26 May '07
Bloggers summit in Mindanao is a go!
As I’ve announced at I.T. Talks!, we will be holding the 1st Mindanao bloggers summit sometime in October 2007, in time with the 6th MICT Congress. This was proposed a few months back by Councilor Pete Laviña, and is now finally going to happen.
The organizers are The Usual Suspects: Marc, Dennis, Andrew, Ria, Jun, Kim and yours truly. If you’re willing to shell out a little time & effort, please drop me a line: blogie [at] davaoblogs [dot] net. We will only be too happy to have you on board!
We’re inviting all bloggers from Mindanao to participate in this event. It’s certainly good to see fellow bloggers face-to-face, and will definitely be a sure way to build link-love. 
Of course, non-Mindanaoans are more than welcome to attend! A few Davao-loving bloggers from Metro Manila have already expressed their desire to join, in fact.
The planning for the blogging summit in Mindanao has just started, but this one’s for sure: it will focus on the business aspect of blogging. While we’re interested in building a community of Mindanao bloggers, the purpose is to impart and share knowledge in problogging and related topics. On the other hand, it’s going to be fun too, for sure!
Announcements and updates will be posted on this blog. Do subscribe to my feeds for your convenience.
Photo courtesy of Marc Javellana.
wow! this is great! ^_________^
cool!
here’s a challenge for mindanao bloggers… given the negative perception of the world on the island, how can bloggers paint a better picture of davao, cagayan de oro and other peaceful cities that have suffered from negative press…
can grassroots journalism / alternative media triumph over mainstream media’s (MSM) picture of mindanao?
I’m pumped! I hope bloggers from other provinces will be able to join us in this event. Would be interesting to meet them.
@Jason — You’ve hit the nail right on the head!! Last night during the organizers’ 1st meeting, we were wracking our brains for ideas for the blogging summit’s theme…. I think you’ve just supplied it! What do you think of this: ‘Blogging for peace in Mindanao‘? Or something akin to that.
@Drew — Got in touch with Honey Caragos of Cagayan de Oro already. She’s agreed to help out and be our point person up north. I hope we can get other coordinators for the other Mindnao areas too.
Hi Blogie - I feel that having a theme of “Blogging for peace in Mindanao” implies that there is not peace in Mindanao at this time. Like bloggers are going to try to make it peaceful here. In fact, 98% of Mindanao is already peaceful, it’s just that people don’t realize that it is. People in Manila, and around the world thing that there is a war in Davao and CdO. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m not sure what the theme should be, but Blogging for Peace would tend to verify that a war is ongoing - in my opinion.
Bob — I agree with you. I was hasty in posting my previous comment. We should somehow reformulate the theme, if we are to still include “peace” in the theme. But Jason does have a point, that we could discuss during the summit the role of blogging in countering the bad image Mindanao has been getting from traditional media. But yeah, “blogging for peace” does send out a negative impression that there’s a need for peace here, when the real situation is quite the opposite.
So, what theme might be perfect for the blogging summit…?
Hello!
Looking forward to Mindanao bloggers summit! Hope to join you this time.(:
Hello Dava! Looking forward to having you over!
wow! another gathering..
i want to join in the fun
hi! this is a great idea.
i hope it won’t focus so much on earning thru blogging, but also able to promote mindanao thru blogging on culture and tourism.
i agree with bob.
i hope there’s really more fun too. not much lectures but discussions, games and the set up should be not like a classroom but a more interactive one.
hope this helps. i am very eager to attend such event.
@Avy — not just a gathering, but a content-rich and community-building event!
@kars — thanks very much for your input! your suggestions will definitely form part of our planning.
We look forward to having you and all Mindanao bloggers and guests in October.
Hey Blogie - Just an idea off the top of my head. For a theme, how about “Discover Mindanao - It’s not what you think!”
Sounds great!
Looking forward to meeting prominent bloggers in Mindanao.
From CdO.
Too bad I’ll be back in Oz when Oct 2007 comes. Maybe I can just e-mail you my picture, Blog. Then you have it projected for about 5 or so seconds during the summit. Heh.
count me in! hehe
@Bob — that’s a start. now we just need to insert something about blogging in that theme statement… thanks!
@shane — looking forward to having you over! do you know honey caragos? she’s our point person in CdO.
@Mark — what a shame! sige send me your photo — gawin nating mascot!
@tina — and i’m counting on you!
Mascot, huh. It wouldn’t be the first time. Let me look for my Spandex first.
Regarding the theme. Shouldn’t we be first thinking about who the summit’s target audience is before we think about the one-liners?
From the way I understand it (and correct me if I’m wrong on this one), the summit aims to bring together the bloggers of Mindanao. Thus the target audience are these bloggers who will be attending. Based on that, I’m thinking (guessing) that the messages during the summit could revolve around the following:
1. A major role of Mindanao bloggers is to paint a better picture of the island for the whole world to see;
2. The reasons why it’s important to paint a better picture of Mindanao are…;
3. The ways in which a Mindanao blogger can help paint a better picture of the island are….
Take the above as examples. The point I’m just trying to make is that there first needs to be a clear statement of the target audience and the intended message for each audience before a one-liner is written because one-liners tend to be very limiting and quite ambiguous most of the time.
Mark, thanks for your input. The 3 points you’ve raised will form a vital part of the meat of the summit, most definitely.
However, in fairness to my co-organizers, please keep in mind that the theme discussion going on in this thread is not all that’s going on. We are indeed identifying who the target audience could be — and yes, this is a summit of the bloggers of Mindanao; although, bloggers from other parts of the country (or of the world) are more than welcome to participate.
Keep it coming, Mark! Your thoughts are always welcome!
Thanks for the updates Blogie. You’ll have to forgive my overeagerness, I have this odd tendency to get impatient with non-real-time discussions sometimes.
Anyway, if you guys still need a mascot on spandex, just let me know!
Bob,
Wow, this is great news. Wish I could join this event. I’m pretty sure it’d fun. Whoaa. Anyway, I’ll be home to Bukidnon by October, might as well go to Davao for the Summit. Wohooo! Tell me more about it. Thanks.
Beejing.
Looking forward to the First Bloggers’ Summit in Mindanao!
Wow! A Blogger’s Summit, that’s interesting. Looking forward to this event! =D