Hey everyone, my SXSW Interactive food panel is up for voting! In case you don’t know what SXSW is, let me explain. Short for the South by South West Music and Media Conference & Festival, SXSW is a yearly conference that takes place in Austin, Texas. The conference discusses the ever increasing convergence of entertainment/media outlets, and we need more food representation there! Food media is something we all know and love, so let’s make sure we’re represented on the lineup.

The cool thing about SXSW’s panel picking system is that they allow community members to select a good chunk of the programming. This means that we get to decide what’s on the roster, making for more compelling panel sessions.

Here’s my SXSW Interactive panel description:

In How Tablet Computing Is Changing Food, I will explain the how tablet PCs are expanding our global culinary prowess. Take, for example, the launch of Gourmet’s new digital magazine, where editors are creating a fully interactive look into global culinary life. With your iPad mounted at arm’s reach, you’ll be able to stuff empanadas alongside a Portuguese grandma and break down a squash while watching a chef show you how it’s done.

Beyond Gourmet’s digital pub lay cookbook authors who are producing apps that provide more instruction than print could ever dream of. Think knife skills tutorials, butchery demos, and being able to follow step-by-step as authors prepares dishes – all with your tablet just inches away from your counter.

Next up is a showcase new tablet technology and how it will stretch food culture even further. Relational produce identification apps and seed-to-plate applications that make use of location-services to build recipes from the freshest ingredients possible: this is just a taste of what’s to come.

And what about general ingenuity of the digital kitchen? Users are mounting iPads in kitchen cabinets, while apps allow tablets to be used as full-color shopping lists, with shoppers learning quickly if a product is allergy friendly or if the zucchini before them is indeed an heirloom variety (along with what farm it came from). An exploration of tablets will change the way we interact with food is not only exciting, but timely and necessary.

Questions answered:

1. How will new tablet PC capabilities change the way we interact with food?
2. Will the iPad help bring a much-needed spark into the kitchen that will engage a younger generation enough to feed themselves creatively? How can we make this technology usable to less tech-savvy kitchen-ninjas?
3. Does it make sense for food magazines to consider making the jump to an interactive tablet publication?
4. Will the iPad and other tablet PCs become the most necessary kitchen gadget besides the oven, or is it merely a fad?

So, please vote for my SXSW Interactive food panel! Let”s get more food media attention at these tech conferences. For more information on how to vote, go to the SXSW voting information post.

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