Social influencers are eating up an increasing slice of the food media industry, and a brand new event will give those creators a chance to connect with their fans IRL. In 2023, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF) will include FoodieCon, a one-day event that will be headlined by Nick DiGiovanni, Lynja, The Pasta Queen, and other digital-famous chefs.
SOBEWFF is a festival put on by the Food Network, which gathers some of its top personalities in the Miami area. For the 2023 expansion of the annual event, Food Network is teaming up with Digital Brand Architects (DBA), the UTA-owned talent management firm that works with some of the biggest names on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. According to an email from DBA, confirmed FoodieCon attendees include Everything Delish, Jeremy Scheck, Black Forager, Jessica Woo, Salt Hank, Nick Di Giovanni, Owen Han, Wishbone Kitchen, Golden Balance, Robert Lucas, Succulent Bite, The Pasta Queen, and Lynja.
The Loews Miami Beach hotel will host FoodieCon, which will take place between 10 AM and 5 PM on February 25. Festivities will include panels, activations, photo ops, book signings, and cooking demos that promise to be “social media-worthy.” Per the FoodieCon homepage, tickets for the get-together will go for $95 a pop once they officially become available.
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In a statement, SOBEWFF Founder and Director Lee Brian Schrager described FoodieCon as a “carefully crafted experience” that will recognize the ways in which digital creators have reshaped the food biz. “When Lee and his team approached us to curate talent for FoodieCon, we couldn’t think of a better partnership to highlight our top-tier roster of culinary innovators,” added DBA VP of Talent Alix Frank, who leads the company’s food and home division. “We’re thrilled to be at the forefront, bringing together the dynamic communities of food, beverage, and digital to usher in a new iteration of food festivals.”
Social media influencers may be a rising force in the culinary world, but thanks to companies like DBA, those creators are intersecting with traditional food entertainment destinations. When the firm launched its food division, it signed Giada De Laurentiis, the Italian chef known for her Food Network shows and her fun pronunciations.
FoodieCon will not be the first time that cooking creators have come out of the kitchen and into a convention setting. Channels like Tasty and First We Feast headlined the Eat Your Feed Fest, which was part of ComplexCon in 2022.
