Exactly two weeks ago today I had the incredible opportunity to attend Foodie Tribe’s very first Miami summit, Grow Your Influence 2022 that was held at the beautiful Gates Hotel on South Beach. This day-long summit took place on Thursday September 22 and gave influencers, bloggers, and content creators like myself the chance to learn, network, and connect with other creators and brands as well as enjoy plenty of delicious bites, drinks, and desserts!
My day started off with some fresh coffee and a light breakfast as well as finally getting to reunite and meet some of my favorite lifestyle content creators and foodie friends in person. We got to enjoy a simple breakfast and chat for a bit before going to the first panel of the day, Trends in Influencer Marketing.
Featured (Left to Right): Steph @iamherafter , Isabel @_isabelvfern , Franccesca: @franccescacanales and me @culturedlocal
Featured here with my new friend Franccesca @franccescacanales
There was a total of four panels that took place that day:
Panel # 1 – Trends in Influencer Marketing
Panel # 2 – Influencers as Advocates
Panel # 3 – Becoming a Full-Time Influencer
Panel # 4 – Influencer Marketing in Travel & Hospitality
FIRST PANEL
The first panel began around 10:30 am and we got to hear from different food and beverage brand marketers such as Cabot, Crafted PR, and Florida Milk along with Food and Travel Content Creator Taylor Dante from @taystytravels. The panelists talked about Influencer Marketing trends and gave their perspective on how they personally work with influencers and content creators and what they look for when partnering up together.
One of the main takeaways that I got out of this panel was the importance of being your own authentic self and creating videos to tell your story to help build relationships with your audience. Another takeaway that I got from this panel that Taylor Dante of @taystytravels said was to utilize trends but don’t base your whole page or brand around trends. She also recommended to follow the @creators page on Instagram since they are good about sharing trends and updates that creators should know about.
TIK TOK CONTENT CREATION WORKSHOP
After the first panel we got to hear from Heline Polise of @themuthership aka the Tik Tok Queen who has over 690K+ followers on the popular platform and is an expert on everything related to video production as well as from her daughter Juliann. The Tik Tok Content Creation workshop that they put together for the attendees was very educational and super helpful! We learned some tips on how to edit videos, be confident on camera, what gear to use, how to incorporate content into everyday and much more! At the end of the workshop they even showed us a demonstration on how to create a smooth transition video with a catchy song! It was so much fun watching it plus it was super helpful learning how to do it!
VENDORS
After the first panel and workshop right before grabbing lunch I had a chance to stop by each of the vendors’ tables and take a look at all of their amazing products. There were three local businesses present at the event that each had the most beautiful custom made gifts and products for any special occasion and/or everyday use:
Bundlebee was one of the vendors present and they make monthly (and one-time) themed subscription boxes which can also be custom made for any special occasion such as a wedding, birthday, etc.! I loved this option because each custom box can be made with the theme and number of items of your choice which I thought was pretty neat!
GT Stitchery was another vendor that was at the event and one that really caught my attention because they personalize and do embroidery on just about everything ranging from adult and baby clothing to bags to bracelets along with hats, bows, and more! Everything was super eye-catching and I am so glad I found out about them thanks to this Foodie Tribe event!
Happily Chic Designs was probably my favorite vendor at the Grow Your Influence Summit because they make the most unique personalized mugs and tumblers that have a custom family drawn illustration on it. In addition to that, they also have beautiful gifts for brides, bridesmaids, moms, babies, and even dads plus they were even featured on theknot.com which is really neat!
PHOTOBOOTH
Nowadays an event is never complete without a photo booth and we luckily had one of the best ones in South Florida present during the entire event which is MIA Photo Booth. All of the influencers, brands, and panelists got to enjoy getting their photos taken and take some quality memorable prints home with them. I had so much fun getting my photo taken with some of my favorite content creators and foodie friends so I was super happy that they had this experience at the event!
