When I got a special invite for the ASUS Indiblogger meet in Bangalore, I was psyched. I didn’t participate in the Happy hours contest for ASUS because I was held up tight at work, but then the Indiblogger team cleared all my woes by sending me an invite anyway. This was my first ever blogger meet and it was in Bangalore. Generally I prefer such meets within the city since I have some constraints in travelling often. The timing had me in another dilemma as I had to travel from far to the venue and returning after 10 PM alone was not something I very much looked forward to. But then this was the first blogger meet in town and so I decided that I shouldn’t be missing this one, come what may.
So braving all the odds at work and the Bangalore traffic, I reached ITC Gardenia and was awed at the grandeur of the venue. I was constantly in touch with Soumya on whatsapp and met Shailaja right away at the venue. I was so thrilled to see all the people communicating without any barriers although that was the first time we were meeting. It was indeed a different experience to be a part of it. We all were strangers in a way yet we all had so much in common. We could just connect with anyone there instantly and I sensed the power of writing there. The registrations started in alphabetical order and photo IDs were verified. Once we were inside the Mysore hall where the event was to take place, we saw organized table arrangements (which we never stuck to 😛 ). I was first seated at a table where everyone was new to me and got a lot of fresh acquaintances. Then I couldn’t bear not sitting with the lioness Soumya and switched over to her table. 😀
Me with Leo!
The event started off with a Nihal’s concert during which he made us interact and take part. Even the most shy person were tapping their feet and nodding their heads to the beats and it was a very energetic experience. After the concert, the organizer of the evening – Anoop graced us with his darshan and took over brilliantly. The ease with which he kept us hooked on to what he was saying was very admirable and he announced the next activity of the program where we had to meet other bloggers and convince them to give us one of their personal items. Well, I had gone directly from work and regretted that I didn’t have much stuff to part with. Of course, it was more of an exchange deal. I met Sreesha during one such deal 😀 When we were done, I had got a tissue autographed by Soumya, a toothpick (an unused one, of course :P), a fruit sticker, a book (this was given by the generous Vidya Sury), two mentos covers, a happy dent white gum, a hair pin, a decorative piece from Shailaja’s daughter’s shawl 😛 Yes and I parted with a few of my personal items too 🙂 This activity as weird as it may be enabled us to break the ice and mingle freely.
The product manager David Chu launching the products and the Death Metal Concert
I ate the Happy Dent White gum, others are all here 😛
Next came the ASUS product launch of ASUS EEEBook X205TA and the ASUS All in one PC ET 2040 . I was blown by the EEEbook as soon as I saw it as I am a sucker for all things that are sleek and shiny and this sure was sleeek!!! The all in one PC was also a brilliant idea for saving up space while not compromising on the configuration whether at work or at home. There was a display of both the products and we had a fun time checking them out.
We all are indulgent when it comes to food and the starters that were served continuously by the waiters only made us look forward to dinner. Unfortunately, I had to leave early as my husband had not taken the master key with him and was on his way home cluelessly hoping that I’d be back by then. Pitying him, I had to very reluctantly give up the last activity and the delicious (on hearsay) dinner and head back home. Before I left, I got to hear what the last activity was all about and it made me regret leaving early all the more. The last activity was enacting about blogging in a given style and our team’s style was The Pirates of the Caribbeans. Well, I missed it much.
Overall, I was grinning from ear to ear the entire evening, right from making it to ITC Gardenia, meeting all the bloggers, tweeting about the fantastic experience, seeing our tweets live on the huge screen, making my way back home. My first ever blogger meet, the first blogger meet of 2015 was an awesome one and I have only Indiblogger and ASUS to thank for it.
Oh Yes! We are!
Until later 🙂