grp.jpg

For those who were out of town or couldn’t make it to the ‘Karachi Bloggers Meetup 2008’ cuz of some reason missed out a great opportunity to party like a blogger. I know how it sounds like but trust me; we didn’t do anything of any sort which could have possibly made us wake up the other morning with a hangover :P Ok that was a lame joke and so will be the rest of the post. Those who have some sense of humor can read on :P the rest should read dictionary it will increase their vocab.

 

The event started for me when I along with deHog entered the venue (Royal Rodale – Royal 1) one hour earlier; why? Well I didn’t wanna be late plus my mum kicked me out of the house. When we showed up at the place the organizers were clearly surprised to see us because they just got there themselves and were setting up things.

 

Question asked: Who are you guys?

 

Ans: Dhakkan Mujahideens :P

 

Question: What?

 

Ans: We are Blaaaagerssssssss  =)

 

Salaina checked our name on the list gave us our badges and asked us not to take photos until they are done setting up the place. But do us eva listen muhahaha (evil laugh).

5.jpg

 

After taking some quick shots we decided to settle down on our table. Finally got the chance to meet both Badar Khushnood (Google Pakistan) and the famous Rabia Garib (CIO Magazine) both organizers greeted us with a big smile.

 

 

As the day progressed I got the chance to meet and socialize bloggers, old n new friends and discussed politics, blogging, and how tasteless the red bull was :P  So why were we drinking red bull in the first place and around 2-3pm in noon :P   Dude, it was free. We Pakistanis don’t let any free things go, even if they are allegations from neighboring countries :P

 

 

4.jpg

 

3.jpg

 

 2.jpg

 

Highlights of the event:

 

  • Rabia Garib with the microphone, the lady is a pro (13 years of experience no small deal). Every time someone tried to take the mic away from her (to ask a question); she used to give ‘em “The Look” and the scared ppl neva touched the mic again :P

 

  • Badar Khushnood is as awesome and cool as google itself. Badar Sahab is google Paksitan hiring? CV fwd kero ;)

 

  • First thing on the agenda was the fact that Doctor Awab does everything but practice medicine, good for the blogging community, even better for his patients. Lolz

 

  • Sabeen Mahmud was having fun on the rolling chair :) she rolled 3rice on her seat during the session. (Ok now somebody gonna ban me from entering t2f :( )

 

  • Saad Hamid (20 Islamabad) and Haris (18 Lahore) makes more money then Asif Zardari ever made through proper (google) channel.

 

 

  • The 2 kids make X000$ per month. Holy Kawwww…….. Everyone in the hall were staring the 2 with open jaws and greedy eyes.

 

  • Fariha was typing typing typing……typing. We know who were you typing for ;)

 

  • If you are a good friend of Jamash, chances are that he’s gonna take a kick ass photo of yours for free and will put it up on the facebook. For people like me chances are slim :( [and I thought we were friends Jamal]

 

  • Munir Usman and Imad Qamar who blogged like 3 posts in 5 years were sitting in the front row posing as professional bloggers. Sitting in front can only help you win some goodies but in Munir’s case even that didn’t happen.

 

  • Ramla said the K word to everyone’s surprise; I would like to defend her in this post. “People; dog is an animal and a much loved one in many civilizations.”

 

  • Everyone TOTALLY LOVED <3 my 5 minutes of Teabreak munjan (aka marketing). I was like BONO out there. [This is a clear example of how big liars we bloggers are haha].

 

  • Mohtashim of IT TAZEE is actually a young energetic guy and for all that time I thought he was 40 something.

 

  • Siyab was the youngest Pakistani blogger in the event (16 yrs). He got the Hassan Raza award :P

 

  • Following the XMAS spirit goodies bag were distributed among the panelist, and those who were able to answer really difficult and mind blogging questions. Yes they copied the format from Tariq Aziz’s “NEELAAM GHARR”

 

  • After there were no questions or goodie bag left they decided to take a Teabreak ;) hmm teabreak….now where did I learned that term ;)

 

  • I ate 2 samosas, 1 small burger and that squared fried thing. I wonder what was that?

 

 

  • Shahzad Khan aka Dehog forced me to make some tea for him, I had to his name ends with a Khan (*scared*).

 

Okay that’s about it for now I am not very candid with the rest of the lot present and therefore can not put them in this post; as a matter of fact I am not very frank with most of the people I mentioned above but I am sure KBM09 will take some time till then;

 

“Blog On! Before we get the Vietnami treatment” ;)

 

I would like to thank Badar , Rabia and their team for smoothly executing such an awesome meet up, we would love to see more such events, but Iam sure most bloggers would like to see the emphasis on serious blogging and active blogger community. Money matters but it cant replace ones passion for blogging.

 

Photo Credit: Shahzad Khan, Imran Hussein and Jamash

Popularity: 19% [?]

