Nuffnang hosted its first meetup for tech & gadget geeks last week at the wonderfully stylish and geeky Horse Bazaar bar in Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

(L to R) Tim, Arnold, Sarah and Kate

(L to R) Lisa, Arnold, Tim, David, Michael and Sarah

Highlight of the evening (for this geek, anyway) was swapping iPhone app recommendations – including Whats App, a push messaging client which gives you Instant Messaging capability on your iPhone, Snapture and Camera Plus for iPhone (both apps which make the iPhone camera better by adding features like zoom!) and Tweetie for handling Twitter from your iPhone. Sadly, the contact swapping app Bump failed to work for us – but that’s ok, it’s much quicker to just swap Twitter handles anyway. ;)

Thanks to Arnold from Mr Gadget, Michael from Craving Tech, Tim and Kate from Gizmag and Lisa from Areeba for coming along. Big thanks for Kate for taking the photos too!

We’re happy to let you know that Nuffnang’s first Sydney event for 2010 is a meetup for mum and parenting bloggers! Big thanks to Brenda from Mummytime who is going to be our hostess with the mostess for this event!

The event is being held at Madame Fling Flongs in Newtown (Sydney) from 4pm on Saturday, 20 March. You can see the full details (and RSVP, please!) over at the invitation on Mummytime. We really encourage you to come along, meet some other bloggers and support Brenda, so hopefully this can become a regular event!

The meetup is open to any mum/parenting bloggers – you don’t need to be a Nuffnang blogger to attend. So please feel free to pass on to any bloggers you know who might be interested. :)

Photo by sylvar, used under Creative Commons license

We just wanted to make a quick blog post to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who sent us happy birthday messages for our 3rd birthday last week. :)

And we wanted to share the fabulous birthday pic that the lovely Violet Le Beaux created for us! Thanks, lovely lady!

On this day in the year of 2007, Nuffnang started off as – in our co-founder Timothy Tiah’s words, a “leetle dotcom” – in a humble office in Penang.

Today, we’re celebrating our third anniversary together with all 130,000 of you bloggers registered with Nuffnang! WOOHOO!

In just the short span of three years, we’ve expanded our network to serve four countries – Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia – and the best is yet to come! We couldn’t have done any of this without all of you. Thank you so very much to each and every one of you; your support is what keeps us going and growing every day.

Over the years, we’ve had quite a few events which gave us memories we hold dear to our hearts, like our first bloggers’ meet in Penang…

.. Our first live blogging event, the Maxis Wild Live Blogging party…

… Our first event specially for parent bloggers, the Nuffnang Friso Family Day Out…

… and of course, the first ever regional blog awards, the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards!

We’re really proud that Nuffnang has become such a great community along the way, and it’s always awesome to see more and more new faces at our events. Group hug!

As the numbers of bloggers registering with Nuffnang continue to grow to unbelievable numbers every day, our little family of Nuffies has grown too! Barely two years ago, the Nuffnang Malaysia staff looked like this:

Today, our family has grown to include over 40 people spread out over 4 countries!

Pretty awesome, no? We’ve truly come a long way from where we first started. Here’s to a great three years of ‘firsts’, and may there be many more to come! Speaking of which, we might be planning something big which would be another first for us, but you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out what it is. :)

In the meantime, you could send us a birthday card (ahem), or anything at all so that we can post it up on our Nuffnang Footprints Wall! We always get very excited whenever we receive something from our bloggers :)

Before we start stuffing ourselves with birthday cakes, thank you once again, and have a great year ahead everyone!

Thanks to Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt for hosting Nuffnang’s first food blogger meetup, at their lovely Collins Kitchen restaurant. We were lucky enough to host 20 food bloggers at the dinner (thank you all for attending!)

Our friends in Sydney might dispute it, but we think the enthusiastic response (and sheer number of photos taken!) at last night’s meetup proved that Melbourne is the foodie capital of Australia. :)

We had predinner drinks at the elegant RU-CO bar, and then had a tour of the open kitchen in the Collins Kitchen restaurant.

The open kitchen layout in Collins Kitchen

Collins Kitchen

The Executive Chef of Collins Kitchen (Jason) was kind enough to give us his own tour of the kitchen, and came out to our table to chat about the food and tell us a little about his own background (another South Australian foodie! yay!).

The Chef's tour of Collins Kitchen

Once we were seated for dinner, there were two tables of ravenous food bloggers ready to eat!

Table 2 - More hungry bloggers!

Dinner consisted of course, after course, after course of delicious food, including sushi and sashimi plate, bruscetta and other antipasto dishes, amazing fish & Tbone steak grilled to perfection, Chinese style roast duck, chicken and pork with fried rice, and a selection of desserts including fruit sorbets, chocolate fondant and banana millefeuille.

We’re not expert food photographers like most of the people who were sitting around the table last night, so we will let them post the photos of the meal.

