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I'm part of the BlogHer network, which is collaborating with Gourmet Live. I was asked by them to suggest the best restaurant in San Diego to hold a party -- which would appear on gourmet.com. My write up is one of 10 around the country just published and now live on the site. Take a look to see what I recommended. And if you have any of your own suggestions, please leave a comment.
Road Trip
I'm happy to say that my first story for Saveur Magazine has just been published. "Green Gold" is the featured "Source" piece and highlights the magnificent avocado oil produced in San Diego County by Cid da Silva under the name Bella Vado Avocado Oil. This has been a very long time coming and it's so gratifying to finally see it in print.
Time for a little bragging! Last night was the San Diego Press Club's 37th Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards--or J-Awards. It was a great enough evening seeing a wonderful turnout, despite the rain, and having all the guests enjoy the bounty of 15 restaurants and four local purveyors that I recruited and organized. But, I also took home some awards: First and second place for stories I wrote for the now late SDNN ("The Delights of Air-Chilled Chicken" and "California Modern is Chez Trez"), first place for a magazine feature for Edible San Diego ("Catch of the Day: The Confounding Nature of Sustainable Seafood"), and first place for a post I wrote for San Diego Foodstuff ("Knight Salumi: The Best Cure for Meat").
It's truly a thrill to get a little recognition from my peers for work I love doing.
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This week has been hugely anticipated -- by the members of Cooks Confab, by the participants in the events they're putting on this week, and by those of us interested in sustainable seafood.
Last night was the highly successful Fish! Facts. Held at Fibonacci's Campus Point Bistro by Waters near UCSD, the sold-out event allowed guests to sample delicious sustainable seafood dishes prepared by Cooks Confab members and guest chefs like Matt Gordon of Urban Solace and Bernard Guillas of the Marine Room. Then we listened to a fascinating talk by coral reef expert Nancy Knowlton, the Smithsonian's Sant Chair for Marine Science and wife of marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson, who was featured after her presentation in a short video with Andrew Spurgin. Following the Jackson interview we saw a shortened version of the documentary, The End of the Line, a truly disturbing presentation of the state of our oceans -- and, let's be honest, humanity's short-sighted greed.
On Sunday, we have two events: Fish! Forum and the Cooks Confab Fish! Dinner at 1500 Ocean at the Hotel del Coronado. The Forum is a panel discussion that I'm actually taking part in. The non-partisan, multi-media organization Passionfish is hosting what will be an engaging and educational forum on the urgent issue of seafood and ocean sustainability. It takes place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Hotel Del. My fellow panelists will include Tommy Gomes of Catalina Offshore Products; Kristin Goodrich, Board Member, Slow Food Urban San Diego; Martin Alberto Hall, Ph.D., Chief Scientist at the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission; Nigella Hillgarth, Ph.D., executive director of the Birch Aquarium; Don Kent, President of Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute; Logan Kock, vice president at Santa Monica Seafood; Carl Rebstock, Executive Director of Passionfish.org (and our moderator); Robin Siegle, Esq., Director of the Business Center at the National Conflict Resolution Center; and Andrew Spurgin, Exec. Director/Chef of Waters Fine Catering.
This is a free public event and there will be time for an audience Q&A. Following the forum at 6 p.m. will be the Cooks Confab Fish! Dinner, hosted by chef Brian Sinnott of 1500 Ocean. And, it's sold out!
Now, I'm cramming hard so I'll be able to keep up with seafood and ocean experts who have been focused on this for decades. Makes you wonder why I was invited to participate, right? Well, the reason is that I wrote a just-published piece for Edible San Diego on the topic and spoke with some of these folks and many others in the field while doing my research. So, think of me as the voice of the confused consumer. Because this is a complicated and often confusing, even contradictory topic. For those of us who are trying to do the right thing, it can be confounding. Pick up the latest issue of Edible San Diego -- the one with the big fish on the cover -- and take a look. I've tried to address much of the confusion and was able to get some useful tips from the experts on how to be a conscientious consumer.
I just came across a very telling speech delivered to the Wharton School of Business's "Future of Publishing" conference by Martin Nisenholtz, the New York Times's senior VP for digital operations. Obviously, Nisenholtz's talk is directed at the publishing industry and the many challenges its facing as readers transition from paper to online. But what he's recognized is relevant across the board for all industries and organizations seeking success in digital media. Here are just some of the most salient points. You can read the entire speech on paidcontent.org.
1. There's a need for engagement across the web. It's the emotional connection that is essential and that transcends technology.
2. There are four "shifts" taking place among users today, as described by Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg:
The shift from anonymity to real identity.
The shift from pull to push.
The shift from temporal to permanent connections.
The shift was the "what" to the "who."
Identify, says Nisenholtz, is the fundamental building block for engagement, and he thinks that's been proven by Facebook.
3. We must transform being being on the web to being of the web. It's not about broadcasting; it's about knowledge sharing and building emotional connections. That, again, goes back to identity.
4. The new information ecology means "The boundaries of your resources (read "site") become liquid, public, shared." He quotes David Reed on startup Betaworks' About page and believes that this captures the fundamental change of increasing engagement -- "like holding water in your hands." It's still to be figured out how information can be adapted to meet this essential truth of digital media, but it's what Nisenholtz believes is a critical element of engagement.
Read the speech and read it again. These are huge challenges that The New York Times and all publishers face, especially when it comes to monetizing what we've come to accept as our free lunch. But, this is also hugely relevant to marketers who are attempting to capture the attention of the masses for their brands, no matter the industry. Seeing social media platforms as yet another broadcast opportunity is a hugely mistaken mindset. It's time to be "of" the web once and for all.
Have a Facebook account? How many times a week do you get requests to become a fan of a business or organization? If you do agree, how often to you pay attention to their updates or even visit the page?
It's something to consider when you launch your own fan page. Are you doing it because it's now de rigeur, because you have to? Or do you truly have something interesting and useful to share with your fans -- whom I gather you're trying to convert into customers or clients?
Before you launch your fan page you should have a clear plan of how you're going to operate it. How frequently will you update it and with what? How are you going to create community? How will you keep visitors engaged? How will you amuse or entertain them, teach them, be a trusted resource for them?
Here are some suggestions for ways to continually fuel your Facebook page. And, if you have ideas you'd like to share, please leave a comment below.
Remember, just having a fan page doesn't mean anything. If you don't keep it updated with interesting content you won't get visitors and it could have the opposite effect of your intent.
