Networking Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Undefined Declarations

Random Post: Where is He?!

In Dubai, I can say that I mostly live the expat life. This means that although I’m Saudi and from this region, my lifestyle is not exactly similar to that of most local or Arab people. Since I’m single and living alone, I get the opportunity to explore the places and do the activities that I choose to do. I spend my free time doing things that I usually plan in advance with my expat friends. Yes, most of my friends are expats from different nationalities and backgrounds. And most importantly, I get to meet new people on a regular basis. I think that one of the great aspects of living in cosmopolitan Dubai is the possibility to meet and network with people from all around the world, to exchange cultural knowledge and to build an ever-expanding network of friends and business contacts.

Now I can’t complain much, because I’ve always enjoyed being independent and free from my parents’ obsessive controlling ways, but these days, I can’t help but feel exhausted, tired and in a way…hopeless!

Maybe it’s the accumulated stress of taking an undergraduate course at a University located at the other end of town from where I live, trying to update the blog whenever I get the chance, and making sure that my Facebook Page stays alive and my followers engaged and entertained.

But lately, I have been feeling an increased sense of loneliness and solitude creeping up on me, I am no longer enjoying my personal space and freedom as much as I used to, the idea of being single and free doesn’t appeal to me that much, and most of all, I’m fed up and tired of all the responsibilities that come with being single in the city!

Actually, it’s not my first time to talk about this subject, you might remember my post on my visit to a legendary spiritual temple in Hong Kong. While there, I even prayed for a husband and specifically made the prayers on the male statue which is believed to save single women! you can read all about that post here.

They say that you’ll meet that special someone when you stop looking and start doing the things that you love most. Well, that’s precisely what I’ve been doing all of my life! I was never actively looking or putting effort into that area of my life. I was always focused on career and education, and am proud to say that I still am. I constantly had other priorities in life, and still do!

So could it be that that’s the main reason that the Universe still didn’t bring that person my way? that maybe I need to start putting more effort into attracting him into my life? do I need to implement or follow some strategies that will bring us closer together? 😀

Here’s a short video from Sex and the City that summarizes what I’m trying to say in this post (note: the early dating part doesn’t exactly apply to my story):

Sex and the city – Charlotte

Of all the elements that being single brings, the one that I mostly despise is having to act as both a lady and a man in one person’s body. By saying this I am talking about the endless responsibilities that come with living alone and having to do everything by yourself. Therefore, if you are ‘the one’ and you happen to be reading this, I would highly suggest that you are prepared for the following responsibilities:

All technical and computer related issues.
Handling the payment of utility and services bills.
All legal matters (anything that requires preparing important documents and submitting them to official entities. Example: Visa application process).
All rent related issues. These could range from looking for an apartment, to viewing it, to negotiating a contract, to signing the agreement and everything in between.
Setting up stuff, assembling furniture, connecting electronic devices. (and of course maintenance and fixing when anything goes wrong).
All travel bookings, hotel reservations and other travel related arrangements.
Help in grocery shopping and general stuff around the house.

Now that I’ve got that sorted out, I would like to ask you ladies (single, engaged, married): What are your views on being single and emotional stability and security? Do you think that it’s possible to be single and living alone and still feel emotionally stable? how do you cope with loneliness in the city? who do you turn to for moral support? how significant is sharing your life with a partner is to you? at what stage of your life did you feel at your most happy and secure?

And finally, in searching for or finding that special someone, what did you find has worked most for you?

I conclude this post with the ever popular Rihanna and “Where Have You Been”:

Where Have You Been- Rihanna

A huge thank you to the highly talented photographer at Pink Pepper Photography for the images used in this post 🙂

Stay tuned to my Facebook Page for more images from that fun photo shoot at Pink Pepper Photography studios!

