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Some of the members of the Cordillera Bloggers. From right to left: Yam, Dean, photographer, Joven, Emil and Dan. |
Blogging
event has never happened in Baguio before and the First Baguio Blog
Conference has initiated this. The First Baguio Blog Conference kick
started on May 19, 2012 bearing the tagline “Express your passion.
Animate your life. Share the fun. Blog it!” It all happened inside the
University of Baguio Square Hall, Assumption Road, Baguio City,
Philippines.
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Ingrid Payaket (right), Pilipinas Got Talent Season 1 finalist, attended the event. |
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Dean Cuanso talking about the different ways on how to monetize blogs. |
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Participants, speakers and organizers for a photo. |
The
event was actually drafted during the Google Mapping Summit held also
in UB Square Hall on April 14, 2012. It was an introduction to a series
of meetings and gatherings for the success of the event. Fortunately, we
got SMART, Unilab and Sun Cellular as our major sponsors, SMART being
the official telecommunications company. University of Baguio willingly
allowed us to use their hall for the event. Solid Hosting gave away 15
vouchers for raffle (1 year web hosting for free). Azalea Residences
Baguio provided accommodations for our guests. Kubong Sawali
(Baguio-grown restaurant that serves mouthwatering Filipino cuisines)
served a sumptuous dinner after the event and Jaypee Online and 18 BC
(night bar and restaurant located along Legarda Rd) provided cash
donations. The First Baguio Blog Conference was spearheaded by Vincent
of Lakbay Baguio, endorsed by the Department of Tourism in tune of its
slogan “It’s more fun in the Philippines”, and all posters, logos,
slogan and banners were credited to Joven of Travex Travels for the
designs.
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Dean Cuanso (left) and Janette Toral (right) |
First
Baguio Blog Conference’s main goal is to open up the youth and the
middle-aged group as well to share information through blogging. Be it
about travel, food, tech, business, blogging itself, culture, pop,
science, health, engineering or personal views, people can blog about
it. Blogging is an emerging platform not only in bringing information
closer to the audience but it is now also a tool in promoting one’s
business, product or service through advertisement.
The
event began at around 8:00 in the morning (registration) and the main
talk formally started at 9:30. The first speaker introduced was Janette
Toral of www.digitalfilipino.com. She talked about how blogging and
social media act together in the emerging world of digital works. She
discussed about how she started blogging and how the youth should start
blogging. It was followed by Florencio JusayJr of
www.manualtolyf.info (and he fondly call himself “FPJ Junior”) and
discussed the creativity out of blogging. He gave some advice on how to
grasp blogging as their own way of bringing up the passion they have. It
was followed by a small talk by our major sponsors SMART and Azalea
Residences (Azalea gave away four (4) accommodations to four lucky
participants for free). It was then followed by a loaded lunch.
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Janette Toral lecturing about social media and blogging. |
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Fitz Villafuerte on talks about optimization of blogs. |
The
afternoon session was started by a short speech about travel blogging
by yours truly, Joven of www.travextravels.com. I talked about how I
started to travel and blog, why the youth should travel and the things,
tips and rules they should bear in mind when they travel and blog. Ane
Fallarme of www.diaryofane.com discussed about food (and it’s not
obvious in her body figure!). People were salivating on their seats when
she started to slideshow her pictures of food and drinks. Dean Cuanso
of www.watwatworld.com talked on how to monetize your blog, the
different platforms and strategies. It was followed by Antonio Carranza
Jr. of www.pusangkalye.net and he talked about events blogging, and the
dos and don’ts of it. Azrael Colladilla of azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com
shared his experiences on blogging, and the different social media now
used. Finally, Fitz Villafuerte of www.fitzvillafuerte.com talked about
search engine optimization (SEO), on how to optimize your blog post to
rank in Google search results. Sun Cellular, Unilab and SMART also gave
some advice and tips and eventually raffled their prizes (Sun Cellular
gave away plug-it broadband sticks; SMART gave away gift certificates
and Lady Gaga concert tickets).
After
the talks were a series of photo ops. The event ended with knowledge
and items given to the participants. Nobody went home with nothing.
Literally.After the event was a mouthwatering dinner served by Kubong
Sawali. There both the guest speakers and organizers gathered to know
more of each other, while eating the best of Pinoy dishes and listening
to the beautiful voice of Leonardo De Leon who sings for the acoustic
nights of KubongSawali.
The
next day came and organizers and speakers were toured to the different
tourist spots in Baguio (Botanical Garden to Mines View Park and
Tam-Awan Village in the afternoon). After the day tour, the speakers and
organizers bade each other goodbyes, as the speakers were already going
back to Manila. However, their knowledge will stay to the participants
(and Cordillera Bloggers too). The First Baguio Blog Conference indeed
was a success, at least for a day or two. And we were looking forward to
our next event!
NOTE:
We are yet to plan the Cordillera Bloggers’ next event which is purely a
bloggers’ event. This may happen sometime in the third quarter of 2012.
Who are invited? All bloggers, whether you are a newbie or a pro. And
to those people who attended the First Baguio Blog Conference, start
your blog now and let’s meet on our next event! It’s an event for
bloggers now! Northern and North Central Luzon bloggers meet and greet!
Sponsors are very welcome. See ya!
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Florencio Jusay Jr (left) |
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