QUEZON CITY, Philippines – On its eighth year, iblog, the Philippines biggest blogging summit was held on May 25-26 at the UP College of Law, Malcolm Theater, Malcolm Hall, UP Diliman.
For two days, more than 300 participants joined the said annual event, which included new bloggers, probloggers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and even businesses wanting to understand how to tap blogs as a medium to promote their products and services.
For most bloggers, iblog is a great learning experience and a community to inquire on different ways of generating income.
On its first day, the summit tackled topics such as basics of blogging and taking blogs to the next level like getting direct advertisers and investors through blogs.
There were several guest speakers invited to tackle lineup topics. Carlo Ople talked about unboxing the true potential of one's blog. Mark Joseph Delgado shared about creating a blog activation campaign. SEO and social media marketing panel were divided into three parts and had Sean Patrick Si, Jason Acidre and Kim Tyrone Agapito as resource speakers.
The topics discussed in the remaining of the day were handled by Danilo Arao were on blogging, social media and journalism--its use, misuse and abuse of freedom of expression. Tonyo Cruz took on social media and social change. While Gellie Anne Abogado shared about unwritten blogging etiquettes. Llyod Salac also points out the relevance of today's youth and blogging as they're the next generation bloggers.
The participants were actively supporting the very informative and interactive portion which is in connection with the upcoming elections and was led by James Jiminez, the Kasali Kayo: Reaching Out to Overseas Filipinos for the 2013 Elections via Social Media.
Also, Boris Joaquin and Garry Zaldy De Castro wrapped up the first day by sharing their thoughts on 'Bloggers: The new PR Community' and 'Financial Planning for Bloggers', respectively.
The second day, were custom-fit for everyone who's interested about blogging. Topics e.g., 'The Soul of Blogging' was tackled by Rem Tanauan and 'Politics of Blogging' by Janette Toral.
For the Blog Writing Panel, it was divided into three parts were handled separately by: Wendell Glenn Cagape on 'Making Your Blog Post Work: Inspiring Quotes and Posts', Bien Eli Nillos on 'Using Public Narrative in Blogging' and 'Blog Comedy Writing for the Not-Naturally-Funny by Marcelle Fabie. Noel Feria did 'Teaching and Learning through EduBlogging'.
Victorino Q. Abrugar on the other hand, tackled 'How to Make Your Blog Stand out from the Crowd'. Carlo Angelo Gonzales handled 'Social Media Marketing Shiznit', Jeoffrey Solas for 'Optimizing Your Blog through Social Media' by using hashtags, tags, and keywords. Arvin V. Ortiz also points 'Twitter as an Ally in Learning' and 'Social Media in Business and Advocacy' by Grace Bondad Nicolas.
At the latter part of the summit Atty. JJ Disini discussed the legal issue on social media and Alvin Cloyd Dakis for the increasing health information access through blogging wrapped up the affair.
Since its inception, iblog summit has been reaching out to many blogging communities all over the Philippines. This annual gathering has been instrumental to all Filipinos wanting to utilize their blogs in exploring the horizon for greater opportunities both in the online and real-world. The annual event was hosted by
Flow Galindez, for the third time in a row.
