Durban Bloggers Meet

There are certainly perks to being a blogger. Not only do you get to write and rant on about what you love and are most passionate about, but you get to attend some really awesome events! This past Saturday (5 April), I was one of the 25 lucky women bloggers in Durban to attend the DBNBloggerMeet! I am so glad I found out about this event, kept the date free in my diary and hounded one of the organisers. I walked away from this experience with so much, namely; inspiration, new connections, a food experience and a HUGE bag of sponsored goodies!!!

Photo taken by Verushka Ramasami

The event was hosted and sponsored by Hashtag, one of Durban’s new quirky restaurants. I have been looking forward to seeing what this restaurant is like, and can say that I was pleasantly surprised. The décor is a topic to talk about alone, and that for me always makes these kind of experiences just as interesting; they have clearly thought through their décor, as they even have a ‘selfie zone’! I can honestly say that this venue was perfectly fitted for this event! The service and friendliness of those that worked at Hashtag was great, the chef even made his rounds after we all stuffed our faces with their yummy pizzas! Unlike most places that serve their pizzas in the traditional round form, they make their pizzas oval, and serve it on a wooden board with a miniature chalkboard attached to the ‘plate’ – their presentation certainly gave me something to consider when creating my own little photo food shoots! 

I was able to connect with some pretty amazing women, some of which are just as food obsessed as I am! Each person I mingled with gave me something to think about and even inspired me to do more with my blog. Firstly, this event would not have been possible, had it not been for three of the bloggers namely; NicolaMeyer, Verushka Ramasami and Michelle Roberts. Some of the foodie, beauty and lifestyle bloggers I managed to get around to are listed below, and I would encourage you to give their blogs a look through.

lizlaughalot; nadiavdmescht; scorpiogal2610; tomboymedia; Janetennet; becauseican; cleverbirdbanter;  coffeyandcake; happinessisat; guesswhatgirls; snapsizzleandcook; iamtrishpp; girlinthegreenhijab; gijanesa; thesparklinglabyrinth; cuizine; sawomeng; beautyshotbox; Cathjenkin; honestlyhoneybee.

So you may be wondering, what happened at this meet up… besides the mingling, guest speakers from Lenovo gave us a run down on their latest product and even gave away two Lenovo Yoga Tablets. That is, after they got us to state “what we would do for a Lenovo”! So… if you’re wondering why I was tweeting absurd things like running down the road in my underwear, you’ll totally understand my tweets now! Other speakers were Mandy from Kitten Action, and Guy from Fry’s vegetarian food.

Sponsors seriously were over and beyond generous! To kick it all off, I firstly won a huge hamper from Body Shop (one of my favs)! I then could not believe my eyes when Michelle, Verushka and Nicola started walking out with our massive goodie bags at the end. My initial reaction was just SHOCK! I saw the Le Creust bag and almost wet myself with excitement! I am forever oogling over their products so to own my very first Le Creust cup and saucer set, you can imagine how over the moon I was. Sponsors really made me feel like I was on the Oprah show! I was so excited to show my family my big bag of everything that when I arrived home, I left my keys in the ignition, unpacked my goodie bags from the boot and excitedly started unpacking all the gifts on the lounge floor. It was only in the evening that I had realised the keys were still in the car! I really want to THANK each and every sponsor for your generosity and for putting me in a right royal excited spin! 

Anna Louise Sleepwear, Blend Box Body Products, Chocolate Memories, Clarins, Consol, Cooee, Debonairs, Elephant Shoes Stationery, Essentials Magazine, Filo Yoghurt, Fry's Family Food, Golden Cloud, Grazia Mag, Greenleaf Olive Oil, Hashtag DBN, Huawei, Ice Box Colors, John Freida, Le Creuset, Lenovo, Lou Harvey, Madame Macaron, MyScoop, Oh So Heavenly, Optiphi Products, Penguin Books, Pilosophia Botanica, Ponds, Rebelink Studios, REN Skincare, Romantic Events, Rondavel, Royal Dansk, Rubybox Beauty, Second Treasures Decor, Smith's Bake Shop, Stila Beauty, Swee & Moo, Synergy Hair Products, Tasha's Fudge, Thierry Mugler, Thrift Collection, Uber, Wakaberry, Washi Bug, Zomato, and YW Couture.

I can’t wait for the next Blogger Meet up! During this week I will be sharing more from this event (with recipes), so don't go too far!

If you would like to see more images of the event and all the beautiful goodies we all got follow this link to my Facebook page.