On Legs, Drama and Blogging: How These Three Can Wind Up in a Blogging Event

Visayas Blogging Summit 2011: A Postmortem
Last November 26, 2011, bloggers from all around Visayas gathered at SM City Cebu Trade Hall 1 to attend the Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 organized by the Cebu Bloggers Society. With the theme, "Blogging and Beyond", the summit featured speakers from all around the world of social media who talked about personal and professional blogging, social media for business, and social media responsibility.

The post that you are about to read is a no-holds-barred review of the event.

Anticipation Anxiety
See, I never had any idea that the summit was going to be jam-packed with bloggers, "wanna-be" bloggers, and non-bloggers -- not until that morning when I read that there's going to be around 200+ registered and walk-in participants from all over Visayas and Mindanao.

Man, I got a boner.

I mean, there I was -- never attended any blogging event in my entire career (as if I have one) -- signed up to have the chance to brush elbows with some of the best bloggers around the Visayas and Mindanao areas. Who wouldn't get nervous, right?

But I wasn't going to miss the event the second time around. Fuck. Hell, no!

Unexpected Companion

The plan was to go to the event an hour early thinking that they'll have something for the early birds but given that it was a Saturday, I decided to go there a little past 7 in the morning.

Vir Antonio and Weena Tolin weren't able to come to Cebu to attend the summit so I thought I was going to be alone but upon arriving at Gate 5 of SM, one woman, who also just arrived, smiled at me. It was only during that time when she said she used to see me in the library that I knew she was Jeemah.

Lucky her I took a bath.

After we registered, Jeemah and I were looking for seats with tables, found two and sat there only to be reprimanded by an organizer saying that the seats in front were intended for the sponsors and other important people; those two seats were never occupied all throughout the day, by the way. But, nevermind.

The Good Stuff That Happened
The event started with a dramatic yet witty invocation followed by a dramatic rendition of Lupang Hinirang. After the formalities, everybody was ready and was all ears as the speakers went up the stage and talked one-by-one.

First to speak was Max Limpag, blogger and Sunstar Cebu editor, who talked about blogging in general, the importance of knowing the basic fundamentals of the Web (e.g. HTML and CSS), and finding your own voice. Surely learned a lot from this guy.

As what Max said, "To be a good blogger, keep writing and blogging and keep reading."

Gay as this may sound, the next batch of speakers were blogger friend, Evanjohnn Mendoza, and CAMMA 2011 Awardee for Personal Blogging, Vernon "Iggy" Go, who charmed every girl (and maybe a few men) as they talked about finding niche in the blogosphere and how to go steady in blogging.

After they swept the crowd, there was a brief commotion in the audience after the emcees announced that four Ms. Earth candidates were coming for a special appearance -- and boy was it special.

God, I heard those men screaming with testosterone after four beauties did show up to grace the event -- Ms. England (with whom I saw my life with but then she was dragged down the stage and Mayor Rama took over), Ms. Estonia, Ms. Guatemala and Ms. Guam.

And It Just Went On And On
It was in the afternoon that they brought out the big guns. Big people from the industry went up the stage one-by-one to talk about the serious stuff.

Chris Ducker, Virtual CEO and Founder of Live2Sell Group of Companies and this year's keynote speaker, talked about "From Blog to Business--Getting Serious Online!", which opened everybody's eyes to blogging as a career and how to turn it into a business. Good stuff for people who's as broke as me.

It's not a coincidence that this guy has a funny name. Chris was just crazy. I was more amused when Chris tried to talk in Tagalog from time to time. "Fang it!"

Joanne Apat (Gwion Limited Hongkong's social media expert), Coy Caballes (Globe's social media manager), and Brad Geiser (Founder of GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications) also talked about the "Basics of Using Social Media for Business", "Tips for Successful Social Media Campaigns", and "Online Content Warfare--the next wave of digital PR", respectively.

Other speakers also talked about how blogging can contribute to social change.

Janette Toral, Philippines Internet Marketing Queen, talked about "Social Media Responsibility: A Perspective" while Congressman Mong Palatino, activist slash legislator, talked about "The Role of Social Media for Change."

Better than the KC-Piolo Breakup
But just when everything was about to be over, another guest speaker walked up the stage to spread the advocacy of stopping the proposed mining in Palawan. Gina Lopez of ABS-CBN showed the current situation of Palawan and how the plan of setting up a mining industry in Palawan will have its adverse effects in the environment and to its people.

Gina almost burst into tears as she showed the audience a picture of a little girl whose feet is about to be cut due to the effects of mercury poisoning. That picture got the crowd on their feet -- literally -- as the audience shouted, "Yes to life. No to mining in Palawan!"

Nothing is as moving as seeing a flock of young people being able to stand up for a cause.

The Verdict
Overall, the event was a blast and I'm looking forward to joining another blogging event with these guys. Great speakers, free food, free coffee for everybody, free Internet, ~~free~~ boobs. What more can I ask for?

Congratulations, Cebu Bloggers, Inc. for a job well done!

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