Hi Guys,
Indiblogger in collaboration with HP Printers came up with a meet on Saturday 08 June 2013 to take away our summer sweat and give us a new lease of refreshed life using #HPINKADVANTAGE. The venue chosen this time was Fortune Select Global and it was easily accessible due to it's location just opposite Dronacharya Metro Station. Moreover, this was a family affair so you could bring in your families along with you. My wife and daughter accompanied me to the event so the event was double the fun, double the activities and simply superb.
We reached the destination on scheduled time but the necessary preparation for the event were still going on so we waited outside the hall and met other fellow bloggers and friends. My daughter was very happy to see ROB's posters all around the hall. Rob is the host of the program M.A.D on POGO TV. My daughter watched POGO TV from the time she wakes up in the morning to late night till she is asleep. She gives us very less of TV time to watch our programs and mainly asks to watch TV from 8-10pm only.
The meet started after waiting for some people who called that they are running late, meanwhile we were sent to meet other fellow bloggers on their tables. We went on to meet a group of tech bloggers who were also working on Android Apps. It was a time well spent and really the reach of Indibloggers was felt by all of us. We took down the names and blogs addresses of all the people we met on the Fortune Hotel's notepad which really came handy along with the sweet candies to pass time. Indiblogger meets are meant to socialize and share our ideas and listen to others too. Meanwhile, Anoop started distributing HP goodies based on the age and number of people you have brought to the meet. A child aged 1.5 years was the winner of being the lowest in age and many others win goodies too.
Finally Anoop was on stage and came up with that that game to pick any number between 1 to 11. Bingo! The first person to pick the numbers always gets the ROCK and this time there was no change in that scheme by Karthik. I was not picked up for any number or so, but a friend on our table got a COOKIE on the last number left.
30 seconds of fame was again a random profile generator but this time also, it didn't picked up my blog. Some of the people it picked were new and for some the luck is always on their side, but our ears are not. :-) After spending some time on this, Anoop wanted to find the most insane blogger and people started sharing how they are insane? I also tried to be insane but was Certified to be completely SANE by Indiblogger's Team. Thank God, I am SANE certified and signed by AnoopZombie.
A twitter contest was announced where you need to send the biggest prank you have done during your childhood. I started sending many entries but really got nostalgic.
As usual it was time for the serious aspect of the meet, the person from HP Printers was ready with his presentation with real facts and figures. He really was quick in his presentation and left the forum open for queries. I asked him about the POGO HP Contest where the advertisement shows SMS that needs to be sent is wrong, but he said that don't worry, we get all the responses to us (no matter how you send them, with space or underscore) & you might be lucky to have a meet with Rob & MAD team. I was more than delighted as my daughter is a big fan of Rob.
After the presentation, it was time to announce the winner of the twitter contest and bingo, our friend Murtaza Ali won the brand new HP INK ADVANTAGE Printer. Congratulations!
The stage was all set for Creativity to roll out from the Technology using HP Print ART INK Advantage printers. It was the time to introduce a Paper Art & Craft entrepreneur, Ms. Karuna Chauhan. With B. Com. & MBA (Marketing) degrees on her side, she left her job after working for 6 years in Corporate World and really took this giant leap to work on her dreams and passion. It really paid her well to listen to her heart and she was there to teach us some art and craft. She displayed some of the art work she has done and how easy it is to do the same at home using HP Printers. She showed slides of her various cards, photo books, invitation cards, party cards, gift wrappers etc. It was really motivating factor for all of us as the child inside us all really kicked in hard. She called for volunteers to make some of the goodies with her and some children went on to win amazing HP goodies with her.
Karuna, Anoop, HP team meanwhile knew that the child inside all of us is ready to accept the challenge so they introduced that we all make a team of 15 members and join our hands once we are 15 people. Our table fetched people from other table saying that this table is a winner's table as Murtaza already won HP Printer and so we were 15 in no time. Indiblogger team asked us to choose a Project Manager based on his knowledge of Android OS and I was the choice of my team. I really felt great to be the Project manager for my team. They asked us to come up with the team name and we chose MICKEY ADVANTAGE using Mickey Mouse from a child's cap whose mom was in our team & #HPINKADVANTAGE the hash tag on which Murtaza won the printer. I really wanted to give my best along with my team.
