We were recently invited to the Social Media Summit & Awards (SMSA) 2018 at Amravati, Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh. The event was an initiative of the Tourism Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh. We took an early morning flight from Delhi and reached Vijaywada at about 8.30 am. A brief check-in and freshening up at the nice hotel we were put up, the organisers sent the pick-up cars for the summit.

Vijayawada is a cosy city. The places are not far. While being driven to the summit venue, we saw that the roads were broad and very clean. No random dumpsters or encroachment even inside localities. No wonder the drive was smooth and we reached our destination soon.

When we reached, the hall was swarming with social media enthusiasts. They had a host of comments, and more so, queries in terms of social media usage and engagement. The queries were deftly handled by the panelists comprising industry experts like officers from Air Asia, Oyo Rooms, and Tourism wing of the government. In fact, Air Asia gifted travel vouchers to select audience for asking illuminating questions. But the show-stopper of the day had to be Swara Bhaskar from Bollywood. She is extremely active on social media and speaks out on issues close to her heart. Swara was candid in saying that given her social media activism, she is also more conscious about the acting projects she takes up onscreen.

The event concluded with an awards ceremony at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, Vijayawada next evening. It was 5 minutes drive from our hotel. We thought there was a strong Bollywood influence in the proceedings here. But we later realised this was more of Tollywood (read “Telegu Cinema”). A host of movie stars from the South Indian film industry was present at this initiative by the Chandrababu Naidu government. The showstopper for this evening was Kareena Kapoor. She dropped by to receive the SMSA style icon awards. And given her impressive stage presence, we could see it was well-deserved. The event oozed glamour with a certain warmth we miss in the huge cauldron called Delhi NCR.

Post the summit, the organisers graciously hosted us for an extra day for our own things – touring, shopping etc. And we indeed managed to cover a lot. Do watch out for our next post on this.

Meanwhile, we are extremely honoured for being made a part of the Social Media Summit & Awards (SMSA) 2018 and wish to thank the bundle of energy Asha and GetEvangelized team for making this such a cherishing experience.

To watch the videos an more posts about this event check out our Instagram channel.