Published on: 26/02/2017 | 14:51
It was a fun-filled Saturday, with the Indiblogger team ganging up with Berger XP to create a knowledgeable and engaging event. It is always great when brands facilitate blogger events to get their message across, but it’s even better when a brand goes the extra mile to make it interesting and interactive.
I initially thought the venue (Vivanta by Taj) would be too far away from my place, but surprisingly, I encountered very little traffic and ended up being one of the first people to reach the event. They were still getting everything set up at around 11:30 when I arrived.
The people at the registration desk handed me a cool-looking badge when I registered right on time and asked me to get a picture clicked at the photo booth that was set up. The beginning was indeed ominous because later, during the coffee break, they asked us to give a video byte at the same booth. The marketing personnel from an agency working with Berger fired off a few questions, which I answered—while standing under a spotlight that was way too harsh for comfort.
Coming back to the event and its awesome start, things were made even better with a lunch to die for. Add fish and chicken, top it up with sumptuous desserts and welcome drinks made with cranberry and apple juice, and you just know your day is going to be great.
(This is Gaurab, Tarun, and me. Gaurab has been blogging since forever—just like me.)
The lunch was so good that an Indiblogger team member had to come and remind us that the event was about to start and we should head inside ASAP. I said I was done eating, and once he left, I went back for another helping of dessert. Then another.
Anoop from Indiblogger must have some brilliant interns working for him—or so it seems (kidding). At every meet, he brings in some super cool ice-breaker activities. This time, we were all given envelopes containing five strips of paper. Each strip had blog URLs and descriptions of people present in the audience. The task was to figure out whose blog it was by talking to others. Folks who got my blog URL were quite lucky—they simply hollered “Tushar” and managed to identify the owner instantly. I, on the other hand, managed to locate just one blogger and failed miserably at the task. Still, it was a lot of fun.
My mom wants our home painted, and painting is a topic we often discuss at home. I dislike the whole process mainly because of the mess involved. After the initial warm-up session with Anoop, Mr. Das from Berger Paints explained the benefits of Berger’s new innovation—Express Painting.
He spoke for some time and even took questions from the audience. He came across as a great guy who truly understands his subject and speaks like a real expert. He made no attempt to bore the audience with technical jargon or mundane details and kept the session short and simple. During the Q&A, many people asked whether the new service would be expensive. He made it amply clear that because of the cost saved on labor time, there would be no difference in cost between the traditional method and this modern technique of painting.
Basically, the Berger team has gone beyond the “selling a product” philosophy. They are focusing on selling a service—a complete painting service. Like all good innovative ideas, they identified time-saving as a top priority. To achieve this, they have introduced automated tools and trained professionals to use them effectively, ensuring a highly professional painting experience. These tools not only save time but also ensure efficiency and a uniform spread of paint.
They also have systems in place to make the entire painting process neat and dust-free. As a learning and development professional myself, I really liked the idea of opening training institutes for painters. Skill development is the need of the hour in almost every sector, and experienced corporates stepping in to provide trained manpower is a commendable move.
Of all the machines showcased, the one I liked the most was the sanding machine. The sanding process is usually grueling, with manual laborers slowly and painstakingly sanding walls to make them smooth enough for painting. It takes a lot of time and energy, and because you’re literally scrubbing walls for hours, there’s a massive amount of dust involved. With their tools, Berger has automated the entire process and incorporated mechanisms to suck in most of the dust. This saves time, reduces labor, and largely solves the dust problem.
(Tarun is a great blogger. I’ve always wanted to review his blog here, but the plan keeps getting postponed.)
Bloggers won plenty of awards for their social media posts. I posted a picture as well, but sadly won nothing—again. We were dressed like this for the sanding-a-plyboard activity, and all three of us genuinely believed this was an award-winning picture. We should have won something.
Post Mr. Das’s session, we had team-based activities. Two activities were planned, and the points accumulated in both were used to determine the winner. Sadly, my team stood second and won nothing.
Still, I think our team did pretty well in both tasks. One of the tasks involved smoothing a surface using sandpaper. We managed to get the entire surface cleaned up in a pretty quick time. Tarun rubbed so hard that his gloves wore off.
The second activity involved painting on chart paper.
While other teams were busy discussing ideas for the painting activity—where each team was given a theme, I came up with what I believed was the best idea of all: let’s go on stage and get a team photo clicked.
In this picture, I am discussing painting strategies and color mixing with Ravi. Ravi is a super cool guy and a photographer as well. Our team, which we named Surgical Strikes, got a pretty cool theme, Delhi Diaries.
We were given some awesome colors to play with, along with tips on mixing and using them creatively.
As usual, the day ended on a high note—sad that the event was over, but happy because it was such a great experience and because we were given some goodies to take home 🙂
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