bloggers meet

Indiblogger meet @ Fortune Park JP Celestial

Yesterday attended Indiblogger’s Bloggers meet in Bangalore. I love to attend blogger’s meet since it gives as a chance to meet the faces behind the words and bytes of various blogs. This was my third Indiblogger meet. The first one held at Microsoft campus was attended by some 40 Bloggers and the numbers swelled to 100+ in the second meet that was held at Kyra. Yesterday’s meet held at Fortune Park attracted some 200+ attendees and it was great to see so many Bloggers from various background, age under one roof.

The meet was sponsored by HP and they were lavish in giving out their latest HP Photo smart Wireless e-All-in-One Printer B110a to couple of participants (Nay, I didn’t get one but folks you can always bestow me one now)

The agenda for the meet was:

One of the highlight of the meet was the speech by Blogger Raghav who is visually challenged and inspired everyone in the hall. Then there were this couple of members from Civil defense who talked about the importance and need for citizens to be part of it. Personally I was happy to meet many of my blogger friends plus BPL players. Addy,  Leo, Avada, Rachana, Nethra, Tavish, Hitesh, Mohan, SR Ayyangar, Harsha, Hemal and many others. (Sorry guys If I missed out on few names, blame it on my poor RAM and do update me). I also caught up with our GC Chaiwala Muddassir Shah Md and it was wonderful to meet my team mate  and ofcourse it was always fun catching up with Indi guys – Rennie, Anoop, Vineet and the Anwin. (After all, we share a common native roots)

Indiblogger meets have come a long way from 40 plus to 200 plus attendees and I feel its time IndiTeam changes the agenda too.

30 seconds of fame where the participants give an intro about themselves, I feel could be done away with. Even if we take in average 30 seconds , 30 seconds multiplied by 200 members makes it around 100 minutes or more than one and half hour. It was fun during the small meets but as the numbers grow it eats the prime time of the event. Of course I don’t deny the introductions make it easier for people to identify you but I feel the one and half hour could be put into other optimum usage. If we have some 300 members in the next meet, do your calculations.

May be instead of 30 seconds of fame, the prime time slot could be used wherein the members can talk on specific topic of their choice pertaining to Blogging experience, like how Raghav presented his case study on Indiblogger. To boost the participation, you can always ask the sponsor to hand out some freebies. May be during the registration period, the participants can convey the IndiTeam the topic they choose to talk. I am sure this will make it the event more enriching. The idea of 30 seconds of fame and its idea of introduction of Bloggers could be tied up with Live & let comment. After all if a blogger wants to be noted he needs to come out and mingle.

Then we have Live & let comment where in the IndiTeam hands over a chart paper to be hung behind us and a sketch pen. It’s an informal section, where in you go around meet people, get their comments on the sheet that you hung on your back. Again this was interesting in the initial meet but then with the swelling numbers, I find there could be a better way of getting the idea of making people interact. How about the IndiTeam handing out printed cards say the size of visiting cards as shown below:

If there are 200 members, the IndiTeam can give the attendees 200 cards for each with their respective blog urls printed (of course they can have the sponsor name printed too to make the sponsors happy) The Bloggers can go ahead distributing the cards and getting cards from the fellow Bloggers. I bet the cards will be handy and neat to track the Bloggers. You can always write a note behind the card while giving it for personal touch. What say IndiTeam and Bloggers?

Then comes All hell breaks loose – IndiForum. An idea again that holds immense potential. But unfortunately hell didn’t break. Again, IndiTeam could make it more structured the next time. My observation says most Bloggers take time to open up and speak in public. They might (including yours bloggingly) rant a lot in their blog but take time to open in a larger event. So how about making it easier for the participants by kick starting the forum with some topics that is pre-declared during the agenda formation?  It would help the members to be mentally prepared in interacting on the forum plus it will break the initial ice and then the rest of the impromptu discussions can break the hell and heaven.

Well, these are my few suggestions, would like to hear feedbacks from the other participants as well as the IndiTeam.

But overall it was a great evening. It was wonderful meeting Bloggers and time just flew by. A special thanks to IndiBlogger team for arranging the meet. Oh with all the interaction with bloggers, I forgot to check the snack section, some one tell me what was in the menu?

Open note, demand or threat or whatever to Rennie, Anoop and Anwin: You guys talked of few HP Printers still waiting to be distributed right?  With so many suggestions I shared, bring one for the Team GingerChai.

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Indiblogger meet @ Kyra, Bangalore

Bloggers write. Bloggers exhaust bytes. Bloggers stay in a virtual world. You meet other bloggers in virtual world but rarely meet them in real. Indiblogger arranged a meet for bangalore bloggers and that saw some 100+ bloggers under one roof at Kyra theatre and restaurant situated at Indiranagar, Bangalore. So it was a blogger’s riot for 3 hours.

Techies, non-techies,  SEO’s , journalist, professional bloggers, doctors, web designers, students – bloggers of all profession landed up and made the evening vibrant. Who said blogging is for young things? It was inspirational to see some senior but young at heart bloggers.

The meet started with a hilarious spoof video that Indiblogger had made for the meet. Hitler want to attend Bangalore Blogger meet.

With the mood lightened up, the next in agenda was 30 seconds of fame. It was an introductory session for bloggers to know each other. It helped in identifying the men and women behind their respective blogs. Yours bloggingly gets shivers if given a mike so did not waste any time passing the mike in less than 30 seconds. Of course there were few who were like politicians before mike. (does that compare with fish in water?) Nevertheless, it was a good session knowing about bloggers from various walk of life.

It was followed by a funny session. A big drawing sheet was given to everyone along with a crayon. The sheet had a string attached that can be hanged over our neck. When the sheet was given flash in my mind was the drawing competition scene in Taare Zameen Par movie. Luckily, it was not the drawing competition in agenda but  comments back par. Everyone was supposed to hang the sheet behind our back and meet other bloggers and after interaction get their comments on our sheet. Free to spam, no moderation comment section meant to break the ice and interact. So everyone were moving around comments in their back. Healthy backbiting for a change. And ya, once the session got over they gave a surprise goodie (white indiblogger T-shirt) to the maximum comment receiver.

Next on agenda was discussion. From copyright – plagiarism to ever green talk on monetization and the typical mantra blog with passion was the discussion point.

The first Indiblogger meet had Pizzas and this time it was time to say cheers with Beers, thanks to the sponsors Kingfisher.

It was an eventful evening and I had chance to meet S R Ayyangar who wrote a guest article in search of an answer couple of weeks back. His and couple of other senior citizen bloggers enthusiasm was inspirational. It was great to meet Indiblogger team and it was a surprise to know that the entire team is from my native place. Good job guys! It was nice meeting in blood and flesh fellow bloggers like Dhiman, Mohan, Sowmya, Harsha etc.

Over all a good evening spend. Thanks to Indiblogger team.