Yesterday I attended an uninvited LinkedIn creator’s meetup. Yes, you read it right.

So here is what happened.

The Background story:

A Few days before Anshuman Tiwari a well-known LinkedIn creator announced a LinkedIn creator’s event in Bangalore. I instantly applied for it. I waited for a week to hear about my confirmation.

After a week I got a mail saying they exceeded participants threshold.

And my application was rejected. Which means I can’t go.

Then I came to know about the speakers list. Vipasha was one of the speakers. She was my summit cohort friend. We have been connected with each other online since last 9 months. And helped each other in ways we never even imagined. I immediately texted her asking if she could get a seat for me.

I didn't think much I just asked.

2 days later, on Friday I heard a yes from her. Anshuman was ready to take me in as her N+1.

I got super excited.

Friday night, I took a bus from Chennai and went to Bangalore just for this event.

What happened in the event?

There were 4 speakers who were planned to give speeches. The first speaker Pankaj spoke about networking. His was the only speech where people listened quietly.

Then Vipasha gave her speech, along with a networking activity. The activity was the trigger which even she couldn’t stop. People started speaking with each other and no one was ready to stop connecting. It was happening in an open space, so it was hard to have control. Mics became of no use for the host. On one side the speakers were speaking. People where keenly listening to them.

While one the other side there were last benchers. They didn’t listen to speakers they were busy talking and knowing each other.

I found both the circles quite useful in their own way.

Here are some amazing people I met

• I met Rachit. He was one of the fittest guy I have ever seen. I never expected he would come. He talks about fitness. But I always admired him for his writing. I asked him how he writes so well. He said, he just wrote a lot. A lot.
• Then I met Sai. I used to comment on her post at times. We finally met and she recognized me instantly. She is the one of the sweetest person I have ever met. She is so humble.
• She came with her LinkedIn friend Shiju. He traveled to this event from Kerala. He is 40 but looks 20. He has 20 years of work experience, but he doesn't shows off. Another humble guy. He is a freelance personal branding agent. And he has a separate personal branding community in Kerala.
• While speaking Sai and Shiju ran towards a person to speak. I was confused as I didn't know who he was. He looked like a normal guy, working somewhere & trying to create a name on LinkedIn just like me. Then Sai said, he was the CEO of TopMate. It blew my mind. He was so humble and simple.
• ​Yogesh came from Kolkata. He was one of hosting member. I came to know he is one of the persons who makes such events by inviting LinkedIn's top people.
• Anshuman was a senior professional. He was the host. Yet spoke with everyone so friendly. he was down to earth. When I met him, he asked my name for attendance. I said Yashar and he asked Arafath? Yashar Arafath is my full name. And he knew already, because I am one of the first person to comment on his posts.

I met a dozen of other creators as well whom I wish to talk about. May be, will do that in some other post. We all got connected in LinkedIn instantly. I am not sure how many people will stay actively connected to me for a long time. But I am sure these 2 people Sai and SHiju will be there.

I don't want to list the key take aways from this meeting because I am tired of writing such useless takeaway posts claiming it as a useful ones.

I just felt emotionally, and mentally good. and I wanted to share it with you.

Because this is my diary.

And my diary is open for those who subscribed it.

(Gosh, that’s a shameless marketing😁).

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