The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
There are a couple of advantages of being one of the last to leave the dining area during an Indiblogger meet.
- You get to see all the bloggers comfortably seated inside the main hall and that is a sight that is indefinably thrilling.
- Well, we (Specky and I) got those extra few minutes with Sakshi Nanda as we discussed some interesting moments of the meet.
- I got the opportunity to have the final glance at the plates that bloggers had left after their lunch.
The last disconcerted me a bit. There was a plate with a half-eaten strawberry cheesecake looking at me pleadingly. It seemed to say, ‘Hey, I heard you bloggers discuss so many social issues and now you leave me uneaten and yet ravaged like this. No one is ever going to accept me now.’ So I really must begin this post with an appeal:
My dear blogger friends… please DO NOT leave food un-eaten. Serve yourself only what you can or you’d like to eat. Our nation has just too many hungry souls and rape of food is something that we must not encourage.
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The fragrance
The meet had the team from Ambipur too with their arsenal of fragrances… two different ones are now in our home and I make it a point to ‘eliminate’ bad odours and keep the rooms smiling flagrantly each day now. Yes, we all got to take an air-freshner each with us. This was besides the indi-tees… and the tee too is what I now wear every day.
Did we emerge out of the meet with some extra knowledge about odours and how to eliminate them? Or the secrets of freshner technology? Well, obviously yes… and the presentation of the Ambipur team did zoomed in on us with its steady dose of graphs, figures, and facts… things that bloggers love. After all, what is blogging but to write authoritatively?
The food
Ah! The food was great. You can’t expect anything less than gastronomically romantic creations at Hyatt. They did defend their reputation well… specially during a day where more than three hundred guests were there to not just eat but maybe even to analyse the chef’s expertise! After all, Pawan Soni was of ‘The Food Freak’ fame was also there.
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The bloggers
The ‘Delhi Sutras’ were there… and it is well-nigh impossible not to notice them. Priyanka Dey and G V Sparx aren’t the sorts who will remain unnoticed anywhere. There were the book lovers like Manjulika Pramod and that charming blogger who gave my Sid Bahri’s book to read and review, the charming Ghata Singhal, the effervescent Vivek Sheel, the blogger family that had Poonam accompanying Charu Khanduja and her smiling father Jaideep Khanduja, and a whole lot of the friendliest bloggers around like Ankit Chugh (the lucky one), Shwetabh Mathur (The Zombie), Amritt Rukhaiyaar (The smart blogger who doubts his own looks), Mansi Dutta (the Bollywood fan), Aditya Bhasin (the jolly fellow who wears his unique indi Tee everytime), Arvind Mohan (the bespectacled serious looking funny guy), Ankita Singhal (the blogging sensation), Tikulli Tiku (who won those Spice mobiles in another Indi meet), Antarik Anweshan (the intelligent blogger), Ritu Lalit (the author with style), Murtaza Ali (the effervescent winner), Madhu Bhardwaj (the one who anchored one of the skits), Paromita Bordoloi (jo kisi bacche ki maa ban gaye thee in another past Indi meet), Himadri (the Oooooo-blogger now!), Tanya, Himangi, Mahima, and Jatin Israni (my blogger friend who wins more on twitter than he does in blogging)… and a whole lot of others who I know but if write every name, this post would become just a roster of bloggers that will never be read!
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The fun
If you think bloggers are all serious people who are forever bent upon their keyboards and go tap-tapping all the time, you’re mistaken. If given a chance they’d just out-act any Bollywood hero or make even the legendary Ameen Sayani get up and applaud at the sheer power of their vocal chords and the variations that they can employ.
This meet was one where such an opportunity came their way. The entire lot was divided into teams and each team had to present ads, radio jingles, short skits or short plays after being given a preparation time that would be almost the time it took Milkha Singh to finish his race! Yes, bloggers think fast, converse fast, conclude fast, and get together wonderful presentations fast. All the presentations were laudable and I personally loved the way Shwetabh acted like a zombie… I’m sure he is going to be known as The Zombie forever now!
This was one meet that is unforgettable… but then aren’t all Indi meets unforgettable? To my mind they are all unbeatable.
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
The Indiblogger-Ambipur Meet
Arvind Passey
14 July 2013
The post-blogpost thoughts:
I do hope the Indiblogger team scrolls down and reaches this part of this post. I am writing this as an after-thought but this is what needs to be shared. The first concern that I have to share is about the Indi tee-shirts and their distribution. Guys, p-l-e-a-s-e do consider collared T-shits too sometime. The other fact is that queuing up for a Tee inside a starred hotel makes us bloggers feel so restless. I hope someone can think of a better way of distributing the tees during a meet.
The second thought is connected to the prizes distributed during the meet. The sheer randomness does lend some sort of intrigue to the event… but leaves a lot of people confused. It is a good idea to retain this randomness BUT please make sure that the one who gets the prize actually walks to the front and addresses the audience for at least a minute. So many prize winners just disappear without us even knowing who got the what.
The third concern is about the sponsors. Please tell them firmly that they must get their act in place and not fumble there in front of bloggers. The MS Office 365 team was superb in their presentation, but the official from Airtel, for instance, could have been better prepared. The presentation slides that the sponsor gets really need to be out-of-this-world and not the usual quarterly sales meeting type!
