Yesterday I went to the famous French Culinary Institute for a meeting. I am happy to say that I am volunteering to be on the social media/local pr committee for next year’s IACP conference. The IACP is the International Association of Culinary Professionals and I am honored to be assisting with next national conference which will be in New York City from March 29-April 2. If you have an idea for a panel topic, you can submit an idea.

After the meeting  I got a brief tour of the French Culinary Institute. Instead of a “walk of fame” with footprints there is a wall with the hand prints of the most talented chefs in the world.

Thursday and Friday, I attended the Influencer10 conference which took place at 45 Bleecker.  I really like the panel discussions which centered around influence. The first panel was about innovators and influencers.  You can be inherently innovative, but can you be inherently an influencer. In my opinion, influencers are often more extroverted.  They have to be out there for people to see them and be influenced by them.

Key Takeaways from Influencer10:

Digital literacy is incredibly important.

The more an influencer TRIES to influence, the less influence they actually have.

Be true to yourself.

If you can engage a core fan base, then you are rock solid.

Respect your digital self the same way you respect your personal self.

We are not monolithic.

I have been busy working on my career and business. Fourth quarter 2010 is going to be great. In October, I will be headed to Las Vegas for Blog World Expo. I will be speaking at Tech Munch Vegas on October 16th on the panel, Food Trends & Curating Flavors On The Web: How To Come Up With Great Content.

I am also planning on going to SXSW again next March. Please vote for my panel: Blogging & Social Media for Niche Audiences.

Two other unconferences on my radar is Pod Camp Philly and Lavish in Atlanta.

For some strange reason, I thought that the 140Conf was at 92YTribeca, not the 92nd Street Y. So I had schlep from the “Lower West Side”  near the Holland Tunnel to the Upper East Side.

I got inside around 10AM to hear the end of Dan Harple’s presentation. He was talking about creating places and experiences. Gypsii.

Chris Lehmann excellent presentation about School 2.0. He is the principal of the Science Leadership Academy. Classes cannot be silos but lens to view the world.

Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO at Kodak, and now famous for his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice. Regarding ROI for using twitter, Hazlett says “forget return on investment. it’s return on ignoring.”

Ivanka Trump was  interviewed by Jeffrey Hazlett. “To develop your brand means you have to be extremely consistent.”

Chris Weingarten. His presentation/rant was great. “Firsties! The race to be first is the most insidious fucking Ebola virus to hit the internet. When clicks are your lifeblood, good writing dies. Don’t let math dictate your music choices. Don’t believe the Hype Machine.”

Andrea Syrtash used relationship advice to apply to Twitter relationships.1. Worry less about impressing others. Let others impressed you. 2. You can’t have intimacy without vulnerability. 3. People want to be challenged-not changed.”

Joan Walsh from Salon lead a panel on Twitter rules when talking about race. Follow a diverse group. Don’t use lazy words.

ElonJames.Don’t be a douchebag. If you write something, and makes someone uncomfortable, then tweet it.

Prof Blair Kelley.Tweet as you who are. Make sure you have the time. Always use evidence. Don’t use the word “racist” or “racism”.

Liza Sabater. Harness your inner asshole. Vocabulary matters. Use emoticons when being snarky.

You may have heard the expression, there is no free lunch.  I never thought it would apply to a conference. I stopped taking notes after getting lunch at Effy’s Cafe and tweeted a little during the rest of the afternoon.