The Biggest Congregation of Bloggers’ in India- Skyscanner IndiBlogger Meet
‘There is a
bloggers’ meet at Meridien on 1st March! And it’s back to the
old format- the afternoon meet’ I exclaimed.
‘But all
seats are gone. I hadn’t checked Indiblogger since two days, or my mail’, I
told my sister sadly.
‘Do we
really need to register? Can’t we just go to the meet and register there?’ she
asked.
I wasn’t
very sure. And over the next couple of days I visited the site every few hours
to check if there was an increment in the number of seats and registered the
moment I found one available. I wasn’t going to take any risks.
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| The huge Ball Room of Le Meridien, New Delhi hosting the Skyscanner Indiblogger Meet. Photo courtesy: IndiBlogger |
The few
days before the event rolled by fast and the registered delegates a.k.a.
‘bloggers’ tally had reached 400. This was going to be huge!
The D-day
arrived and we reached the venue- Le Meridien, New Delhi. Having been here once
before, about a year ago, for a formal business meeting, I was even more
interested in being a part of the bloggers’ meet here. I sometimes do wonder, How
do the Indi-folks get to all these amazing hotels? Park to Oberoi to Meridien- It’s
a bigger and much better one every time!
We
registered ourselves, met Vineet (IndiTeam) and received our badges- a first
for me at any Indi meet. The most unusual thing about this meet was probably
the first thing on the itinerary- lunch! The meet began with lunch!
Unusual, yes. But surely a huge crowd puller! Hahaha…
Around 2,
the meet formally began. The all-time Indi anchor Anoop took the stage. ‘The 30
seconds of fame’ doesn’t make it to the agenda any longer, considering the huge
number of attendees. (The intros would go on for hours, wouldn’t they?)
As promised
the previous night, a blogger who had uploaded the best travel picture won
domestic return tickets to a destination of their choice from Skyscanner, right
at the start of the meet. And then it was time to take some good selfies. The
ones with the maximum number of selfies taken in the specified time won
themselves gifts from Skyscanner. Of course, Indi is unfair but it’s fun
to be part of that unfairness as long as it is about being a part of
IndiBlogger. Were you one who wasn’t wearing red, specs, scarves, jackets
and finally sitting? Hahaha…
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| Selfie time at our table! |
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| The sad face did help in making you reach the stage at least! :D |
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| Selfie time! |
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| Selfie? No! |
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| Selfie- Post event! |
Team
Skyscanner India then introduced us to the usage of internet for
travel-planning and of course to ‘Skyscanner’.
Then came
the big task of the day. With 15 hints provided, we had to use the Skyscanner
app and plan the cheapest trip around the world to the hinted
destinations. My team (Team #6) arrived at a budget of a little over $ 5,000,
but the winning trophy went to another team. Nevertheless, the game was fun!
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| Game time. Team 6 #skyscanning. What's the shortest and cheapest route around the world? |
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| Meanwhile... |
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| Meanwhile (2) The specs are too big to be yours! :D |
It was soon
time for tea and the choicest desserts made their way on to our plates.
The last
part of the meet was dedicated to sharing of some amazing travel stories. This
included stories of travelling to 8 countries in 1.5 years, travelling to the
unseen beautiful locations in India and solo-travelling. Singapore was the
safest travel location for women travelers, Team Skyscanner told us.
As the meet
came to a close, the moment was for capturing the huge group picture. This
would be the biggest group picture of bloggers in Indi-history! No wonder, even 24 hours after the end of the meet, the twitter hashtag #skyscanning was still trending in Delhi!
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| The big group photo! Spot me in the front! |
As we made
our way out of the hall, the Indi-tees waited for us. It was a surprise- two
different tshirts this time which takes my total tally of Indi-tees to about 10
or 12. I have lost count now! That was not it and we received duffle bags from
Skyscanner as well.
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| The freebies and the tee from Skyscanner |
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| Another tee to flaunt my blog from Indi |
This was
apparently my 7th IndiBlogger Meet in less than 2 years and is the 1st
time since my 1st meet that I am writing a post. Don’t ask me
where the 2nd-6th meet posts are, they somehow
never fructified due to some reason or the other.[:P]
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| Team Indi who make these wonderful events so amazing |
Nice...........................................me.............too..............joined..............this.................
ReplyDeleteThen sure you had a good time Pankaj :)
Deletelooks like it was lots of fun and you truly did had a wonderful time too!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, we did! Where were you if in Delhi and not at the meet? :D
DeleteWow..fantabulous read and ur specs ws indeed too big for my face still i got some nataunki pictures ;)Thanks mate feauring me here..it was really really great time we all hv njoyed together..:D
ReplyDeleteYes, it was great. Loads of fun. and selfies. I here a 'selfie' made it to the Oscars as well :D
Delete