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indiblogger

Introducing Jifi at IndiBlogger Meet, hosted by Kotak Mahindra Bank

This past Sunday (23rd March), I attended my third IndiBlogger Meet in Bangalore. Only this time, this was the first IndiBlogger meet to be simultaneously held in Mumbai and Delhi as well. What was the special occasion? Kotak Mahindra Bank was using this simulcast meet to launch Jifi, a new social banking service. A first of its kind if you may — but more on Jifi later.

The IndiBlogger meet in Bangalore was held at The Biere Club, on Vittal Mallya Road.

Biere Club Bangalore
The pub is famous for being the first joint in Bangalore to sell home-brewed beer, setting the trend for many others to follow in the city
Indiblogger meet Jifi Bangalore
Like all IndiBlogger meets, we could tweet about it and they would display our tweets on screens
Biere Club IndiBlogger meet Bangalore
Activities began even before the meet officially began, with the first task being a contest to judge the best #OscarSelfie (go look it up)
Biere Club Bangalore Indiblogger meet
The turn out was great
Prateek Indiblogger Bangalore meet
Prateek was our MC and he got the Bangalore crowd pumped with a chant-y Rammstein song
Mumbai Indiblogger meet
Our ‘usual’ MC, Anoop, was handling the Mumbai meet — which was being broadcast live

Then we had a surprise guest, who was brought in by Kotak Mahindra Bank to debut Jifi. Who was it? A celebrity? A popular actor? Well, they asked us to guess and the only clue we were given was that he was a “nerd”.

I immediately guessed Chetan Bhagat! Seemed like the only obvious choice to endorse a bank.

And lo and behold…

Chetan Bhagat Indiblogger meet
The writer himself!

Chetan Bhagat then began talking about how the times have changed and how banking should too. This was segued into the video introduction of Jifi. (You can view the promos here)

Chetan Bhagat Indiblogger meet Mumbai
After a bunch of videos highlighted the salient features of Jifi, Chetan called on an executive from Kotak Mahindra Bank to talk more about Jifi and take questions from the Mumbai audience and from Twitter
Jifi Indiblogger meet Bangalore
Then it was back to Bangalore where another Kotak Mahindra exec would take questions from the audience right here
Buffet at Biere Club Bangalore
Once the Q & A was over, it was time for a sumptuous buffet lunch!

Overall the IndiBlogger meet was well-organized, the food served was great, drinks were on the house and a great time was had — all thanks to the fine folks at Kotak Mahindra Bank who hosted the event! Continue reading “Introducing Jifi at IndiBlogger Meet, hosted by Kotak Mahindra Bank” »

The Original Indiblogger Meet in Bangalore, hosted by HP

Date: 20th January, 2013

After having lots of fun at the first one hosted by Nokia, I attended my second Indiblogger meet held this past Sunday at the Fortune JP Celestial Hotel on Race Course Road — this time sponsored by HP and Harper Collins. With a name synonymous with printers and associated with one of the world’s largest book publishers, it was no surprise they tagged this event #OriginalCopy.

The hotel didn’t seem to be buzzing when I entered the lobby, and there was a bit of a wait before we could enter the hall.

HP Indiblogger Bangalore meet
The event began around 2pm after registrations — and as usual, we could Tweet our way on to the screens 🙂
Fortune JP Celestial conference room
The venue wasn’t as big as the last meet, but a good 200 bloggers still showed up!
Guitarist HP Indiblogger meet Bangalore
The “show” began with the familiar notes of a rock classic performed by Karun Verghese
Nihal singing Indiblogger meet Bangalore
It was a rocking performance of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” by Team Indiblogger
Anoop Indiblogger meet Bangalore
Host @AnoopZombie had everyone stand up, clap along and sing the chorus
Bloggers HP Indiblogger meet
But just as we all settled into our seats, Anoop told us we now had to get up and shift tables. From white tables to black… and some other conditions too, but I forget.
Indiblogger meet Bangalore Harper Collins
NOW that we were finally seated, a lot of us were randomly asked to give an introduction

As usual, we were asked us why we blog and at the end, mention our favourite character. Bonus points went to whoever could imitate their said character!

Of course, there were loads of prizes to give away and HP USB thumb drives, head phones and books published by Harper Collins were all on offer.

Bangalore Indiblogger meet activity
As the introductions wound up, it was now time for an activity

We were all given chart paper which came with an unique QR code stuck on it. Using QR code scanners on our smartphones, we were asked to note down the hidden messages on our charts. The phrases were all part of a much longer sentence and our challenge was to find the two other bloggers who had the matching phrases to complete the whole sentence. If you couldn’t find right pairing, you could still win if you got creative with your sentence creation.

I couldn’t manage to do either.

