In more ways than one Hyderabad Bloggers Meet (HBM)- 2013 held at ITC Kakatiya was a grand affair. Not only was the venue awesome, but we had a chance to rub shoulders with eminent bloggers. There were bloggers from all walks of life and it was fun seeing everyone connecting like they were old friends.
While the organizers and hosts were prepping up for the meet, young tech blogger Satish and me went exploring the plush interiors of ITC Kakatiya.
It was a pleasure talking a walk in these beautiful hallways that were adorned with lovely paintings and gorgeous indoor plants.
With the noble goal of 'enabling change through social media' and Subhorup playing a perfect host, HBM - 2013 was up and running. The bloggers meet started off with Satish CoolPcTips taking a fun and informative session on how to improve the visibility of a website or a blog and how the search engine spiders crawlers inspect the websites. Next session by Anuradha Goyal, Linda Ashok and Shankari Sundaram talking about blogging and publishing. The discussion was also livened up by Prasad N, Pattu Raj and Bhavana who made valid points with their anecdotes. We had a few newcomers as well who made their presence felt, notably Debdatta and Madhur.
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| Pavan, Saikumar, Anuradha, Prasad, Pattu Raj and Bhavana. |
Next we took a much deserved break with shawarma, hot dogs and chocolate mudcake whipped up by the chef Sekar who coincidentally happens to be a blogger.
The session ended on a hopeful note with discussion started by Ratnakar Sadasyula a social activist and political commentator of sorts who said that there was a lot of good work that was unreported by the mainstream media and the possibility of social media in bringing a revolution.
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| Gautam, Madhur, and Ratnakar Sadasyula. |
Just before the session ended, Sateesh NVL recited a beautiful poem from his cellphone. It was a perfect marriage of technology (cellphone) and creative arts (poem) as demonstrated photo below.
Next came the crowd-pleaser, the gifts giveaways. Every blogger brought with them their cherished things and put them in a gift basket. Subhorup who just started his online tea store, Blend of Tea, gave away some of the finest teas available as gifts packed neatly in little boxes (I am sipping the gorgeous Darjeeling black tea at the time of this writing). Maxthon gave away free T-shirts. With every blogger winning more than one gift, there were smiles all around. To top it off every blogger got a free BigBasket coupon.
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| Subhorup and Satish. |
Overall it was a great experience. With a right mix of youth and experience, the HBM - 2013 provided a great platform for the experienced bloggers to share their knowledge and for the young tech bloggers (Satish, Pavan, Saikumar, Sampath, and Koundinya) to shine.
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| Satish, Pavan, Saikumar, Sampath and Koudinya. |
With the noble cause of enabling change for a good cause, the joy of connecting with one another, and the spirit of giving this bloggers meet will be etched in the minds of all those who attending for a long time.
For more on the same event:
http://tillingtheearthwoman.blogspot.in/2013/01/hbm2013-enabling-change-through-social.html
http://desitraveler.com/hyderabad-bloggers-meet/
http://gardenerat60.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/hyderabad-bloggers-meet-2013/
http://subhorup.blogspot.in/2013/01/hyderabad-bloggers-meet-2013.html
