» Bakla Goes to iBlog5 I'm Gay, Got a Problem With That? (Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?)

Bakla Goes to iBlog5

iBlog, the annual Philippine Blogging Summit, is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) events that bloggers from all over the country look forward to.Â Now on its fifth year, iBlog gathers the best and the brightest and the newbies of blogging to one venue for a day of learning, exchanging of knowledge, and online and offline networking.

My first iBlog was last year, iBlog4.Â I was supposed to go to iBlog3 but it coincided with my trip out of the country.Â At iBlog4, I did a livestream using my sucky webcam (which I held up so people could see what was going on â€“ owing to the fact that I was seated right smack in the middle of the venue.

This year was different.Â Janette Toral asked me if I wanted to do a talk on Blogging 101 (with Micaela Rodriguez) weeks before iBlog5.Â I hesitated for about two seconds then agreed.Â Besides, doing a talk on Blogging 101 should be easy enough. Or so I thought.

Mica and I did online brainstorming sessions then met once to finalize our presentation. Thatâ€™s when we both realized that Blogging 101 may seem like a very easy topic to discuss, but it actually is one of the more complicated subjects to discuss to a group of people who already know how to blog, save for about less than 5% newbies (estimate mine, not necessarily correct). The scope of Blogging 101 is pretty wide and itâ€™s quite difficult to cram all of the ideas and all â€œbasicâ€ stuff into a 20-minute presentation. Since the world of blogging is constantly evolving and growing, there are so many things one has to consider to present a talk good enough to cover the basics.

So how does one preach to the converted?

Do what we did. We gave a disclaimer before the start of our talk that those who already know how to blog do not really need to listen or pay attention to us. That seemed to work. Mica and I decided beforehand on one thing: â€œBaklain na lang natin to.â€ And so we started with our Blogging 101 talk (presentation below livestream highlights from the official coverage: part 1 and part 2).

Blogging 101

View more presentations from bakla.

After our talk, I went back to my seat right smack on the first row(in front of the Cebu Bloggers – Jorich, Bryan, John, Kevin and Xerxes) and beside the gorgeous timekeeper Noemi Dado) to start my coverage via mobile livestream using my Nokia E71. I was able to cover Photoblogging (by my good friends Faith Salazar and Fritz Tentativa), Video Blogging (by Azrael Coladilla and Kring Elenzano, my uber-favorite ka-baklaan), Blogging 102 (by my other good friends Benj Espina and Juned Sonido), Blog Promotion & Traffic Generation Strategies 101 (by my other cool friends â€“ yes I have lots of cool friends – Winston Almendras and Coy Caballes)and Mobile Blogging (by Edwin â€œKa Edongâ€ Soriano).

After a quick lunch at the venue, I and some blogger friendsÂ decided to get some dessert at Chocolate Kiss â€“ where we met other blogger friends. While we were enjoying our desserts (and lunch for some), mother nature decided to rain on our parade â€“ it rained! We got stuck at the Bahay ng Alumni for a good hour or so. I kinda felt bad because we missed a couple of talks, but thanks to the official livestream coverage, I can catch up.

I initially planned on going home to get some rest during the afternoon sessions (since I was up since Friday afternoon â€“ which made me a â€œTunay na Lalakeâ€ dahil ayon sa kanilang manifesto, ang tunay na lalake ay di natutulog), but I decided to just stay on and finish the day.Â Besides, I didnâ€™t want to miss the traditional group photo and after-party. (My Photos here)

So there you have it, my iBlog5 experience.Â What did I learn this year?

There are many different types of bloggers and we have different personalities.Â We all have different reasons for blogging and we all have different goals.Â Some want to express themselves, some want to advocate something, some want to make money, some want to become famous, some just want to have fun.Â I believe that whatever our reasons are and whatever our goals are, we should not let others define who we are as bloggers, because ultimately, we make our own happiness, we carve our own niches, we define our own future. The measure of your own success as a blogger should not be based entirely on what other bloggers (old and new) tell you. You measure your own success â€“ that is, if your goal is really to become a â€œsuccessful bloggerâ€ â€“ whatever that means to you.

Yun lang po, bow!

(link love from Influential Blogger)

Live stream feed last May 9