Bangalore Bloggers Meet...

21st July was gloomy day with no sunshine but the Bangalore Bloggers Meet did the rest adding the missing gleam. The event was held at Brew HaHa, a cafe in Koramangala that combines great food with the fun of gaming. The café and the environ was the perfect setting for the event to kick start and it did live up to its punch line, 'We take your fun seriously!'

For those of you who are not aware, Brew HaHa is a startup venture by Mansur Nazimuddin (IIM A 2006) and Sreeram Vaidyanathan (IIM A 2005). I was reading the Business World magazine and there is an interesting article related to this café by Rashmi Bansal.
The Bangalore Bloggers Meet was the precursor to the main event, Barcamp Bangalore 4 that is coming this weekend. Initially there was a bit of chaos, as there were around 40+ junta, each beaded to the other mostly through blogs or e-zines and this was their first one-on-one personal interaction. To smoothen the process, Sanjukta floated the idea of the usual self-introduction like the one in any classroom or any corporate training.

The ebullience in the air was palpable and as the introduction round progressed, a whole new world of ideas, personalities, views, etc came to light. I am jotting a few of those, that I was able to register in this tiny memory of mine.
Sukumar goes on to justify, its not sexy, susi but suksy, that's his blog and how he entered into this world of blogging. Then there was Prashanth, who has an entire blog dedicated to Mungaru Male, the Kannada movie which is one of the biggest hits in South Indian cinema with box office earnings crossing Rs 40 Crores at the end of 6 months after it's release. Do a Google on the word 'Mungaru Male' and it is Prasanth’s site that tops the list.

[Britta in pic]There were two German ladies in the group and they were really excited to be part of this Bangalore Bloggers community. One of the two was Britta who is presently in India for few months as a part of Student’s Exchange program. She is exploring and learning about India when it is on the cusp of development and change. For those who follow World Economics, Germany is by far Europe's biggest economy now whizzing after years of idling. So there’s lot to learn here too, Britta, I am going to disturb you with lots of questions that I have. Ooops, I forgot to mention, Britta has attended a few BarCamps in Europe and she is looking forward to the Indian version of it. Then there was Maike, a journalist from Germany who writes for a German site (www.ksta.de) under the name 'missindia'. Check her posts here.



This entire event was also running live on the Internet, with some great work from AJ. Since the place was Wi-fied, there were a couple of laptops with the owners keying in the important points and making live posts on the web. A representative from Deccan Herald daily, Ranjeetha, also covered this event.

Then on line was the Mumbaiya, who has given his heart to Bengaluru, Himanshu Sheth. This fellow has an arousing relationship with blogs. He is an avid blogger and entrepreneur and has dabbled with podcasts. But leaving aside all these, the most important facet of all these is that, Himanshu met his fiancé and wife who is a school teacher through blogs. That's awesome, so now all matrimonial sites watch out, another domain where the blogs can spread its tentacles.

By this time, some people could feel the incoming stream of garbled, fuzzy impulses after browsing through the menu list. Suddenly orders start for Mocha Frappes, Cappuccinos, Brownie-sludge Frappe, Masala Tea, Hot Strong Coffee, Croissants, Samosas, etc and the order-taking boy is left hapless. Once the beverages and food were served, the junta was back on track.












Neha, then introduced how she scuba dived into blogging. Her interesting story is an apposite of the popular Hindi maxim 'Eent Ga Jabbab Pathar Se'. Sometime back this person was deluged with blog links from her friends and this very act, prompted her to start her own blog. Yes, that's a very expeditious and smart move as blogging is no rocket science.
[On pic are 100RB, i.e. Saurabh, Neha and others]

Sridhar Rao, gave some gyan on blogging but I guess he is keeping all his energy saved for the great finale at IIMB. Harinath Pudipeddi, an aspiring Social Entrepreneur who shared his idea of a Web NGO, which seemed to be quite invoking. Harinath, who has worked in the HealthCare Services industry for a while feels that the Indian populace lacks the awareness and that's one of the main reasons why the health sector facilities have not percolated deep into rural India. His endeavor is towards creating and spreading this cognizance.

