Edit: Forgot to add a video that this blogger made on the event. Have added it below.
When we first started Nuffnang Australia two years ago, lots of people thought we were going to fail. Sure, Australia has a billion dollar digital ad industry and sure marketers there are very forward thinking. But…. are there even enough bloggers there?
Blogging in Australia is nowhere as strong as in Asia. Still we did some research and felt that there are enough bloggers in Australia. They won’t be easy to find and there was nothing like a Nuffnang there to put them altogether yet… but we knew if we tried hard enough we’ll be able to find bloggers that are as passionate as the ones back here in Asia.
Two years later, Nuffnang Australia organized it’s largest event ever (and I gather it’s the largest blogger event in Australia to date). It was called Nuffnang Blogopolis. We had 300 bloggers there from all over Australia fly in just for this.
It was held at Fed Square at this place called ZINC.
Nuffnang Blogopolis was among the first of our more serious kind of events. Rather than the parties and dinners we normally have, this one was a conference about blogging. Bloggers went there to learn a bit of everything about blogging. Things from tools of the trade, to how to monetize your blogs, debates on Editorials vs Advertorials and even skills like how to improve content on your blog, photography tips or overcome writer’s block.
At first I thought that I would go there and listen to things that I probably already know about… having blogged for about 4 years now. But I was wrong. I learned so much about everything that one day. I hardly got enough sleep the night before so I was afraid I might fall asleep at some point in the day but I was wide awake the whole time, intrigued by whatever was shared there by the speakers.
There were lots of really famous speakers there. From Arnold of MrGadget, Lady Melbourne and I even met for the first time, Darren Rowse of Problogger.
I remember Problogger when I first started blogging some 5-6 years ago. He was among the first high profile full-time bloggers… who decided to not only make blogging his passion or hobby but his job. I gather he does really well for himself too. He became an inspiration for a lot of Malaysian bloggers I knew back then to go on full time blogging as well.
Our Country Manager for Nuffnang Australia is David Krupp.
He’s known all around for being really suave and charming… but when he gave his opening speech… he tried to be as serious as he could.. with a few jokes along the way. David used to work for MySpace before he joined us two years ago. Ever since he’s been an asset in growing the company to what it is today.
Of course I also met some old friends there. One of them Violet… the pretty lady in red here.
She was one of the bloggers who flew in for our Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards in Singapore back in 2009. She dresses very differently from most Australians and is a big fan of Japanese-sy things… fashion included.
So much that she often feels like she was born in the wrong country. Heh… her bf told me that she even teaches herself and practices Japanese before she sleeps every night.
Picture here with Violet, her bf and Grace… who did lots of cheering that day!
Here’s a picture I took of some of the goodie bags that were given out that day.
The day before I saw the Nuffies there packing everything into a 4WD just to bring it over. Also got a picture of some of light food we had during the coffee breaks.
The thing that really kept me occupied almost the whole day was watching our Twitter hashtag for the event #nnb2011. All around the venue we had big screens or LCD TVs that showed everyone a live update about what people were saying about the event on Twitter. There was so much chatter on Twitter I think it must’ve been like 1 tweet for every 1 second or so.
So much that eventually not only did #nnb2011 go trending in Twitter Australia but so did the word “Blogger” and basically the Twitter handle of almost every speaker who went up on stage each time.
Nuffnang Blogopolis was definitely one of the best Nuffnang Events I had ever been to (among my favourites are the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards 2009 and Nuffnang Chipster Pajama Party). It was also the first event where we actually sold tickets for. Each blogger had to buy a ticket that cost A$100 which is about RM330. Reading the feedback though, everyone seemed to think it was the best 100 bucks they ever spent.
I’m so proud of the Nuffies in Australia and just at how much progress Nuffnang Australia has made since it started. Well done guys! Proud of you all!
If you want to see more pictures of Nuffnang Blogopolis 2011, click here for the official photos. Much better than my photos that were just taken with my phone camera hehehe.
You can also get a feel of Nuffnang Blogopolis 2011 from this video that a blogger there made 🙂
Unfortunately there weren’t any official pictures taken at the Post-event drinks because… well I heard everyone got drunk and “what happens at the Nuffnang Blogopolis 2011 Post-Event Drinks Stays at the Nuffnang Blogopolis 2011 Post-Event-Drinks”.
And yes everyone… we’re planning to do a Nuffnang Blogopolis in all the other countries we’re in too in future 🙂
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space