Right… this post is going to make all the men puke and perhaps many girls go gaga over. But than, I think some guys might be going gaga more than the girls. Yes! A couple of my guy friends told me prolong starring at Yongfook might turn a straight guy gay! Guys should beware of Yongfook as he might turn you gay, or he might turn your girlfriend away from you.

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The last two weeks passed by in a flash, and I could hardly remember what happened during the last two days at Blogout! 2009. My mind is filled with more emotion than knowledge, which shouldn’t happen since Blogout09 was a learning session. Perhaps its the time, energy and effort put into the event and the adrenaline rush over the two days that was too overpowering for my weakening heart and mind.

Two days before Christmas last year, I met up with a few guys (officially) for the first time. I was told about their plans for Blogout 09, an event too close to my passion to miss, and that’s when I started my first project with The Digital Movement (TDM).

It took us 2 months of countless emails, gtalking and late night meetings to put the show together. The experience with TDM had been a love-hate journey. But I’ve to thank Howie, President of TDM, to give me the opportunity to be part of the team.

Apart from the love-hate journey with the organising team, the planning process was an adventure on its own. When we started putting together the list of speakers we hope to invite for Blogout09, I was tasked to handle the contacting and putting together of the event’s program. My first for such an event in term of scale and format. Indeed quite a challenge. But with support and discussion with the team, we decided on it, and I started the exciting part, getting in touch with Yongfook and Joel Postman. Both experts in their areas and interests. One whom I’d been a fan for sometimes now, and now I’ve converted him as my inspiration. (Yah! I want to be as hot as him!) So you can imagine the excitement in me when I dropped him that first invitation email to fly to Singapore! Let’s keep the crazy fan talk for another post. Moving on to Blogout09…

When Blogout09 day finally arrived, the 48 hours that followed was like living in a roller coaster ride. Seeing the many new faces on the two days makes me very happy. This means we’re not only living in a world made up of the same few people which we see at almost any other blogging/ social media related events. This means that there are many out there who are as interested and wanting to learn more about the mystery and science behind this new generation of media. This means that there’s good hope for the future of social media and blogging or whatever we should call it in years to come. Just visualizing this makes me a very happy person.

So why did I say that it ended with a mixed of emotions? Well, at the end of the two days, I was happy cause most of those who came were happy, I was sad because it was over, I was excited cause of the many possibilities waiting ahead, I was smitten-ed, I was hopeful for what’s to come with TDM, I was angry as some things could have been better carried out, I was tired due to lack of sleep, I was kinda lost too! Anyway, these feelings will be sorted out soon.

Much have been discussed and brought up during the two days. Some can be found on twitter at #blogout09. Hoping to continue the discussions too from the two days, a discussion board has been set up in facebook. Let’s see if the offline conversations at Blogout09 can be brought online and carrying it on till the next meetup.

I’m going to be spending more time over the next couple of days (or even weeks) to reflect and think about the points I’d noted. Don’t want to clutter everything under a single post. Else this post might only go live two weeks after Blogout!

While I carry on pondering about the things I learned from this experience, here are some photos from Day 1…

The amazing audience and friends

The new way of photocopying

Yongfook goofing while camwhoring

Yongfook, me and Joel

More mobile uploaded photos can be found here for Day 1 and Day 2 and the rest on flickr. I’m sure there’ll be more photos to come as the other photographers share them.