Come along to our Christmas networking dinner event to meet other Ladies who blog or do Social Media. Instead of the usual format of a speaker we will have a lovely meal instead.
Dates: Tuesday 3 December 2013
Time : 6.30pm til late
Tickets: £25 for a 3 course meal
Note: A portion of the ticket sales will go towards a donation to a charity for the Typhoon Haiyan.
Venue: Galvin Bistrot de Luxe Baker Street
Secret Santa
If you are coming, do bring along a gift of up to £5 for the Secret Santa.
Ceri Jones
1. What’s your blog called and what’s the URL?
Natural Kitchen Adventures / https://naturalkitchenadventures.com
2. What do you blog about?
I blog what I cook. Good, honest, healthy food – designed to make you eat and feel better. Based on the paleo nutrition concept – sugar and gluten free.
3. How often do you blog?
About 3 times per week
3. When and why did you start blogging?
2 and a half years ago I blogged my way through my first (and last) marathon – I enjoyed the blogging process as much as the marathon! When it was over I needed a new project to focus on. Since I had spent the last few years cleaning up my diet, submerging myself in nutrition and health alongside making an actual scrapbook of my new recipes – I decided the new project was to publish the recipes on line in a blog.
4 How has blogging changed your life?
Other than always eating my food cold because I’m waiting for the steam to pass before I can take a snap, blogging has enabled me to meet so many new and interesting people. It has also made me realise networking with new people is easy when you are passionate about your subject area. This has given me, personally a huge confidence boost.
5. Do you follow any blogs regularly?
Yes – some I read regularly, and others I dip in and out of from time to time, depending what the blog post is about.
6. What three tips would you give to someone just starting out in blogging?
7. How do you find things to blog about?
Inspiration to write and cook comes from everywhere – a good meal I’ve made up – a meal out, or something ‘Ive seen in a cook book, on another blog or on a TV show can spark a related idea.
8. Do you blog full time?
No, though I wish I could!
9. Where you like to take your blogging?
I hope in time it will be a platform to take me to a new career in the world of healthy food. It would be my dream to write and have published a hard copied recipe book!
You can find Ceri at https://naturalkitchenadventures.com
Join us for a hands on Food Styling and Photography Workshop with Jemma Watts.
As it is coming up to Christmas, we thought that it would be apt to have a Christmas themed shoot. Jemma will be bringing a lot of props for the group to photograph. If you are coming along, feel free to bring your own props too, like Christmas decorations, cakes, biscuits, etc.
Jemma like to work with natural light and she will show you how to get the most natural shots without the use of extra lighting.
You will also get a lot of tips for styling your shots to make them look like magazine spreads.
At the end of the workshop, you would have learnt to style, compose and photograph lively, vibrant food photos.
Image by Jemma Watts
What you will learn:
Who should attend:
Note: You need to bring along a DSLR or a proper camera to get the most out of this workshop. Smartphone cameras will not be appropriate. You can bring along a tripod too but it’s not essential.
Learn more about Jemma and see her photography on her website http://www.jemmawatts.com/food/
When: Sunday 17th November
Venue:
Millenium Hotel Mayfair
44 Grosvenor Square
Mayfair
London, W1K 2HP
Nearest tube: Bond Street
Time: Sunday morning until lunchtime to use the best of natural daylight
Tickets: £48 which includes breakfast, teas and coffees (note discount if you book to come with a friend)
This workshop is open to everyone, you don’t have be a member of Ladies in Blogging to attend.
For this event, Jemma Watts, a professional photographer, she will be sharing some of her top tips on how to capture stunning images for your blog, which will cover food photography, travel and still life. She will also demonstrate how to style a Christmas shoot for your blog with some props and dishes.
More about Jemma Watts
Jemma is a freelance food, travel and lifestyle photographer and she has worked with some big names in food and fashion. She likes to work with minimal equipment, preferring to photograph her subjects using daylight, where possible.
Christmas Roast Duck by Jemma Watts
This will be a comprehensive show and tell session where she will bring props and share her top tips on how to style and take great photos for your blog. You don’t need to bring your camera along to this one but if you want a more in depth session on food photography come along to our food photography workshop instead.
You can see some of her work here http://www.jemmawatts.com/
Date: Monday 11 November 2013
Time : From 6.30pm
Tickets : £15 including a drink and canapes
Please email us at hello [at] LadiesinBlogging.com if there are any questions.
Hashtag: #LadiesInBlogging
Venue :Avista Restaurant, Millenium Hotel Mayfair 39 Grosvenor Square Mayfair, London W1K 2HP
You might have noticed how Pinterest is the hottest new Social Network in the last year or so. Earlier this year, they launched a UK version and a Pin it forward campaign to get more Pinners in the UK.
