Lessons Learned @ Visayas-Blogging-Summit 2011



This year’s 2nd Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 was organized by the Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. which was held last November 26, 2011 at the SM Trade Hall Cebu. Before I will be sharing with you the lessons learned from the 1st Blogging Summit I attended as a participant and as a Speaker, let me share with you first a quick background of the #VBS.

The "IT" moment for me, Mr.Problogger himself, introducing Chris Ducker via video
Last year, it was held also in SM Iloilo with the Iloilo Bloggers at the helm of it’s success, (Though I was not able to be there, as the Cebu head, I issued a letter of support for their initiative and Cebu Bloggers were there to represent as well.

Mga ni eksena sa stage, na OP gud si mayor rama :D
Early this year (late 1st quarter of the year??), Iloilo bloggers President at the time Claire P. (if I'm not mistaken @_@) and Mr. Batang Yagit dot com together with me engaged in the conversations for the possibility of Cebu to be the next hosts. After emails, random life tragedies, weird happenings and taking into consideration my term was about to end; I made a decision to challenge the upcoming new CBSi President whoever it maybe. After that was done we did a secret-location TURN OVER ceremony+meeting >_< and perhaps began the preparations, then one could say, the rest is what you call history.

The day before the event - Ingress :D
Now speaking about history, this is the 2nd time that CBS was approached for VBS :D But due to factors of the time, perhaps some squabbles or what-not, the 1st time did not push through –how should I know, I was not there :P and I only knew of this through engaging other bloggers, but anyway this is one of those situations called “deserving a 2nd chance..” and I was happy on the side lines that this pushed through  --You did a KICK ASS JOB Kevin Ray Chua, Ruben Licera, Jr. and the rest of Cebu Bloggers who volunteered including the sponsors and partners.


For every speaking engagement, I always try out new things in my preparation, speech and style. To be honest, this was my 1st summit, though I’ve done school or academe talks, corporate, open-field, facilitation, and training/workshops, this was definitely a first for me. Aside from that, I had some degree of pressure being the 1st presenter of the whole-day-long summit which makes me the one who sets the momentum in my opinion. (See my slides about the talk & explanation HERE!)

This was definitely the most diverse crowd I had faced (students, professionals, businesses, & media all in one place) and my 2nd over 200 heads speaking engagement to date. I had learned once again to improve and continually tailor my craft for future engagements in which I got good feedback from fellow bloggers as well.


Special mention to LaagCebu.com for giving good feedback for improvements, to those who tweeted me via Twitter [@mancelitaRam, Cyber_Deathscyte, winsel_ama, tymaee, GeffChang, jpthehistorian, TheLordTweets, jem_villaverde, shipcod3] (and for the rest, you know who you are!! AHAHAHA) for your appreciation which gives me more motivation to do this and of course, to be better!


Lessons learned:
  • In terms of speaking, I had to properly prepare a guide/structure to my talk (in future engagements) and this probably re-enforces the next level need of joining Toastmasters (which I have been stalling or a while..hehee)
  • Awesome to hear from Chris Ducker’s talk, I’m thinking of getting an accent dammit! Or benchmark his presentation style perhaps? :P
  • The Photoblogger’s talk (Evanjohnn Mendoza) reminded me to re-focus my niche blog (investinghabits.com), it’s the S.H.I.T. – Share; Have a channel for expression; Income OL; Transcribe ur memories
  • Quotable quotes (QQ) vanjohn ~ And wat is the secret of perseverance? love, fall in love...-St.Jose Ma. Escriva
  • Tim Bennett talk a different perspective for bloggers and newbie bloggers
  • Sir Max Limpag’s talk was really simple and direct to the point ..see his talk notes here.
  • QQ Max - Write for people, not algorithms; Good writing stands the test of time; First thing to do to become a better blogger - improve your writing.
  • Chris Ducker is awesome, period..I learned a lot more about Professional-side of Blogging and yes, I need to be more creative!
  • QQ – Chris D ~ People don't read blogs for adverts, they come for the content; There's nothing a Filipino can't do, you guys are full of talents.
  • Moving into Social Media blogger friends Joanne Apat shared useful tools while Coy Caballes, Social Media Manager of Globe Telecom shared how they do their Social Media Campaigns –Bottom Line ~ Be Creative and innovate (Repeat 100 times or #TodayIwill #GolangNgGo)
  • Brad Geiser’s talk is always useful for PR and Marketing Pro’s understanding or going into the online world where a few were also in the house –thanks to you and Ms. Amor Maclang for the Krispy Kreme & for the 1st Photo in this post!! YUM!!
  • The Queen of Ecommerce in the country shared valuable insights on engaging Social Media Responsibility on a personal and professional perspective.
  • QQ – Janette T.~Don't debate with a close minded person, influence the observers instead!
  • First time for me to hear a congressman directly talking about blogging and social media, it was very interesting to listen into~ it’s like a whole-nother world :D
  • Gina Lopez, managing director, ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. was supposedly the last speaker but she had a flight to catch up to. In short, she was the most dynamic and moving speaker I have listened to, to date. Her topic was also cool, the synchronization of Online and Offline campaigns for Social Causes. She was focused on the Save Palawan Movement – No to Mining in Palawan! I learned a lot from her definitely and for that, it needs another blogpost :D
  • Last speaker before the panel discussion was Haidee Emmie Palapar, communications officer of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc..She basically talked about RAFI’s Community projects and calling on bloggers to blog or assist in the Social Media promotions of projects that benefit the community. Ms. Haidee was a co-batch YMA-3 Scholar with RAFI and for that I am quite familiar with RAFI’s programs, but I hope other bloggers will also get into blogging advocacies.
  • I just realize that being the first speaker had some benefits, you actually have a lot of time to do photo-ops & bombs :))
  • I was finally able to analyze the Krispy Kreme packaging quality and it was real good, hence I bought all the used packaging I could find and donated them for CIT IE Council’s Project NOWTBUKS!
Until the next time, Happy Blogging!

Photo Credits: Bryan Karl Yuson, Tiborsho, Fleire Castro, Amor Maclang & Hannah Amora
Lessons Learned @ Visayas-Blogging-Summit 2011 Lessons Learned @ Visayas-Blogging-Summit 2011 Reviewed by Vernon Joseph Go on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Rating: 5

2 comments

  1. HAHAHAHAHA so it's no longer globe that comes in mind? ehehhehe  good thing you find it awesome,Thank you!

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  2. Your slideshow was awesome! I always remember you whenever I see the "Today I Will" commercial by globe.Tee-hee! :)

    ReplyDelete