ARE YOU READY???? BNLF Is Now Live: Part 2

Ok! So first things first, IndiBlogger has now acquired a four letter domain, BNLF.com! This website has blogging carved upon its soul and we hope it serves you well.

Registered IndiBlogger members have been writing in from across India to get their passes sorted so that they can book tickets, rooms, etc. Thank you guys for traveling all the way to Mumbai for the love of blogging! The bloggers in Mumbai have been really sweet as well, with many opening their doors, mattresses, couches and fridges to bloggers from other cities. We are doing everything possible to make sure your “expedition” is hassle-free and hopefully we will have more things sorted for you in this regard soon.

To kick things off, the first event from BNLF.com is going to be action-packed and this blog post will discuss its agenda and a few other recent developments.

The attendee List

We now have an attendee list to feature blogger passes issued to all the approved applications. This is a huge list and this event seems to have woken up a lot of great bloggers who don’t usually come to our other events. I guess when blogging is the starter, main course and dessert on the menu, its not really hard to fathom why a lot of people want to BNLF.

In any case, we are doing our best to get everyone interested. This event will be attended by bloggers from India for the most part. Although a few bloggers from abroad have applied, the general feedback is that they need more time to plan such a trip. Understandable, but meeting bloggers from all across India is no small matter either! We haven’t seen it happen (on this large a scale) at any of our other meets and we are POSITIVE that everyone here will have the time of their lives.

IndiBlogger Meet virgin?

OK! So here’s what you need to know if you’re attending your first IndiBlogger meet:

• You will not be disappointed
• You will find many friendly faces and you will never feel alone
• If you do want to be left alone, there are plenty of places to hide

Time is of the essence!

Day 1 is set to start at 9:15 AM SHARP. We have to keep time during this meet and we are opening registrations at 8:00 AM. We suggest that you get there as early as possible because we will be closing doors at 9:00 AM for the start of the first session. Getting to the venue later than that would mean that you will be able to attend only once a break in the session is announced.

Day 1 agenda:

Take Off:

We’re hoping the IndiBlogger house band “Blunder In The Code” can make an appearance. We have a few things to iron out, but the fact is that our dead bassist had the runs and on top of that the lead singer has herpes… sigh!

In all seriousness though, we’re working things out and if everything goes as planned, Blunder in the Code intends to bring down the roof!

Session 1: Ray Attack!

IndiBlogger will be starting off proceedings at 9:15 AM before both the Rays, Purba Ray and Arnab Ray (no, they’re not related), take over for the first session. We wanted to start the first session with a couple of passionate bloggers, and Purba Ray is as real as one can get. I have no idea what she is going to talk to us about and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t either :-). One thing is for certain though, if she just goes up there and reads a few of her blog posts, we will be rolling about with laughter. Arnab Ray is probably equally crazy. Maybe that’s got something to do with the name ‘Ray’….?!?

Session 2: Is there anybody out there?

The second session will be with Christoph Trappe and Anshul Tewari. These sessions will have some key points that you can arm yourself with. Both of these bloggers share the same core beliefs – authentic stories and the open sharing of information. Anshul is riding the waves of success at the moment after recently taking Youthkiawaaz.com to the next level. We expect him to be his charming self come event day! Christoph is running a very interesting workshop on BNLF Day 2, titled “Six steps to stop traditional marketing and start authentic blogging”. This session is crucial to a lot of us as it also gives perspective on how to pick and choose stories and keep the blog posts flowing, among other things.

After lunch at The Lalit, we start off with the ever so awesome Kanan Gill. Many of us have heard his stand up and many have watched his videos but have you heard about his journey ‘behind the scenes’? I love material that touches upon social commentary. There are tonnes of things to address and sometimes the audience gets upset when something about their nativity (amongst other things) is said in jest. In a way, using comedy for social commentary is the best way to get people comfortable when talking about controversial subjects. Shoot not the messenger, is what I say!

Session 3: Star Power

We needed a session that would talk about how blogs get their global fame. The question of how Indian bloggers can get on the global map of digital information is a crucial piece of the complex content puzzle. One thing was certain after talking to bloggers on the subject – having global visitors and participants boosts confidence and drives inspiration to write more and take things more seriously. Potentially, there are a loads of people around the world reading content that you dabble in and its always good to know how to bring them to your blog. Well, enter the one-and-frickin-only, Jeff Bullas! Jeff is also doing a workshop on Day 2! Titled “7 Key Steps to blogging mastery with Jeff Bullas”, this is definitely a session you’ll regret missing… if you really want to understand a whole new world of blogging. Day 2 is a much more relaxed day for us in terms of organizing and I plan to take notes!

The penultimate session of the day will start with Preeti Shenoy. If you interact with the attendees amongst the audience at BNLF, you will find many with success stories on blogging and Preeti is one of those very very interesting stories. We wanted someone who could detail such a journey. Preeti is pretty excited too and you can read her blog post here 🙂

Session 4: The Trooper

The final charge – The one and only Bruce Dickinson. I have run out of adjectives to describe him and believe you me, just the silhouette of this man on the stage is guaranteed to give you goosebumps! I don’t think India will ever again get a chance to witness the worlds most enterprising individual in this avatar. Granted, you may hear him sing in a concert in Mumbai or Bangalore, but up close and personal?

Blogging is a state of mind

A few have asked us why we wanted Bruce Dickinson to come down for BNLF, which is primarily a blogging event. To us, Blogging is a state of mind. It is an attitude. It is an intangible feeling in your gut to do the right thing no matter what and that is what inspires us and others around us.We felt Bruce Dickinson was definitely of this mould. The other truth is that most of the IndiBlogger team members have, at some point or the other in their lives, been influenced by Bruce. It’s somewhat uncanny that we have a lot of people on the team that feel that way. For me it all started with IndiBlogger Co-Founder, Renie Ravin, handing me a tape of Bruce’s solo album “Tattooed Millionaire” sometime in the 90’s. I like to believe that that’s when we became real friends. Karthik has been to every one of his concerts in India and can be seen tripping to “Hallowed be thy name” quite often. Iron Maiden has stayed together for decades and so has a lot of the IndiBlogger team. We believe that we may have subconsciously borrowed a bit of their passion, their loyalty and their penchant for being unique. Vineet, a big fan of his music, when planning for BNLF realized that there was more to what made him who he was, which I suppose, is going to be a lot of people’s reaction. He went on to add “It is kind of exciting now because he is probably more of a blogger than anyone of us and he doesn’t even need a website for it...” So there you have it, Bruce isn’t here to sing, he is here to give us something more powerful – his life’s work! If you aren’t here, you are nowhere.

The Crew!

The  crew is a fabulous addition to this IndiBlogger event and we are really excited about it! A lot of people are offering great suggestions and some are going ahead and doing their own thing! Take Shashi, for example, he just decided to write a curtain raiser series to help people understand a bit more about the speakers and what to expect. We feel blessed!

You can find all his posts for the curtain raiser with interviews with the speakers and more here!

By now, most of you may have received your passes. There is still some time to register but at this point we cant add many more seats as we are filled to capacity and there will be very few seats available henceforth. If you haven’t already registered then this would probably be your final chance.

Start screaming in the comments! We’ll be throwing in some limited edition BNLF merchandise as well!

So… ARE YOU READY?????