5 Favorite Highlights from IFBC17 Sacramento, CA

I attended the International Food Bloggers Conference this year in Sacramento, California’s state capital. I’ve been to Sacramento many times but always for fun with my family or for food allergy advocacy with friends. I had a fun weekend.

Disclosure: I am writing about IFBC17 in exchange for a discounted registration rate. All opinions are mine and I have the freedom to write about any aspect of the conference.

Sacramento has always been a great place for visitors and families because of the numerous museums. Sacramento is California’s state capital where influential civil servants and politicians work to shape our state’s laws, policies, and economy.

I was impressed with the downtown Sacramento night life as there were so many people having a great time eating and drinking at fun and trendy restaurants. Some conference attendees stayed a few extra days to take a short drive to visit California’s beloved wine country in nearby Napa.

I go to Sacramento with my family for fun weekend getaways or I go with my food allergy mom friends to advocate for food allergy related legislation or awareness efforts. But for this trip I wasn’t Mom or Advocate, it was a fun food blogger trip and to connect with my foodie friends.

Top 5 Favorite Highlights of IFBC17

I enjoyed socializing and networking, learning, and had a great time at IFBC17 in Sacramento. In no particular order, here are my top 5 favorite highlights from the conference.

• Favorite Blogger Outing: The conference has several outings and experiences that one could attend. Mediavine hosted an awesome evening of wine and appetizers on the Sacramento River Train. We enjoyed the views of the Sacramento River, fields, and farmlands as the sun began to set. It was a great way to start the conference, thank you Mediavine for a great evening and thank you Christine Leong from Vermillion Roots for taking the photo of me in front of the train.
• Favorite Allergy Friendly Swag Bag Item: My favorite item in my swag bag is a full sized jar of Peach and Lavender preserves from Maison de Monaco. It looks like such a gorgeous gourmet treat that is labelled gluten-free but I wasn’t sure if it would be nut allergy safe. Apparently the only top 8 allergen present in their facility is milk, which is used to make caramel. These French style preserves are made with less sugar and more fruit and taste absolutely amazing. I didn’t take a photo of the jar before opening it and in a blink of an eye, our jar is half empty and I will need to go buy more.
• Favorite Sacramento Downtown Restaurant: I ate out several times during this trip and I think my family would like Cafeteria 15L. Their menu reminds me of school cafeteria style food but updated with sophisticated flavors and additions that give their dishes just a little bit of ooo la la. My friends raved about tater tots with truffle oil. I had a watermelon and tomato salad that was drizzled with a balsamic glaze and sprinkled with basil crystals. The restaurant isn’t free-from any specific allergens but our waiter seemed very conscientious to check and double check about any allergen concerns at our table.
• Favorite Food Prep Tip: I attended Avocados From Chile session on how to peel, slice, and style an avocado. The most important tip I learned is to cut an avocado on a cutting board, not while holding an avocado in your hand. People have injured themselves when there is a safer way to cut avocados.
• Favorite Take Home Message: I was most inspired by the keynote speaker, Nicky P. from Crop Mobster. He interviews people about what are they doing to solve food related issues and posts the videos on Crop Mobster to help share their message. I was inspired by his message about how a community of committed people can influence change and make a difference in our community simply by sharing information.

Nicky encouraged us to be creative in how we share our message. As an example he shared how his mom sunbathed with a duct tape message of “Be Careful” when she was about to give birth and the labor and delivery medical staff were impressed with her tanline reminder to be “Be Careful” as they helped her deliver her baby! Nicky’s message speaks to me as a wife, mom, advocate, and blogger and inspires me to continue to make the world a better place one day at a time, one blog post at a time.

This wraps up my three part series about my IFBC experience. In case you’re interested the other two posts, I wrote about 5 reasons I was looking forward to attending the conference and then afterwards, I updated it with what actually happened. My second post “Isn’t the presence of food allergens obvious?” feautures two of the conference sponsors, Nima Sensors and Allergen Inside, and how they can help us avoid our allergens.

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Disclosure/Disclaimer:

I attended the International Food Bloggers Conference in Sacramento in August and received discounted registration in exchange for a series of three posts about the conference. I could choose to write about any aspect of the conference and all opinions are mine. I share products and sources which I use and/or think may be helpful to readers. Readers are always responsible for ensuring their own allergen safety.