Blogopolis 2012 in Malaysia

Being invited to this grand event at Concorde Hotel last Saturday really means a lot to me. When you blog, its always just you and the laptop. But when you meet other people, who encourage you and face the same challenges, it feels like a fresh start. I never knew blogging was this big until today. Imagine LittleMissMeen winning the "The Most Promising Amateur Blogger" award *stars of hope in the air*


 I have to say that my blog may be nothing compared to those professional bloggers out there but we all share the same thing- and that is the joy of writing!




That morning, Saturday 14th July 2012 I jerked up 90 degrees when my clock struck 5am- not to mention without an alarm clock. *woots* Ok i'm making myself sound haunted- maybe not 90 degrees then. For someone who is used to having someone wake me up, that's something unusual. I was tremendously excited for the big day- glamorous people to meet, big event to attend, new things to learn & not sure what to expect..

Hanis Zalikha

Maria Elena

When i realised it was only 5am, i tried to go back to sleep and set my alarm clock at 6 just in case my maid wakes me up late. So when my alarm clock rang, i turned it off. Like usual...and then i rushed to get ready when  realised that it was past 6!


We were suppose to be there by 8 sharp- I wanted to be extra early so we could camwhore in the toilet and beautiful places in the hotel. As i was getting ready, my mum peeked into my room and said " Blogger Meen". My mum was super-excited too. If she didn't have so many appointments that day, she told me that she wanted to go too. You know my mum is the main reason why I started blogging- she lovess it, i have no idea why :) Ok maybe now i do

Beautiful Nara, his wife and baby

At 10 minutes to 8am, my friend , Zubaidah and I reached there. When we wanted to register, they asked to wait  few minutes because it was not 8 sharp yet. After registration, there was light refreshments and cookies. Then we met Suzianna. I'm suppose to call them Kak Zu and Kak Su - but we feel the same age. I guess i was one of the youngest. The admission rules says 18 years above only! Which means I'm lucky i'm 1 year older than that *weee

We went in and joined the Batman photosession, the facebook and twitter competitions-we even tried using the new PINK Toshiba laptop.


There were 9 Master classes- they started at 930 am and ended around 7.00 pm. The talks were given by the famous and more experienced people in the industry- all part of the Nuffnang group or Nuffnangers ( like what they like to call us)


Let me tell you who I met:

This is how i look like with short hair

Singapore Most Influential Blogger:  XiaXue with pink hair now. She gave a very straight forward speech or should i say blog tips. I understood clearly and felt that she looks very different in person compared to when I see her blog pictures. She came with her husband, an American guy and they sat behind me. Hui Wen, her friend and also an amazing and inspiring blogger told me that they were staying in the hotel.


Something surprising happened during the event: 


I had this question that I have been wanting to ask ever since they started opening Q & A sessions to all after each Master Class. After Master Class 2 presented by the profesional bloggers, Hui Wen and Huai Bin, I decided to gather my courage and ask them. Whenever i decide to do something, I don't think twice because i might have doubts. So i raised my hand in front of the gigantic crowd. At first i saw them bringing the microphone to me and I was like "ok fine let the entire ballroom hear my question." But then the camera zoomed in at me!!!!!!! And i was like No No No No And to make things worse my face was on the screen and the projector so i was basically seeing myself ask a question in front of the entire audience.


OH MY GOSH What did i just do. Speaking out of professionalism I learned during my high school days, when a mic is given to you, the only thing you can ever do is to take it. So i took it. Its just like someone pushing down a banana down your throat and the only thing to do in order to save yourself is to swallow it. Wait why did i choose banana? I'm seeing one right now-ok forget it
My question went something like this: After introducing myself Hi i'm Littl- Hi I'm Yasameen and I've been blogging for 18 months. I'm pretty new to this blogging world and I would like to ask " Have you ever felt demotivated during your first years of blogging -most of the speakers have been blogging 8-10 years-Sometimes people don't respond much and you feel like you're talking to yourself. How do you cope with this and what is your advice.


I was really surprised by how concern they were upon answering my question. It really felt like a heart-to-heart talk and I realised most bloggers felt the same. I just want to say that if anybody is shy with me, you really shouldn't and i'm very open with what you think of my writing. If you want to know their answers, do email me and i'll type it for you :) Blogpost getting long already *oops

Funfacts: Did you know Huai Bin was sponsored a trip to Germany for 8 days by Volks Wagen because of his blog advertisement. *jawdrop* After answering my question, Huai Bin kindly added " And i'm willing to promote your blog on my site T.T" And the crowd went " Woaaaaaaah (he's so sweet) 


During lunchtime, my two friends Su and Zu enjoyed taking photos of food using their SLRs. Zu was eyeing this one guy, Shah. He's a Nuffnang crew and cute too. So Zu was shy to ask him for a photo so she left that to me. I'm not really shy making the first move with new people :) So at buffets, you forget all about diet. I guess I was eating too slow and they decided to go and get dessert. I'm not really a big fan of cake and creams so i ate bread, soup and lasagna. I was alone and suddenly it popped in my mind- What happens when a girl is alone at events like this? A guy usually pops up and introduces himself. Ok that was a crazy thought but holy **** that's what happened. The cute guy i was talking about earlier suddenly came up to me and said  'Eating alone?' and i told him my friends just left to get dessert. That's how we started the convo and when Zu came, we snapped pictures with him so she just had to thank me silently for that, right Zu?


So my blogpost is getting really long and i dont want you guys to die out of boredom so I'll stop here even though i'm only 20% done. I literally recorded every single thing that happened in my notebook-guess those secretary days really helped.

Oh and do remember that I'm changing my link to littlemissmeen.blogspot.com




See you in my next post. 
Cheers!


xoxo LittleMissMeen