Career Life: Barajeel Bloggers Lounge Meetup :)

Let me start by giving you a short history about my meetup.com story. Before living in Dubai, I didn’t know what meetup was. A few friends that I met in Dubai told me about it and were suggesting that I join the site to meet new people and make new friends. But since I was and still am on a journey of changing careers and trying to become financially independent, meeting new people and making new friends wasn’t exactly at the top of my priority list. Thankfully, I find it easy to meet new people and make friends without needing to join a social networking site for that.

Then, I read about The Dubai Writers’ meetup group in a magazine and decided to join them and attend their meetups! You can read about that here. My meetups with that group didn’t last for long though. And since then, I haven’t joined or attended another meetup.

That changed today when my dear friend from the blog What I Just Love told me about the Barajeel Bloggers Lounge meetup group. Which is a newly launched group created to bring together bloggers from the city of Dubai in an effort to exchange ideas and discuss blogging tips and tools.

It was my first meetup with the group. And I must say that we had a very interesting and engaging discussion. We all had different ideas to share, and everyone was happy to contribute and talk about their personal blogging experience. Meetups are always a great opportunity to meet like-minded people who share your passions, interests, goals and aspirations.

Honestly, I look forward to our next meetup and I would recommend this meetup to any bloggers in the area who are interested in sharing and discussing ideas.

I must admit, that although It may have taken me a while to learn the right way to do things in an international city like Dubai, I’m glad that I have found the path eventually. I’m also greatly thankful to the Universe and GOD for bringing the events and people that are relevant to my goal closer to me. And for constantly reminding me that I’m not alone in this challenging, yet fun and exciting ride.

If you are a blogger who is interested in joining this meetup group, go to the following link and join us!

http://www.meetup.com/Barajeel-Bloggers-Lounge/

Undefined Declarations Hosts The Carnival of Weekend Wanderings!

I’m delighted to be hosting the Carnival of Weekend Wanderings on July 4. It’s a very interesting and fun concept that brings together bloggers of all genres and allows a way for us to get introduced to other bloggers and their pages. I have personally found it a great opportunity to make new friends from the blogging community through the Carnival Blog. You never know who you will meet next; it could be someone who lives in your neighborhood or city.

Of course the blog carnival also helps to promote other blogs and drive more traffic into them. It’s also a great way to find out about what others have been up to in their weekend, and possibly get inspired by their story 🙂

“The Carnival of Weekend Wanderings” is a publication of posts once every two weeks about your weekend answering the simple questions:

Where did you go? What did you do?

To participate in the next blog carnival, all you need to do is to submit the link for your weekend blog post on the following submission form:

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_16781.html

If the above website is down, you can send your article links directly to my e-mail: undefineddeclarations at gmail dot com

To know more about the Carnival of Weekend Wanderings, check out Grace from Sandier Pastures‘s post about it here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on this post or drop me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing your weekend stories 🙂

The Ultimate Blog Party!

Thanks to Sandier Pastures helpful and entertaining posts, I found out about The Ultimate Blog Party. Which is basically a virtual gathering for all types of bloggers from around the world. It’s an opportunity to meet new bloggers, discuss relevant topics, and of course drive more traffic into your blog. The party also includes online live events on Twitter and Google+ for any one interested to join. The first step in joining the blog party is to simply write a party post about yourself and your blog, and then add the link to the list of blogs under the matching category for your blog topic.

So, here’s a brief about me and my blog:

My name is Nada, I’m originally from Saudi Arabia and I live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I started this blog in September of last year and I have been blogging regularly since then. I like to consider myself a lifestyle blogger. I mainly write about daily life events and stories. Mostly, I cover various types of events taking place in my city; Dubai. These events could range from art or fashion exhibitions, live music shows, publishing related events, or self-development seminars and talks.

The main reason I started this blog was to advance my writing skills and add more credibility to my CV and profile as a writer. I have been on a long journey to change my career path and shift my entire life and lifestyle for the past five years and this blog reflects this journey and my thoughts and trials and lessons learned throughout it. My main goal is to become financially independent as a writer and a blogger. Since I love what I do and I want to continue writing for the rest of my life! Through blogging, I also get to attend a lot of interesting events and meet great and exciting new people.

