Blogopolis Blogger’s Convention

On November 17, 2013, I went to Shangrila in Makati to attend the blogger’s convention called Blogopolis. It was organized by Nuffnang Philippines headed by country president, Abe Olandres of Yugatech.
It was a whole day event but I went only in the afternoon.

I was hesitant because I didn’t know what to expect kaya medyo I was ilang. I was anxious that they would probably talk about technology which I was ignorant about. That was the time when I was still familiarizing myself with this living journal thing and that was also about the same time I started to discover that what I was doing was called blogging. I thought I should attend, not that I intended to make blogging a full time endeavor.

I met some interesting people who according to the presentation were the top bloggers in the country. Top in the sense that they get the most number of page views and are being paid big money by companies to write about products and services. They are full of confidence of course, with the kind of money and popularity they are reaping. Most of them have already been blogging for 10 + years.

I was amazed at their self confidence and some of them didn’t mince words declaring that they are blogging for money. When asked what their plans are in the future, a common answer was to put up more sites so they could earn more money. It gave me the impression that they’re into this to earn money. Which was at that time, and up until now, has not entered my mind. I went there with the main purpose of finding someone who could help me make sure my site doesn’t crash again, how to save my files, etc. My concerns are too basic. The pros are counting money. I am counting my site’s code errors. Gee I am too behind.

Some of the guest speakers in Blogopolis 2013 were:
Mike of Fashion Pulis
Anton Diaz of our Awesome Planet
Divine Lee

I met Abe Olandres, he gave me his business card and promised to help me with the technical errors in my site.

There was another Blogopolis event last February 2015 at the Dusit Thani Hotel.
I was glad they shortened the time. Instead of whole day, they had it in the afternoon till 7 pm. I left at 5 pm. We’re going to church that’s why I couldn’t stay till the end.

I went, but my purpose was the same. To find someone who could help me totally eliminate the code errors in Oh my buhay’s website, to teach me this and that. All about technical issues.

Emcees, Sorry I didn’t get their names.

The guest speakers were of course among the top bloggers in the country, and apologies, hindi ako familiar sa kanila kasi kahit alam ko na blogger na rin ako, I don’t get to explore other people’s blogs. Hirap na akong magbasa. The little time and energy that I have, I spend it on Oh my buhay.

I would suppose that those bloggers are ultra successful. It was my first time to hear about their sites. Yung isa, pag-akyat pa lang ng stage panay na ang mura, putang-ina. I forgot to count how many times she blurted out that word. Maybe that’s her image or tatak. Maybe she’s known for that.

I met some writers and aspiring bloggers during the coffee break:
Chiqui Plazo, writer, and Nancy Melgazo who asked me “Mam, what’s your IG…mo?” I pretended not to hear it because it was like oh God maybe IG is another app or some high tech thing. She repeated her question, “Mam, ano’ng IG….”
Omb—–“What’s IG?”

(Sabi ko na nga ba ang ibig sabihin eh Instagram. Di ba nga that’s what I said?)

I shared the same cocktail table with Robert V. Geromo. I noticed he was serious about what he’s doing. While eating, he was on his laptop and cellphone. Ako when I am eating, I am just eating.
Robert gave me his card which indicated he’s a Professional Licensed Teacher in Biology, Environmental Sciences. He teaches in IS as a language instructor. He is also a private tutor, a writer and he told me he’s going to launch his blog soon. Seryoso talaga.

IVAN ABOUT TOWN

Ivan Henares flashed on the wide screen several gorgeous photos of iconic places around the world and asked us to guess where they are. Because of those photos, kala ko travel blogger sya. Akala ko yun yung Our Awesome Planet. My thanks to OMB reader Bes for calling my attention.

Ang gaganda nung photos, I saw Taj Mahal. Yung iba nalimutan ko na. Meron yatang rice terraces. Tapos he showed the photo of Rizal Park yung monumento ni Jose Rizal sa Luneta, with a tall building that’s under construction on the background. He said our country doesn’t take care of our national heritage. He said we can use social media to be more vigilant.

GADGET MATCH

Michael Josh Villanueva, 34, quit his job and is now concentrating on his site Gadget Match. He advised that bloggers should find their own niche (HINDI NICHO).

PINOY FITNESS

Fitness buff Jeff Lo writes about fitness thru running. He said his readers were the ones who gave him ideas on how to expand his realm. They were the ones who suggested to him to sell t-shirts with Pinoy Fitness logo. He has since sold thousands.

His parting words “No one can serve two masters”. Mathew 6:24
I think he also quit his job to focus on Pinoy Fitness.

PEPPER.PH

They reported that their site is considered the best food blog in the Philippines. The young ladies who spoke at the convention were writers/bloggers Mica Wee and Pamela Cortez, I hope I got their names right. They said they have many bashers, merong pa daw nag comment ang pangit naman ng writer.
Dear readers, kayo ha bad yan. Nakaka sakit ng puso at damdamin.

GANG BADOY CAPATI

Sya pala yung mahilig magmura. She’s one of the speakers. As soon as she went up the stage, she started cursing. Shet, putang ina, shet again, ang daming shet, tapos fuck you. Kada kilos nya merong shet. Yun pala her name is Gang Badoy Capati and that’s her trademark, kaya the title of her blog is Abashet. She’s from UP and is a multi-awarded writer and speaker. She founded Rocked, an advocacy thru music.

She purposely wore two different colored shoes one red one blue.
She said “putris”, “fucking know it”.

She said her motto in life is to be consistent with what you are in words and in life.

Her parting words were: “I can impregnate someone with words, I don’t even have a penis”.

to be continued.