{"id":12992,"date":"2010-10-07T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T07:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=12992"},"modified":"2010-10-09T00:38:38","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T22:38:38","slug":"food-wine-bloggers-club-pairing-simon-back-from-backsberg-blog-with-tom-robbins-of-eatcapetown-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/food-wine-bloggers-club-pairing-simon-back-from-backsberg-blog-with-tom-robbins-of-eatcapetown-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club: ‘pairing’ Simon Back from Backsberg Blog with Tom Robbins of eatcapetown Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The\u00a0sixth Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting takes place\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday\u00a020 October,\u00a0from\u00a06 – 8 pm, at the Rainbow Room at Mandela Rhodes Place, and will pair\u00a0Tom Robbins from eatcapetown Blog<\/a><\/strong>, a restaurant review blog, and\u00a0Simon Back, from Backsberg Blog<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Tom <\/span><\/strong>Robbins <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>was born on a dairy farm in Karkloof in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.\u00a0 Tom hot-footed to live in cities as soon as he was old enough, though has never lost his rural roots.\u00a0 He has spent most of his career working as a journalist with one disastrous exception when he opened a caf\u00c3\u00a9-bar in Pietermaritzburg in 1999.\u00a0 Tom’s career in journalism has spanned most beats from politics and the courts to travel and engineering.\u00a0 Most recently he worked as a financial journalist, covering the retail and consumer goods sectors for Business Report.<\/strong>\u00a0 A year ago Tom established the restaurant review website eatcapetown and continues to do odd jobs as a financial journalist.\u00a0 He has no formal training in cooking: he is a writer who enjoys cooking rather than a cook who enjoys cooking.\u00a0 Tom’s current addiction is roasting (both pot roasting and open roasting).\u00a0 What he knows about wine is dangerous, he says!\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Tom will be talking about restaurant reviewing, often a contentious topic, and will discuss review writing styles.\u00a0\u00a0 He will also address the difference between PR and journalism in respect of blogging, and how this affects disclosure of gifts\/freebies received.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Simon Back<\/span><\/strong> \u00a0<\/span>has a Business Science degree, majoring in Economics, from UCT.\u00a0 <\/span>He joined Backsberg, the family farm, in 2008.\u00a0 <\/span>He is responsible for all aspects of marketing, and sales to North America.\u00a0 <\/span>Backsberg is well-known for its environmentally-friendly approach to wine farming, being very focused on its carbon footprint, and how to neutralise it.\u00a0 <\/span>The wine estate recently launched the first South African wines in plastic bottles, under the Tread Lightly sub-brand.\u00a0 <\/span>Simon is particularly interested in the role of Social Media in the Marketing Mix. He was invited to represent South Africa in Germany earlier this year, as part of a panel at Prowein 2010 on \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSocial Med<\/span>ia and other Marketing Innovations’.\u00a0 <\/span>Simon will be talking about the future of blogging and social media.\u00a0 <\/span>He will challenge bloggers in asking them to consider how blog readers will change over time, and how\u00a0their blogs need to evolve to reflect these changes. He is looking to stimulate debate on the future of blogging and social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was formed to reflect the tremendous growth in and power of food and wine blogs in forming opinion about food, restaurants and wines.\u00a0 Most bloggers do not have any formal training in blogging, and learnt from others.\u00a0\u00a0 Each of the two bloggers will talk for about half an hour about their blog, and what they have learnt about blogging.\u00a0 The Club will give fledgling as well as experienced bloggers the opportunity to learn from each other and\u00a0to share\u00a0their knowledge with others.\u00a0 Attendees can ask questions, and get to know fellow bloggers.\u00a0 The Club meetings are informal and fun.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wines are brought along by the wine blogging speaker, and\u00a0Simon Back will introduce the\u00a0Backsberg wines served.\u00a0 Snacks will be\u00a0served.\u00a0\u00a0The cost of attendance\u00a0is R100.\u00a0 Bookings can be made by e-mailing info@whalecottage.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Venue: <\/strong><\/span>Rainbow Room, <\/span><\/span>Mandela Rhodes Place (next to Taj<\/span><\/span> Hotel), Wale Street.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Other bloggers that will be talking at future Bloggers’ Club meetings are the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday 24 November<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Marisa Hendricks of The Creative Pot Blog, and Emile Joubert of Wine Goggle Blog, at the Grand Daddy Hotel, 6 – 8 pm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/span><\/a>Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0sixth Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting takes place\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday\u00a020 October,\u00a0from\u00a06 – 8 pm, at the Rainbow Room at Mandela Rhodes Place, and will pair\u00a0Tom Robbins from eatcapetown Blog, a restaurant review blog, and\u00a0Simon Back, from Backsberg Blog.\u00a0 Tom Robbins \u00a0was born on a dairy farm in Karkloof in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.\u00a0 Tom hot-footed to live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[4795,3,124,20,21,19],"tags":[3160,7196,3940,7844,4779,32378,7842,4569,4766,30,4571,6266,6701,6705,7843,2038,6255,7847,7846,2785,7848,7563,4907,13,4511,32395,3316,6256,7564,7381,3689,32373,7845,4824,53],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t