Photo credit: Derrick (Sg Food on Foot)
The hardest thing when we were organizing this conference was not losing the original venue we wanted and having to find a new space in a short time. It was also not about sponsors and speakers, although some demanded more attention than others. These were troubles we had anticipated.
Photo credit: Derrick (Sg Food on Foot)
It is easy to solve logistic problems, but it is harder to solve human ones. The hardest thing we encountered was to find people who share our vision. People doubted our sincerity. People talked behind our backs. Even on the conference day, someone came to me and questioned our motive.
We all have day jobs, and the conference was organized on our free time, after work and on weekends, out of a sense of duty to repay the society.
Why the hell would we spend 5 months of our lives organizing a conference, owing sponsors favors, forever in their debt now?? What good would it bring us organizers? Fame? Don’t be naive, a tiny conference like this wouldn’t give anyone fame. Money? We spent hundreds of our own money and received nothing in return.
We even hurt ourselves physically: Derrick was insomniac and I got gastric problems from worrying. (My medical bill was $105!) Both Derrick and I received bruises from carrying things up and down 3 storeys. But Derrick got it worse. His knees hurt and his face went pale from sheer exhaustion.
Our purpose is clear and simple: we want to build a community, we don’t want to network. The difference between networking and building a community is networking involves a bartering marketplace. You give, I take, tic for tac, quid pro quo.
Building a community is a two-way street of emotions, friendship, and loyalty. We give freely without expecting something in return. Quixotic, I know, but we have to strive to achieve. We want to create a safe, supportive, friendly space where no one maligns or picks petty quibbles with another group of bloggers to gain pageviews. In a way, our conference is created for the people who doubted us: to convert cynics into comrades.
Our aim is pure and simple. One of the ways we wanted to prove our sincerity was to get as few sponsors as possible, because if we were to make the event grand, people would start doubting our motives.
So we rejected many, many attractive sponsors including mobile phones, printers that could print straight from instagram, big milk brand, and huge canned food brand. Upon knowing we lost our original venue, a food website wanted to give us funds to book a venue. The offer, which could save us lots of time and effort, was tempting, but we had to reject it because it would go against the purpose of the conference.
Although we had countless “debates” over sponsorships, speakers, and tiny details of the conference day, all five of us remain great friends because we have an aim in mind–for the greater good of the community. In a way, our committee is a microcosm of what we hope to see in the community: we can bicker, we can fight, but in the end, we compromise, we reconcile, we forget about the quarrels, and remain good friends. We can exist in harmony even when we have different values and ideas.
Besides us always coming back together as a team, we make an awesome team, each with their talents. Nicole (Pinky Piggu), Nick (@stormscape), and I are instinctive while Derrick and Aries (@ironsage) are rational. Aries and I are anti-establishment liberals, believing in individual rights and privacy, while the other three conservative, reveling in communal values and consumerism. All these mean that there is a balance and diversity in ideas, in instincts vs reason, liberalism vs conservatism, idealism vs reality.
Nick, our social media manager, represents the opinions of youths. Nicole’s loveable personality makes it easier to get sponsors and win people to our side. Aries knows everything, from photography to design to microphones–very sexy in a man. And Derrick has all the connections, which made getting sponsorships very smooth. The diversity of our team rocks. Sometimes I wanted to strangle them but mostly I love them to bits.
One important group of people who share our vision are the speakers and panelists. I’ll be eternally grateful for their support: Dixon (co-founder of Burpple), Alex Ortega, Willin Low (Wild Rocket), Joshua Khoo and Dylan Ong (Saveur Group), Maureen (Miss Tam Chiak), Daniel (Daniel Food Diary), Bernice (Hungry Bunny), Catherine (Camemberu), Leslie (I Eat I Shoot I Post), Hoong An (Hungry Go Where), Seth (Seth Lui), and Tony (Johor Kaki). (Detailed program list here.)
