Getting to the Blog Camp wasn't as easy as I had thought! To begin with, I had to convince Samhith to let me go alone - he would have been bored there, anyway, and wouldn't have let me hear anything the other bloggers had to say! And then, getting out of the house took quite a while, and I ended up leaving home only after lunch. Imagine my predicament when I reached the event just in time for their lunch break!!!!
One hour to go, everyone busy with lunch, and me with nothing to do and all alone - so I did what I usually do - left the place and spent an hour wandering around - walked to Juhu Beach and spent some time watching a group of swifts flying overhead.......
Now to the camp itself. When I first reached the venue, I felt older than ever, for all the attendees seemed so young! Most of them collegians, some in their early twenties..... I have never felt so old....
Thankfully, by the time I returned after my walk, there seemed to be more people around - more nearer my age... and even older! Thank God! I arrived just in time for the session to start at 2:30, and I was able to attend just a few talks before it was time for me to leave :( What a pity - I spent almost 3 hours travelling to and fro, and could barely attend the camp just for an hour, thanks to the lunch break......
But once the sessions started, I really enjoyed myself. The fist speaker was a blogger just out of school, and he is a corporate blogger! Wow! The next one was also a young chap, who spoke confidently about his blog making it to the front page of Digg! I couldn't help but admire these guys! At their age, I hadn't even seen a computer!
I had missed a talk by a housewife blogger, which had apparently ended just before I reached, so I missed something I would have enjoyed, and maybe added my two bits too....... But I really loved it when people started talking about social causes. I hadn't a clue that so many people were into it!
The most interesting talk I attended was by Akshay Surve, who spoke about one of his ventures - Ads4Good, where he provides widgets linked to ads. Just by adding these widgets to our blogs, we can help NGOs without actually paying money out of our own pockets.... It was an entirely new idea, which I enjoyed, and am soon going to try out.
The highlight of the day was a 11 year old boy, who blogs about games and cooking!!! WOW! Can you imagine that?????
All this was within an hour. Can you even imagine how much would have been there from 10AM to 6PM? Now I can't wait for the next camp, hopefully one where I shall be able to take Samhith along, and spend the better part of the day among other bloggers........
P.S
To read a more detailed report of the BlogCamp, Check out Idea-Smithy's Blog. Thanks to her, I at least now have an idea about who was who at the camp... at least some of them!!!
Also thanks to her, here are some more reports of the Camp...
Jaya - Diary of a Hobbitt
Kalyan - Finely chopped
Satish - Bombay Lives
Priya - Reading Cafe