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Bakla Goes to WordCamp Philippines 2008

September 8th, 2008 by AJ Leave a reply »

On September 6, 2008, Ã‚Â I gladly skipped my Spanish classes at Instituto Cervantes to attend the biggest event for bloggers and Wordpress users on this part of the worldwide web. Ã‚Â Organized by my kababayans, the Mindanao Bloggers, WordCamp Philippines 2008 wasÃ‚Â an historic moment in Philippine Blogging History!Ã‚Â

Armed with zero hours of sleep (since I came straight out of a graveyard shift), my laptop, Ernie, a Nokia N82, a Verzio digital Camera, and a mind ready to learn, I headed to the College of St. Benilde with friend and former colleague, Chase. We had our laptops checked at the entrance of the building and headed upstairs to the registration table (which was quite high-tech, with barcode scanners and all that shiznit).Ã‚Â

I saw a lot of familiar faces, did the usual hi’s and hello’s, then went back to my seat as the “show” started.Ã‚Â

In the morning, Ã‚Â I only got to attend two breakaway sessions (thanks to my incessant craving for cigarettes – had to go downstairs along Taft Ave., Ã‚Â to smoke): Gail Villanueva’s Creating Wordpress Themes and CSS Power and Kring Elenzano’s Video Blogging.Ã‚Â

Gail Villanueva

At Gail’s talk, I learned a lot Ã‚Â about the CSS and other chenelyn forte factors that affect the theme. Ã‚Â Now I understand why this code was for this thing and the PHP and CSS files chenes now all made sense to me. Ã‚Â I used to just turn my back (in the office) and pester Will to help me out with the codes and all.Ã‚Â

Kring Elenzano

Kring Elenzano’s Video Blogging talk was extremely fun! Ã‚Â Thanks to Kring’s quirkiness and “ka-baklaan”, we all had so much fun while learning about the basics of creating videos. Ã‚Â I actually learned a lot more about the basics of taking videos, editing them, and becoming an Internet Celebrity, just like Coy Caballes.Ã‚Â

Spot.Ph’s Sonja’s Cupcakes!

Lunch was sponsored by Chowking and dessert was Sonja’s cupcakes (sponsored by Spot.ph).Ã‚Â

Matt Mullenweg and his Laptop

At the plenary session in the afternoon, the world seemed to have stood still when Wordpress creator and Mr. Wordpress himself, Matt Mullenweg went onstage. Ã‚Â All eyes were on Matt, the charming young dude, and all ears were focused on his talk. Ã‚Â The soft-spoken Matt pretty much captivated the audience as he started showing a live demo of Wordpress 2.7. “Oohs” and “aaahs” reverberated throughout the CSB theater as each and every feature of the Wordpress version (coming out in November) were shown on the screen. Matt also shared some interesting facts about Wordpress and Wordpress users in the Philippines. Ã‚Â There’s a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months! Well, what do you know, the future is Wordpress!

Of course, photo sessions with Matt were inevitable and it took more than two hours (I think) for the camwhoring to finish. After all, we rarely get the opportunity to have photos taken with Mr. Wordpress!

The Mindanao Bloggers

I’d like to congratulate the Mindanao Bloggers + Juned Sonido Ã¢â‚¬â€ the organizing committee, the volunteers, and the sponsors for a job well done!Ã‚Â

And to the WordCamp attendees, the future is ours, the future is Wordpress!Ã‚Â (Charot!)

(All photos taken using NOKIA N82. MORE OF MY PHOTOS HERE:Ã‚Â WordCamp Philippines 2008)

Ã‚Â WordCamp Posts from other bloggers (list from Jehzlau):