With Food & Travel Lifestyle Content Creator Taylor Dante of @taystytravels
With my beautiful friend @illiett
With the lovely CEO/Co-Founder of Foodie Tribe Katy Coffield
Enjoying some Cafe La Llave Cafesito with CEO Katy Coffield of Foodie Tribe
LUNCH
From noon until 1pm was lunch time and we were so lucky to have our meal catered to us by an incredible local Chef Jorge Montes of Sazoned. He provided two different bento boxes for us to choose from. One box had an egg salad sandwich, alfajor, and causa and the other box had a country ham and smoked turkey sandwich with brie, guava, and cornichons inside. Let me just say that the ham, turkey, brie, and guava sandwich was to die for!! It was so delicious and definitely one of the BEST SANDWICHES that I have ever had! Chef Jorge Montes definitely outdid himself with these two sandwiches along with the alfajor and causa which were both super tasty and very delicious as well!
SECOND PANEL
After lunch it was time for the second and third panel. The panelists present during the second panel were: Valeska Valencia who is the Director of Reputation Management and Social Media for Baptist Health, Diahann Smith who is the Director of Marketing for Florida Milk, and food content creators Aymara Lucero of @concernedcook and Juan Duran of @juanbiteatatime.
The second panel was about the topic of Influencers as Advocates so the brands spoke about what they look for when partnering up with a content creator which is authenticity and credibility as well as about the importance of building trust and long-term relationships with one another. On the creators side they spoke about the importance of not just working with any brand that presents themselves but to work with brands that truly align with your values and lifestyle while always staying authentic and true to yourself.
THIRD PANEL
For the third panel we got to hear from Paola Mendez of @coralgableslove, Andrea Grieco of @mixeats, Mari Orozco of @littlemarii, and Mei Jorge of @blameitonmei who each shared their unique personal story and background before becoming full-time content creators and leaving their corporate jobs. This was actually my favorite panel of the day because I got so much out of it and these are a few of my takeaways:
– Do not only rely on brand partnerships but be open to other opportunities and have multiple income streams in place
– Make sure to have money saved just incase for any rainy days
– Try to monetize to your audience directly and see what value and product/service you can bring to them rather than solely being the middle man (between the brand and your audience)
– Sometimes you will have to say no to work with a brand if they don’t align with your values but just make sure it’s in a respectful manner because you never know if that door could potentially lead to another opportunity elsewhere
– Don’t be afraid to negotiate your prices
Something that I really loved about this panel was how raw and honest each of the panelists were in sharing their personal struggles as full-time content creators. Some of the challenges that they pointed out were: financial aspects like negotiating, staying organized and structured, feeling lonely, struggling with time management, and being a one person show running their business because they have to do everything like send invoices, pitch to brands, edit, post, negotiate, etc. Since these struggles tend to lead to burnout they also spoke about the importance of taking a break from social media to put your mental health first.
They said that if you need to retreat from social media for a bit that it’s ok because your mental health always comes first. I thought that was a great and very important point that they made because burnout is something that many content creators struggle with (including myself) but I feel like not too many people talk about it or take the necessary steps that they need (like taking a little break from social media) in order to focus on their mental health and wellbeing. Something that Mei suggested to do when facing burnout is something small that you love on your own whether it’s going out to eat or exercising and I thought was a such a simple but great little tip!
ICE CREAM SOCIAL
As soon as the third panel ended we all had a little surprise in store for us which was an Ice Cream Social that was kindly sponsored by Florida Milk ! We got to pick either key lime, coffee, or coconut flavored ice cream and add whatever toppings we wanted to it! I got mines half key lime and half coffee because why not right? It was so rich and flavorful and was the perfect little sugar rush/treat!
Cafe La Llave was also there making some delicious Cafecito to give us attendees some afternoon fuel to keep going since it was a full day event. I was so happy they were there because I really needed some coffee since I had two other events to attend after the summit that same day!
FOURTH PANEL
The last panel of the day was all about Influencer Marketing in Travel & Hospitality and we got to hear from Daniella Turchin the President of DT Creative, Eduardo Hernandez who is the General Manager of Gates South Beach, Chelsea Roney the CEO of @proxico, and travel and lifestyle content creator Adriana Lopez of @hotel_hopping.
The brand panelists spoke about the importance of content creators being genuine and thoughtful when presenting their pitch or ideas to work with the hotel of their choice. They pointed out the fact that they receive so many emails on a daily basis because everyone is simply looking for a free hotel stay so in order for partnerships to take place content creators need to present something of value that is beneficial to them and offer more than just a photo/video of their view and stay to make it worthwhile for the hotel as well as for the content creator who is putting in the work.