I’m also grateful to Lime House for helping us in our hour of need. Their generosity knows no bounds; they provided the venue, miscellaneous things (like trash bags, plates, cutlery), storage space, ice, amazing jerk chicken sandwiches, rum vouchers, and mocktails for afterparty.
We were rejected by five coffee brewers because of the tedious day-long commitment. Derrick and others wanted to bring in N——– brand of home coffee-machine, because that brand would surely agree and it would save us a lot of trouble. But I was adamant about getting independent coffee makers because we need to support local small businesses and because getting N——– is equivalent to eating McDonald’s. This was a food conference, no way was I gonna compromise on this. And Kafve Coffee and Gentlemen’s Coffee came to our aid and were with us THROUGHOUT THE DAY. They must be exhausted. Thank you.
Our food sponsors: The catering branch of Soon Huat Bak Ku Teh provided pork-free bento for lunch. And a new cakes-and-pastries online shop, The Palette Knife, sponsored tea-time snacks, including an amazing lemon cheesecake with a chocolate base. I didn’t know chocolate could go with lemon! Fiji and Cold Front kept us hydrated.
Our foodie bags–the bag itself was sponsored by Brand Cellar–were full of The Entertainer App; food from Dancing Chef, Garden Picks, Huiji Tea, The Laughing Cow, MyKuali, and Win Win Food, and vouchers from Alfero Gelato, Miam Miam, Oceans of Seafood, and Spicy Thai-Thai Cafe. We also held contests with prizes from The Fullerton Hotel, Sunrise Bistro, and The Entertainer. (Detailed sponsors’ list here.)
You may also want to read other bloggers’ experiences:
Chue On It – “Of Food, Social Media, and Ethics”
Easily Satisfied, Hard to Please – “Togetherness in a Community”
Eat Food. Live Food. – “Food & Socialikes Connect 2015”
Ivan Teh – Running Man – “Food & Socialikes Connect (FSCSG) 2015”
Pinky Piggu – “A Food and Social Media Conference For and By Food Bloggers and Instagrammers”
Sgfoodiary – “Where SG Food Bloggers & Instagrammers Come Together As One”
To Roam the World – “Food & Socialikes Connect 2015”
Here are some perspectives from instagrammers (apologies that I cannot put everybody’s photos on this limited blog space, but you can check hashtag #fscsg15 on instagram):
https://instagram.com/p/3NKx4Av7tX/
Photo credit: Sg Food on Foot
https://instagram.com/p/3ndi-9CQ_m/
https://instagram.com/p/3NxZFAv7ib/
https://instagram.com/p/3Ava83tamu/
Photo Credit: @stormscape
Photo Credit: @stormscape
https://instagram.com/p/3BEqbQA0Bx/
https://instagram.com/p/3BBhzNkqrD/
https://instagram.com/p/3OZLDzP7gz/
https://instagram.com/p/3WR5J1KNwU
https://instagram.com/p/3EOInlNxLV/
https://instagram.com/p/3Sg11OldHr/
https://instagram.com/p/3AghqDozqb/
https://instagram.com/p/3AlFWlozhU/
https://instagram.com/p/3Ax_ZhNTFf/
Photo credit: Sg Food on Foot
Photo credit: Sg Food on Foot
Photo credit: Sg Food on Foot
Photo Credit: @stormscape
https://instagram.com/p/3A7roVIzuN/
Photo credit: Sg Food on Foot
Photo credit: Sg Food on Foot
Photo Credit: @stormscape
Photo Credit: @stormscape
Photo Credit: @stormscape
https://instagram.com/p/3BwGNhCQyP/
https://instagram.com/p/3BVu4SAjXe/
I was too busy moderating the discussions to take photos. But I attended a very useful FSC conference on plagiarism so I hereby attribute the copyrights of the photos to the respective owners. Please don’t send me an invoice. Thanks.
See you all next year!
If you like to know more about FSC or join us next year, follow:
FSC facebook
FSC Instagram
Written by A. Nathanael Ho.
发表评论