For the second time in a row, I was able to attend a blogger summit. Called iblog4 (its their 4th year), the summit (held at UP’s Malcolm Hall auditorium) brought together bloggers from everywhere and from all walks of life. It was a full day covering a wide spectrum of topics.
Last year, I attended alone, driven only by my growing passion for blogging, and met the bloggers who would change my blogging life. This year, I had the wonderful chance to have Chona, my yoga mate and co-blogger, with me.
The summit was of interest to media. In the morning, it was ABC5. And in the afternoon, the folks from GMA7 (Inquirer.net) came over. The whole place was WIFI-ed so bloggers with laptops were able to blog live. There was also a hook-up on the web that allowed people who were unable to make it to the venue to follow the sessions AND post their questions to the speakers! Woohoo, high tech!
Charo Nuguid covered Blogging 101 (tips for newbie bloggers and maybe a tip or two for more seasoned ones).
Brian Gorrell (yes, the same Aussie blogger who is pursuing the return of his life’s savings from his former Pinoy lover) sent in a vlog with tips on how to maintain one’s blog. Below is the video clip, courtesy of Brian’s YouTube channel.
Juan Carlo Licudine talked about his move from student to problogger as well as the pros and cons of problogging. Hmmm, after he revealed the monetary potentials for problogging, I think it got a lot of the student audience VERRRRYYYY interested!
Juned Sonido covered the world of photoblogs (what it is, what you need, how different is it from photo galleries/albums posted online, etc). Juned amused everyone as he literally unloaded his equipment onto a long table onstage (most of his smaller cams were taken out of several pockets of his cargo pants!).
Jonas Diego updated us on the world of blog comics (or is it comic blogs???). Apparently, it is not always printed comics that get on to the world wide web. In his case, an interested investor saw his blog comics and asked that these be published in print.
Lunch break was a time to fellowship with other bloggers. I found myself having discussions over packed lunches with Noemi, JJ Disini (a leading internet lawyer) and Chona. We got into a discussion about the prospects of libel vs bloggers (with Brian Gorrell’s blog being one of our subjects). Much later, we were joined by Mike Abundo (whom I first met at the Happy Slip Meet-and-Greet) and Azrael Coladilla.
The afternoon sessions were just as interesting as the morning:
Aileen Apolo and Coy Caballes did their presentation on Vlogging (video blogging) and podcasting via what else? A vlog!!!! That was cool! I think this has given me a lot of tips and ideas are now swimming around my brain!
They were followed by several speakers who talked about blogging during the 2010 elections and how we as bloggers can possibly be part of that coverage. They emphasized the importance of bloggers getting involved way ahead of 2010 in preparing different courses of action to get ready to cover the elections. A mini blogging summit covering elections was done last November and Janette said that another one may happen end of 2008.
In the order of their talks on Blogging for 2010 Elections were:
JJ Disini then covered the legal issues surrounding blogging such as copyright infringements, libel, and other such areas. An active open forum ensued as bloggers fielded questions to him and which JJ answered with huge doses of humor.
My dear friend Noemi covered the next topic on Blogging for Advocacy where she spoke about one of her and Dine’s latest advocacies, The Filipina Images: Reshaping the Filipina Image Online, which seeks to improve the Filipina’s image globally by influencing the SEO ranking when people use search engines to find terms such as “Filipina” and direct them to wholesome sites on the Filipina.
Last but definitely not the least was Ria Jose, from Davao City, who was one of a group of bloggers who are taking Mindanao blogging to a different level. I had the chance to chat with them afterwards and exchange contact numbers. You see, Davao City was the city of my childhood. Lots of wonderful memories of that place. Just learning that young bloggers are now talking of one of my favorite cities just brought back waves of memories. I just might hang around their blogs more often…..
There were light moments as well during the entire summit:
Marcelle, upon insistent public demand, performed a magic trick with the help of Sir Martin, his contemporary from that BLUE school where my girls study.
The hilarious guys from Chickenmafia.com had one of them come dressed as a chicken! Hey, heard they won best “Come As Your Blog” entry at the blog parteeh afterwards — which I obviously missed!!! Congrats, chickens! You deserve the award! After all the pains you went to making your props (yup, I read in your blog how you prepared this sans any craftmaking background!)
And of course, nothing was complete without photo ops at the end of it all. If anyone has a picture of the entire group, please please send me one!
The event was not just a chance to know more about blogging trends and tips. It was a great way to see old friends and meet new bloggers as well.
Here’s a shout out to the familiar blogger faces (definition: friends & people I met at iblog3):
And a big NICE TO MEET YOU to bloggers I met and chatted with for the first time:
Martin (Sir Martin Perez to many)
I also got a chance to win a free FilipinaImages.com shirt during Noemi’s trivia portion! Thanks for egging me on, Dine! I’ll be SO PROUD to wear this around! I also want a pink shirt! 🙂
Great job to the entire iblog4 team (you know who you are)!!! And see you next year for iblog5.