Another important point that they had mentioned was for creators to also include their media kit which lists their statistics like their following and engagement rates, audience demographics, etc. when reaching out. Here are a few takeaways that I got from this panel that were specifically from Adriana Lopez of @hotel_hopping on how she works with hotel and travel brands:
– Make an effort and go to an event if the hotel brand is present and introduce yourself (networking is everything!)
– Aside from the content offer something else to the hotel that you can monetize on (ex, high resolution images for the hotel to use)
– If you have a product that you are working on a sponsored post for then bring the product to the hotel so you will not only get the content you need but also hotel content as well
– Other ways to work with hotel and travel brands is through Destination Marketing Organizations and Tourism Agencies
CLOSING KEYNOTE
Before heading to the Happy Hour the CEO/Co-Founder of Foodie Tribe, Katy Coffield along with COO/Co-Founder of Foodie Tribe, Ali Ugarte Martinez made a very special announcement regarding a new project that they launched called Jetsetter Tribe
It’s an influencer network and creative agency that is similar to Foodie Tribe but is catered more for travel influencers and enthusiasts as well as those in the hospitality industry. I am so excited and happy for Foodie Tribe on this launch as I am sure it’s going to be super successful as well!
HAPPY HOUR
Talk about ending the summit with a bang! We ended a super fun and educational day with an incredible Happy Hour inside the Hotel’s lobby! There were so many food vendors there and I got to try a little bit of everything so as you can imagine I left super full and satisfied 🙂
Here is the list of beverage and food vendors that were present during the Happy Hour as well as what I ate:
Carrot Express – They had healthy Tuna & Chicken Wraps served with Cilantro Lime sauce on the side along with berry almond butter toasts and their famous Carrot Cake for dessert which is always a must to have!
Crackers – This local Southern Style restaurant gem that is located in Miami Springs served their homemade Smoked Fish Dip with lemon and crusty bread on the side and it was honestly one of the freshest and flavorful fish dips I have ever tried!! It was so good that I had to get a second plate!
Veza Sur – They are a well-known brewery located in Wynwood and they provided us with two different varieties of beer: Southcoast IPA & Spanglish Latin Lager as well as some cool hats as swag to take home
Bangara Vegan – This local family owned and operated Puerto Rican Vegan restaurant served us one of their vegan dishes that had lentils, rice, and empanadas made with jackfruit that tasted just like chicken! It was super delicious and it was definitely one of my favorite happy hour bites!
Florida Milk – Served us a pretty sweet boozy treat, a peanut butter alcohol infused milkshake and it was simply AMAZING!!!
Sip Channe – A happy hour is never complete without some Rosé and we luckily had this brand present at the event to help us kick off the Happy Hour!
Cabot – One of the best cheese brands in the country provided us with samples of their creamy and rich Vermont style cheeses to taste and take home with us along with their white cheddar popcorn and incredibly delicious mac and cheese!
Cafe La Llave – Made sure to provide us with even more coffee to end our day and I definitely didn’t complain about it! It definitely got me wired and ready to tackle the rest of the day!
MY HONEST THOUGHTS
I really feel like this conference was worth every penny!! I mean it was only $50 per ticket (which is super affordable and reasonable for everything that you are getting out of it) but it was honestly so worth it! I got so much valuable information out of it from each of the panelists plus I had the chance to network and connect with brands and other foodies and content creators like me in person which doesn’t happen every day. Plus, I got some great photo and video content/coverage from the event and got to try plenty of drinks and delicious foods from local restaurants! It was definitely a win-win situation!
I would definitely attend this event again next year and would highly recommend it to any one who wants to learn more about growing their influence and who wants to have a very fun and productive day while making new foodie friends or connecting with old ones! 🙂
Reunited with my incredibly talented food photographer friend Andrea Grieco of @mixeats
See you next year Foodie Tribe!
P.S. I would love to know if anyone attended Foodie Tribe’s Grow Your Influence 2022 Miami Summit or would love to attend next year? Let me know in the comments down below!