Last weekend, I had the chance to attend the Third Mindanao Bloggers Summit which was hosted by the CDO Bloggers (Cagayan de Oro Bloggers). Thanks to Paraiso Admin for letting me experience the Second MBS because i really looked forward that third. Now, while making this post, I am equally excited to attend the fourth one which will be held in Zamboanga City. I am not yet sure i could make it but am planning to really make it there.
It was nice meeting the friends i made last year in General Santos City. Who would think that a 2 days affair can enable you to have a year long or more close bond of friendship. Thanks to Plurk, that was possible. And now, those plurking friends are now also my friends in facebook.
I arrived at the site at around 8:30 in the morning. Good thing the program has not yet started. Though the morning speakers were already around yet the registration was still going on. There were visitors from Davao, General Santos, Zamboanga Peninsula area, Iligan City, Ozamis City, and the farthest - Manila. There was one registrant from Manila. They said, he was the first one to register from bloggers outside of Cagayan de Oro City. His name is Alvin Tan and blogs at 7107 reasons (dot) com (7107 reasons to love the Philippines) He has not completed that much reasons that was why he attended the summit. I am pretty sure that Alvin made a lot of friends.
--this is Alvin in green flanked by two other guys are also new-found friends. Both are from Cagayan de Oro City. Francis in blue and Alvin in white. --
The morning started with the welcome note from the City Mayor, Honorable Constantino Jaraula. Followed by the message of the Leslie Bassett who also brought video greetings from the US Ambassador, Kristie Kenney, who said that Mindanao got a special spot in her heart. Congressman Ompong Plaza also gave his part. He got a blog himself. Then last speaker to grace the event that morning was the dashing youngest university president in this country, Atty. Adel Tamano, who spoke on Lessons on Leadership and Good Governance, his firsthand experience at Pamantasang Lungsod ng Maynila (University of the City of Maynila) as president.- http://www.plm.edu.ph
- Leslie Bassett, Deputy of Chief of Missions, US Embassy -Manila
- Congressman Ompong Plaza (Agusan District)
- Atty. Adel Tamano -
The afternoon was slated for more blogging stuff. There were 3 very informative speakers in the person of Ms Aileen Apolo who talked about Blogging 201, Ms. Janet Toral who talked about Effective Web 2.0, and last but not the least, Mr. Lyle Chavez who spoke about Make Money Online with Google Adsense.
After the sharing of tips from blogging experts, the reporting and updates followed from big groups like the Davao bloggers by Blogie Robillo, Gen San Bloggers by Avel Manansala, Zamboanga Pen bloggers by Ryann Elumba and CDO by Atty. Magman (plurk name) i forgot his real name. hahaha
The evening was slated for the Pinoy Blog Awards (Mindanao) and there were 9 awardees from this part of the country. My kodigo is left in the office so i can't enumerate them here.
The group was divided in two the next day as a blogger have two options - city tour or rafting. I chose city tour because the places we visited are places i haven't had experienced up close. We visited the St. Agustin Cathedral near the river, the Xavier Museum, Opol Aviary, and then the last before lunch - the Divine Mercy, a pilgrimage of devoted Catholics.
Here are some more photos:
- The rafter's ride to the rafting area -
- our meeting place was at Mc Donalds (Divisoria) which was just across the park where they put up a statue of the Mayor JR Borja.
- side view of the St. Agustin Metropolitan Cathedral -
- the impressive statue of Jesus. as what i've heard, only devotees and those who have made confessions can go up those steps to the face of Jesus -
Up there, the sea view was breathtaking!
The weather was really cooperative that day. I did not expected it would be that hot. I got sunburn on my upper arms and chest. I have no umbrella with me nor a bottle of water. It was really hot that i was so happy that it was all over.
Had lunch with the group at Tita Fannie's. Then we said goodbye after eating. Last stop was at Lim Ket Kai and i had couple of hours going around.
This is all for now! I hope everyone had a great weekend!
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