There is something warm and special about Indiblogger meets. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that 2014 did not see a single meet in Bangalore because Bangalore bloggers pulled out all stops to make it to this meet even on a Friday evening. ITC Gardenia as a venue is special for me, as this is the place where I attended my first Indiblogger meet – The Nokia meet which set the bar very high for Indimeets. What a spectacular show that was with the delightful Jodi of Vikas Khanna and Rajeev Makhani.
After that walk down memory lane, let me give you why I loved #GoSleeekAsusExperience Indiblogger meet:
This is the panic button.
Gained knowledge: While traveling to and from the venue ina cab we had interesting chats with the cabbies. The first one was highly educated, spoke Hindi and English fluently, perhaps earned more than us too. Made us proud of this face of India. We also discussed how the unfortunate rapes in Delhi cabs had hit all of them. I got to see the panic button for the first time in a cab. He said sometimes the kids pressed it while playing and that caused for some embarrassing moments. 🙂
Pic courtesy: Indiblogger
Met up with friends: It is a high when you meet bloggers who are now friends as well as virtual friends whom you have not met before. This time I met Shailaja, Divya, Kokila, Soumya and Preethi for the first time. Also made acquaintance with many others whom I have not interacted with on the blogs. Of course, spending time amid laughter, banter and fun with the usual suspects was the high point of the Indimeet.
Jamming
The fabulous Inditeam: The folks at Indiblogger share a fantastic camaraderie putting you at ease instantly whether it is your first meet or the nth. Anoop does a spectacular job of hosting the Bangalore meets. His repartees and puns are amazing. He also keeps the crowds engaged and ‘Hurr Hurr’ of Indimeets is now legendary. So is the jamming session that we have come to expect from Nihal, Anoop and the gang. The ear-splitting sound aside, it was the perfect setting of stage for the things to come. Meeting with Vineet is always a pleasure. Swati dazzles proceedings with her smile and her camera. Renie is the quiet, reassuring presence in the background.
It’s all about family: We are a family of bloggers at home or should I say Indibloggers? This is the first time that we attended together. The husband and younger son were looking forward to it while the elder son and I were as eager to show them the magic.
Free Great food: You offer free food and people are drawn to it like flies to honey. Some have been known to stuff themselves for the next day as well. 😀 I heard they now serve beer in barrels to veteran Indidrinkers. Jokes aside, the finger food was really good this time around too. The buffet for dinner was a mad rush as a crowd of over 200 people descended on it. Luckily, there was no stampede. It was well past dinner time and everyone was rushing to finish eating to head back home.
Freebies Goodies: Every one loves a freebie. Bloggers have been so pampered that they expect to get a voucher/freebie for every word they utter. This makes for some crazy shenanigans and fun times at every blogger meet. This meet we didn’t get an Indi Tee. I haven’t got too many because you have to see how well-mannered we are when we try to snatch collect one.
The interaction and games: I want to commend the Inditeam for the fun ideas they have every time we have attended an Indimeet. This time we had games like collecting a personal item from each other that was not to be given back. Some mutual jugaad later, some folks had come up with interesting stuff from others that included a hold-your-breath cellphone (clearly rigged) to a used toothpick (eeks). I personally enjoyed the skit that we had to execute for blogging. Our team’s theme was “Pirates of the Caribbean.” We somehow pulled off something that reminded me of my college days including throwing bottles at each other. Prateek did a great job to infuse some decency in our act. The whole mayhem planning and execution was chaotic but so much fun. It did help in getting us familiar with other bloggers too.
ASUS products: I have recently done reviews for the ASUS Zenfone 5 and was quite impressed with it. I wanted to try out the ASUS All in one PC ET2040 that I have written about and the ASUS notebook. Both products are quite unique. We got to tinker around with them and also ask questions to the sporting ASUS team. The best part about this brand engagement was that they were not over the top and in your face. I am sure, they earned many ASUS fans.
