iBlog: The 8th Philippine Blogging Summit

I’ve become partly a schizoid for the past weeks. Whose conversations consisted primarily of asking for the answers which I didn’t hear during a test feedback or the other way around where I was the one answering the queries of my seatmates. It was really enriching to be in such little talk (as I wasn’t really fond of much talking) until I realized that I need to amuse myself with stories from other people. You know, non-nursing related people.

So I blocked off May 26 in my schedule and attended the second day of iBlog: The 8^th Philippine Blogging Summit at the Malcolm Theater of the University of the Philippines.

“I blog about love,” Rem Tanauan shared during our initial convention that morning. He was one of the speakers in the event who talked about “The Soul of Blogging”. He was very engaging to talk to. I found some his ideas on religion and spirituality similar to mine.  He advocates for the more philosophical take on love and how we can find it even in the most non-conspicuous of places. He invited me to join the Inner Peace Foundation during one of its meetings. I might give that a shot soon.

I was with my schoolmate, JR Quiambao of www.strifeofcloud.com, that day and we also got to meet other bloggers who are almost near our age range. I don’t know if the youth are getting more engaged in blogging or I’m just getting older.Haha!

As a soon-to-be nurse, one of the topics I was looking forward to was the one by Nurse Alvin Dakis who talked about increasing health information through blogging. I started a health blog once but had difficulty maintaining it since I found it too cumbersome. Alvin and I had a little talk after the event and he reaffirmed that the most challenging part of blogging about the topics is “katamaran.” I sure could relate!

During the event, I tweeted “I love the people at our back. Hilarious.” They were rather quite a rowdy audience but their quips and side comments were entertaining. Later on, we got to meet them. The girl, who is a nurse by profession, was also the vocalist of the band Ang Amihan. She was with her boyfriend who was the most unruly in the group behind us. During the raffle of the fun run of Unilab, he was very vocal about not wanting to be picked since he wanted the iBlog t-shirt. Guess who won the free fun run ticket?

Flow Galindez was there as the host of the event together with Ron Magaru.

Fritz Villafuerte, owner of Blogger Shirts, was also there. We didn’t have the chance talk much during the event but I would love to hear him talk about business and financing soon.

The very influential Ms. Janette Toral was one of the organizers. She seemed to be really nice and genuine woman. I wanted to hug her after the picture taking but I figured we’re hardly acquainted yet. PBB Teens?!?

After the event, our group had the chance to talk more with Rem about his views on spirituality. Ang saya nya kausap! J

It was nice to meet new and younger people from the blogosphere. Then again this question haunted me throughout the day, “Tungkol saan yung blog mo?” I cringed every time, not knowing what to answer. Politics? Society? Rantings? Food? Literary? Probably, “Personal” would be the best answer. But then again, there must be a topic which predominates my blog. Argg, wag na nga pagisipan, ayoko ma-stress.HAHA 

It was nice meeting people at iBlog8. I hope I meet more bloggers in the next blog summits!J