Islamabad Blogger's Meetup - A Critique

So finally I attended the first ever (at least at mass level) bloggers meet up in Islamabad. It was a good experience overall indeed on the part that I came to know and see actually physically some of the bloggers whom I have been interacting online. I don’t want to praise or sequentialize the event because I know everybody is going to write like that about it and some of them have even done a live blogging thingy on the whole meet up here here and here. What I intend to write here is a critical review of the whole episode.

I felt while sitting inside the auditorium, observing the attendees, that they were getting bored of the details about what is a blog, how to blog and how to earn from your blog and bla bla bla. Many of the attendees were bloggers and for Heaven’s sake, it was supposed to be a BLOGGERS meet up. It was not a blogger.com promotion meet up. It was supposed to be an interactive program where everybody could raise his/her own voice. Yes there was no restriction on questions but the very mood of discussions was not allowing bloggers like me to discuss on the issues which are really important to them. So the most addressed part of the gathering were those who were not bloggers but those who had come just to see what’s going on in at the venue or may be to those who had just come to savor the free servings by Google Pakistan. I believe next time more time is to be given to bloggers than to bloggers-to-be.

The interaction among the bloggers individually was almost negligible. One reason was the seating arrangement. I know (by watching photos) in Karachi Bloggers Meet up and Lahore Bloggers Meet up, there were separate tables where segregated groups had come in to being and one table had five to six people to sit face to face to each other and talk more fervently than this setup. Here the function was held in Bahria University’s Auditorium and the seats were in rows and one person could communicate with two people only sitting her/his right and left. So that was the biggest hindrance. Then there is a difference between people’s behavior too. Karachi and Lahore people are more interactive naturally than Islamabad or Rawalpindi guys. We are either too shy to talk about the things or we have too much of “atti” in us, both of them are actually good-for-nothing. Even during the tea I did not see anyone meeting somebody for the first time. Everybody was busy sipping the tea or talking with people with whom they came with or they already knew.

The concept of the whole program seemed too old. It followed the same pattern as Lahore and Karachi’s. I guess everyone is Pakistan’s Blogosphere had already read and watched those episodes. I didn’t find much new or which I could say that I did not know already.

As I have pointed out a few flaws in the whole thing, so I must conclude with some suggestive statements as well. I believe the things which I pointed out can be improved upon. I mean if you name something as “bloggers meet up” then just let it be for bloggers. For people who are not blogging and have come to attend – well if you want them to develop any interest in blogging then they will do so only by seeing other bloggers not by pushing them for making a blog. Then there are hundreds of articles which are there on internet for tips on starting a blog. Then the seating arrangements can be improved upon easily. About the innovation in the structure – well to give an impetus, I loved the last 30 minutes of the whole meet up the most. Because there was an issue to really talk about (those who have attended must know what I am talking about). So we can decide two or three topics for a period of three hours.

The participation from the girls or women, if I may say, was almost seen nowhere. They have turned up in very little numbers and then they did not participate at all except one girl who spoke a little. So for all the female Paki bloggers out there. Please do come to such meet ups. It is a very mature forum where there is no gender discrimination and the people who come there are decent or necessarily enough behave decently :)

But that doesn’t mean that I negate all the efforts of Badar and Uzee and others. They have really done something which was needed by bloggers in the north. It was definitely a great effort. At least they have made them to come to a common place other than internet and I really wasn’t expecting that much of people showing up. Lastly the administration was very good. Everything was prearranged and available in abundance, from Wi-Fi to stuff as simple as tea ;) For the little issues discussed above I guess we can give some leverage of being the first timer in Islamabad.

Those who have not been there please go to this link to get some visual glimpses of the meet up (Courtesy : Abdul Wahid):

http://www.awahid.net/2008/12/islamabad-bloggers-meetup-slide-show

I hope the critique and suggestion would be taken positively for the sake of improvement. I rest my case.