I always felt like I was a creative person, and working in IT support when I was living in Saudi Arabia surely didn’t match my creative flair. Nor did my college major in Business Information Systems. But I believe that it’s never too late to chase your dreams and follow your passion. Even if there are many obstacles along the road and unexpected challenges.

My journey started when I moved to London to take a course in Fashion Media and Communication at the prestigious London College of Fashion. Followed by moving to Dubai three years ago, where I continued to pursue my new career path and aim for an editorial role in publishing. I’m still working towards that goal in addition to my new-found passion: blogging. Ideally, I would like to get paid for what I write in both my personal blog and in print. I’m not sure how long the road ahead of me is, but what I’m certain of is that I’m enjoying every second of my journey and learning experience.

On a more personal note (yes, believe it or not; the above wasn’t personal enough!), I’m also enjoying the simple freedoms that my new life in Dubai has to offer. Growing up and living most of my life in Saudi, to relatively over-protective and controlling parents meant that I had to argue and fight my way into many simple things. And believe it or not, I still do! Yes, the fight to be free is an endless one when you are Saudi. But at least these days, I don’t have to convince my parents to go to a music concert or party. I can simply buy my tickets and head to the venue!

Although I call myself “The Rebellious Saudi Diva” on my about page, most people around the world will understand that the description is only relevant to my personal background and Saudi culture.

I think I’ve said enough about myself and my blog for now. I hope that you will find my posts interesting and entertaining. And that you will continue to support my journey by following my blog and liking my Facebook page (the link can be found on my blog’s home page)!

This is a picture of me at Tiesto’s recent concert in Dubai:

Lynx Networking at The Dek!

At first, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to attend the Lynx networking night titled: The Creative Club Party; which was basically a prequel to the main Lynx Awards Ceremony taking place tonight. After enquiring by e-mail if it was possible to attend the networking event only, and not be registered as a delegate or attend the day seminars, I was informed that: “the event is very popular and so is only open to registered delegates.” So, I immediately dismissed the idea of going to the event, until a lady at the Media Mondays’ event commented that it shouldn’t be a problem for you to get in, since the event is held at a hotel venue.

I still wasn’t too keen on getting dressed up and showing up at the door, and risk not being allowed into the event. But then a friend suggested to go and give it a try and then let me know if he faced any problems in getting in. And so he did, and he was allowed in. That’s when I dressed up in a casual business style in a cream tweed-like jacket and a black A-cut shaped skirt that was above the knee. Luckily, my hair was done the previous day for the Media Mondays event, and so after a quick fix and wearing a head band, I was ready to go. (Well, that’s the brief version, of course there was make-up application, ironing my skirt, and wearing jewelry and perfume).

As my friend and I arrived at the funky and graffiti decorated “The Dek on 8” at Media One hotel in the heart of Dubai Media City, we immediately started putting our networking skills into the test. Still acting on the high impulse and drive from the previous night’s Media Mondays event, we went up to random individuals and started to introduce ourselves and have a casual discussion with them. The only problem being that this event wasn’t actually designed for doing that! As we approached people to start a conversation with them, we were confronted by looks of surprise and sometimes arrogance as to what we were exactly doing 🙂 Having interned at a multi-national advertising agency in Dubai over a year ago, I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised of the responses we got.

Yes, I was highly familiar with the ad agency types…I can’t generalize though. I was very delighted to meet some genuine and good friends from my internship days at JWT Dubai. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up and discuss general topics. I was even impressed that some of them could remember me after such a long time of me leaving the agency. I always thought that people who worked at ad agencies had super powers to be able to work for extra long hours, and still manage to wake up early the next day and be at the office on time! I think I could learn a lot from them on work ethics and loving what you do and having undying passion for it.

