), it has been a road paved with hard work and perseverance, -and frustration at the ever-changing algorithms-, but casting our sights back, we can’t help but be proud of the journey. At this point, we sincerely believe we have enough flight hours under our belts to give back to people who are in the position we found ourselves in around 2014, when so many questions bogged our minds. How to light food for filming? What lens should I use? How can I pitch a video to a brand? And how do I convince a brand their idea is terrible? Best software for editing? And how the heck can I film ice-cream before it melts?!
Alvaro and I will speak on the first day of the IFBC (see photo above for room details), and we hope to share with you our experience regarding the basics of food video production. From the technicalities that have to do with gear and editing, to the creative processes that guide a successful video from its conception to being published across social media. Using case studies from our body of work as well as other successful campaigns, we will shed light on the nooks and crannies of the delicious craft that is making videos about that thing we love: FOOD.
Check out our speaker profiles below and, if you are attending IFBC 2018, see you at our session Friday!
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