In the midst of last week’s SXSW Interactive chaos, I took a down day to attend TECHmunch TX at the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, TX. TECHmunch is an annual conference for food bloggers developed by BakeSpace‘s Babette Pepaj.

Addie Broyles and Brian Malarkey

This year, the lineup included Searsucker owner Chef Brian Malarkey, Austin American-Statesman food writer Addie Broyles, and more than half a dozen other blogging experts. Topics included security, setting an editorial calendar, font selection, and using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog.

I had such a good time. The conference gave me a chance to sit down and rest for a day after a hectic Friday and Saturday at Interactive. More than that, though, it was an educational and delicious interlude in the mania.

I had the opportunity lunch with two of my personal heroes–long-time personal hero, Cecilia Nasti, a recent personal hero, Melissa Skorpil, and a new friend, Karen. I thought it was really cool that Karen, a non-blogging reader, attended the conference. We are all readers, but Karen represented the best of our audience–an educated reader who knows who we are and why we blog.

I learned a lot at the conference–so much that I’m having a hard time figuring out what to start improving first. The most important thing I learned, though, was that I should not be afraid of pointing MadSweetWorld in new directions, if the need or desire dictates.

There will always be enough food (fudge!) content for MadSweetWorld to be identified as a food blog. However, I want to explore other topics that I am passionate about, including geeky areas like the connected home and the Internet of Things. (Watch for the first Connected Home post coming next week!)

I hope you take that journey with me. With countless new technologies and gadgets popping up all over, it should be quite a ride! It truly is a mad sweet world out there.