Pinterest has been driving a lot of traffic to my food and travel blog and that is just from doing the usual pins without any specific strategy. So I am always up for learning how to use Pinterest more effectively.
Pinterest claims more than one million Pinterest posts are made in the UK each day, with more than 60% of monthly users visiting the site weekly.
Ladies in Blogging are thrilled to have Sarah Bush, the Country Manager for Pinterest UK, join us for our meetup in October. She will be sharing some top tips on using Pinterest for Bloggers and some interesting case studies on how Pinterest drives traffic to your websites.
More about Sarah
Sarah Bush Pinterest’s first UK country manager as it seeks to grow the brand outside of its core US market. She will be tailoring the service to the UK with features including a British English language option and there will be a localised version of the website and mobile apps. She will also be overseeing the UK offshoot of the Pin It Forward blogging campaign that has enlisted hundreds of local bloggers.
Sarah has joined Pinterest from Vestiaire Collective, a fashion website for pre-owned luxury goods, where she also held the position of UK country manager. She comes from a marketing background having previously managed European marketing, business director and editorial functions at e-commerce site Shopstyle by Popsugar.
Date: Wednesday2 October 2013
Time : From 6.30pm
Tickets : £15 including a drink and canapes
Please email us at hello [at] LadiesinBlogging.com if there are any questions.
Hashtag: #LadiesInBlogging
Venue :Avista Restaurant, Millenium Hotel Mayfair
39 Grosvenor Square
Mayfair, London W1K 2HP
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This week’s featured blogger is Nayna Kanabar.
1. What’s your blog called?
It’s called simply.food – http://simplysensationalfood.com/
2. What do you blog about?
Vegetarian Cooking
3. How often do you blog?
I blog about 2-3 times a week.
3. When and why did you start blogging?
I started my blog in 2010 as a place to collect recipes for my daughter to use when she went to University .But over time I started to get visitors on the blog and my passion for food and encouragement from the visitors gave me motivation to take my blog to the next level.
4. How has blogging changed your life?
I now think, eat, breathe and live food. I can’t stop collecting props for food photos; I photograph food at any available opportunity and am forever trying new innovative recipe ideas to incorporate them in out meals.
5. Do you follow any blogs regularly?
There are many many blogs that I follow as the foodie world is very big.
6. What three tips would you give to someone just starting out in blogging?
7. How do you find things to blog about?
I cook and blog about all the dishes I prepare, When ever I try new ingredients or create
a new recipe I always have a camera ready to click photos and have a pen and pad to note ingredients and measurements. I have so many recipes in my draft folders waiting to be posted so when I don’t have time to cook and post I use these recipes instead to blog about.
8. Do you blog full time?
No I work, so as much as I would love to blog full time I can’t so blogging is saved for free
time, but I manage regular posting by auto scheduling my post.
9. Where you like to take your blogging?
I want to grow my blog audience, bring more awareness to vegetarian cookery and hopefully secure a book deal for a vegetarian cook book that I am currently writing. I cook and blog about all the dishes I prepare, When ever I try new ingredients or create
a new recipe I always have a camera ready to click photos and have a pen and pad to note ingredients and measurements. I have so many recipes in my draft folders waiting to be posted so when I don’t have time to cook and post I use these recipes instead to blog about.
You can find Nayna at http://simplysensationalfood.com/
1. What’s your blog called and what’s the URL?
I have two blogs, http://modernbrick-a-brack.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://bestbitsaboutbrighton.com/, although recently I’ve realised that I do not currently have enough time to keep both blogs going so I’m now focusing solely on ModernBrickaBrack again.
2. What do you blog about?
I post up interviews, previews and reviews about people, places and events I think are worth recommending. Mostly I blog and tweet suggestions for going out in Brighton, covering a diverse range of topics – from the best fish and chips to up-and-coming Artists in the area and Brighton Festival events. Sometimes my posts deviate from the Brighton region – and relate to Wales, Northern Ireland or somewhere else entirely.
3. How often do you blog?
Not as often as I’d like! From 2 – 4 times a month
4. When and why did you start blogging?
Two years ago as a creative outlet.
5How has blogging changed your life?
In so many respects, it has given me the creative outlet I had been craving for more years than I can admit to; I am privileged to be the only blogger the Brighton Fringe support, in terms of providing me with tickets to events to preview / review; it has given me a reason to meet and interview inspirational people, for instance Jane Bom Bane who runs a music cafe and makes mechanical hats (to name one); it has increased my confidence as it has given me a form of expression and one that other people have enjoyed.
