iBlog5: The Philippine Blogging Summit

This year's iBlog was a welcomed respite from my school work in UP Manila. It felt like a breeze of fresh air caressing my nape. I felt uneasy, however, in the crowd of successful bloggers since I am starting from scratch. I've been blogging for around 2 years already but my most successful blog would've remained successful if it wasn't mismanaged (or UNmanaged). I'm starting to accomodate what ifs in my gray matter now. What if I didn't stop blogging?

Oh well, that would be a separate blog entry.

I woke up this morning with only the iBlog5 event on my mind. I was excited. In fact, I registered 3rd among the hundreds of people who attended the event. It took place at the Malcolm Hall, also known as the UP College of Law building. Registration begins at 8am, but I was able to register earlier.

I came alone but in a sense, I'm not the lone alone. So we're companions in our loneliness. Pun aside, I was able to meet some new aqcuaintances in the person of Ramon and Manolo. Ramon had some company but I think I'll mention him anyway (comment here Mon, if you happen to pass by).

So the formality's routine followed after the registration. There was the National Anthem, the Invocation and the Welcome Remarks by Ms. Janette Toral. Then came the topics for the morning session in the following order

1. Blogging 101 - There was a blogging 101 last year. Or I thought there was. Perhaps the iBlog admin wants to make iBlog newbie-friendly.

2. Photoblogging - Yeah, there is a photoblogging last year as well. I think I like the last year's photoblog talk.

3. Videoblogging - The flippish character Ms. Kring Elenzano was the speaker. I'm just unfamiliar with her partner.

4. Mobile Blogging - A domain that I haven't penetrated yet. Perhaps because of my school life, I could utilize the power of my phone to blog!

5. Do's and Dont's of Blogging - Benj Espina's manner of delivering this subject characterizes him very much. It seemed like he was debating and some of his 'philosophy' really does characterizes egoism. I know his partner Mr. Juned Sonido from last year's iBlog4.

Then came the afternoon session

1. Legal Issues in Blogging - A subject which educated me much last year. Atty. JJ Disini was the speaker for the same topic last year.

2. Preparing Bloggers for 2010 elections - This topic seemed to be the main event of the iBlog5. They invited the COMELEC-EID director James Jimenez to talk about bagongbotante.ph. Chronicling the 2010 election interests me. Perhaps I will consider adding some political element in my blog.

3. Blog Marketing and Advertizing: Experiences in the Philippines - These are the topics that I thought I learned enough but couldn't get it to work.

4. Blogging to the next level - This is how iBlog wanted to end it's fifth year: to blog to the next level. Though I have much to do to level-up, insights from this summit could serve as a trampoline that could catapult me a notch higher from now.

So there it was. The gathering of bloggers in the Philippines, old and new alike. Let's hope that there will be an iBlog6 next year, hopefully it is still free, and hopefully I could get a shirt next time.