How I played at DovePlay – My experience at the Indiblogger Dove Meet

I have been a blogger since 2004. In all this period, I have made lots of blogger friends, met a few of them but have never attended a full fledged blogger’s meet. Every time there would be a meet, I would have a clashing meeting, family event or work related travel! So this time when I saw the invite for Indiblogger’s DovePlay meet, I made up my mind to attend it come what may. And boy, am I glad or what!

The week leading up to the event was harrowing at best and I was really looking forward to the event. It was a chance to get away for an afternoon and network with other bloggers. On the eve of the event, I opened the invite again to look at the time and realised there was a dress code! They wanted us to wear white. OMG… came a panic attack! I was rummaging through my wardrobe when I realised I was suffering from the classic ‘I Have Nothing To Wear Syndrome’. Hubs came to the rescue by pointing at the silk top and jacket set he picked up for me during his travels 🙂 Happily, I retired for the night.

The next morning brought on a huge pounding headache and wave after wave of nausea. I wanted to curl under my bed covers and not move a muscle the whole day. I was upset at missing the event but not sure if I could make it. An noon, I asked hubs and he told me to go. I could always return sooner if I didn’t feel well. And so after an hour of deliberation, I donned my white top, blow dried my hair, slapped my favorite lipstick on and set out to attend the event!

Once I reached JW Marriott, the first thing I noticed was the sea of white inside the business centre. There were lots of women milling about. I could see the kiosks set up with iPads and photo booths with quirky glasses and shiny hats.

Hats & Glasses

To the left was a selection of finger foods and chaat! That itself told me this was going to be a well thought out event – an all women event has to have paani puri. No? And while I was registering, I saw Bhumika and started chatting with her. She asked me if Suma is there yet. That’s when it hit me. This was a women’s event organised by Dove. Of course my beauty blogger buddies were going to be there!!!!

Jyoti, Suma, Apurva and Anks

With endless glasses of wine, a few bites to eat and lots of beauty talk we proceeded to the ball room. Festooned with balloons, this place was where we formed our teams. We were Team 4 and decided to call ourselves Curls! The session kicked off with an energetic Zumba session and then began the DovePlay 🙂

Zumba – Spot Me!

I spent the next three hours Playing… literally… We did the Birdy Dance, played in a Ball Pitt, did a larger than life Jigsaw, and then did up each other’s hair. Each one of us felt like a life size doll then! I made friends with Disha and Anuradha from team curls 🙂

DovePlay Games

That is not all! They had a twitter contest going on and we were to give the running commentary of the event. It was fun to see tweet after tweet hashtagged with #DovePlay scroll by on the screen. We tweeted so much that #DovePlay started trending that evening!! Quite a feat for 150 women busy doing so many other activities!! We were also asked to spot the Dove Brand Managers and I had met one thanks to my beauty blogger buddies. Guntaas was a fun girl who was happily getting clicked with everyone who asked. She struck a Bhangda pose with me in true blue punjabi style!

With the Dove Lady Guntaas

And then, we moved to the Dove salon! The room that had professional stylists giving everyone makeovers. This was the part I was most looking forward to really. I got my hair curled in true spirit of our team’s name… My stylist was extremely careful and did a great job with my short hair. I got such a vintage looking curl…

Before and After

From the salon, we moved to the Bartending class where Pranay, a cute looking guy gave us a crash course in mixing drinks. Shivani, was our team’s rep to the event and she concocted a delicious mix that both me and Bhumika lapped up after the event 🙂

Bartenders!

We were famished after all that playing and a scrumptious buffet awaited us. While we ate and mingled, I caught some gossip with Suma and Jyoti. Then came a dance performance and the crystal maze! Finally, the evening drew to an end. The efficient Indiblogger team kicked into high gear and arranged cabs to drop the ladies home. They instructed the drivers to drop us at the doorstep. Nihal gave his number to all the ladies in the cab and reminded us to have the last one off call him and conform that everyone was dropped safe and sound. These guys thought of everything!

Our parting gift was a goody bag of hair products include Dove Intense Repair Shampoo & Conditioner, a Philips straightener a dove pin 🙂 After all the pampering, the gifts were totally unexpected! You can read more about the intense repair range here. The next morning I used the products in my hair and they felt so soft and bouncy that I was sure that I can play with my hair as much as I like. Dove would indeed take care of the damage…

Today, as I think back about the event, there were women of all ages, shapes and sizes… from the 20 year old Prerna to Bienu who came with her teenage daughter. From beauty and fashion bloggers to chefs and travel writers. All of us came together and left feeling like princesses. We played care free and were made to look lovely and looked after. Each of one us made friends that day and am sure some of these friendships with last with more Play Dates to come. Thank you Dove and Indiblogger!