“An InstaMeet is like a game for me. It’s a fun and challenging game of meeting new people and making creative things with them, which can sometimes lead to unpredictable outcomes,” says Nyimas Laula Li-An’Amie (@nyimaslaula), a design student in Bandung, Indonesia. Nyimas organized the #InstaMeetPasarSeni2014 event, which took place late last month at Pasar Seni ITB 2014—a big culture and arts festival hosted at her school. As a member of the event committee, Nyimas planned and led an InstaMeet to embrace the growing Instagram community of the country.
It wasn’t until when the meet-up actually began that she understood the magnitude of her efforts. “I cried when I saw more than a thousand people gathered in front of me at seven in the morning, many of them being first-timers at an InstaMeet,” she reflects. “Being a participant and being an organizer is different because you’re not just playing ‘the game,’ but also passing on the good spirit and its purpose to the participants.” Photo by @nyimaslaula