Wine Bloggers make the Wine Bloggers Conference a reality. Their voice shapes the conference. Once again this year the blogging community was asked for their input in shaping the WBC10 agenda and breakout session content. Comments and suggestions were collected from via the WBC blog, Twitter, email, and online surveys. Top session topics were then voted on and bloggers suggested who they would thought would be the right people to present information on those topics. Then a selection of those suggested bloggers, industry representatives, experts in their field, and PR representatives from the wine industry were contacted and asked to represent a panels covering the most popular session topics. Thank you to everyone who took part in this process and thank you to all the panelists.
For more information on all session topics, panelists and a schedule of when these sessions will take place visit the conference AGENDA to see the dates and times. Scroll down that page to see even more detail.
“About Wine Blogging” breakout sessions will offer something for everyone. Over 300 conference attendees will be offered one of three sessions based on their interests:
- Wine Blogging 101: Basics of blogging, including blog platforms, choosing a subject, adding graphics and video, the economics of a blog and more.
- Advanced Wine Blogging: High-level blogging topics such as dealing with burnout, measuring your visitor statistics, interviews, and more.
- Wine Blogging and the Wine Industry: How do wineries and other wine industry professionals improve their collaborations with the blogging community?
Saturday and Sunday offers participants the opportunity to attend four of the following eight breakout sessions:
- Growing Your Audience From Other Bloggers to Consumers: If the wine blogging world is indeed going to overtake Wine Spectator as the biggest source of information to consumers, bloggers need to grow their audience from just an internal circle of other bloggers to reach the general public. This panel will discuss and share ideas on how you can create and build upon your online influence.
- The Washington Wine Industry: Learn about the history and current status of the Washington Wine industry, including weather, terroir, appellations, varietals, and more.
- Vlogging: Are Video Blogs the real separation between old and new media? Is it time to change your blogs focus from Readers to Viewers? Lets discuss the rise of the importance of DSLR video in creating and hosting pro video for blogs.
- What is the Future of Wine Writing?: Are blogs taking over the wine writing world, is print media still the only medium that affects wine sales, or are online multi-writer collaborations the wave of the future?
- Increasing the Conversion Rate on Your Blog: “Conversion” or getting visitors to your website to purchase or request information is hot in the world of online marketing. The same should be true for your blog. How do you get people to post a comment, subscribe to your RSS Feed, or click on that Google ad link?
- More Effective Writing in Your Blog: Learn how to identify a good story and excel at writing it by doing background research, interviewing sources, proofreading your copy, etc. Our panel of professional wine writers will help you improve.
- Top Gun Blogging: A panel about you, the leader of your digital community, taking it further. A discourse on making your personal identity resonate, and how to establish a brand as a culmination of your behavior, thoughts and actions. A field blend panel attempts to tackle the many ways to intensify and add poignancy to your blog and your digital presence. Conversion, growth, and click-thru is a function of content + perspective + vision. What are you doing now, what can you be doing, and what should you be aiming for to pioneer your community through words and digital manifestations based on the real world around you?
- Bloggers, Wineries, & PR Firms: As a blogger, how do you best work with wineries and their PR firms? Whom should you call for information? Should you announce yourself before visiting a winery? Learn from PR pros in the wine industry who are already working with bloggers.