Prior to starting this blog and having any involvement in the foodie world, I had no idea how many different events were held on a daily basis. As time has gone on, I’ve become more and more aware of the amount of events hosted all over the city, so many of which cater specifically to food bloggers and Instagrammers. From what I see from my peers, there are probably 3-4 food events occurring every day/night.
These food events vary in a number of different ways including type of venue, time of day, type of promotion, whether or not there is an entry fee, and the physical number of guests actually invited. Based on my experience and talking with a number of people who I consider to be “veterans,” an invitation will generally include the invited party plus a guest, unless otherwise specified. There are times when you have to RSVP with the name of the guest you are bringing or you have to notify the event coordinator that you will be bringing a plus one. Whereas at other times, the attitude is “the more the merrier.”
I tend to keep all of this information stored in the back of my brain, so that I can follow what is deemed as proper social etiquette when attending an event I have been invited to. If an invitation specifically states, “does not include guest,” I would not show up with someone and cause a scene about going inside. The basic values that I believe are socially acceptable translate to food events as well. Having said that, I would never expect anyone else to break social code and invite me to an event that did not welcome additional guests. The discomfort of that kind of situation is not worth it regardless of how many pros vs cons you can think of in terms of networking.
So, what’s the point of all of this? Yes, in this post I am talking about food events, but you might be a high school student looking for an invitation to a party or a brand new employee trying to find where you belong in your new work environment or perhaps you just moved somewhere new and are looking to make some friends. The bottom line is that the one thing each of these scenarios has in common is the social element. We all try to find a place where we belong and hope that we are good enough to be accepted by the people who have blazed the trail before us.
I am the type of person who tries to be hyper-aware of my surroundings (almost to a fault) and I pay extremely close attention to detail. It can get me in trouble a lot, but also be helpful with building relationships. In this foodie world, especially on Instagram, you begin to recognize patterns and key features of posts from different accounts. When you meet the person behind the account, it becomes easy to associate him/her with a specific type of food or type of photography.
Here’s an example: Let’s say I follow an Instagram account that only posts pictures of desserts. Now, suppose you attend a chocolate sampling event and you begin speaking to someone that turns out to be the owner of this dessert only Instagram account. You already know so much about this person! You have a lot of jumping off points for the conversation that don’t have to do with the weather!
Once you’ve begun this dialogue and met in person, it becomes much easier to build a relationship (professional or personal) by suggesting places he/she might like to try and inviting him/her to an upcoming event that seems to suit his/her taste. If I am invited to an ice cream tasting event and am aware that I can bring a guest, I’d immediately think to bring this person who loves desserts. The same thing goes for any situation with my friends. If I get tickets to a basketball game and I have a friend who is a huge basketball fan, that person is going to be number one on my invitation list. Of course, there are always situations where you think, “who would I want to be spending this time with most,” and that answer might be different from “who would enjoy attending this event most.” Sometimes I’d rather spend time with someone who would be less grateful attending the event than someone else, but it’s my invitation so I can do what I want. The keyword in the previous sentence is “sometimes.”
If I always chose one person over another, being a somewhat rational human being, I’d assume that the person not chosen would eventually start to resent me. Using the same example as before, let’s say that I have been getting along well with the person from the Instagram account who loves desserts. I see this person at many events I go to and always talk to the person about desserts that we enjoy. In my logical and rational mind, I can’t really come up with a reason that I would intentionally not inform this person of an ice cream tasting event I had been invited to, especially if I have the option of bringing a guest. Nor would I invite someone who is lactose intolerant because he/she obviously would not be able to appreciate the purpose of the event in the same manner.
Bottom line, we all want to get ahead in life and most people will use any means necessary in order to get there. Basically, I’m talking about social climbing. We’ve all seen those 80’s and 90’s movies where there’s a group of friends and one day, one friend decides to try to hang out with the more popular kids and leave his/her old friends behind. Eventually some kind of falling out happens leaving the social climbing kid friendless because he/she screwed everyone else over. The less popular kids don’t want to hang out with him/her because they weren’t invited to come to any of the parties and the popular kids don’t want to hang out with him/her because they only really liked the new kid because he/she was a suck up. I see small parts of the foodie world in the same exact way.
You might think you are one of the cool kids because you get invited to all the cool events, but what happens when the invitations eventually stop coming or you are replaced by a newer version of yourself? Do you think the people you “left behind” will be there to take you back? Do you think that they will want to be your guest or invite you as their guest? I can’t predict the future or read minds, but I’d say there is a pretty good chance that you won’t have a prom date.
Prior to starting this blog and having any involvement in the foodie world, I had no idea how many different events were held on a daily basis. As time has gone on, I’ve become more and more aware of the amount of events hosted all over the city, so many of which cater specifically to food bloggers and Instagrammers. From what I see from my peers, there are probably 3-4 food events occurring every day/night.
by 
by 
I can relate. Great post!