Creative interaction and a chaotic mingling are two separate things… it will be nice to have each blogger who registers for a meet, given a random number that is connected to a specific table number. This way bloggers will be seated in surprise groups even at the start. otherwise they tend to sit in known groups and tend to interact with known people. For instance, why must my wife and I sit together every time in every meet?
28 comments
Ankita Mahajan says:
Jul 15, 2013
I agree. All Indimeets are unforgettable 🙂 And you said it right about bloggers 😀
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 15, 2013
Thank you for reading the post and agreeing that all Indi meets are ‘unforgettable’… they are unforgettable because we the bloggers are charming souls who love to interact without unnecessary inhibitions. 🙂
Aditya Bhasin says:
Jul 15, 2013
Thanks for giving “me” some space here. 🙂 Each and every meet is something to cherish through out the life. The People, the meet and everything else.
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 15, 2013
I wish I could mention every blogger at the meet… but when you’re 55 you forget more than you remember. I do remember, however, that I had animated discussions with a lot of people who aren’t mentioned at all. I wish I had some way of remembering people…
Sakshi Nanda says:
Jul 15, 2013
Now Now! While it’s true we go some extra minutes to discuss some ‘interesting moments’ of the meet, don’t you think this might create too much mystery and an equal amount of curiosity? :)Thank you for including me in this wonderful post. I do remember who the ‘interesting’ conversation revolved around. 😛
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 15, 2013
A small dose of intrigue always spices up a post, doesn’t it? 🙂
manjulika pramod says:
Jul 15, 2013
The Indi Meets are unbeatable, very true Sir.
The message in the beginning is very important, food should not be wasted..
As a whole, wow you have brought so many bloggers at the same platform..Blogging is supercool!
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 15, 2013
Ah! I did not want to sound like I was preaching… but then, yes, wasted food hurts me a lot. So do a lot of other things. Now that you’ve mentioned this, I think I’ll add an exxtra paragraph to the post and talk about things that bother me.
Shwetabh says:
Jul 15, 2013
I think that i`ll sing the bollywood song ” yeh lal rang kab mujhe chodega” with a twist , ” yeh zombie tag kab mujhe chodega????????”
:). wonderful post sir
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 15, 2013
Thank you, my zombie friend! 🙂
Diwakar Narayan says:
Jul 15, 2013
I am still to be a part of one of such meets. Indiblogger does not like Pune, I believe 🙂
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 15, 2013
I’m sure the Indi team will be thinking of adding more cities now…
Viveksheel says:
Jul 15, 2013
Sir humbled at your gesture of mentioning my name in your blog post. If you really ask me i envy you , i am in awe of you and i wish i can reach somewhere closer to your writing skills. Congratulations for Samsung Mobile to you and for the smart watch to M’aam !! I enjoyed your post , your video and the WeChat demo on finding friends .
Deepti every day pushes me to start thinking on your creative lines but then i excuse myself on the pretext that i dont have grey (hairs) and grey cells like Mr Passey :):)
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 15, 2013
Thank you for reading the post, Sheel bhai.
And I must say you’re a formidable writer yourself… all you need to do is write one post every weekend for your blog. Hope to read your posts when you share them on ‘The Real Fiction’. 🙂
Destination Infinity says:
Jul 15, 2013
The pictures show an enthusiastic Blogger junta 🙂 I used to attend a few meets earlier, but these days I don’t go to blog meets. Earlier, there was a lot of discussion on blogging and related stuff, but now the sponsored content dominates. I hope the indi-team can make more balanced.
Destination Infinity
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 17, 2013
I believe that any change is a good change and happens because the people connected to the change need it. It is possible that sponsored content is what is needed to bring in people to adopt blogging… and even this is bound to give way to some other concept at the right moment.
I love these meets… and hope to meet you in one of these some day some time. 🙂
Poonam (StirYourSouls) says:
Jul 16, 2013
Thanks for the mention Mr. Passey…
It was a fun meet for sure.
Just that there is a small typo ‘ Poonam and Charu Khanduja and their(?) father ‘.
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 17, 2013
Oops! My apologies to Mr Khanduja… though what probably prompted this error was your ageless charm! You are a charming person indeed!!
Thank you for pointing out… will make the changes…
jaideep says:
Jul 17, 2013
wow! that is funtastic 🙂
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 17, 2013
Nice to read that you enjoyed the post! 🙂
Yogita says:
Jul 19, 2013
Not me 🙂
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 22, 2013
Ah! That’s good… talking of social concerns and actually practising them must converge.
Jatin says:
Jul 19, 2013
Thanks….. Awesome Pictures… It was my first Indiblogger meet… looking forward to many more… 🙂
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 22, 2013
Nice to know that you liked the pictures… and it was great to see the twitter prince at the meet! 🙂
Mansi says:
Jul 23, 2013
Lovely post as always, Mr Passey!
The strange thing, though, is this time I (the Bollywood fan) wasn’t around 🙂 🙂
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 24, 2013
Well… well… well… just goes on to show how confusing it is to distinguish one lovely blogger from another. Or is it that I have begun seeing you everywhere now?
But seriously, thanks for pointing it out… 🙂
Mansi says:
Jul 24, 2013
Haha…possibly! But its always a pleasure meeting you all.
Looking forward to more such meets!
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 24, 2013
I’m sure the Indi team has a lot more already planned out…