May 17, 2012

Only the best speakers for the 2nd Visayas Blogging Summit 2011

November 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Visayas Blogging Summit or VBS 2011 promises to bring the best of “Blogging and Beyond” as bloggers from provinces in the Visayas flock to SM City Cebu on November 26, 2011 for biggest social media gathering of the year.

“It will be an experience of leveling up in terms of skills and perspectives designed to make the Visayas blogging community perform a vital role in community-building online and offline,” said Ruben Licera, Chairman of the VBS 2011 Organizing Committee.

“To achieve this, we invited speakers who are not only reputable bloggers but have also made significant contributions in their own fields with the help of social media,” he said.

The summit proper, Licera said, will begin with three speakers on helping personal bloggers improve not only their skills but also in finding their niche online, and achieving excellence:

Vernon Joseph Go, former president of the Cebu Bloggers Society and CAMMA Awardee for Personal Blogging. Mr. Go will share his experiences and give a few tips on “Personal Blogging.”

The founder of Cebu Blog Camp and an active member of the CBSi, Evanjohn Mendoza, will talk on finding one’s niche in the Blogosphere.

Recent Philippine blog award winner Max Limpag will focus on “Blogging and Excellence”. Max Limpag is also the current Business Editor for Sun Star Cebu.

From personal blogging, virtual CEO and founder of Live2Sell Group of Companies Chris Ducker, the keynote speaker, will raise the ante as he focuses on blogging as a profession.

“Mr. Duckerhas made it big in the professional blogging industry. We thought that inviting him over would greatly benefit bloggers and would-be bloggers who are looking into making a career out of blogging,” shared Mr. Licera.

With social media and blogging becoming indispensable for business, the next batch of speakers will talk about the importance of blogging as a social media tool as well as the responsibility that goes with it.

Joanne Apat of Gwion Limited Hong Kong will speak about the ABC’s of using the social media as a tool for business.

The next speaker works for a big name in the telecommunications industry. Mr. Coy Caballes of Globe Telecom will be dishing out useful tips for successful social media campaigns.

Another popular name in the blogosphere is Mr. Bradley Geiser, the co-founder of GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications. This multi-awarded figure in social media marketing and online public relations will share his expertise on “Online Content Warfare—the next wave of digital PR”.

“Blogging is not only about making money. Over the years, it has become an effective tool for social change—good or bad. This is why we have invited a few key persons who will talk about the responsibility behind the power of the social media tools,” Licera said.

Philippine Internet Marketing Queen and the Mother of the E-Commerce Law, Miss Janette Toral, will discuss blogging as a tool for social change. Miss Toral is a published author of books such as Blogging from Home and Digital Filipino: An E-Commerce Guide for the e-Filipino.

Kabataan Party List House Representative Raymond Palatino, an activist, legislator and regional editor for Southeast Asia of Global Voices, shall delve on the “Role of the Social Media for Change”.

With the help of blogging, a lot of community projects have also pushed through. Sharing her experiences on the topic, “Community Projects that need Social Media Assistance” is the Communications Officer for Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., Haidee Emmie Palapar.

A respected name synonymous to extending help to the less fortunate Filipinos, Gina Lopez who is the Managing Director of the ABS-CBN Foundation Inc., will talk about blogging for a social cause.

 With this slew of world-class speakers pooling all their ideas and expertise, the 2nd Visayas Blogging Summit is sure to go beyond expectations.

Now this is something to blog about.

Filed Under: Blogging, Featured Post, Press Release Tagged With:

Looking back on Jaysee Blabs Journey and Visayas Blogging Summit

November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been blogging for more than four years now and it is the best thing that ever happened to me as it opened a lot of opportunities to promote awesome stuffs I have dug, found, saw and believed in. There is a great need for locally generated content because Cebu and Philippines as a whole is ripe for global attention. We have world class products, services and places. But most of all, we have causes and projects that need utmost support from the international community.

Jaysee Blabs Roots

Starting with blogging on Friendster, I know nothing much but the fact that I just love writing so I started blabbing at the first social network with anything personal in my high school life. Then I switched to wordpress.com when all the fuzz about blogging started to emerge in 2008. Kinda deleted it already.

Then I discovered how awesome Google’s Blogger.com was because of the fact that you can edit CSS and I was beginning to get the hang of web design as I went through college. I started blogging with my main blog now, Jaysee Blabs, featuring awesome sites that I had visited via StumbleUpon. But at that time, I was still uncomfortable sharing my personal life online so I steered away from posting pictures and thoughts. It didn’t take me a whole lot of time before I started to implement my mission that life is best shared. I just started to realize that there is so much to talk about, so many places to see, things to do, and lots more awesome things for the whole world to know. Then Jaysee Blabs turned from a website directory, into a repository of the articles and essays I have written in school and beyond, into a mega blog featuring “Anything Awesome,” a tagline I just launched this year.

Jaysee Blabs Today

Blogging has done me so much good. It is very comforting and heart-warming to know that people learn new stuff from the posts I make, not just from my family and friends but also their networks and further as well. Ah, the beauty of socialnomics. There is some level of authority that was indirectly bestowed on me when my posts started gaining traffic and I am not that inclined to optimizing it for the search engines, a practice I should have started a long while back. That is something I didn’t expect for when I started this as a career.

