Sunday, March 21, 2010

When bloggers meet…

…There’s bound to be a lot of communicating, networking, witticism, and ofcourse fun! The IndiBlogger’s Chennai Meet this Saturday (20th March) at the GRT Convention Center was all this and more!

I personally was very hesitant going for a meet like this – I had absolutely no clue what I would do – I was not looking for any “real” networking per se, I didn’t have a commercial or a very topical blog, I would love to be read by many more people but was not sold out to the idea of advertising for my blog, or like someone commented “capturing victims” – Nevertheless, I did go, and this post means that I did not regret it one bit!

The 30 seconds to fame item on the agenda really formed the core around which the rest of the evening revolved. As each blogger introduced himself and herself, I was in splits laughing, taking notes of the blogs that seemed of interest, and even once in a while waiting for the time keeper to beep ;). It was fantastic to see a conglomerate of people (I suppose around 200) passionately talking – there were bright sparks, hilarious ideas, unique sentiments – a myriad musings.

The “back panels” (my back panel seen in the pic over my very own IndiBlogger ‘T’ – yes, one of the most eagerly sought after “freebie” at the meet) provided a good opportunity to interact with all the bloggers – we exchanged our URLs and tweet IDs – The lazy me is yet to go through the ones I collected and reach out – I plan to do a lot of online reading over the coming days to make up for the backlog – But, I have already begun to receive some comments on my blog posts – which is very thrilling (and makes me feel a tad bit guilty as well), apart from the fact that the hits on my blog go up :).

A bit of a dampener was the Traditional Media vs. Blogging session, where my lack of knowledge of Tamil (yes, the “predominant” speaker from Zee Tamil refused to offer even a summary translation) saw me smiling at others who were in the same boat. Pleasantly, I did have the honor of sitting with a few “just-made” friends, who offered some lingual help. The media person from the Australian channel spoke well of the contradictions that arise professionally for a journalist who also blogs.
We had the Univercell (the sponsors of the event) announce a contest – no, they are not paying me to announce the contest, so go find it for yourself on the IndiBlogger’s or the Univercell site.

The “chaai”, “kaapi” and random conversations on blogs, RSS, hash tags, followers, page hits, SEOC (or some weird technological nazi like that) and the much coveted IndiRanks provided the perfect close.

Great job Rene, Anoop and the entire gang at IndiBlogger. You guys rock!

Also cheers to the wonderful blogger-friends I made – Deepa, Sonia, Anju, Akshay, Susan, Tariq, Shilpa, Akshay, Karhik, Gomati, and the many others (If your name is not here, apologies, I might look young but my memory fails me once too often).
Wishing you all greater blog posts, page hits, followers, and IndiRanks!

37 comments:

  1. Wow.. I would have wrote my blog's name on the charts.. I would have promoted it, since many bloggers displaying these charts on their blogs! :D

    Had a great time there.. and I guess we didn't meet .. :D

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  2. It was a pleasure to meet so many bloggers of Chennai.

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  3. Just a teensy typo on your post!

    "per say" may prefer to be read as "per se" :)

    Nitpicking apart, I am the one who was lamenting about the generation gap!

    Cheers!

    S.K

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  4. @Pradeep: Yep, seems like we didn't meet! And don't tell me you did not write your blog URL on the charts!

    @OldSailor: It surely was - remember your introduction to the blog - nice :)

    @SK: Thank you - That was a big blunder not a mere typo - have corrected it :). And you more than just bridged the generation gap!

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  5. Very nice meeting you at the meet yesterday. Great post. Keep blogging.

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  6. buddy next seat :)great summarisation......keep musing..

    and cant forget the comment on ur paper..u look so cute..ha ha

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  7. @Zeon: Thank you and yes it was great connecting!

    @Deepa: thanks for dropping bye...yes, we had lot of fun :)

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  8. Hey Yuvika .. it was a blast! a nice post :)

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  9. @Anoop: It so was, thank you...and ofcourse also, thanks to you guys!

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  10. I was also hesitant to go to the meet. I am you usually not comfortable around crowd but no more. I have now broken the shackles :). IF you dont remember me I am the guy who said ' I wake up and do computer namaskaram" :D

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  11. Oh yes, ofcourse I remember the computer namaskaram :)

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  12. That was a pretty exhaustive summation of the whole event! Good to read about so many bloggers meeting up in chennai to know the fellow bloggers community.

    Good to have known your blog too.. you have a nice template!

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  13. I thought you may be interested in this blog/site:

    http://aimwa.in/

    If not, pl ignore this suggestion!

    S.K

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  14. @Mohan: yes, the meet was worth it...and thanks for the comments on the template - though not created by me (from pyzam.com), I loved it too!

    @SK: Oh my god! This is a really interesting site :)

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  15. Nice post. And yes, even though I understood tamil, the discussion was a real dampener to what was a good time we all had. It was going way off topic, and personal. We didn't officially meet, and therefore neither did u scratch my back or I did yours :) Will be looking forward to seeing you at one of the tweetups happening in chennai. Connect with me on Twitter @kunaljanu
    Take care.
    Kunal

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  16. I agree. The debate should ave been moderated. Folks went on rambling and unfocused (though me too was a contributor to the bukwas!).

    No time management in the whole arrangement. May be it'll be improved next time.

    S.K

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  17. It was wonderful meeting so many bloggers from Chennai..nice knowing you too.

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  18. @Kunal: Yep I guess we didn't really meet up! Will keep a tab on u on twitter though :) and there's always a next time!

    @Sk Not for the sake of it, but I actually think that the comment you made was one of the more well-thought out and articulate ones in that meet!

    @Srivalli: Thank you and same here!

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  19. I can understand , it must have been fun.
    I attended a meet in Noida.It was good meeting all those one reads .

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  20. I know...to meet all the cyber people in real world is fun!

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  21. It was lovely to meet you too! :)

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  22. Boy, I certainly must have made an impression, you've mentioned me TWICE ;) ;) Yep. was great fun :)

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  23. @Anju: thank u!

    @Akshay: Only you could have noticed the error - I just realized it ...ha ha ha...

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  24. Dear Yuvika:

    Lovely read here about the Bloggers' meet. I was reading some of the posts and everyone has a different take which is quite interesting.

    Hope you are well.

    It was nice connecting to you that Saturday.

    Joy always,
    Susan

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  25. Tariq's business card stand out don't it :D

    How you been? I forgot to take your email ID or a number or something. You ran off early that day. Sonia and I were the last to leave i think :P Mail mois. aksvismad@gmail.com

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  26. @Susan, true, reading everybody's take on the meet has been as much fun as attending the event itself!

    @Akshay: Yeah compared to u guys, maybe sort of early!

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  27. It was fun meeting all the virtual friends as a complete strangers in person! Had a great time at the meet.

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  28. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4886584&id=668331741

    log on to facebook to check that women pic...above is the link..

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  29. hey deepa: the link doesn't seem to be working now. But I caught hold of the pic here: http://www.sylvianism.com/2010/03/22/indiblogger-chennai-meet-2010/

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  30. hey there... thanks fr mentioning my name :)

    btw ur post on the delhi vs chennai, on ur personal life, compared to the 2 states book , was abs brilliant.....kudos to u !

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  31. Nice write up Yuvika. It was indeed a worthy 3 to 4 hours of that Saturday!
    I am not sure if I met you in the meet or not, but will keep following you on the blog.

    Ram

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  32. Inspiring one. Waiting for something similar in Delhi.
    Nice post indeed.
    Keep the spark alive..
    Cheers Life..
    JD

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  33. Thanks JD! Yes, if something comes up in Del, u shud give it a shot :)

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