So after many hard months of toiling, connecting, flesh pressing, organizing, hand wringing, and serious meditation, “Eat, Drink, & Be Social” went off without a hitch at Technique @ Le Cordon Bleu in Cambridge, MA. Turn out was robust and the speakers were engaging and candid. Attendees that I spoke to were extremely happy with the program and felt that they learned a lot about social media and the Boston restaurant scene.
Here are some highlights of the event:
- Moderated panel with local Boston all star chefs Barbara Lynch and Jody Adams. It was great to hear what these chef vets had to say about the Boston food and restaurant scene. Barbara had interesting takes on what she thinks are just fads (bacon, pickling everything in sight) and what the next trends will be (vegetables nudging out meat as the star of the plate). And Jody was emphatic that Cambridge was one of the ‘hottest’ food neighborhoods anywhere. Most interesting, was the perceived self consciousness about Boston’s standing as a foodie destination. Barbara and Jody are working to change the perception that Boston is a ‘bean pot’ or ‘fried fish’ town. There’s so much more diversity here, but we need to get tourists and conventioneers to see that as well.
- Lively discussion between FourSquare’s Dennis Crowley and Foodspotting’s Alexa Andrzejewski. FourSquare was definitely the big dog on the panel, but Foodspotting held their own when discussing growth and interaction. There were also some pointed questions from attendees. One of which expressed the concern of a restaurant owner that was worried about FourSquare users gaming the system and ripping them off. This is not only a legitimate concern for business owners, but I believe a significant hurdle for FourSquare to leap over on its path to ubiquity. The less the system is safe and fair, the more holdouts you’ll get.
- Finally, the NOMX3 fellas dropped some online video knowledge on the crowd. I had a chance to briefly speak with Jeff before the event and he said that even the smallest business could benefit from using video to attract customers by doing one thing – providing customers with engaging content that shows off your expertise in an interesting way. Also, I am a former film production hack and I couldn’t have agreed with them more about the proper ways to film your video. Sound is SO IMPORTANT and SO OVERLOOKED when people are shooting. People are willing to sit through poorly shot video than a video with poor sound.
Those were some of the highlights of the event. I have to mention too, that the venue was amazing. I’m so glad that we picked Technique – the acoustics, food, & staff service made it all the more organic to the discussion. Cheers to John O’Toole and his staff for their hard work.
While this event was a TON of hard work, I feel like people came away from it with both a better understanding of how social media works and how it can be integrated into their business. I hope that a lot of light bulbs went off in attendees’ heads while listening to the speakers, I know a lot did in mine. That would be extremely satisfying and should be the impetus for future Eat, Drink, & Be Social events. Thanks to all who attended and made it possible. I hope to post some pix of the event soon.
Tags: alexa andrzejewski, barbara lynch, boston restaurants, dennis crowley, eatdrinkbesocial, foodspotting, foursquare, grange hall media, jody adams, lecordonbleu, nomx3, rialto, Social Media