Reviews of the event

We’ll link to the posts as we see them – please leave a comment if you’ve got a post about the dinner you’d like us to link to!

Essjay Eats – “I’ve seen a bit of the “food station” action in Singapore 5 star hotels, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in Australia. I’m keen to return for breakfast /brunch to see the dimsum station in action, and to check out their omelettes.”

The Gourmet Challenge – “The scallops were so good, they looked like fat little pocket of joy, slightly grilled surface with a soft and yielding inside. I would have gladly had a full plate of them.”

Iron Chef Shellie – “I’m sure the kitchen staff were expecting us, but I’m not sure they were expecting 20 people with cameras snapping away like the Queen was in town!”

Food Rehab -”It felt like we were in Willi Wonka Land, only instead of candy, we were surrounded by hanging prosciutto, freshly made sashimi, cheese and what seemed like an endless mount of seafood!”

Jeroxie (Addictive & Consuming) - “There was a moment of silence when this 800 grams of grain fed, dry aged for 30 days porterhouse steak was placed into of us. I felt like I was back in the Flintstone era.”

I Eat Therefore I Am – “The Patisserie Station smelt so good that I was inhaling all the smells and actually didn’t even take a photo. Such is my love for pastry.”

Half-Eaten – “Everyone got rather excited when the fresh wasabi from Tasmania was spotted. Apparently it’ll only set you back $180 a kilo!”

Mel: Hot or Not (Part 1 & Part 2) – “When your kitchen is open to the public, all your ingredients have to be presented in a visually appealing way. I think I might start styling my vegetables in a bamboo steamer and artfully placing mortar and pestles in my kitchen too.”

Thank you!

Big thanks to the Grand Hyatt for feeding us such a lovely meal, and to all the food bloggers who attended. :)

Next time?

We’re happy to say that our first foodie meetup went so well that we’re definitely planning on making this a regular event. And don’t worry Sydney, we’re already thinking about an event to do for the foodies over there too. :)

When was the last time you talked to your mum? Has she ventured onto the internet? Do you stay in touch via Facebook updates or does she follow your Twitter stream?

As bloggers many of us take for granted the ways we stay connected. We click, post, blog and status update ourselves every day, some of us almost every minute of the day! In fact, most of our online friends hear from us more than our Mums these days; so Telstra has come to the rescue with the perfect way to help us help Mum keep in touch.

Mum 2.0 is Telstra’s way of helping all Mum’s stay in touch, the 2010 way. It’s about showing her just how to message us, poke us, see our photos and find us when we’re travelling the globe! Now this may sound great to Mum, but really, you don’t really want Mum popping up on your Facebook wall wondering if you wore clean underwear on you date now do you? And this is where Mum 2.0 comes in. Telstra isn’t just showing Mum’s how to connect, but the right way to do it! Netiquette is a tricky skill for the best of us, so Telstra helps Mum navigation the social media minefield and stay in touch without revealing your innermost secrets to your 500 friends!

Telstra’s Digital Mum Facebook group is giving Mum all the tips and tricks she needs to survive the digital jungle. Where she can learn that re-tweeting isn’t just that sparrow out the back window that drives her mad at 5am. That a “blogger” isn’t someone who cuts down trees for a living and where tagging is more than something done by local reprobates on train walls. It’s about giving her skills and confidence.

It isn’t just Mum that is going to be mighty pleased to hear from you – WE want to too! Tell us about your Mum and her internet experiences and you could WIN a HTC HD2 phone valued at $1,099.00 including a $30 Telstra Sim card!

To enter:
(a) post a story on the internet about your Mum and the internet;
(b) mention the Telstra Digital Mum 2.0 campaign on Facebook;
(c) link your post to the Telstra Digital Mum 2.0 campaign on Facebook, the website is http://www.facebook.com/digitalmum;
(d) read the Terms & Conditions and agree by posting the content on your blog.

Then once you’ve published your story on your blog, leave us a comment on this post linking back to your post! Don’t forget you have to be a Nuffnang member to participate in this campaign.

Simple!

The competition opens today, 15th of February and entries close on Monday, 8th of March.

The winner with the best story will be announced on the 16th of March.

So earn some brownie points and help Mum get connected!

Thanks to all the Nuffnangers who wrote us love letters for our Valentine’s Day competition! There were some amazing, heartfelt and creative entries, and we enjoyed reading them all! We received haikus, love letters, and some pretty zany photoshop jobs!

Finally we paired it down to three favourites… but as Highlander said, there can be only ONE winner, so without further ado, here are our two runners up…..

Sprinkling of Spice… for writing a passionate love letter (that referenced Indiana Jones!)…

“My love affairs are complicated, full of that craziness, an adventure, it’s filled with landmines, rolling huge stones, jungles filled with poisonous snakes, background indiana jones music but at the end all that effort, pain, small victories, dead-end paths, poisonous snakes it’s all worth it.. because there’s the hidden treasure, the one true love..”