To make the picture more clear to you readers, last night when I was approaching random people at “The Dek on 8”, I felt as if I was the star of an episode of the popular MTV British reality TV show: Plain Jane. For any of you who are not familiar with the show, the series basically takes a different plain Jane girl each week and with the help of British fashion expert Louise Roe, transforms her into a more confident and stylish lady before going out on a romantic date with her secret crush. (I know, very teenage thing to watch – I do enjoy it though!). So in the same way as plain Jane would have to overcome her shyness and approach strange guys at the beach or any other public place and start a casual conversation with them, I found myself going up to random people and introducing myself and chatting them up. Except that the show wasn’t directed or produced by a TV network! It was my own life and I was the sole actor, director and producer 🙂

I can proudly say that although the event wasn’t exactly created for exchanging business cards or meeting new people, me and my friend still managed to meet a good number of people throughout the night. We had a good time and laughed our way out of awkward moments. But the most important thing is that we didn’t let anything or anyone discourage us or get in the way of our own networking agenda.

Let’s put it this way: we helped get The Creative Club Party started 😉

Media Mondays: The Sequel :)

If you haven’t yet heard of or attended the UAE’s biggest media networking event: Media Mondays, then you truly are missing out on something valuable. The networking event is held quarterly in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and brings together working professionals from all areas of the media industry.

The event offers an open networking platform where individuals can approach one another in a casual, laid-back atmosphere and introduce themselves while discussing business or general topics. It’s a great opportunity to promote your business, your services, or your skills. It’s also a good way to make new business contacts and get referrals for whatever job/business lead you are looking for.

I personally have made some good friends at the previous Media Mondays that I have attended. If you missed out on my earlier post, you can read all about it here. This time, the venue chosen for the event was the spectacular Kempinski Hotel at the beautiful Palm Jumeirah. The weather was perfect for an outdoor gathering, and the crowd was a lot much bigger than last time. The buzzing atmosphere, cool breeze, and chilled vibe made for an amazing night under the stars of the clear Dubai sky.

Although I managed to meet a good number of remarkably interesting and exceptional individuals, I would have liked to meet and speak to even more people at the event. That’s why I have two points to consider for my next Media Mondays event:

I plan to attend the event from the time it starts; to make the most out of the networking opportunities it has to offer.
I will try to spend less time at each networking session; to be able to meet a larger number of people. (although this might not be easy, especially when some one is talking about an interesting topic or giving you insight that you need).

For anyone who has missed this year’s first Media Mondays event, don’t worry there will be many more to come. Just keep your eye on the event’s page and make sure you show up with a smile and a stack of business cards 🙂

http://www.mediamondays.com/#home

A Cool Publishing Event at a Magazine Shop! I must be getting closer to something!

Who knew that a cafe/magazine shop aptly called “The Magazine Shop” existed in DIFC? The newly opened shop serves as a cozy outdoor space to sit and read magazines; nestled in between the art galleries of DIFC. You can find a great variety of International and local magazine titles on the shelves. All you have to do is order your coffee or tea, take your pick from the many cool magazines and unwind at a cute wooden stool chair.

I was honored to meet two prominent and outstanding individuals from the publishing industry in Dubai at the event. Conor Purcell – the Founder and Editor of the niche targeted “We Are Here” magazine was hosting the event. He explained to us the idea and concept behind the magazine, as well as the process and challenges associated with publishing an independent magazine in Dubai. Conor’s main objective was to create a travel guide magazine that was different from the commercial travel magazines available in the market. His view is basically to try not to become a cliche. But instead to present something different to a niche target of readers. He also shared with us some valuable information on independent publishing procedures in Dubai, and gave us honest tips and useful advise from his own personal experience during the creation of “We Are Here”.

Another leading Dubai persona who I had the pleasure to meet at the event was Narain Jashanmal – General Manager at the Jashanmal Group. Having grown up in Al Khobar in Saudi, trips to the Jashanmal Bahrain store were a vivid part of my childhood and teen days. I also remember a Dadhabai store in Al Khobar, which was part of the Jashanmal Group if I’m not mistaken. Yes, those were the days when all I had to worry about was what cool stationery item I was going to buy next. And I would genuinely get upset if I had seen something in a catalog or an International magazine that wasn’t available in the Saudi market! While nowadays, I am surrounded by almost anything that I could ever wish for; except that I don’t have the peace of mind to shop for it since I spend most of my time working towards my goal and career path. Ah, the irony of life.

