Pune Bloggers Meet

I am too surprised, I cannot believe this, nor can my friends and family can believe this “I didn’t spend my last two weekends in so called second home “My Office”.

Whom all do I need to thank for this –

Pavan Soni - WiCamp Wipro, 30^th May 2008

Akshay Surve – SocialSync , 31^st May 2008

Divya and Suresh – Newly married couple met me on 1^st June 2008

Tarun – Bloggers Meet , 7^th June 2008

I had a great experience and lovely time in all the above meets. Frankly speaking I am falling shot of time to put up a post briefing about the above mentioned meets, but to start off - hers a jest of how great was my yesterday’s day.

It’s always a nice experience meeting up with like-minded people.

Tarun had planned up a Pune Bloggers meet on 7^th June 2008.

This time the venue wasn’t a camp, collage campus or some organization, for a change the meet was in a Hotel @ “Hotel Green Park - Baner”.

Jaslene was accompanying me for this meet. We had planned to move together in my car, but as she knows that when I am in the 4^th gear I forget where the brakes are, she changed the planed and asked me to set behind her Deo and drove me to the venue (Trust me she is the best driver).

It was the first time I had been to this hotel and the interior looked great. We reached at 12.30 pm sharp and caught a seat where the booking for the bloggers meet was done.

15 Bloggers turned up for this meet. We started off with an Informal Introduction. Hers what they said and I discovered about them in the meet in a passive voice:

Raman -> A senior retired gentleman from corporate, interested in starting off his own blog, inspired by his friend bloggers and finds technology out of his scope. He was very curious about BarCamp – but was surprised to know that it’s to do with technology and nothing to do with drinks or boozing. Looking at him a thought just strike me – when my dad will be of his age will probably start off his blog if not now.

Amit - > Belonging from an Air Force family, for a change is into IT and deeply in love with PHP. Liked one idea of his – on his weekend he keeps 5 post typed out and just publishes them every day. He carried a gentle smile and Thank god didn’t debate with me as he is popularly know for debating with java guys :-)

Priyank - > Blogs about technology and makes it look very simple as he believes that apart from bloggers, people on this earth do not believe in passing out knowledge to others. He is a quite observer and knows how to put across complicated things in simple manner. Looked very excited about the Flex meet and is all set to contribute his best toward the NGO. Kudos to you for coordinating and arranging the venue for the meet.

Krishna - > Looked very young and was very observant. A good listener and totally into Flex.

Rohit -> He never introduced him self directly as a Hacker or as a Project Manger. But said that he blogs at three different places – Personal blog, Google blog not owned by Google and at Club Hack. Believes in multitasking and has all interesting stories about Cyber crimes. Has so far done a good job in organizing of Barcamp, Bloggers meet and Hackclub.

Harsha -> Introduced him self as a lazy blogger and left infosys because people get salary for not working in this topmost MNC. Heard about him that is the best photographer

Pramila-> From ITVidya and by profession a Project manager, and says is barely managing anything. A MBA from MIT. Has her own blog, but is more interested in blogging at others blogs and posting comments. When she had a first look at the SDLC life cycle, that’s the time she knew that it’s a vicious circle in which she will never get into it. Always felt guilty for not contributing any thing to the society and is very much keen in joining Pune SocialSync project.

Shachin -> A proud owner of the blog called “ Tasty Khana”. He has a tie up with almost all restaurants and hotels located in pune. Any one planning for any events, do consult and booking of the venue through this blog. He is also working for an NGO where he and some of his friends teach the underprivileged kids.

Meetu -> Very bubbly by nature inspit of being a mother. Her love for Hindi movies came before love for blogging. Makes it a point to see every movie first day first show. Blogs about hindi movies and her comments about Sarkar Raj was “I didn’t like Sarkar but liked Sarkar Raj”. If ever I decide to watch any movie, will for sure visit her blog to check out if it’s going to be worth it.

Isha -> Introduced her self as Krity’s sister. But to add on to her introduction she is a bengali speaking girl all set for her higher secondary exams.

Krity-> A simple and down to earth girl. A MCA student. Very much into designing then into programming. Is very creative and helpful by nature. Not so far decided to start off her profession in an enterprise manner – believes falling short of publicity.

Jaslene -> Apart from being my friend and a co-member of Great Foundation NGO she is a blogger too. Blog about stock market and by profession a financial analyst.

Tarun -> Popular Blogger, Business Analyst by profession, photographer by choice and Friendly by nature. Blogs about every thing happening in his life, In short his blog reflect his life. A organizer of barcamp and blogges meet. Loves pune but located in Mumbai due to his job. Hates when people calling him blog guru. Nothing can let his spirit down –even if his bus gets punctured or gets delayed for the meet for which he had planed the most.

This was only 30% introduction of these bloggers whom I cam across in the meet. There’s lots to be discovered about them which can be done only through there blog being remotely located.

After the brief introduction we had some interesting questions and discussions taking place like during the lunch:

What’s the difference between blogspot and wordpress?

What do we want to achieve with such kind of meets?

Why is Barcamp named so?

Why don’t we have a NGO helping out bloggers?

How do we treat negative comments in our blog?

How to start with photography as a hobby and career?

Why don’t we have PHP meets as of Java meet?

And many more interaction that took place one to one or many to many in the meet?

We signed out at 4.30pm by exchanging visiting card, shaking hands, thanking the organizers and with a commitment that we will be there and keep contributing our best to the Blogsphere.

In shot this was not and end to our meet, I see it giving a new start like:

Tarun, Harsha and Sumit - Photography group,

Kriti - new assignment from me and Shachin

Amith – PHP group

Raman – kick start to his blog with the assessment of Amit and Priyank

Me and Jasu – PuneSocialSync

All the best to all for your new assignments!

Looking forward to meet you guys again.