And our second runners up were the dynamic duo of Super Kawaii Mama and Violet Le Beaux who teamed up on a supercute entry which involved very adorable shoes, milkshakes and pillowfights! Hop over and check out all the cute photos they took!

But.. we have to admit, we have a weakness. It’s official. The way to Nuffnang’s heart is through the stomach. So congratulations to Melludee, who made us CUPCAKES! We could not resist them, so you WIN, Melludee! We’ll get your $250 experience voucher from Red Balloon to you ASAP.

Thanks everyone for entering the competition and sharing the love this Valentine’s Day! :)

Hi there Nuffnangers,

We’re very happy to let you know that we’re holding our first meetup for Melbourne tech and gadget bloggers! This will be an informal, after work event to get tech and gadget bloggers together for a chat and geek out together. You don’t need to be a Nuffnang blogger to attend; all are welcome.

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any other tech bloggers you know who might be interested.

Date: Thursday, 4 March

Time: 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Venue: Horse Bazaar, 397 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne.

Google Map: http://tr.im/NeVF

RSVP: Please email your name and blog URL to: sarah.stokely@nuffnang.com.au (RSVP isn’t compulsory, but it’s nice). :)

Nuffnang Australia will provide a modest bar tab, so please arrive early. :)

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions, otherwise we hope to see you on the 4th!

Cheers,

Sarah

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and here at Nuffnang we want to share the love with you with a Valentine’s Day competition. We have a $250 gift voucher from Red Balloon to give away, and all you need to do to enter is write us a love letter and share some of the blogs you really love!

Photo by Crickontour

Our prize is for a $250 voucher for the experience of your choice from Red Balloon , so you can indulge yourself, or share a romantic experience with a loved one. You can choose a traditional romantic experience like dinner or a massage in your home, or you choose something adventurous like parasailing or a swim with dolphins!

How to enter:

1. Create a blog post on your blog with the title “Why I love Nuffnang”.  The post should include a link back to Nuffnang, and should also link to three other blogs you love (they don’t need to be Nuffnang blogs, just the three blogs you love best!).

2. Once you’ve published your love letter to Nuffnang on your blog, come back to this post and leave a comment including the URL of your blog post, so we know you’re entering the competition.

3. Entries close on Valentine’s Day – February 14, 2010. We’ll be judging entries on Monday, 15 February. We’ll be choosing the most creative, heartfelt post as the winner, so get those creative juices flowing and write from the heart!

That’s it. Easy, right? We can’t wait to spoil you for Valentine’s Day, so put on some romantic music, think some loving thoughts, get creative and send us that love letter!

Entries close on 14 February, 2010!

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

Oh and PS – Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at Nuffnang. :)

2009 was a big year for Nuffnang in Australia.

Just like many of our bloggers, we keep on getting bigger and bigger! So it is that the Nuffnang family is growing and changing to meet 2010 head on.

Candice DeVille, our Community Manager, has been helping us put together all kinds of good things for Nuffnangers in the last year as well as running her own successful blog. She’s now moving aside to spend more time concentrating on her blogging adventures and being an awesome Nuffnanger.

“Working with Nuffnang has been a fantastic time seeing incredible growth and helping to contribute to the future of better blogging. We’ve had great fun at meet up’s, partying in Singapore and finding great new advertisers to work with. The Nuffnang team are a riotous bunch that really understand what a blogger wants.

With all the things that have been happening on my own blog in the last twelve months, I’m stepping aside from the team to spend more time as a regular Nuffnanger and  blogging my socks off !” – Candice

So while Candice is off being a blogger extraordinaire, the Nuffnang team are welcoming a brand new face to help you and your blog make the most of 2010.

Meet Nuffnang’s new Community Manager Sarah Stokely.

“Hi everyone!

I met a few of you at the Nuffnang Christmas party here in Melbourne, but for those I haven’t met (yet!), here’s a little about me. I’ve been blogging since 2000. Like a lot of people, I started with a personal blog (which has been going for nearly 10 years, over at LiveJournal!) but I’ve also worked in online media for a long time. I did a stint as a problogger for Lifehacker Australia, and I also helped set up a blog network for Crikey.

These days I teach web writing, editing and publishing at the University of Melbourne, and I blog about online publishing and teaching at Fox Force Five.

On the lighter side, I’m also blogging about my online dating experiment, 100 dates.

I’m based with the Nuffnang team here in Melbourne, so I can tell you that I’ll definitely be organising a Melbourne Nuffnang meetup in the next few weeks – but other cities, don’t worry, we’re already thinking of ways to bring the community love your way as well.

I’m really looking forward to finding out more about what you blog about, and what you’d like me to be doing to help you make your blogs bigger, better, faster and more fun. :) So please feel free to email me or you can contact me on Twitter: @stokely.” – Sarah

So make sure to stop by and say “Hi” to Sarah – she’s sure to put a spring in your blogging step!