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google
  • Technorati
    Read More   

Comments

Fariha Akhtar on 7 December, 2008 at 1:58 pm #

He’s Mohtashim not Mohtasham..correct the spelling else u know he’s a young man and strong enough to punch u :P


Barrister Ali K.Chishti on 7 December, 2008 at 1:59 pm #

LOL..great post and enjoyed reading it!!! And although I am not a blogger (lawyer and a security anayst by proffesion) who reads and write a lot , it was all and all a good event although, I have apprehensions about “irresponsible blogers” and ethics which I made it clear on the forum to Awab ( a friend and a foe) which resulted in a small “cat fight” …. I think the real issues were not touched - prorably because it was politically incorrect - bloggers needs to know about responsiblity and threat they face from the new cyber crimes ordinance…
Regards.


Munir on 7 December, 2008 at 2:01 pm #

wooha.. awesome review! :)


Simz on 7 December, 2008 at 2:24 pm #

“Wooha”..? There was pun on that back in school days.. the rhyme ending in “Chooha” :P


Munir on 7 December, 2008 at 2:36 pm #

heh. na na.. its actually modified version of “Waah!” :)


Raza on 7 December, 2008 at 3:19 pm #

Nice post dude. Looks like I missed a great event!


[...] This cup of tea was served by: R O N I N [...]


عمار - aMmAr on 7 December, 2008 at 3:29 pm #

@Fariha
Are you going to complain to him abt this? :P

@Barister Ali K Chishti ‘Bhai’

Welcome to ronin :) I am glad you liked the post. As for blogging ethics me and Asim have been trying to raise awareness especially among young bloggers.

The lil cat fight could have been a very productive talk but maybe this was not the forum for it. It was a simple get2gether. But hopefully next time organizers would look at these issues more seriously.

@Munir
Welcome to ronin and I am glad that you liked it :)

@Asim
we missed ya bro!


Mohammad Talha Ghouri on 7 December, 2008 at 3:31 pm #

woah!

excellent review

@Fariha…
try giving Ammar bhai the live blogging thing, he can do gr8
:D

and as usual
i missed a gud thingy… AGAIN !


Jehan Ara on 7 December, 2008 at 4:45 pm #

Great post Ammar - so why didn’t you live blog as you had promised you would? Huh? Huh? And btw Mohtashim only LOOKS young. I suspect he was born old ;)


عمار - aMmAr on 7 December, 2008 at 5:49 pm #

@Raza
thats 2 in a row for you Raza!

@Ghouri
Haha thanks man! I think faree did a gr8 job. I think, one cant participate while live blogging.

@Madam Jehan
Wow thats huge coming from som1 like you :)

As for the live blogging promise I am extremely sorry for that.Its a long story but next time I will make sure that I cover such events LIVE or at least twit them.

I hope you will let me go this time ;)


Muhammad Siyab on 8 December, 2008 at 12:10 am #

Baaiz,

thankz for de haanrable maantion :)

I’z a blaagerz tooz, andz age doeszn’t matterzzz :D..

lol good review :D


The bloggers meet ! | Tea Break on 8 December, 2008 at 12:21 am #

[...] #Karachi Bloggers Meet Up! ’08 – My Kind of Partaaayyyyyy [...]


munib on 8 December, 2008 at 8:26 am #

wow!!
enjoyed reading your commentary


Maryam on 8 December, 2008 at 10:00 pm #

Hahaha… Really enjoyed reading it . Sounds like it was more fun event than the meet up we had in Lhr.


عمار - aMmAr on 8 December, 2008 at 10:41 pm #

@Siyab
welcome to RONIN ;) ur mention was must!

@munib
welcome and thanks for admiring it.

@Maryam
Welcome to ronin :) dunno abt others but I had fun at the meetup.


Karachi Bloggers Meetup - Resource pool « M B on 8 December, 2008 at 11:05 pm #

[...] 3. RONIN [...]


Asma on 9 December, 2008 at 10:18 am #

OMG this was hilarious … lovely reading :)

U found the goodie bag too? some people were bragging about it :p


عمار - aMmAr on 9 December, 2008 at 10:34 am #

Well I was bragging abt being in the panel :P ;)


sana on 9 December, 2008 at 6:59 pm #

sounds like fun :D but m sure ur 5 mins bored the hell outta ppl anyway sigh poor becharas!!


عمار - aMmAr on 10 December, 2008 at 5:36 am #

@Sana
They were craving for more but you know me and how shy I am in public, so I decided to keep it small and sweet :P


Mehjabeen on 13 December, 2008 at 2:05 pm #

:D

Wow Amaar, it has been wonderfully put together, have enjoyed every bit! thanks to Google, Wateen and CIO Pakistan for supporting such an event. It was equally a pleasure having you all and listening to this whole new emerging world of bloggers. And yes, we were ShOocKeD not just surprised to see you an hour early!!!

Keep it up!


mayG on 16 December, 2008 at 3:37 am #

LOL!
it surely was an event to remember!


عمار - aMmAr on 16 December, 2008 at 10:23 am #

@Meh Jabeen
Thanks! I hope to shock u guys again n again :P

@mayG
Welcome to RONIN, missed da chance to meetya :( btw hws ur design tutorial site coming along? I so wanted to enroll for the lessons.


Islamabad Bloggers Meetup 2008 « BILISHY on 28 December, 2008 at 11:24 am #

[...] Lahore and Karachi Bloggers meetups, Islamabad meetup is scheduled for tomorrow. Monday, 29th Dec 2008. Get yourself [...]


Post a Comment
Name:
Email:
Website:
Comments: