Pesta Blogger 2009 – Review of the Blogger Party

Pesta Blogger Fun Times!

I’m now back home after my fantastic trip throughout Indonesia in October 2009. This culminated with the Pesta Blogger 2009 conference on Saturday 24 October.

Basically, Pesta Blogger means ‘Blogger Party’, and conference is a loose interpretation.  The whole day is related to all things about blogging, and sharing new and interesting ideas on the direction of blogging within Indonesia.  I was even involved in a panel on photo blogging and using photos to back up the writing.

But I mentioned I was a writer that takes photos, not a photographer who writes!

The previous night was spent having dinner at the United States Ambassador’s residence – as the U.S Embassy was the major sponsor of Pesta Blogger.

This dinner was somewhat swish for me, as I’d spent the previous few weeks eating the excellent food off the street.

But this was still nice!  I was even allowed to take this shot of the main boardroom without being interrogated!  Seriously, it was pretty relaxed.

Saturday involved about 1200 participants from throughout Indonesia in the Blogger Party.   The atmosphere, like last year, was buzzing and I had a chance to meet loads of fantastic people.

Here are some photos from the conference:

The main conference room.

Even a Storm trooper turned up to celebrate.  I’m not sure why.

Just imagine wearing this plastic suit of sweat in 30 degree Celsius heat and 80% humidity.

This photo was taken with Tristram from the U.S. Embassy.  The Storm Trooper even managed a shot with the newly appointed Indonesian Minister for Technology.

Like last year, I had many interviews with the press – here is one with Tito from Radio Australia.

I caught up with old friends that I had previously stayed with throughout my trip.

And I had my photo taken with loads of Pesta Blogger participants. Just Google Image ‘The Travel Tart’ and I’m sure there will be approximately 200,000 results from Indonesia posted in the next couple of weeks.

Like last year, everyone is genuine and passionate about whatever the like blogging about.  And this year’s Pesta Blogger was another good excuse to network with like-minded people and add another tonne of people to Facebook and/or Twitter.

I could see complete strangers helping each other out throughout the day, which is pretty much reflective of my entire trip here to Indonesia.

More Pesta Blogger Stuff

You can see more about the conference at the official Pesta Blogger site.  You might need to use Google Translate to see what’s going on. Or try this Indonesian Phrasebook.

Anyway, one more post about the trip is left, so stay tuned.

Oh, and you can fly Air Asia to get to Indonesia from many places in their ever expanding network. Check out their website for a cheap airfare somewhere!