Chp 234. Goa Fest 2009

Just got back from Goa Fest 2009 – We won the SILVER ABBYs for best website category, and BRONZE ABBYs for best VIRAL! Wooohoooo!

Apart from these, two other webchutney creatives were among the highly coveted nomination list for India’s most prestigious and reputed “Abbys” Awards – aptly termed the OSCARS of Indian Advertisement Awards!



Look Ma! I’m on Stage!

THE ADVERTISING CLUB BOMBAY ABBY 2009 AT GOAFEST
CATEGORY:17(A) INTERACTIVE DIGITAL ADVERTISING : WEBSITE
NO.	AGENCY	BRAND AND CAPTION	AWARD
32.	JWT India	The Times Of India - Run/Ban Jallikatu	GOLD
37.	Webchutney	Axe Dark Temptation - Axeoggy	SILVER
15.	OgilvyOne WorldWide	Nokia - Way we Work	BRONZE
5.	Interactive Avenues Marketing Solutions Pvt. Ltd.	Travelocity.com - Be An Explorer	BRONZE

You can see the list of winners for various categories here: adclubbombay. O&M lead with 50 Abby’s followed by JWT India with 24. For us digital Ad agencies, we had just two categories, and we got an award in both. Next year, we’ll be back for the two Golds.

Click on picture for higher resolution:



Yeah, clichéd as this might sound, the award was heavier than I thought!



Goa was funnnnnn. Had an amazing time. Crappy journey though. Our ACD Nishi renamed the Tour company “Jaya Travels” as “Jyada Travels” and Jonathan added the Slogan – “Jyada Travels – Making you travel More!” – Because we spent 18+ freaking hours on the road!

Comfortable deluxe AC Bus and all, but taking 18+ hours when others could make it in 12+ hours was simply… torture.

-------------------------------------------

Goa Fest 2009 was held at Cavelossim Beach, but we preferred Palolem Beach as our destination because of the “Shack culture” over there. And boy did we make the right decision! *evil grin*

Staying right by the beach along with hundreds of other tourists was definitely what the doctor ordered to cure office stress. Of course for the other guys (like Ryan), other “stuff” might have “stressed” a bit more due to the “view”, but for me, it sure as hell was relaxing and peaceful.

Some of us stayed at “Big Bamboo” while the rest of us camped at “Big Fish”. Both were equally amazing.



Here’s the Big Bamboo gang mesmerized by the scenery in front of them



Boss is thinking of virals… a very different kinda virals.



“Big Bamboo” even went digital!!!





And here is the other end of the Beach – where the other half of us stayed at “Big Fish”.



Nothing like sitting on those chairs right on the beach with a breezer and a newspaper early in the morning after a heavy night of fenny. I could intrinsically hear symphonic-goth-metal music playing in my head because of the immense beauty & idyllic serenity lying in front of me.



Amazing shacks I’m kidding you not. Even Veera wasn’t feeling husband-sick for a couple of minutes!



Definition of fun? It differed from person to person



After sunset, there were none of those famous Goan bonfire parties at this side of the beach, but there were a lot of Shack parties everywhere. We “shack-hopped” from one place to the other, not even remembering where all we went…



I could have sworn I was speaking fluent German, Spanish, French and Polish at one point of the night. Must be the fenny!



I think there was some mystical cult ritual of sorts going on in the above picture. Anyhoo, I had a blast with fenny, as promised in my previous post. Loved it - both cashew fenny and coconut fenny. The bartender gifted me an empty bottle in the end as a souvenir for (apparently) finishing an entire bottle all by myself! Lolz.

I think he was lying.



Here is me, still feeling the buzz of fenny

Removed my clothes brazenly. Got sun-burnt terribly.



On Saturday morning, we went for a long boat ride visiting all the exotic places around the area like Honeymoon beach, Monkey island, etc and watched dolphins jump out of the water just 5 metres away from us! The scene was truly breathtaking!

Here we are getting ready for the trip. We went in two boats.







Swam on Honeymoon beach too and it was a very romantic swim. Ok I know that sentence didn’t make any sense but I had to talk like that to keep the Goa spirit alive!

Showered and changed the moment we returned and we all went to the Goa Fest for the Grand Abby’s presentation. That was when we won silver and bronze as mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Below are some of my bosses and their happy happy faces.



Hihihi… dude on extreme left is our Tech Head Saket, more famously known as Vulturo in the Indian cyber village. He rocks



Even Madhu, the Capital-18 guy smiled. Which means our recession pay-cut is soon going to be lifted. Wooohooo! Just kidding, but it sure was one heck of a small world when our investor turned out to be my batch-mate from B-School! Lolz. Yeah you should have seen how surprised and shocked we both were that night.

The best part of Goa Fest 2009? The amazing giant outdoor party by the beach filled with funky peeps everywhere conducted on two gargantuan dance floors with two different sets of DJ. House and trance had to be played, after all, it’s an Ad agency party (and if you can’t figure out why I said that, then you are not cut out for advertisement )

I had around 16 liquor coupons left at the end of the party which I didn’t utilize! The food was amazingggg too and the length of the buffet tables stretched for almost a mile! (at least that’s what it felt like at 4 in the freaking morning after dancing your brains out)



Love this next picture! Guess who?



I could have sworn I saw a girl with light bulbs flashing everywhere on her dress on the dance floor, with wings on her side (!) and a face of an angel, but then I thought I must have been hallucinating due to… my age, until I saw this pic again. Phew, what a relief! She really was there!



Here’s a masterpiece snap taken by Mr. Jonathan, our in-house voyeur photographer! (Some say he’s the guy behind desibaba…)



How I wish I had taken my friend Zualbonez’s advice in my previous post who commented, “Go to the beach with a towel and oil bottle and say you’re a masseur. That’s a definite babe-magnet.” Lolz! Top that up with this whole mystical “Kimasutra” theory and I’m King Solomon for a day!

I’ll end this post with a quick limerick

            Standing all alone in the waters of Goa,
            trying to avoid a snake or a barracuda.
            I suddenly turned around
            hearing a hissing sound…
            It was the CEO relieving his Anaconda!




Wooohooo!!! Goa roxxx, webchutney roxxx, our CEO roxxx, and we’ll be back next year for our two Golds. Keep that in mind peeps!