When we appointed Avel Manansala of General Santos City and his group to be the organizers of the 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit, it was done without reservation. And true enough, the event was a resounding success! It was even much better than MBS1 in terms of impact and participation.

The theme this year was “Mindanaowon, Paminawon Intawon“, which roughly translates to “Ang Mindanaoan, Pakinggan Naman Sana” (sorry, the rhyme doesn’t translate…). The main speakers were tasked to set the tone for the Summit’s overall content — Walter Balane, Hector Miñoza and Bobby Timonera talked about the various ways that bloggers can contribute to the betterment of Mindanao’s global image.

Pierre Galla of Filipino Voices gave an insightful perspective of how most people from Luzon view Mindanao: that Mindanao is a dangerous and backward place. We, the Mindanaoans, know this only too well. Pierre, better known in the blogosphere as the Jester in Exile, challenged us to communicate with the people in Luzon, because it is in fact our responsibility to make ourselves more known, and more tangible to people outside of Mindanao.

Another speaker from Manila was Aileen Apolo, who has always been wholeheartedly supportive of the activities of the bloggers of Mindanao. She presented Google’s services that have an impact on bloggers, as well as answered questions from the audience. She was joined on this trip by Jay de Jesus of Titik Pilipino, a very popular music site.

While we had fewer guests from Metro Manila this time, on the other hand, we had more bloggers from Mindanao. It was a pleasant surprise to see so many Dabawenyos in MBS2 (I had thought there’d be a lot less). There were many young people, too, some of whom are still in high school.

MBS2 was super-charged. You could feel the excitement and the enthusiasm among the bloggers, who made it evident that they belonged to a community. While it was at MBS1 that the community was established, it was during MBS2 that this was solidly affirmed.

[UPDATE]

Here’s another post about the 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit. And click here for pictures!

Possibly Related Posts:

• 15 October 2008 -- MBS2 next week!
• 29 October 2007 -- MBS1 opening speech
• 27 October 2007 -- MBS1 today!
• 20 October 2007 -- Of anonymous bloggers
• 24 August 2007 -- Basics of writing critiques
• 22 August 2007 -- I’m joining the Mindanao Bloggers Summit!
• 4 August 2007 -- A conversation with Matt: short but sweet