Mohitinhere @ IOAC 2004 ( Mumbai ) - I

• The email invite for IOAC 2004 to be held in Mumbai in Hilton Towers on Oct 1 ( Friday )came in on Sept 28th ( Tuesday).
• I made up my mind to go and attend the conference on late night on 29th Sept ( Wednesday )
• Today ,I left for Mumbai from Delhi boarding a Jet Airways Flight at 8:30 in the night( finally I decided upon meeting my Travel Agent and getting a booking from him - since I made my plan on Wednesday evening 29th Sept only , it was very very hectic day for me. I need to wrap up and close all the tasks on my hand. Just to give a list of things I completed on 30th Morning (Thursday 1st Half )
• Booked Flight tickets after conducting a practical-review-of-all-the-domestic-airlines-in-india and their websites and online booking engines.Posted the same on my Blog !!!!! ( If you think I am a BLOG freak - well YES I AM and I am very proud of it. !!!! )
• Finally I booked return tickets - I plan to return back on Oct 1(Fri) or Oct 2(Sat) night
• Booked a Hotel Room in Hilton Towers itself. I thought it would be very convenient for me , since I could land in Mumbai at 10:30P.M in the night - reach the hotel - have a rest and sleep and get ready to attend the conference in the morning in the same hotel only. Mumbai had a bad reputation for traffic and I didnt wanted to take any chances.I didnt wanted to miss the starting keynote from Mr Ajit Balakrishnan (Chairman and CEO Rediff.com www.rediff.com ) . Hence I decided against flying in the morning and instead decided to take overnite room in the venue itself ( expensive but I hoped the conference would be worth the effort)
• Answered emails and sent pending tasks requests to my clients and colleagues.
• Got a Hair cut ( Since I had been too busy for last 2 weeks ,hence my hair came into the category of pony tails literally )
• Packed my luggage
• Travelled to Connaught place from my home to collect my tickets from the Travel Agent
• Worked till 6 am the previous night and slept for 2 hours only . Got up at 8 am . ( you would know this to be a miracle if you know me well)

Just for the record my main reasons for going and attending IOAC 2004 :

• Fabulous sessions planned throughout the day 9:30am - 6:30 pm http://www.ioaindia.com/ioac_session.html
• The best speakers and WHO-s-WHO of the Internet Industry in India were presenting , moderating and attending the event. Some people who have indirectly inspired me to be a part of this industry and whom I have always come to admired are going to be present. To name a FEW - Mr Ajit Bala-Rediff.com , Mr Neeraj Roy- http://www.Hungama.com www.indiafm.com , Mr Andre Nair-GroupM .
• I wanted to "network" with some potential clients and some prospects whom I believe would be definately attending.
• Mumbai !!!! ( An Oppurtunity to be in this great /exciting city over a weekend - was tempting )
• Meeting new freinds I have made in Mumbai through my blogging adventures ( Kaushal from Hungama.com being one of them )
• Meeting some other clients/freinds