Yeah. Last Wednesday as usual, I woke up to my tablet checking Facebook, twitter and mails. My eyes were caught with the invitation for this Blogger's meet in Chennai. I've been waiting for such a opportunity to attend a community meet for bloggers. I wanted to know how these bundle of unknown stranger gel together. I wanted exposure to know the intensity of growth of blogger community. I ceased that chance. I asked my hubby to be with me for that event since this is my first blogger's meet. I don't want to end up standing alone in a corner. He is always sweet and assured he will give company.
The meet was arranged in Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chennai. It was on Sunday, around noon, we rode to the renovated building which comprises of a shopping mall and the hotel. There were four gates and we entered the four gate to the hotel after trying out all the gate ;) The parking lot was spacious but the sun was punishing us. Damn hot day. After parking our bike, we witnesses how the hotel kitchen had the eggs cleaned at the sideways. There were 30 to 40 grates of eggs. The chef was cleaning them with water busting out of a garden hose pipe. We just smiled to ourselves puzzled if that was the correct method to clean eggs in larger quantities.
As we reached the ground floor , we were directed towards a hall where Indiblogger - Ambipur banners were placed. We grabbed two water bottles and went to the lobby since the event was to start by 1.30PM. The lobby was highly sophisticated with heavy cushioned furniture which had a restaurant and drinks bar. The lobby was lit by the natural sunlight let in by glass roof top. From the lobby one can see all the floors. The floor were decorated. Some decors were weird. But I like the ambience.
Soon around 12.45 PM to 1 PM, bloggers started pouring into the lobby. To our surprise, people started mingling with each other so quickly. Myself and my hubby got introduced to a fellow blogger called Vaasi who is also an IT guy. At around 1.15 PM, we were asked to assemble int he conference room where we were all provided with lemon/orange juices. We all were asked to register ourselves with our Indiblogger registered email id . As we entered the conference room in a queue ( there were around 200 bloggers), a huge screen flashed who just entered into the room after they got registered. Thus was fun.
After registration, we sat in the first row. We were given with Wifi access code so that we can tweet with hashtag #Ambipurfreshnhappy about the best road trip till the end of the meet. The best tweet was to get Samsung Galaxy S4. The event started with few funny activities followed by 60 sec of fame for 30 random bloggers. I got a chance to talk about my self and my blog. Nishok also joined to express how important the blog is to me. Thanks to him. Hugs to Nish!
The introduction was followed by a talk/presentation given by an Ambipur Marketing person who gave us an insight about the company and the products. The talk was not boring. It was over in 15 minutes. Lunch time came. We were informed that a surprise was waiting in the the lunch hall covered with curtains. And the best tweet about the surprise element 's expereience will again win Galaxy S4.
Food was awesome. Conversations, intros, spoon hitting the plate sounds filled the hall for the next one hour. I gulped a serving of vegetable pulav and roasted potatoes with basil and dill. I had a generous serving of mango ice cream. I loved the dessert. Since I was wrist sprain, my hubby helped me get my food to my plates. After the lunch, I and Nishok went inside the curtains with blindfolded. We were made to sit inside a white sedan car. Gush of cold air hit our face with the pleasant aroma of Ambipur car freshener. It made our mind relaxed in minutes. After few seconds we opened our eyes to see rotten food, shoes around us inside the car. I was impressed. I have allergy towards strong fragrances which didn't happen with this car freshener.
I wrote a lot of tweets on this experience but in vain. Priyadharsini a fellow blogger won the S4 for her tweet. Good luck girl.
After lunch, we had group activity. The groups were divided with respect to the flavour of the car fragrance each one got. I was in Lavender Comfort group. Each team was asked to enact a promo for Ambipur Car freshening fragrance. Each team was provided with a theme too. Though the concept our team build was 'ok not very good' type, we enjoyed the session as a team. All the teams enacted their skits it was very comic!
At the end of the group activity, bloggers showcased the causes which would help other who are in need. I am interested in two of the causes. One was 'Dark is beautiful' and the other one was beach cleaning activity by Chennai trekking club.
I was happy and pleased about all the causes and their step to get it to the bloggers. Blog is powerful medium through which good messages can be spread to the whole world.
The meet ended with group photograph and high tea. I must admit it was really a change from a monotonous life in the weekdays with the freakin computer's hiting keys without any social life.
I was on top of the cloud we people told me that they have read my blogs.
It was fun to be the part of the meet. I really got exposed to so many bloggers and blogs.
I promise myself to keep attending such meetings!!!
I not only got my car pleasant smelling after this meet but also got few friends, followers and mentions.
Will try to post more pictures ..
