#NokiaWorld Roundup: Pt. 2 – Socialising

Figured I’d put together a little less formal of a post, just to let you guys know what I got up to whilst I was there. Sure Ali will probably do the same, so you can get a huge idea of the great time we all had! Turns out while I was writing up mine, he posted his! If you don’t want to see photos of people and places – stop reading now.

We stayed on Yas Island, right next to the Marina and Formula 1 track. This was my view at breakfast every day! If only it were next weekend, we would have seen some racing :p

I was separate from the other bloggers, being with the Media crew – got to meet a whole variety of comms/media folk from Nokia, as well as people like Sam and Daniel from WPCentral, Tom Warren from The Verge and THE Rafe Blandford. I arrived super early Monday morning, so after a little nap (an hour or so) I decided to start my day, by heading over to the bloggers’ hotel and say G’Day!

Jason (@Smashpop), Steve (@psychomania666) and Jade (@jadejavu)

That night, we were taken into the city and treated to dinner at Quest in Etihad tower. This place was phenomenal! It was a dinner just for the media folks from APAC (both Nokia media and externals – like myself). Managed to get a pic with Alvin (APAC comms), Richard (Engadget) and Simran (PAN Asia comms). (Dress code was smart or UAE national dress and, well, Richard pulled it off if you ask me!)

Nokia definitely knows how to throw an event! Managed to get in there early, and saved the whole front row for a few other bloggers, such as Mark Guim, Ali, CJ, Jason and Lenny. Sadly I didn’t manage to snap any pics of the showcase area, but I’m sure you could find some if you wanted to. Here’s a pic of CJ and I.

Dean from Nokia Music was in the house, and we managed to snag a pic next to him, alongside @Psychomania666, CJ, Jason, Stephen Quin, Lenny (Nokia Innovation), Colm (Irelands Tech Blog) and Jimmy (Nokia News EIRE) – oh and another Nokia Music guy (I think his name was Mark – probably wrong though).

On the evening of the keynotes, we were treated to a night at a nearby beach club. Mini golf, fire dancers, volleyball, fireworks, DJ, food, alcohol – it had all! It was great to be able to relax after a long day, as well as interact with Nokia staff on a more personal level, especially after how hard they worked to get everything to run smoothly and get us all there.

Here’s a few pics of the fireworks from my Lumia 925.

Being separate from the other bloggers, meant we did different things. Whilst they visited the Grand Mosque, we were a little less humble – but it was definitely some amazing fun!

Nokia took us out into the desert, smack bang in the middle of nowhere. Sand running in every direction, as far as our eyes could see. We were greeted by 4WDs, and driven even further into the sandy abyss.

There, we had an authentic Arabic lunch, and take part in awesome activities. My favourite was definitely the quad bike driving around the sand dunes. Daniel Rubino and I decided to go for the pink quads – little did we know they were 200cc (vs the 125cc bikes everyone else had) – WOO!

They also had a few camels which we got to ride. It was a – umm – interesting experience. :p Here’s a pic Rafe Blandford managed to snap of me, then I of him.

Despite being uncoordinated as anything, I thought it would be smart to try sand boarding (snow boarding but on sand). This was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done! I did stack it more than once, but you just laugh, get up, and do it all again.

To quote looney tunes – that’s all folks! There are a few more pics we’ve got with some other folk, and we’ll update it when we can. Massive thanks goes out to Nokia for organising an amazing week, and for inviting us to take part!

Category: Event, Fun, Launch, Lumia, Nokia