Dhivya, an advertising professional with Ogilvy & Mather was more excited about her copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which she collected from Blossoms, a bookstore in Bangalore. This lady stood in front of the bookstore before the day broke and the smile on her face exhibits her gratification and jubilance being the proud owner of the book.

As the discussion was in full swing a heavy voice suddenly pricked in. It was none other than Sanjay Nambiar, a movie maker. This man has spent many years in Los Angeles and California and has shot movies. Presently he is in India and is scouting for young talent as he is planning to make short movies of 2 to 3 minutes duration. Just to give you a brief of what a short movie is in this di-gi age, I had made a post here. Sanjay is looking for budding writers who can draft a short script, that can be converted into a 2 to 3 minutes movie and shot in a day's time. So anyone interested can contact him.

Lavanya, I saw you there with your Nikon SLR taking pics sitting in one corner amidst beanbags, chairs and designer pillows. Being a shutterbug, my eyeballs somehow rest on someone who seems to be bitten with this virus. Lavanya catch you at IIMB, as there is a session on photography. The junta had made themselves comfortable over mats on the floor and there was lot of stuff strewn here and there.

The audience threw open plethora of insights on myriad topics but by now, Sanjukta (one of the main organizers of the Bangalore Bloggers Meet, a lawyer from Delhi Bar Council) felt that the discussion was entering a different terrain. She wanted to drive the discourse on its current agenda and with a get-up-and-go attitude, she pinpointed on topics for discussion at the BarCamp at IIM-B campus, scheduled for the coming weekend (28th, 29th July). The following are some of the topics.

1. Technical tips for non-technical bloggers
2. What do you Blog about and how to make your blogs more relevant as content is
the driving force in Web 2.0 world?
3. Social responsibility of a blogger
4. Copyrights and Censorship in blogging (one of the participants has volunteered
to contact a Cyber Law Specialist who would deliver a talk on this)
5. IT Laws
6. Mainstream Media versus Blogging (Kishore, an editor from Desicritics is going to moderate this session.)
7. Corporate Blogging and does it really work out in India?

[Kishore in pic]Bangalore is gaining a big picture in the international landscape for varied reasons, be it ITES, research and development, business, education, lifestyle, real estate, aviation, health tourism, etc, etc. Change is tangible but there has never been a forum that encapsulates these alterations and colorations the city is presently witnessing in a professional way, that too by the common man, that's YOU. So this was also the first formal attempt to form a professional community of bloggers in Bangalore who would fill this missing gap. Arun, one of the organizers of the BarCamp has been working relentlessly with IIMB for conducting the Bangalore BarCamp every four months in its campus to commence this movement.





So guys and gals, uncles and aunties, bunty aur bubblies, X and Y’s, friends and pals, brothers and sisters, see you all at Barcamp Bangalore 4

Venue: Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB)
Dates: 28th and 29th July’07.

A big thanks to all whom I met in the meet and even if I don't remember the names of all, and missed anyone in this blog, it's just because of my weak memory. All you junta rock, see you soon and a big Hi to all. Now guess who is this.








After the meeting was adjourned, Kishore and I rushed to Gramin for a paaka desi lunch and savored the food. Well that was how the day was and it was a nice simple day.
Keep reading and remain connected.

(I will keep updating this post with whatever latest comes up.)

The event has been covered in Bangalore Mirror, check below. Grab your copy for more info. The tentative schedule for Bangalore Bar Camp4 at IIMB is here. Note that there are lots of interesting events/discussions and open sessions such as Bicycling in Bangalore, Photography, Blogging, e-Governance, Startups, Mobile, Internet, Social Tech, and lots more. Other than these if anyone is interested to start a discussion, s/he is always welcome.

Schedule for both days of BCB4 Barcamp 28th and 29th July
Time	Event	Where
8 AM - 9 AM	Registrations	Registration Desk
9 AM - 10 AM	Introductions	Auditorium
10 AM - 1 PM	Sessions	Alloted Rooms and lawns
1 PM - 3 PM	Lunch	Canteen
3 PM - 6 PM	Sessions	Alloted Rooms and lawns
6 PM - 7 PM	Entertainment/ Closing	Auditorium
7 PM - onwards	Night sessions (code jams, field trips to real bars, etc)	Rooms, real bars

More details are here.