Honestly speaking, this event has proved to be the most relevant, useful and worthwhile event that I had been to since I started to attend events and network in September of last year. I think while I have truly enjoyed going to fashion or art events, I knew that those weren’t exactly what I needed to do or where I needed to network. While mingling with the young Dubai fashion crowd, or the older and more mature artistic circle was quite interesting and enjoyable, I believe that meeting inspiring individuals from the publishing and journalism industry is what will get me closer to understanding the market and help build my knowledge about it.

Do I regret not attending Rihanna’s new collection launch in-store event at high-street store River Island? Absolutely not.

As I was chatting with a friend who I unexpectedly met outside “The Magazine Shop”, I found out from another lady that there was a “Dior” event taking place in a nearby shop at DIFC. This time though, I was glad that I wasn’t part of the fashion pack 🙂

An Evening of Art at the Brownbook Headquarters

When I saw an announcement on the Brownbook magazine facebook page about an event that they were hosting at their office in DIFC, I was determined to attend.

Brownbook is a magazine that covers a wide range of topics within its Middle-East region focus. As stated on their web site: “Brownbook takes on the task of reintroducing the Middle East to itself.”

The event consisted of two parts: one was the outdoor screening of the Brownbook Urban Series. Which is a showcase of video documentaries about prominent and inspirational individuals from the region. The second part involved a talk about an artist’s work and a presentation of his pieces.

As I was walking into the office, I almost tripped on the cable that was at the entrance to the ultra sleek and modern interior of the Brownbook office…I guess I was too excited to be that close to my dream career in lifestyle journalism! I loved the minimalistic approach to the design of the office. As well as the canvas paintings reflecting the UAE’s culture, decorating the walls.

What I didn’t predict was the fact that there was no one from the magazine team attending the event! Please correct me if I am wrong.

At the beginning of our meetup, we did a round and introduced ourselves and gave a bit of information about what we do…and as the majority of the attendants were from the art industry or somehow related, I found myself in an unforeseen situation. Not that I didn’t want to be there, it’s just that I wasn’t expecting an evening of pure art discussion.

Although I didn’t get to network with anyone from the Brownbook team (or any other publishing professionals), I am glad that I attended and that I can say that not only have I been to the magazine’s urban and cool office in DIFC, I have also had a discussion about art at their conference table 🙂

Now since my dad is in town, this happy go-lucky story must have a different twist to it. When I told him about my evening at the Brownbook hosted art discussion, his reply was: “so it was useless.” Or something similar.

I explained to him that he does not see the long-term vision of this event. The fact that I went out there and made an effort to attend an event and networked with others, and exchanged some business cards is a valuable experience in itself!

That although this time I didn’t get to meet any contacts from the industry that I am trying to get into, I must keep moving and continue what I am doing. Maybe on another occasion, I will meet a valuable contact or source of information that will lead me to the next step in my journey.

My dad was always obsessed with results. Unfortunately, that’s not the way that life works. It’s not magic! you have to put in a lot of time and effort in order to get the tiniest result. That’s when he said: “yes, it’s a mature market here and the competition is big.”

While my dad is focused on the destination (me getting a full-time role at a company), I have learned that I must enjoy the ride and take the time to go through every experience and develop and grow and learn from it.

I believe that the journey of self-development is an endless one. Whether you are working on your career, relationships, finances, or any other aspect of your life…you must continue to put in the right amount of time and effort if you want to improve your life and personality.

I am highly grateful for the opportunity that I have to experience a new way of life, to meet new interesting people, and to continuously develop and grow as an individual.

We all have personal spaces and limitations that we set for ourselves sometimes that could use some expansion. So get out there and make an effort to break a personal boundary at least once a week. You will be delighted by the freedom and positive energy that will replicate itself back on you.