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Cookbook Conference Re-Broadcast. Starlight Ball Room Day 2

Posted on 23. Feb, 2012 by OskVifilsdottir in Community, Events, Hotel

Broadcasting Today 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Starlight Room
Day 2

The People behind the Pages: The Appeal of the Personality-Driven Cookbook
Judith Weinraub, Madhur Jaffrey, Peter Kaminsky, Jane Lear, Jane Ziegelman
Beyond instruction, some of our most beloved cookbooks provide companionship with a trusted culinary guide — someone we welcome into our kitchens. By taking readers into the author’s world, that personal presence can teach, warn, amuse, inspire — and sell cookbooks. This session will explore the cookbook author as friend and even literary character, from the carefully crafted personae behind 19th-century “bestsellers” to the multi-media culinary personalities who dominate today’s cookbook marketplace.

Talking with Publishing Houses
Dan Rosenberg, Libby Edelson, Chris Navratil, Judy Pray
The publisher’s role is changing. Sitting at the top of a publishing house, there are many moving pieces, of which bringing a viable book to market is only one. And now, with all that’s happening in the world of digital/online, there’s even more that must be done to keep a publishing house on a path of growth and innovation that leads to success. Hear from a number of publishers living this day-to-day, who will share what they see as some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing publishing houses as a whole, as well as some ways that we can capitalize on these developments going forward.

Working with Bloggers
Casey Benedict, Pam Anderson, Maggie Battista, Abby Dodge; David Leite
As traditional media morphs online and digital content channels take on even greater importance, bloggers are becoming the new media outlets. Gatekeepers to a larger online community, tastemakers for what’s hot in food, and evangelists for trends, products, and more, food bloggers have firmly positioned themselves at the center of the cooking community. Many publishers have begun exploring what it means to work with bloggers, but how does this fit into a larger social media strategy, and how do publishers build real, meaningful relationships with bloggers who perhaps don’t always want to be pitched on the latest product? We’ll bring together a spirited panel of bloggers (and blog community organizers) who will share their insights on how they’ve worked with publishers and brands in the past, and what we can all do to improve relationships, provide value, and drive engagement both around our books and the bloggers we work with.

Reaching Consumers: How Author Tours, Events, and Online Outreach Sell Cookbooks
Celia Sack, Alison Fryer, Naomi McEneely; Jennifer Reese, Julia M. Usher
As consumers move online to research, discuss and buy cookbooks, there’s major opportunities for publishers and authors who want to reach audiences and build relationships. But how can these constituents go “direct to consumer” and how do offline events complement the 24/7 outreach that can happen online? In this panel, we’ll hear from cookbook authors, booksellers and content producers who will explore the benefits of in-person events at bookstores and other venues, how those opportunities can be leveraged into productive partnerships with brick-and-mortar venues, and how that engagement can be translated online both during and after those events.

Recipe Monetization
Rochelle Grayson, Art Chang, Dave Feller, Yummly; Phil Michaelson, Kamran Mohsenin
The buzz word for online content is monetization (along with chunking, atomizing, community, and more). As future sales of print books remain uncertain, publishers will increasingly have to find new ways to diversify their revenue models, and find ways to entice consumers to pay for content that’s free elsewhere. Not only will this session look at the various opportunities for publishers, from content licensing, chunking, to in-book advertising, but it will also explore ways that publishers can use the media assets they create to enhance revenue outside of the book. As part of this session, we’ll also explore ways in which curated content differs from free online content and how we can convey that value to consumers for the purpose of monetization.

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Watch The Roger Smith Cookbook Conference Here // LIVE 2.10 & 2.11 / / 9:00am-5:30pm EST

Posted on 08. Feb, 2012 by Birdsong in Events, Hotel

LIVE

Broadcast – February 10-11, 9am – 6pm EST – For broadcast schedule see below. For complete conference program click here.

Overview

Everybody knows what a cookbook is — or do we? They’ve been around at least since the Middle Ages, dispensing information on something that all households formerly had to do at least three times a day. Whether written by pros or home cooks, they convey more about their begetters and users than can be reduced to teaspoons and tablespoons. Over and beyond advice on buying, preparing, and serving food for purposes of health, thrift, glamour, or pure pleasure, they can speak volumes about the societies and times that have produced them — including our own. Far-reaching change is underway within the genre as recipes migrate online, or into e-books and culinary apps. The future undoubtedly holds even greater changes in the entire economics of cookbook publishing.

This conference is planned as an eclectic gathering of those who publish, write, edit, agent, research, or simply buy and use cookbooks. Our object is to share as inclusive a range as possible of our very different learning experiences. Our explorations will take two broad overall directions: Track I: “Cookbooks Past and Present: Looking Beneath the Sauce-Splattered Page”; and Track II: Cookbook 2020: “The Future of the Cookbook.”

We hope you will enjoy the conference.
Cathy Kaufman, Anne Mendelson, Adam Salomone, Bruce Shaw, and Andrew F. Smith

A note about the conference format:

The conference runs over 3 days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 9-11.
There are separate registration fees for Thursday, and for Friday and Saturday. You may register: 1) for a workshop on Thursday; 2) the Conference on Friday and Saturday; or 3) both. (There is no single-day registration for Friday or Saturday.)
Thursday is dedicated to workshops only. The three offered workshops will run simultaneously, so registrants can only select one workshop. There is a separate registration fee for the workshops. Pre-registration is a must; no walk-ins.
Friday and Saturday are the core of the conference program. On each day, 5 time blocks will each offer 2 or 3 sessions from which to choose either Track I or Track II sessions. These 28 sessions (14 each day) are not pre-registered—you may sample all of them or stick with a single one per block.

