Rock ON with Word Up – BigROCK – Indiblogger


THE BEFORE MATH OF EVENT

When I got notification email from indiblogger team regarding the event by BigROCK – Word up, I was excited and yes thrilled for two reasons, 1) The theme of the event was about blogging, DIY and SEO and 2) the venue – BLUE FROG which is quite a happening place when it comes to live events!!

So, after few days when the event timing was set and I got the schedule by email, I was like what !! 10 am in the morning, I rechecked and confirmed and ya it was 10.00 am, so I was all prepared for Saturday mentally to shuffle my schedule a little and be there by 10.00 am.

Just before the event day, got a notification that from the 50 early birds who register first to the event stands a chance to win a Moto G, wow !! so it was like we have to there and be in the top 50 to stand a chance.

The EVENT Day – Pre-event activities

Registrations:

Me and some of blogger friends tagged up and headed towards Lower Parel , Blue Frog where the event was, we all were greeted by a welcoming team of Indiblogger and fellows from BigROCK for the registration and event activities, just missed the registration and participation for standing a chance to win Moto G.

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Breakfast:

It was an all day event, starting off with breakfast, we were offered a host of varieties such as tea, coffee, sandwiches and stuff in breakfast!

The INDIBLOGGER BAND Performance:

Just as we were sipping some tea and hanging out and chit chatting before the event could start, we were pleasantly surprised by the Indiblogger band performance, we were called up to the center and we cheered and sang along with Indi Band,  my favorite host at Indiblogger Anoop was on Guitars and Nihal was the lead vocalist, and one flew from Philippines she was on drums and one more masked guitarist was there, he was the show stealer actually for his mask and mysterious outfit, on the other hand Vineet, Shweta and Renie the other Core members of Indiblogger team were not far behind as some of them were clicking photos like pro and others cheering their heart out, it was the first time that I discovered that the Indiblogger team are also creative with music instruments and vocals, was a treat to ears and eyes  ;)..

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68944_10152387172052883_6136367657470060813_nThe Event DAY –

A Briefing By CEO at BigROCK :-

It was short brief about BigROCK and how the company has grown over the years with its products and services for a vast immerging Indian hunger for domains as people are getting more aware about the positive outcome of having a website and the brand or product value it gives when showcase online.

BigROCK not only helps register a domain but also has a user friendly website designer which preliminary helps newbie launch their website hassle free and in a more convenient manner. Also they have recently launched the .me domain which is fast picking pace with youth and budding bloggers J

A Light Talk by Mr. Vinit Goenka

The Event started off with a brief speech By Mr. Vinit Goenka, National Co- Convener, BJP IT Cell, he is instrumental in the BJP social media affairs . He conveyed that as a party they are all ears to suggestion, information and critics and their endeavor is to further improve the communication with the common man and reach to everyone and know their grievances and notice it to the higher authority or the concern departments.

Speakers and their Presentations

Amit Agarwal:

My Take on his presentation are:

1) Came to know about various form factors under which blogs are showcased

2) About the Adsense and ads segment for bloggers and how to approach or negotiate with bidders, marketer and promoter.

3) Why wordpress is better than other platforms, such as blogger, tumblr, flickr,  and etc

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Anshul Tewari:

My Take on his presentation are:

1) His journey which lead to Youthkiawaz to international level.

2) Keep a track on your passion, it may be the next big thing

3) His approach towards his thoughts and how he converted a part time site into a full fledge information source and shout box for the youth.

4) Knowing some insites on how-to being able to fight the path to achieve.

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Lakshmi Rebecca tea chat with  Sunit Singh:

My Take on the Chat:

1) How Video-logs are the new trend setters in youtube and other video hosting sites.

2) The concept of Chai and chat merging to a success.

3) The journey which lead to Chai with Lakshmi.

4) How this first initiative of Chai with Lakshmi lead to other projects!

Sunit Singh on a brief about the following:

1) Design of a blog or website keeping in perspective readers view other than your likes and dislikes.

2) How important it is for the blog design to adapt to various screen such as a desktop PC, Tablet, phablet, phones and its readability.

3) Importance of grabbing the reader’s attention in crucial 3 secs J when he lands to the website/blog.

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Lunch:

After a smashing 1st half of the event day, some gyan and lots of cracking info and life changing stories, it was time for  lunch ,it was a buffet, lots of yummy delights and variety in starters, main course and  desserts, food overall was good.

