IndiBlogger Meet- Bangalore Chapter-9thJan,2011

Venue: ISKCON, Bangalore

No. of participants: ~200

This was my second Indiblogger meet, just in 2 months & it was as good as first one. Very professionally organized by Indiblogger & Akshay Patrafoundation in MP hall of ISKCON temple, would put even paid event to shame. The theme : How blogs can help social initiatives & NGOs like Askshay patra”, was perfect way of spending lovely Sunday afternoon.

Indiblogger Meet-9th Jan,2011

It was eye opener in many senses: One, how a blog can indeed impact for good, to NGOs & social causes. Two, got to know about the immense good work Akshay Patra foundation is doing. It is largest NGO in India & only Indian NGO is top 20 NGOs of world. Founded in 2000, it is now feeding >12 lacs children everyday, as part of mid-day meals scheme. Three, its hunger to feed hungry stomach is more than ever, with target of reaching 50 lacs by 2020. Four, but this dream is un-realizable, unless people like us help them. Help not only in form of money, but time, mind. Help in your area of expertise. The greatest learning was, charity is not about money. It is just one component of it. Time, knowledge sharing, best practices sharing, is all equally important.

Please at least visit Akshay Patra site to know about the good work they are doing:

http://www.akshayapatra.org/

Coming back to event, it started as per IST, i.e. late by good 1 hr (the only bad thing happened). The ~4 hours session form 1:30 PM to 5PM, started off with introduction of Akshay patra foundation & how blogs have helped Akshay Patra foundation to get traffic to its website. Real statistics were shown on how blogs resulted in increase of view of their foundation, with certain % obviously translating to help in many forms. But there was equal realization that it’s just a beep in curve & in order to sustain traffic, bloggers should continue to highlight work done by such NGOs in more ways.

Food for thought

The second part followed the lunch (having real Mid day meals menu, unlimited & very tasty Bissibillah bath & payassam). The session involved usual introduction & mutual interaction among bloggers. I was to surprise to find myself in top 60 Indibolggers from Bangalore. It was good to hear & was certainly encouraging to write more. Introduction was decent than last time & mutual interaction needs a facelift. It was same as first meet,  getting which was about getting signatures & comments from fellow bloggers in a piece of sheet of paper. Persons getting most signatures are given prizes. Last session was brainstorming on ways, how blogs can help social initiatives & NGOs. It was very interactive, brain churning & I appealed all to “save food”. I made an instant proverb, “Food saved in food served”, which I personally think was indeed impressive. Anyways, it was good & productive way of spending second Sunday of the year 2011.

Suggestion for next event:

1) New way to interact: My proposal to run instant contest on creating own visting cards, which can be used to publicize yourself & your blog. My visting card:https://omus.wordpress.com/my-visiting-card/ 

My dash board. Obviously not that social 😉