And I mean it! There are a host of blogging communities out there, trying to give us bloggers an opportunity to rise and shine, but the first footsteps of giving an apt platform to bloggers for nourishing and optimizing their value was ever taken by Indiblogger.
I had never attended any Indiblogger event before, thus #BNLF was my first ever encounter with them. I was extremely elated to meet and greet familiar Indiblogger faces in person and also take notes from some of the great pioneers in blogging, writing and social marketing. My happiness subsided a little when I received a mail from TATA Literature Live!, saying that my poetry reading for the #MyStory2015 would take place on 31st Oct, 2015, the same day when BNLF would commence. I had mixed feelings- I was both happy and a little sad. After thinking a lot, I decided to attend both the events.
Indiblogger was creative enough to arrange for our customized Twitter, Facebook and Blog badges, which was indeed sweet and beautiful. It was as if this was a festival and I enjoyed them all.
I attended BNLF- Day 1 during the second half, post lunch. Hence, I missed out on the Cleartrip activities which took place in the morning. I remember how tensed I was when I reached the venue a few minutes post the 2:30 session. We were informed that we would not be allowed to attend a session in progress, but the Indicrew was sweet enough to allow me in.
The entire ambience was ecstatic. I was awestruck! The set-up was unique and memorable. It was like one experience of an air flight. My E-Pass were checked using the QR code check-in system, the registration was designed like an airport signage, the blogger badge was like a boarding pass.
When I entered the main hall, Kanan Gill's session was in progress, everyone were engulfed in laughs by the witty speaker, but my thoughts were indulged in the way the stage and the ambiance was set up. It was like we were in an airplane. Amazing indeed!
There were back to back sessions. The session by Mr. Jeff Bullas was thoughtful and educative. I noted a lot of his tips regarding marketing our blog posts and gaining lots of traffic for our blog.
Later, we had a coffee break. That was the time when I was able to track my friends and we discussed about the sessions and met new blogger friends too. We were able to speak and discuss with our speakers too in the coffee break.
The next session was by Preeti Shenoy, the leading best-seller lady in India. I must say, her entire talk was inspiring to me. I gained a lot of insights of how she managed to progress from an anonymous individual to a well-known literary star and her story was well inspiring and one to be noted.
The evening's last session was by Mr. Bruce Dickinson and everyone was amazed during his session. He was inspiring, motivating and a strong personality, which was reflecting in his talks. We all were glued throughout his session.
Later, in the end of the session, we all joined in for a Groupfie and later, we all were distributed a memory of the event- the #BNLF Tee. We left the venue with a lot of insights on blogging, blogger friends, memories and the desire to blog forever with passion.