6. Do you follow any blogs regularly?
Yes! The blog that first impressed me was called Versailles and More, an incredibly interesting and well written blog. It was V and M that recommended another blog that had a series of posts on it documenting the last days of Anne Boleyn. Each post was written with such immediacy and re-imagined so vividly that I was blown away by them and still remember how fantastic the posts were over two years later.
These are only two examples of how enriching the blogosphere can be.
6. What three tips would you give to someone just starting out in blogging?
7. How do you find things to blog about?
That’s easy, I have a constant stream of blogs I’d love to research and write, especially at the moment in the lead up to the Fringe in May (so exciting!).
8. Do you blog full time?
No, I wish. My working week involves office admin 
9. Where would you like to take your blogging?
I would love the opportunity to be paid for blogging, who wouldn’t?
You can find Sarah at http://modernbrick-a-brack.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/@irishAggers
We are continuously featuring our members on our own blog. You will be able to read about what other bloggers do, how they get inspired and maybe pick up some new tips and make some new blogging friends.
To be featured here, just sign up as a member in the sidebar and you will get sent an email with the questions to complete.
How Lego Uses Social Media to Increase Engagement and Sales
This month we are very pleased to have Lars Silberbauer Andersen, The Global Director of Social Media for Lego from Denmark as our guest speaker. He will be sharing with us their methodology behind Lego’s social media transformation. What’s is impressive is that Lego now has day long Social Media training for senior management and at the end of which they have to take an exam. This alone has massively impacted on how the company uses Social Media to connect with their customers and how it has positively affected their marketing and sales.
More about Lars:
Lars Silberbauer Andersen, Director of Social Media, LEGO
Lars is GlobalDirector of social media at LEGO and is driving the well know and innovative toy company’s social media strategy and execution. He leads a global team of social media marketeers that drives the real time engagement with consumers world wide.
Previously he worked for 10 years in the digital and broadcast media industry as digital strategist and later creative manager driving digital strategy and leading project development for Danish Broadcasting Corporation. He has also worked in the US, driving web development and user research. He holds and MA in Digital Media Science and a HD in Innovation and Organizational Strategy.
This is a great chance to learn the latest Social Media strategies that Big Brands are applying in their business.
Who Should Attend:
I am sure you will be able to learn a lot about Social Media strategies and how to apply that to your own Social Media, blogging and businesses.
Date: Tuesday 10 Sept 2013
Time : 6.30
Tickets: £15 incl a drink and canapes
Please email us at hello [at] LadiesinBlogging.com if there are any questions.
Hashtag: #LadiesInBlogging
Venue :Avista Restaurant,
39 Grosvenor Square
Mayfair, London W1K 2HP
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This month’s event will be on the topic of Blogger’s guide to using Google+, Google Authorship and Hangouts.
If you want to get more exposure for your blog and lots of search engine love, you need to understand and know how to use Google+ and make sure that you have completed your Google profile.
We’ll cover how to leverage all these free Google tools to leverage your blog’s presence online.
Date: Tuesday 7 May 2013
Time : 6.30
Tickets: £15 incl a drink and canapes
Please email us at hello [at] LadiesinBlogging.com if there are any questions.
Hashtag: #LadiesInBlogging
Venue :Avista Restaurant,
39 Grosvenor Square
Mayfair, London W1K 2HP
I think that there are not enough women mentors around, someone who talks sense about the issues that women face in the modern world and not just in their career or business. It is not the same “Women can have it all debate”. She adds her voice to this issue in her book.
I think that women should feel empowered by this and take whatever wisdom they can and incorporate it into their their lives and work.
Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook’s new book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
has just launched and has generated a lot of commentary in the media already.
The reaction just shows that it’s still so hard for women to be ambitious and be anything they want to be.
I have not read this book yet, am still waiting for my copy to arrive.
The message says that you don’t have to choose a career or family and also it’s not wrong to reach higher in your career.
Her message: “Don’t leave before you leave” – is referring to women of child bearing age, planning to take time out to have children and in their mind start leaving behind their ambition and stopped striving before it’s time for maternity leave.
You can participate by joining the online community at http://leanin.org/
Here are some reactions to the book taken from youtube video :
There are various interviews online but here is one of them where she talks about her philosophy.
Here is her talk at TED about “why we have too few women leader “that has generated a lot of commentary, some agreeing and some comdemning. It is food for thought.
Some home truths:
6:40 Ask a man why he succeeded – Anwer – It’s beacuse I am awesome.
Ask a woman the same question – Answer – It’s because someone helped them, they got lucky and they worked really hard and