Activity during Indiblogger meet Bangalore
Because the setting soon turned into a marketplace with lots of bloggers shouting and milling about seeking the right chart partner. It was a funny sight to behold.
HP country sales manager Indiblogger meet
With the madness of that activity over, HP’s Country Sales Manager took to the stage to talk to us about why his company was part of this ‘original’ initiative

Given its advertising right now (and has been for a long time), it was quite obvious what an HP-sponsored event was going to focus on. The exec briefed us on being original versus “counterfeit/fake” and why people shouldn’t be deterred by the cost of buying original HP printer ink versus opting for a cheaper alternative. In fact, he informed us the starting price for HP original cartridges have now come down from an earlier Rs. 800 to just Rs. 449 — which was welcome news to me!

Also, HP’s range of cartridges use a lot of recyclable parts, therefore doing their bit for the environment. The company has also made it easier for you to buy original HP ink right from the source, with a toll free number (1800-425-4999) and even a home delivery service. “Dial-A-Cartridge,” who would have thought! 🙂

HP printer original Indiblogger meet
He even asked us bloggers if we have ever had our content plagiarized. I spoke of how some of my photos have appeared on other websites without even as little as a credit or link back to my site.
HP photobooth Indiblogger meet
After the talk, we were invited to have our photos taken and printed at this photobooth HP had set up
Bloggers eating Indiblogger meet
I was hungry, so I grabbed some food first
Race course road view from Fortune hotel
You get a great view of the Bangalore Turf Club from Fortune JP Celestial hotel
Food buffet Fortune JP Celestial hotel
As for the food, it was: chicken rolls, samosa, sandwiches, spring rolls and gulab jamuns for dessert.
Indiblogger meet stage activity
Back inside after the tea break, there were more activities and prizes to give away

We all had a blast during the activity in which we were divided into teams and given popular movies to re-enact, which the audience would have to guess. We had to figure out how to re-enact the movie on stage without even uttering a word. My group was given an easy one: ‘Lord of the Rings’. Believe it or not, there were a few guys on our table who hadn’t seen the film(!) and worried too much about whether they would be able to pull it off on stage or not. I told them to relax, because give how popular the LOTR characters were, there surely would have been at least one guy in the room who would guess it instantly.

And one guy did. In less than 5 seconds! All he needed as a clue was our guy playing Gollum. We barely even made it on to the stage, and the guy guessed the film right! 🙂 If they were awarding teams for performing a skit with the easiest guess, we would have won. But no prizes for us.

Still, as the evening wound up, pretty much every blogger walked away with a USB thumb drive, a few books and a lucky few taking home some nice HP printers! It was yet another great IndiBlogger meet hosted by a great sponsor and well put-together by the core IndiBlogger team, who so well deserved to be felicitated.

As always, I can’t wait for the next one!

Also read: 2012 IndiBlogger Meet in Bangalore, hosted by Nokia

IndiBlogger Meet in Bangalore, hosted by Nokia

Date: November 11th, 2012

Considering I have been a member of IndiBlogger since 2010, I had yet to attend one of the many blogger meetups the popular forum hosts in cities across India (and occasionally abroad). This being an event sponsored by Nokia and hosted by one of my favourite NDTV anchors Rajiv Makhni and a Michelin-starred chef by the name of Vikas Khanna, I just couldn’t make excuses this time around.

A ‘gadget guru’ and a celebrity chef thrown together summed up what Nokia India’s Apptasting theme was all about. Given Nokia and Microsoft’s combined efforts to popularize the Windows Phone OS, I had a hunch what was in store. But I’ll be honest, part of the reason I immediately signed up for the event was in the hopes Nokia would have their Lumia phones on display – especially the much anticipated Lumia 920.

You see, I’m at the stage where I have to upgrade from my Nokia E72 – a 2009 smartphone, but has since been ‘outsmarted’ by the many touch-based devices that have now become the norm for mobile phones these days. I’m no fanboy but important to me were a stable ecosystem with a healthy dose of good quality apps, a good screen and an excellent in-built camera. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is tempting but Android is way too open a platform for me, Nokia’s Lumia 920 blew me away with its camera features, and seeing what the complete package of what the iPhone 5 offers… I’m tempted to go for it. Sadly, I need both my kidneys, which is why I’m open to learning more about the alternatives.

Anyway… after an epic (and tiring) Saturday night, I made my way to ITC Gardenia hotel which was to be the venue for tonight’s IndiBlogger meet.

ITC Gardenia hotel Bangalore
The 5-star ITC Gardenia on Vittal Mallya Road
ITC Gardenia hotel lobby
Quite a posh setting for a bunch of bloggers! 🙂
ITC Gardenia Mysore hall
We were directed upstairs to the Mysore Hall

Continue reading “IndiBlogger Meet in Bangalore, hosted by Nokia” »

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