So, my visit to the SA Blog awards proved to be quite strange, interesting, confusing and thought provoking. I knew I was kidding myself into thinking it wouldn’t run into a booze-up, that being the most frustrating part for me as the smell of alcohol in the air kept me outside on the Balcony for the short stay.
UCT Tennis Club - Good Venue
The Venue was great when I arrived, it’s a really nice place to have a meetup or event with a nice atmosphere, view of the City over the treetops with the mountain behind you.
Greening the blog awards
Having stodels as a sponsor would probably not been been so cool not too long ago, but I found it really great that part of the prizes were actually trees. Not sure how much Carbon emissions those trees would actually offset but it’s the thought that counts I suppose.
Met Some Interesting People
I bumped into a few people some I knew and hadn’t seen for years, some I had only seen online or on twitter, others who are regular show at events of this nature and a few interesting people I met on the night.
Chatting to Shane Dryden of ideate briefly was rather interesting and thought provoking, in fact the conversations I had, generally centred around how self glorifying the whole concepts of blogging and blog awards can be. I thought about this a bit and investigated my own intention for trying to build an online profile as a blogger.
Tim from Quirk was kind enough to bring me a glass of ice and a coke, knowing I don’t drink Alcohol, he’s an all round great guy and does a great job at making people feel at home.
So Why do we do this thing called Blogging?
Why do we blog? An ex colleague from Design School who I bumped into was speaking to me about having a personal blog which just focuses on personal matters, another guest spoke about only having started his blog that very day and wanting to engage with people as a financial planner by advising them through his new blog. I had conversation with Chris from iMod (a winner in one of the categories) a few months ago about the purpose of Blogging,do we do it for money, for fame, to blow our own trumpets? I think we can all agree we do it for different reasons, though we’re all looking to create value for ourselves in a different way.
I watched how a few people who were obviously just there to check if they or someone they supported had won or not scrambled out after their categories winner was announced, was quite funny. I never really expected to feature in my category as I know the other players in Design Blogging offer alot more value than I currently do, so no real disappointments for me other than the madness of the event.
The blogging gang who were at the Blog awards, including myself are definitely living in a world of their own creation, something completely cut off from the rest of society, something most people, including myself a few short months ago, didn’t know a thing about.
So Why do I blog?
I love how blogging has brought me into contact with some of the most interesting, intelligent and strange people I have met to date. I love the conversation created by blogging, but I have realised, like with real world conversation, there are genuines and there are those who fake it for the cameras. You can tell when you meet a genuine face to face, when he/she comments on your site, when you email each other or just say hi, and of course, the fakers.
What I hate about Blogging
Bloggers who love to comment but are never interested in a real human conversation. I Guess blogging is alot like real life, but with it’s own pros, cons and intricacies.















3 Comments
Hi Nur, sorry I only got to chat to you for a moment at the blog awards, it was one of those evenings.
Off topic, shall we start putting together a Wiki or something for the next Wordpress meet? I think we should most definitely start planning now rather than later otherwise I can see it not happening..
Good to hear you enjoyed your glass of ice :p
Salaam Nur,
Did u get any photos? Ah yes.. the old booze up party.. yeah i remember those.. especially the corporate monthly ones.. thats where promotions and demotions and goodness else what other hectic stuff goes on behind closed doors..
i’ll leave it upto ur imagination. Man.. do internet people in SA still drink Coke? Dont they know that Pepsi MAX is da drink for developers. lol