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SCENES FROM LAST WEEK: LEX/47 An Interactive Video Installation by Andrew Demirjian: May 27-June 30, 2011

Posted on 24. May, 2011 by danikadruttman in Art at Roger Smith, Arts, Hotel

Roger Smith Arts is pleased to present Scenes from Last Week: LEX/47, at The Roger Smith Hotel from May 27-June 30 2011.

In a city constantly moving forward and erasing its relationship with the past, this video installation flips that experience on its ear byre-inserting the past into the present. Comprised of two video monitors in two storefronts directly across the street from one other, each displaying synchronized surveillance camera views recorded from the previous 7 days, the piece creates the experience of seeing the recent history of where the viewer is standing but not the present. The work creates a perceptual trip wire into the past, intended to reawaken our senses to the randomness and ritual in our daily environment.

Scenes from Last Week: LEX/47 is a new work by media artist Andrew Demirjian in collaboration with The Roger Smith Hotel, Beekman Liquors and Eyebeam Art + Technology Center where he is currently an artist in residence. The project continues inside lobby of the Roger Smith Hotel where video monitors display live-edited camera footage from both sides of the street. A computer program written by the artist creates rhythms with the synchronized footage inspired by musical compositions. In this work, surveillance is a constant yet hidden aspect of daily life in New York City, which is made apparent, uncovering the archeology of the everyday.

Inspired by traditional painting genres like portraiture and landscape, Andrew Demirjian’s work explores boundaries between psychological and physical environments using contemporary technology, like surveillance video, motion tracking, and data gathering. His work has been exhibited widely including international exhibitions in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, and Russia as well as many galleries in New York City. He is currently an artist in residence at the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center and has been awarded a Puffin Foundation Grant, an Artslink grant, and a 2006 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His current work involves creating computer programs to delay, synchronize and juxtapose multiple long-term video streams to reveal hidden patterns in the everyday. www.andrewdemirjian.com

Roger Smith Arts is a multi-disciplinary arts-production company providing cultural entertainment as a way to promote dialogue within and between the leading disciplines of the New York and global art worlds. The company’s mission is to establish itself as a pre-eminent and sought-after cultural institution to the city of New York. Recognizing dialogue as the backbone of any cultural organization, RSA embraces variety as a means to foster the exchange of creative ideas. RSA produces concerts, readings, performances, installations, and lectures, all with leading creative intellectuals. www.rogersmithlife.com

Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time. Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its contributions to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and open distribution. www.eyebeam.org

For more information, or to schedule an interview with the artist, please contact Danika Druttman at rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com or 212.339.2092

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Lynn McGrath: Classical Guitar Concert (video)

Posted on 06. May, 2011 by Birdsong in Art at Roger Smith, Arts, Chamber Music Series

Second Sundays Classical Guitar Concert Series: Lynn McGrath

Sunday, May 8, 2011, at 4:00 PM
Co-Sponsored by New York City Classical Guitar Society and The Roger Smith Hotel
Frank Wallace and John Olson, series co-curators

Roger Smith Hotel
501 Lexington Avenue at East 47th Street
New York City (see map)

Tickets $15, cash only at the door. For reservations, email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com or call (212) 755-1400.

Lynn McGrath has performed and given masterclasses for prominent guitar programs including the University of Veracruz (Mexico) and Oberlin Conservatory, and has appeared on a number of arts series and for colleges across the United States. In 2008, she completed a 6-concert tour of Peru, and has been an outreach artist for organizations such as the Austin Classical Guitar Society and the Da Camera Society (Los Angeles). She has appeared as a soloist with the Northern New York, has adjudicated a number of international competitions, and in 2009 was selected as the clinician and conductor of the Albuquerque Honors Guitar Group.

After having received degrees in Spanish Language and Literature, Education, and Music, Lynn received her Master and Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Southern California. She has studied with some of today’s most prominent guitarists, including William Kanengiser, Pepe Romero, James Smith, and Douglas Rubio. Lynn McGrath is a former faculty member of the Crane School of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam, where she received a Student Choice Award in 2006. She serves as the Tour Director for the Guitar Foundation of America and presently lives and teaches in Albuquerque, NM.

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Spices: A Change Agent in World History (video)

Posted on 02. May, 2011 by Birdsong in Events, Lily's Restaurant

Spices were exchanged throughout the ancient world traveling west from East and South Asia to Africa. The Arab trading networks brought spices across the deserts and waterway of the Middle-East to Rome. But it was after the 16th Century that a truly global transformation took place connecting the cultures and economies of the eastern and western worlds and bringing with it the beginning of globalization. Since that time the use of spices has evolved from limited use in the west to a true “globalization” of spices in the cuisines of cultures all over the globe. Leading the way has been the chili pepper, one of the three spices that did not originate in tropical South and East Asia.

Fred Czarra is an international education consultant and Adjunct Professor of World Geography and World History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He is the author or co-author of seven books, including Spices: A Global History. For more information, visit SpicesinWorldHIstory.com

Video streaming by Ustream