The greatest thing about Indiblogger meets is meeting up with friends, old and new. Here's a picture of some of us early birds as we enjoyed a lot of good-natured banter before the event began!
As usual, we registered - this time with ID proof and in alphabetical order...(thanks for the proof, Freya!)
And @vidyasury is up there... #GoSleeekASUSexperience pic.twitter.com/M0rZtuwtSn
- Freya Fatema Rehman (@freya3377) January 30, 2015
... and after we took our places at the venue, the evening kicked off with wonderful live music by the Indiblogger team - performing Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" and Inner Circle's "Games people play".
I loved how they engaged us, inviting us to sing along and rounded it off with some headbanging, Nihal-style. Though, who was the dude in the mask? Hmm. I remember the kickass Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water Nihal performed in an earlier meet!
#GoSleeekASUSexperience heavy metal to start the evening. pic.twitter.com/zVD41SBZ91
- Shailaja/Mom/Writer (@shyvish) January 30, 2015
Then, after a brief welcome, Anoop encouraged everyone to participate in an activity, in lieu of the usual "30-seconds of fame" where bloggers are randomly picked to introduce themselves. The activity this time was to collect as many personal items as one could. There were some amazingly innovative ideas there - with people collecting everything from autographs and messages to good wishes and phones. The caveat? The owner of the item was not allowed to take it back. Ha! The idea was to get everyone to "meet" as many people as possible - because hey, that's why we were really there, right? Yeah!
This was followed by a fun dissection of who collected how many items and what and lots of laughter. As the evening progressed, we had thoughtful waiters working the crowds with trays of a variety of appetizers and soft drinks to keep everyone hydrated and going until the fabulous dinner at 9.30 pm.
By this time, it was close to 7.30 and with much fanfare, we welcomed the ASUS people responsible for making this evening wonderful.
ASUS product manager David Chu gave us a detailed overview of the laptops and AIO (All In One) PC - and of course, it was love at first sight for me - over the AIO, that is.
The core of today's meet... The Asus presentation... #GoSleeekASUSexperience @asusindia @indiblogger pic.twitter.com/kMezhwXjDY
- Freya Fatema Rehman (@freya3377) January 30, 2015
Priced at an affordable Rs.24,999/- it is a must-have for me, I thought. Just two weeks ago, my computer tech was trying to talk me into upgrading my desktop computer and I had requested a quote. Good ole Universe!
So imagine meeting the ASUS ET2040INK 19.5-inch All-in-One PC with built-in backup power, innovative hands-free gesture control and full I/O connectivity - with the Windows 8.1 OS, smart backup power up to one hour to prevent data loss, Intuitive gesture control for hands-free entertainment and a comprehensive array of I/O ports with three USB 3.0, three USB 2.0 and HDMI-output. Phew! Quite a suite of features. I covet it, I need it. I find the idea of not having a bulky CPU fascinating! That's the specialty of All-in-One PCs.
There was a detailed introduction to the ASUS laptop - but hey, I only had eyes and ears for the All-in-One PC.
Mr Chu was joined by his colleague to answer audience questions and after this, we were invited to go look at the ASUS product range displayed in one section of the hall. Most of us did.
15 minutes later, Anoop was back on stage to get us involved in yet another activity.
If ASUS was the main highlight of the evening, I'd say this team activity was equally fantastic. We were divided into four teams and allotted a slip of paper with a movie name written on it. The idea was to perform a skit focusing on blogging using the style of the movie - and have the others guess what we were doing.
Here's our team prepping hard!
The planning begins for the final activity! #GoSleeekASUSexperience @indiblogger pic.twitter.com/mtPzYB9yWH
- Soumya (@soumyaprasad) January 30, 2015
Our team, ably steered and guided by Prateek had "Pirates of the Caribbean" and we had a total ball laughing our heads off as Prateek saved the show. The other teams were super-good with the first one to go on stage doing it "gangnam style". We were up next. The next one performed after us and the fourth team had us all applauding and laughing over their series of Bollywood dialogs and rounding it up with a song.
All in all, a great time!
Soon, it was time for dinner - which deserves a standing ovation. Loved the salad aisle, the delicious meal and the variety of desserts. Sorry, no photos to tempt you! After some quick photos, hugs and promises made to meet/keep in touch, we headed home.
And so we concluded the first Indiblogger meet for 2015 in Bangalore.
May we have many, many more!
Three cheers to the Indiblogger team - hip hip hur-ray!And ASUS. May their ASUS ET2040INK take residence on my desk very very soon!
Special thanks to my friend Nivedith for reaching me home safely.
Special thanks also to blogger-friends who were kind enough to tell me they enjoyed my writing and were eager to meet me - I felt very humbled.
I slept with a happy smile on my face.
♥
