Tata Grande indiblogger meet Chennai

Tata Motors have rebranded Sumo Grande as Tata Grande and in association with Indibloggers, had organized a bloggers' meet in Chennai yesterday. I accidentally spotted the announcement in Indiblogger and quickly registered in time. The agenda looked exciting, because of one component- 10 bloggers will get to drive a Tata Grande from showroom till the venue (Hyatt Regency, Chennai)

Also this was my first Indiblogger meet experience. Had missed out on few previous meets. I walked in into Concorde Motors showroom in Velachery, (same place where we'd driven in during Nano Superdrive) met Indiblogger representative, Vishal. Vishal works as a musician in UK and is on a holiday in Chennai at present. We enjoyed our snacks while waiting for others.

Eventually we were given a demo of Grande and were offered a drive. I almost grabbed the keys from the salesman :) Ram was driving another grande ahead of me. He knocked down a parked bike while turning and eventually got a cool laptop skin for the same (poor me, if I knew about this, I could have knocked down bigger things). We drove all the way to Anna Salai, the big grande did command lot of respect on road, as smaller vehicles willingly allowed me to take priority while changing lanes or turning. Grande also has best in class turning radius (5.25 meters) and 3rd row space.

Below: Me talking about Grande experience. (Photo courtesy: Indiblogger)

We reached the hotel by 1PM, good number of bloggers were already present. Looked like most of the people who registered did turn up. Good to see bloggers in person hitherto seen only online. However event started 1 hour late due to reasons not known to me. Meanwhile someone tweeted that he didn't get the welcome juice and Indiblogger team ensured that he got one.

I liked the idea of these two banners- trying to convey that Grade is indeed big. Kudos to whoever conceptualized this.

Indiblogger generously gives away gift items. You have high chances of winning few of those, worth a few hundred bucks, if you're creative/funny/talented etc. After recognizing few participants who came in from far away cities, randomly selected people were given 45 seconds to introduce themselves. About 45% audience did get to do this I guess.

There were some talks about the sponsoring vehicle, Tata grande. Tata has decided to do away with sumo tag on this vehicle and position it as luxury family vehicle, one level below Safari. New grande has minor tweaks compared to outgoing MK II- besides chrome grille, chrome door handle and few other changes rest all remaining the same.

Back to the event, participants were encouraged to take creative pics with the vehicle and post it online. Good marketing initiative- brand gets publicity, some lucky people get some prizes and everyone talks about the brand while participating. As seen below, participants identified creative ways to click.

I also liked the idea of this T- shirt

Grande Engine- notice the pump like device-comes handy in case of air block. Grande has the same engine as in Safari but tuned down for better fuel economy.

After the break me and Ram got to speak about our experience of driving the car from showroom to venue. I talked for a few minutes and got a trendy speaker set for this adventure.

Audience were briefed about the concept of blogalogues- stage factory team which had converted blog posts into plays earlier. After that, people were grouped under couple of topics of their interest and were allowed to have a discussion. A photo session later and last but not the least, collect your Indiblogger t-shirt (cleverly kept at the end to discourage people from escaping earlier? )

Did miss my smartphone and ability to live tweet. Felt like 19th century to take down details on an ordinary phone.

Spoke to few fellow bloggers and Tata motors officials. Got to know what is lined up in their stable and other issues. It was Sunday afternoon well spent.

Also check: Tata Aria photoshoot Set 1 and set 2 * Aria Pride 4x4 Review *