Post Lunch Event:

Varun Krishnan

Some Interesting segments about the presentation:

1) Blogging is not only limited to certain frills, but is a integral part of online content, respect what you are!

2) How his life changed when he considered his hobby his career, a inspiring tale.

3) Learning is endless and discovering is the tool to acquire!

After a intense and long session, there was this next speaker who was all bonkers and humorous:

CV Krishna, who seems a serious person with bulk load of experience in development consultation, was all humor with his talks and humor satire pattern more towards topics related to politics, sports, the unreal time as he and his fellows named it, the site offer loads of funny take on political situation and statements and quite innovative with the sense of comic timing, had fun!

It was some more fun and chit chat with the next speaker:

Scherezade Shroff:

Parsi in the house, she was all heart out chatting about her love for fashion and how she went mainstream with it! Quite jolly and sporty Sherry as they call her went big while she was a regularly Vblogging her fashion channel on youtube and started building this up to be a more prominent internet figure in fashion ! She shared her views about blogging and how it gives a way of being more free and light headed if pursue with passion !

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Harsh Agrawal

He means business when it came to blogging and technicalities related to blogging, was quite a amazing session in regards to SEO DIY, some of the highlights of his presentation included also materials provided by Atlanta SEO company:

1) Major mistakes blogger or newbie do while creating their website or blog and how to be more profound with small technicalities which could make a break a sites image online

2) How to on being more search engine friendly when it came to coding and plugins related to blogging.

3) Some insightful tools and hacks which can shoot you from zero to hero in the mainstream blogging and search engine arena.

Snigdha Manchanda

Trained by a Japanese master in Sri Lanka, she is on a mission to serve better tea ! sounds interesting, so on is her love for story telling Tea Trunk and Story ninja is her 2 initiative which she pursues !

Some of the many aspects about tea and storytelling she shared were:

1) How her passions for tea lead her to the tea hub in Sri Lanka.

2)Story Building – Understanding the “YOU connect”

3) Sharing the 7 basic story plot

I) Star Trek – Ovefrcoming the monster

II) Lord of the Rings – The Quest

III)The Wizard of OZ – Voyage and return

IV) War and Peace – Comedy

V) Hamlet – Tragedy

VI) Cinderella – Rags to Riches

VII) Sleeping Beauty – Rebirth

This was the last of the sessions and then came Bhavish Ailani, he is a stand-up comedian, he tickled our funny bones and made us laugh till we start rolling on the floor (I guess ya).

Beginning of the end

After this all the speakers were facilitated by BigROCK team and then all the winner were announce and prizes for different sort of contest were distributed, some of the contest were as mentioned above the 50 early bird contest, then there were twitter contest in which the best tweet in each session won some goodies and then there were many other contest, don’t remember them all.

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Before we headed back home, Indiblogger team made us assemble and did some head banging (literally) and then a group photo to top it all up!

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For me being in Indiblogger meet is always a learning curve and an interactive module with like headed people and so much to learn each time, so much more still to achieve! Thanks Indiblogger team for making such events happen and believing in the power of Blogging and networking!!

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Images courtesy : indiblogger FB page , indiblogger Event Page, other(s) my clicks and edits.

On meeting a Stranger


When someone approaches a stranger, the vortex of thoughts strangle them to a limit!

Sharing a perspective:

I am a stranger trying hard

to understand the impossible

trying hard to know what is

and what’s not acceptable

You may want to trust me but

it’s hard to predict what you think

I am a stranger trying hard

to understand the feeling

When I thought I knew things

i was pulled back to eternity

just made me realize it’s a

deeper sea level of feelings

How strange is life in a way?

you don’t know how to judge things

even though you are trying hard

it just keeps on reflecting

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

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Tata Safari Storme – A Meet Which Redefined Extremeness


Premeet Exitement !!

The day I got the tweet about the TATA SAFARI Storme – XTREME DRIVE experience meet, I was super excited, for 3 reasons, a) would get a chance to experience the off-road, b) would get a chance to meet my fellow indibloggers !! c) Would know more about the TATA SAFARI Storme and win some prizes !!

THE EVENT DAY with a twist !!

Days passed by slowly one by one, weeks ended and then the day I was waiting for, came with a twist!! The twist being that I may not be able to attend the event due to some other commitments which popped up like a stone on the head!! However gutted from inside I accumulated my lost hope and thought of finishing the work in due time of the event… hope gave a glimpse to fulfill my commitments in time ….

