In January 2014, I was asked about arranging an event for Durban lady bloggers. Having worked on Cookie Swap last year, I do know how much of time, work and effort goes into an event. I sat on the fence until I approached Michelle and Nicola to come on board as part of the team. It was a constant arrival of emails, tweets, whatsapps on a daily basis and now that the event is over I miss it 😦
As soon as we tweeted about the possibility of an event did we get the Durban ladies saying yes and how excited they were. Our next point of business was picking a date and a venue (read about Hashtag).
The team pooled our contacts together and started working on sponsors. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would have so many generous and amazing sponsors come on board for our event. It was only when we got to Michelle’s house to pack did we realise how much stuff we actually had. And yes it was like an Oprah moment creating 25 bags of treats/gems for our bloggers.
The status quo is that Durban and Durban bloggers are not considered for product launches BUT after this event this weekend I am sure its going to change! Â The hashtag #DBNbloggermeet trended in South Africa as well as #LoveYourLenovo.
The much anticipated day arrived and Durban pulled out all stops in terms of fab weather. Joining us for the event were 3 of our sponsors and Mandy from Kitten Action the charity we decided to support. Our venue hosts, Hashtag were so generous that we were not charged anything for our food and drinks and it was then we decided to support Kitten Action by donating kitten food and R50 per blogger to her charity.
Prior to the event Uber ran a twitter competition and gave away a luxury VIP pick up and drop off to the event. This got all the ladies tweeting and wanting to be spoilt. Little did the ladies know how much spoils they were in for. At the start of event, Mandy told us about the charity we were supporting and how our contributions would help. This was very touching and thank you to all our lovely ladies for supporting especially Shirley who was very generous.
Then Carly and Monique from Lenovo who had flown in especially from JHB to join us chatted to us. Carly explained to us about the amazing giveaway they were going to run at the event and give away their new Yoga Tablet. We were asked to tweet what would we do to win. For once it was not considered anti social as we all were glued to our phones. I will be reviewing the Yoga Tablet soon, so I won’t be sharing any info on the product now. The response and tweets were amazing that Lenovo surprised us by giving away not 1 BUT 2 Tablets.
Brett from Frys Foods joined us telling us about their products and importance of meat free Mondays.
Karen from Philospica Botanic spoke to us about their products and soon to be opening Spa in Durban.
Then it was time for food, laughs and lots more talking and tweeting. Throughout the morning, giveaways were taking place and every lady went away with a gift. And then the most anticipated moment our hidden huge LeCreuset bright orange goodie bags were brought out.
It was heartwarming to see how excited the ladies were and their squeals of joy discovering LeCreuset goodies. The #DBNbloggermeet was a great event meeting new and old blogging friends.
A big thank you to all our generous sponsors and finally a bigger than big THANK to Michelle and Nicola my Dream Team for all your hardwork and support in making this event a success and a great day for all much love and gratitude.
Ciao xxx
Spicegoddess 