It was happenstance that I made it to WIN14 this year. But boy, am I glad it happened!
I won’t go into the details of every thing that happened, and was said. No. I will tell you what happened to me! In my 5th year of blogging, I managed to finally attend a (my first) blog meet. When I walked in, and saw the bonhomie, the lit faces, the warm smiles, I kicked myself for not having done this earlier!
Then it got better! I was astounded by the quality of the speakers on the podium. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting great speakers at all! Their willingness to teach, the fact that they shared information so freely, and the repeated emphasis on ethics and morality in blogging have probably made me their lifetime fan! When a blog forum gets their values right, I think we have something great going on, and I am so proud!
Among the speakers, the people who impacted me the most were @KavisMusings, (@anaggh, Kiran Manral, Anuradha Goyal (who wore her blogger’s heart on her sleeve, and won a lot of hearts in the process, I am sure!) and @shekharkapur. I was able to draw parallels in my own life as a blogger, with much of what these speakers said!
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| Shekhar Kapur with BlogAdda.com CEO, Nirav Sanghavi |
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| Anaggh Desai |
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| Kiran Manral |
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| Kavi Arasu |
I must mention the amazing bloggers some of whose blogs I discovered for the first time (among them a college girl who came all the way from Delhi with her mom in tow!), others who were known, and still others who I looked up to and was so happy to see in person! I had great company from Pune to Mumbai and back, and the journey back found us chatting non-stop, making new plans (a side-effect of having been ‘just inspired’), and the absolutely great feeling that one has after a day well-spent in the company of great minds and people with shared interests!
I also thank all those who voted for TheKeybunch, but we did not get the award. Hopefully, next time! I congratulate all the winners – you guys rock!
All images courtesy: blogadda
Nice Sharon. And I too had a great experience at this conference. 🙂
Heta, thanks. Pity we couldn't connect out there!
Delighted to hear that it made a difference. It was a plain and simple story. 🙂 I am so glad you could come. Good luck on the blog journey. Heres wishing you the very best!
Delighted to have you on my blog Kavi! Thanks for the wishes!