THE MUMBAI TRAFFIC – Pathetic

Confident and content, I drove through the highway with excitement but it all came to a halt, guess what !! It was the Mumbai  traffic which was not allowing me to reach anywhere close to the time !! Somehow with the help of GPS navigator I tried to skip to a shortcut route and tried not to miss the event !! I was hopeful that I will catch the action ! Thou I was a 1 hour late !!

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EVENT MINITES – Phase 1 : Registration !!

Registered myself for the event, thanks to the indiblogger core members !  they gave me a token / card for availing a test ride of TATA SAFARI STORME … I was a bit late … but catched up with the actions after taking feeds from the nearby bloggers about what s going on !936270_10151470583157883_306727904_n

EVENT MINITES – Phase 2 : Introduction Please !!

Our trademark host Anoop was in full swing with his charismatic best and indulging us in  some cool surprising contest and super cool prizes …  besides that  considering that many new bloggers were attending the event for the first time, here was a session where in random numbers bloggers name popped up on the screen and they introduced themselves and their blog and what they write about … it was a good attempt to indulge bloggers to know about each other and interact !! Was fun ..

EVENT MINITES – Phase 3 :  Did you know !!

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Tata Motors marketing Head was on stage to give us a brief on the features of the New Tata Safari Storme, he shared some of his experience while dealing with customer who were fans of Tata Safari series and loved the look of the car.

EVENT MINITES – Phase 4: Some Outdoor Fun – with Tata Safari Storme

After the briefing was over, Anoop our host told us to assemble in a group of 20, and after naming the group, we had to choose a team leader and tweet it on the #tag and @indiblogger , just as he announced there was as usual epic chaos in wondering whose team to go, eyeing friend in the group and so on and forth, finally the groups were made.

I was in the “Cyclone” group, a very energetic and enthusiastic bunch of people raring to take up any challenge with the banner Hurrr hurrr huuurrrr karde sabki jaddi gul …  4 other groups were formed and things were taking shape for the challenge ..

As we reached the ground we saw Tata Safari Storme standing in the glory for us to find out …  Well after the much awaited suspense, Tata Safari stuff and Indiblogger team members explained us what the challenge was..

The challenge was “tug of war” in which a rope was suspended from the Tata Safari Storme, each team had to pull the Tata Safari Storme from point A to point B with the help of the rope and teamwork of the members in the least amount of time. It was a game which required strength as well as mind for strategizing how to and what way the combination might work to take it from point A to B in the least time.

Our Chattur team leader made some effective strategies not only got the team work together but also to dilute our contenders with some tacky punch lines.. haha that was fun ..

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After turn by turn chance of the teams, our hands on with tug of war happened, and we performed our ultimate best to do what we had planned thanks to our team leader, fortunately or should I say cleverly we took the game away from all our competitor teams, moving the car from point A to point B in just 5.94 sec … woohoo we were leading the pack ..

After announcing 1st and 2nd place … there was supposed to be a one on one tug of war between teams which really didn’t happen because of the rope issues … However we were later declared the winning team ….

EVENT MINITES – Phase 5: Off Road experience on Tata Safari Storme

Off road experience replicated with the following tracks, my experience while I was in the car:

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Tight Turns: To display the car turning capabilities, some crisp tight turn was made possible by the 5.6m radius turning capabilities of the Tata safari Stome, its redifined from the previous version from 6m radius

941959_10151470593552883_119442200_nSteep High And Low Climbs: The car was taken to high and low climbs with the help of ramp made metal structure to showcase the sheer power of the car, the Car driving instructor explained us that as the car was climbing at a steep 45 degree hight without any acceleration or clutch support, I was impressed with the car’s power and engine torque totally.

992898_10151470594612883_451445115_n697_10151470594577883_672992806_nTilts 45 and 70 Degree: Showcasing the stability of the car, it was tilted 45 and 70 degree, I had heart on my mouth when I was experiencing it as I was scared the car would tilt, but the instructor advised me to stay claim and explained how the car was stable and didn’t tilt due to the fine engineering  and top shock absorber system in the car.

943611_10151470593867883_138802435_nSeasaw: As we passed through the seasaw the instructor explained us about the stability of the car under rigid, uneven and muddy roads and terrain, which we were headed to the seasaw, it was hard to believe that a car can go through such a test, which just proves how the car is designed to run under any possible conditions.