The work that we need to do was to Celebrate a birthday party based on a theme which was randomly picked by the Project Managers. Project Managers were called to go back of the hall and get goodies to celebrate the birthday. I called my team members to help me pick a lot of art and craft material including fevicol sticks, balloons, chart papers, chocolates, markers, pencils, sweet jellies, cake, paper plates, glasses, stapler, scissors, glitter tubes and many more stuff. We had to decorate our table, make a invitation card, a poster to display for the party and all of this in just 25-30 minutes of time.
The theme which we received was {PIRATES}. I am really a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series so really felt motivated to go for it.
We quickly checked out the things which were given to us and asked team members to work on their strengths. Initially it was a chaos as everyone was running to take their space and decide on what to do? I was totally confused too but slowly small small teams was formed with someone helping with cutting things from the material we got. Some people started with balloons and clearing table to decorate. My team had 9 girls and 6 guys so it was an advantage as girls immediately started working on table decoration and Invitation Card. For the Poster I started working with Ramit Narang. After initial cutting and pasting, I didn't liked it much so had words written to attract more people into Pirates party like – FREE BEER for ALL, HUGS and KISSES, ALL GIRLS Invited and got this poster signed by Captain JACK SPARROW! After the poster was done, the table has been set by the girls from my team. We also thought of having our one eye covered like Pirates and used thread to put it on. I had none left for me so used another Pirate logo to put in on my head as a SARDAR of PIRATES. Also we used those badges to display on our clothes also. Meanwhile, our team was running for use of resources and ideas kept coming in continuously and we incorporated what we could. Overall, it was a great chaos and the tides really made our journey great in the sea. Finally, when it all got settled, we saw that we have done really great as a team of Pirates.
The time of presentation started from back of the hall and meanwhile my team was telling me to explain all the stuff they designed in detail while I was working on the poster and other stuff. So I was fully prepared by the time, a group of HP and Indiblogger Judges came to the PIRATES Party. They asked the Project manager to explain what all we did and what special we designed for the {PIRATES} Birthday Party. I started my story saying that we were traveling in Titanic and Pirates attacked us wanting HP Printer and other goodies won by our team to which we declined. They put us all inside the lower chambers of their ship. As this could be our last birthday (KAL HO NA HO), so we celebrated everyone's birthday on this Pirates ship. We also said that we have music, borrowed using the HP laptop from the HP team & the HP speakers but it was taking some time to play, so I started singing...
PIRATES ki kashti mein, lehron ki masti mein, Gagan ke shor shor mein, chalein hum zor zor mein, Gagan se door.... (from the movie – Kaho na Pyaar hai)
which went really great with the judges as they got impressed by our story and enthusiasm we showed while presenting and the song. The invitation card was really awesome as it got special mention by the judges.
Meanwhile, I went on to see the competition entries around the hall and found Mermaids to be visually and amazingly great but kept thinking we will win somehow. There was several great things in all of the birthday theme presentations. It was time to announce the winners and as thought MERMAIDS was the most beautiful one and they got the prize as 15 HP speakers for all the team members.
There was a photography contest also on twitter for Project Managers to send in their team's birthday table all decorated and Mermaids team leader won the HP Printer for the same.
I was thinking that this will be the first time, I will be going home without any goodies won in the event and suddenly a turn of events, Anoop announced that there will be a runner up for the Birthday Party and BINGO....it was PIRATES! I yelled like heaven and all the team jumped with joy! We won 12 HP speakers and 3 HP wifi mouse. It was a Pirate Loot and my gang of Pirates picked up their goodies as per their choices and stared eating the candies, chocolates and cakes we presented in our party. As we were Pirates, we looted other team's cakes also. :-)
Finally the meet was concluded with amazing snacks and food lined up by the Fortune Select Global on their 4th floor. It was time to discuss and meet other fellow bloggers while munching Samosas, Cutlets, Idli/Vada Sambhar etc. The food was amazing and so was the meet where we put our creative juices to display using the theme given to us. It was really the most satisfying meet I have ever attended and working as a Project Manager really helped me learn a great lot of management skills. Thanks PIRATES, Indiblogger and HP PRINT ART for all the FUN, CREATIVITY and GOODIES!
Cheers!!!
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