Beer Bloggers Conference 2014 – Day 2 Report

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Day 2 in Mission Valley in San Diego, our host for the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference.

Learning day! Multiple break-out sessions either tangentially or directly targeted at bloggers. With the key and most important talk coming from Ken Grossman, the keynote speaker. The man behind Sierra Nevada. He spoke about Beer Camp and the tour that wound it’s way from Chico to Mills River in North Carolina. I think it was better to hear about the bus and the AC breaking down than to experience it.

Before that, we had choices for topics. I went to photography first followed by Beer Blogging Ethics. Both held nuggets of good information but starting with the photo session which seemed targeted at a more PR/Art photography rather than the “in the trenches” photography from a bar or festival. The main take-away was learning your camera and your editing software so that creating better photos becomes second nature.

The ethics session was good in concept but not executed well despite the combined wisdom of Jay Brooks and Brandon Hernandez who have held numerous positions in beer writing. The free flowing Q&A should have been ditched for more questions from the moderator who has a legal and blogging background and could have led the discussion instead of letting go the reins.

Lunch was at Yard House. I was not there. Too sponsor-y to me and I don’t need to come to San Diego for their food and taps. I came for San Diego beer. So fellow blogger Richard and I headed to the FlavorDome. That will be a separate post.

After Ken Grossman concluded his well done speech and announced that BBC15 will be Asheville, North Carolina we went into technical blogging and social media techniques. Me being contrary to all things SEO, I wrote this post instead. Also because I knew that major beer drinking was ahead. That too will be covered later……

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