So folks, that is the wrap up of the first Indimeet of 2015. Had a great one. See you at the blogs.
The Indiblogger credo is so true in so many astounding ways:
We blog therefore we are!
Beautiful summing up of the evening! What absolute fun it was to be sure. ANd meeting you was one of the highlights for me 🙂
For me too, Shailaja. 🙂
Wow! Lucky you. This is when I really envy bloggers back home.
But, a big huge THANKS for sharing the experience. It helps people like me sitting faaaaar away be a part of it.
Thanks, Nisha. My pleasure. Wish you could attend one some day too.
You relived the experience beautifully ! Had a fun time for sure 🙂
Thanks Asha. 🙂 Always lovely to meet up.
It was so much fun getting to know you and the other bloggers! You have summarized the meet so neatly 🙂
Thanks, Keirthana! Great to have met you too. 🙂
That sounds just like a typical Indi meet! Loved the scoring out of key words from the post the best 😀
I had fun putting in those struck off keywords. 😉 Oh yes, Indimeets are such fun. I was pulling Vineet’s leg that only a little time being married and all the hair on his head is gone. 😀
Here I am busy thinking “We blog therefore YOU are” Ha ha.
It was a lovely evening and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Hope there are more this year!
As always, great meeting you and your family! ♥ Looking forward to seeing you again!
hahaha Vids, the Indiblogger website has this ‘new’ tagline. It’s more appropriate I think. 😉 Yep, always good to catch up with you.
I love it how you always come up with something ‘out of the box’, Rachna. Enjoyed reliving the meet through this as well as about the lessons learned 🙂
hahaha Sid. If we don’t poke fun at ourselves who will? Thanks for liking the post.
everyone is talking about the meet , and i ma so jealous i have never been to one and would so much love to attend one and meet everyone ..
Bikram’s
I can understand. Let’s hope they can have one such meet in London. 🙂
Ohh wow it must be so exciting to meet everybody. I just read about the Pirates of the Carribean skit on Vidya’s blog. Is there any video? Would love to watch it.
It was exciting to meet everyone, sure. No, there is no video. It was just a very short skit. 🙂
Good you attended and wrote about it. Varna ham jaise logo ko kaise pata chalta ki eh blogger meets hota kaisa? If my hindi is bad, maaf karo 🙂 I want to attend to one of these meets too. I hope they happen when I am in India and god only knows when that is 🙂 heheh…free food and free goodies, who wouldn’t love it ya?
hahah Your Hindi is cute. Maaf kar diya. 😉 I hope that you get to attend one too.
It seems the Blogging Community in India is well organized! We have blogger conferences here in North America too, but I’ve never been. Would love to experience that, at least once. So great to meet virtual friends and fellow bloggers in person. 🙂
Yes, it is, Debbie. I think you would enjoy the experience. It is always lovely to meet up with friends you have made virtually. Some of my blogger friends are so thick that even after they have given up blogging, we are in touch. Thanks for reading.
Such get togethers help catching up with friends
They certainly do.
NEVER BEEN IN ONE. They never organized one in kochi and also I blame it on anonymity. FREE FOOD is breaking my heart
Hehe Maybe you can hop over to Bangalore next time.
As a card-carrying member of the Indidrinkers, I wish to put on record my disappointment with this meet 😛 Great to meet fellow-bloggers, of course, and, this time, I managed to meet Gurdev as well 🙂
Hehe Suresh. I hope someone from Inditeam is noting it. :-p It was fun to have him and the kids and to have them meet all of you.
Nice write up on an Indimeet that seemed much more civil and enjoyable than a few I have heard of in recent times!
Glad you folks had fun.
Yes, this meet was quite good. Loads of games and banter with friends. Besides, it is always nice to meet blogger friends after ages.
Seems like it was a fun meet. Unfortunately I was out of town and had to miss out.
Yep, missed meeting you. I was asking Suresh about you.