IndiBlogger Meet – An Afternoon of Conversations, Music and Food

I recently had an opportunity to attend an IndiBlogger meet (http://www.indiblogger.in/bloggermeet.php?id=186). It was organized by IndiBlogger  in association with HP and Otto Infinito (http://www.ottoinfinito.com/) to launch HP’s Connected Music together with Universal Music and Hungama. This was my second blogger meet; having attended the Stayfree Women for Change meet earlier.

The place chosen was beautiful, one has to visit Otto Infinito at BKC to experience it. They have a huge setting outside and an equally huge setting inside. Since it is a Mediterranean restaurant, it has been done up in white and blue colours, reflecting the colours of that region.

After our registration, we were all seated around several tables. Anoop Johnson then started the session. They gave us chart papers and sketch pens and asked us to go around introducing ourselves to each other. It was a mad scramble as people rushed to each other to ensure maximum autographs on their charts. The IndiBlogger team kept distributing headphones in between to keep up the tempo. Headphones were distributed for women with dupattas, guys with headgear and people with the maximum signatures on their charts :)

Then Ranvijit Singh, CMO, HP India, took us through the Connected Music. (http://www.hpconnectedmusic.com/uk/en). He explained the concept of availability of several genres of music and the ease with which one could search based on a song, an artist or lyrics. One could also give their feedback on the available or not available music options. Also present at the venue were Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO of Hungama and Vinit Thakkar, Digital Head of Universal Music.

Otto kept serving us delicious starters and juices during the event. Their square-shaped thin crust pizza was the highlight. :) 

Next it was the turn of Conroy Saldanha, Otto’s GM and Chef Azaad to take us through their concept of the restaurant and its offerings. Chef explained that it was an all-day dining restaurant with lots of different options for people to try out.

Then it was time for food. Yummy! There was tortellini pasta mixed with beetroot juice and spinach juice giving it a nice red and green colour respectively. There were also mixed vegetable skewers. We really enjoyed the food given that there was a lovely breeze blowing that day.

At the meet, I had the opportunity to meet and catch up with some really lovely bloggers – people who blog about Mumbai, food, fashion, technology, Navi Mumbai, etc.

I also won myself a brunch voucher at Otto for knowing what “Otto Infinito” means. Yippee! For the uninitiated, it means, eight to the power of infinity and stands for the cuisine of the eight major Mediterranean countries (France, Italy, Lebanon, Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Morocco).

Finally, to round off the event, we got together in groups based on our music preference and actually sang! Our group was Bollywood numbers and we kept howling, “Tera, tera, tera” – the famous Himesh number. We sang three songs – Fevicol, Munni and Sheila and won each of us headphones. You can imagine how well we sung :)

The event might have come to an end. But the memories will not. And the bonds I forged that day definitely will not. I look forward to interacting with the bloggers again. And I definitely look forward to visiting Otto Infinito once again, at a leisurely pace – to enjoy the desserts, this time around. Thanks IndiBlogger for organizing an afternoon full of animated conversations, good music and tasty food!!!