After I went through with the awesome experience off-road , some staff from Tata Motors marketing team asked how the experience was and which part of the drive I thought was most extreme, well to cut it short all the stages and parameter were just amazing and it truly made me believe that it’s a real SUV.

Finally i had dinner, which was awesome feast and loved the delights which were on offer.

My Take Overall: I have learned a new definition of Extremeness courtesy TATA SAFARI STORME and Indiblogger.

P.S. Got featured on Tata Safari Facebook Page for my click on the event day.

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Indiblogger + HP #connectedmusic + Otto Infinito = Bloggers Heaven


Yes guys the topic says it all! For people who have missed this event too bad cause it was a splendid meet! Blogger from all over Mumbai and nearby cities attended this event to be a part of the occasion! Let me just rewind it for you!

Being a part of Indiblogger has been a special feeling for me! I remember when I was searching for some blogger group forum so that I could meet like-headed people and commute.. This urge landed on indiblogger and  I got registered! It has given me a platform to showcase my writing skills!

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Now coming back to the event:

The Pre-Event blues for a first timer at indiblogger!

  1. A.      Finding the venue!!! Otto Infinito –at G BlockBandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East)  – Got it !
  2. B.      Registration – done!!! Thanks to Indiblogger team!
  3. C.      Ambiance – Classy and serene
  4. D.      Fellow Bloggers – who had met at the previous meets, were sipping, laughing and enjoying with their buddies; on the contrary some first timers like me were wandering what’s going on!
  5. E.       The Welcome Drink – Awesome .. Helped crack down some blues!

THE EVENT

  1. Tables and Mate: We queued up to get in and find a table and appropriate bloggers to sit, chat and wait for the event to start !
  2. Anoop Johnson Event host started off with settling us and giving us some energy with the whole hurr hurrr hurrr saga !! it helped tickle the brain waves !! was fun thou !!
  3. The Fame Game: We kick started with a casual interaction with bloggers by the game named “30 SECOND TO FAME” in which we interacted with many bloggers, exchanged thoughts and asked what they blog about. That was fame for few seconds thou as I hardly remember my fellow bloggers names.

MOMENT OF TRUTH

Yes the moment came when HP’s Marketing Head Mr. Ranjivjit Singh, revealed the HP Connected Music Service on web and integrated on the new windows 8 platform free for a year in their HP Laptops.

This service of HP allows users to download songs from several different genres and has a songs bank of over a Million, that’s great considering that over 60% to 80% songs are pirated/friend forwards, this service of HP shall be a big benefit for all music lovers and above all the quality of songs will be intact which we don’t get in pirated versions !!

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THE CHIEF SPEAKS

Otto Infinito’s General Manager came up and shared all about the restaurant, from the ambiance to marbles which were rare and could not be found in any other restaurant, which was a new to me, then he introduced us to Otto Infinito’s Head Chief who gave a brief on their cuisine and discussed on several stuff they have in offer such as Mediterranean and other delicious cuisines (I don’t remember the names ;), but sounded promising !For those who are reading and not have been to Otto Infinito I would definitely recommend you to go and have some pleasant dining experience ! worth it for the food, ambiance and not to forget the marbles!

MORE FOOD

After all this we all headed over to feast our taste bugs with some of the delicacy of Otto infinito ! there were pasta quite different from what we usually have, it was a new experience for me and it tasted good, along with cabbage there was host of vegetable serving chopped as per your taste to try from ! Other than that there was paneer with vegetables outside which were also a nice appetizer.

FROM FOOD TO THE STARTING OF THE END WITH MUSIC

Anoop Johnson the event host introduced us to a number of unique music genres and asked us to accordingly segregate in the genres we preferred, in doing so there was  epic chaos in finding the music genres and which song to perform and sing !

 

All that settle and all the different genres accordingly performed, I was in the the DHUMCHICKS music genre and we ended up a close second to 133 music genre!

 

The Prize Worthy mention

There were some contest conducted by Indiblogger in association with HP, HP Seek laptops up for grab and few lucky one’s won the contest and got rewarded.

THE GROUP PHOTO Session

There was a group photo session in which all the fellow bloggers posed to engrave their experience and frame it home and be known for being a part of Indiblogger community !

MY TAKE ON THE ENTIRE EVENT

EXPERIENCE GAIN IS WORTH THE TIME INVESTED, PROVED RIGHT THANKS TO INDIBLOGGER !