BNLF - As it Was

Stage is all set

Yet another Indimeet and yet another experience to remember! In the last three years I must have attended over ten Indimeets (perks of being in Mumbai) and owing to my past experiences, when BNLF conference was announced, I didn’t even waste a minute registering for it. BNLF aka Blog Now Live Forever was perhaps the grandest meet IndiBlogger has ever organized, and this grand meet commence in a plane at the backyard of The Lalit in Mumbai.

The mock plane decoration!

Months of planning, weeks of anticipation and the much awaited weekend was finally here. IndiTeam and IndiCrew all at work to host bloggers from all around India and speakers form all around the world. The show began on a musical note with in IndiBand welcoming people aboard the BNLF plane in style, hitting notes of Titanium and rapping away to glory; post this began the saga of the keynotes. There is a lot that happened and a lot to talk about. But for now I would stick to the top five highlights of BNLF.

IndiBand

1.    Bloggers and Blogs!

We are bloggers and we are very passionate about our blogs. Period. And the best part about IndiBlogger is that they acknowledge this fact! Our badges for the event didn’t just have our names but also had our blogs mentioned on them. Apart from this basic gesture, to organize a blogging event for the bloggers by the bloggers meant a lot. The IndiCrew had famous bloggers to newbies and that gave everyone an opportunity to interact with more people with similar passions and thought processes. Meeting my good old Mumbai Blogger gang sure made my day, but meeting others with whom I had interacted only via twitter so far made a huge difference. And I finally met a co-author (Gauri Kamath) of my upcoming book!

Me with Manjulika, Gauri and Sagrika (Fellow Bloggers)

2.   Every note was a keynote

How many understand the impact a small open letter can create in today’s world. How many can understand the rejections a writer faces and still has the strength to put behind the sense of failure and rise? BNLF was all about this. Being a blogger is way more than just a hobby. To be dedicated and do what you feel right and feel strongly about takes time and takes patience. And more than anything it is the passion we have for what we do. BNLF speakers Jeff Bullas, Christopher Trappe, Kannan Gill, Bruce Dickinson, Purba Ray, Arnab Ray, Anshul Tiwari and Preeti Shenoy had many such thoughts that would reverberate with every person’s thought process and not just bloggers’. But these were some that really stood out for me –

I create, I publish and I exist. - Jeff Bullas

Don’t let rejection affect you. Push your limits. Work on your skills. – Preeti Shenoy

Homeless means nowhere to go, nothing to do. It does not mean nowhere to sleep. - Bruce Dickinson

0+0=1 and you have to make it happen. – Bruce Dickinson

Some of the speakers

3.   Different side to all

Kannan Gill - Still funny or serious? Go Figure!

Yes we have seen Kannan Gill tickle your funny bone with his hilarious pretentious movie reviews. Yes we have heard Bruce Dickinson scorch stages with his band Iron Maiden and rule the musical world. Yes we have seen youth ki aawaz grow silently to strengthen the voice of the youth today. How many of us can say we have heard the life story – struggles, ideas and successes, of Bruce Dickinson up-close and personal? How many of us have had an insight to a mind that toiled for years in the corporate world convincing itself of satisfaction? How many of us have had a look at the reason why Youth ki Aawaz got bold and strong and why it is not able to do what it stands for? BNLF gave us a chance to get to the other side of the spectrum. We met an entrepreneur, a dream chaser and many thinkers and not the general faces of the speakers. And that was the most unique experience of the day.

Bruce Dickinson the entrepreneur and not the musician!

4.   Clear Trip Experiences

On the lighter side, Cleartrip activities were running the whole day for all the attendees and they were for free. Who doesn’t like free stuff right? From Segway to mini golf, Rock Climbing to posing with Harley bikes! They sure knew how to let people have fun and so we did! Fun time with Cleartrip.

The Beast at the activities

5.   After Party

Indimeet without a proper party session is just incomplete. So party with all the speakers and bloggers was a must and it did happen and that gave us more time to interact. Not going to fill this post with any details. Also since it was Halloween the hotel had some spooky corners and the photo junky in me decided to explore parts of it.

After party glimpses!

BNLF was a two days event but unfortunately I was able to attend it only on day one. But think about this – day one had so much, what more could have happened on day two? Unfortunately the rest rests on your imagination. All I could do was give you a glimpse of the way I celebrated my Halloween!

'Cause it was Halloween!

P.C. - Indi for some and rest are personal!