Jaysee Blabs Blog is also the reason that I got into the country’s most organized blogging institution, the Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. (CBSi), an org that partners with businesses, PR firms and social entities into promoting Cebu. Blogging also made me advance my freelance career as a content writer, graphic artist, and web designer. But the biggest advantage that positioned me to take blogging seriously is the social responsibility efforts that I feature and joined in. Online Publishing has taken the advocacies I support to upscale to the next level and even spun off into a blog of its own, Mega Philippines, my advocacy blog. This social media also jumpstarted the causes and projects I worked for as a nation building Young Minds Academy (YMA) scholar of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI). We launched two sites the Project Liwanag, which details our immersion and project proposals for the Municipality of Consolacion and iluvfarmers, a social marketing campaign for a farmer training program in the same municipality.

That is why it gives me so much joy to give others a chance to consider blogging as a career or just a worthwhile hobby if you want to keep it low. We are offering Cebuanos and the whole Philippines a chance to converge together and learn from world-class speakers, engage with other bloggers and freelancers in one of the biggest events of social media in our country this year, the Visayas Blogging Summit this coming November 26, 2011. Everything is free and all you have to do is register now. We are crunching on making the event happen and fellow Board of Trustees of CBSi are doing their best to make this social media event where Cebu universities, blogging institutions from all over the country, business owners and everyone who blogs learn from each other. Since events like this are REALLY expensive, we went through all sorts of loops and holes to offer this event for free but we do ask participants just one eenie weenie thing: just write a pre event post about it.

Learn more during the Visayas Blogging Summit and the awesomeness it could give you.

Filed Under: Blogging, Featured Post

Register and Join the VBS 2011 Best Blogpost Contest

November 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc., the main organizer for Visayas Blogging Summit 2011, gives away prizes for participants, who have published pre-event posts about Visayas Blogging Summit.

 

Likewise, prizes are given out to bloggers and/or registered participants who write details about the event upon their participation, who will share his experiences about Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 on their blogs and who will spread the posts in the social networks.

 

There are TWO CATEGORIES for this contest with First, Second and Third Prizes for each.

 

- BEST VBS 2011 PRE-EVENT BLOGPOST

- BEST VBS 2011 POST-EVENT BLOGPOST

 

This contest is open to all registered participants of Visayas Blogging Summit 2011.

 

If you haven’t registered yet, why not do it now?

 

A. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

 

1. Write a press release about the Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 event. You can visit this link for more information:

2. Incude in the said PR an anchor text “Cebu Bloggers” with links to “www.cebubloggers.com”

3. Include another anchor text “Visayas Blogging Summit” with a link to “www.vbs2011.cebubloggers.com”

4. Inclusion of all the VBS 2011 Sponsors logos and link.

5: Submit the link to your contest entries to:cbsicorporate@gmail.com containing the title PRE-EVENT: (your name) or POST-EVENT: (your name).

6. Closing of submission of entries will be on November 20, 2011 (for Pre-Event BlogPost) and December 10, 2011 (for Post-Event BlogPost Contest)

B. CRITERIA FOR JUDGING

 

The Three Official judges of this contest will be appointed by the executive committee.

COMPOSITION AND TECHNICALITY (60%) – Following instructions 1, 2, 3  and 4 in the contest

CONTENT (40%) – Originality and struction of the composition, with words of not less than 300 words.

 

C. PRIZES

FIRST PRIZES. Plaque of Recognition + Php 2000 cash + special VBS gift pack + A blog feature of you in the official VBS 2011 website.

SECOND PRIZE. Plaque of Recognition + Php 1000 cash + Special VBS 2011 giftpack + A page feature in VBS 2011 Website.

THIRD PRIZE. Plaque of Recognition + Php 500 cash + Special VBS gift pack + a blog feature in the official VBS 2011 website

THE FIRST 100 BLOGGERS to submit their article about VBS before the event will receive SPECIAL VBS 2011 KIT which contain the official VBS 2011 collectible items, special gift packs and a lot more of suprises.


(Organizers reserve the right to modify the contest prizes as applicable.)

 

The first 100 submissions will receive VBS Organizers Kit.

 

All Prizes for the BEST VBS 2011 PRE-EVENT BLOGPOST contest will be awarded on the Closing Ceremonies of VBS 2011.

 

Moreover, all Prizes for the BEST VBS 2011 POST-EVENT BLOGPOST will be announced exactly a week after the event on this site: www.cebubloggers.com.

Special Gift Packs for Top 20 Referrers

Ask your friends, family, employer and Facebook acquaintances to join the most awaited and the largest blogger gathering in the Philippines. If you are one of our top referrers for the summit, we will dole out very special packs just for you!

Just ask your friends to complete the details required on this form and submit.

 

(FYI: This contest excludes all members of the Executive Committee Organizing Team.)

 

Please include the VBS 2011 Event Poster in your blog post and in the blog’s sidebar.
Filed Under: Blogging, Featured Post, Promos Tagged With:

Shamcey Supsup, Kenneth Cobonpue and Glen Soco at Coffee Dream Paceo Arcenas Grand Opening

November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Spotted at Coffee Dream’s Grand Opening last October 24, 2011 were Ms. Universe 3rd Runner-up Shamcey Supsup, world-class furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue and Mr. Glen Soco, the young coffee mogul and owner of Coffee Dream.

Socialites and media personalities were also seen at the launching.

(from left to right) world-class furniture designer, Kenneth Cobonpue, Ms. Universe 3rd Runner-up Shamcey Supsup and young mogul Mr. Glen Soco

Shamcey Supsup Mag-TV interview

Filed Under: Blogging, Events, Featured Post

Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. still Needs Sponsors for Visayas Blogging Summit 2011

October 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. is still looking for sponsors to make Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 more possible.

If you are a corporation, private or NGO, institution or a medium-to-small business wanting to establish prominence in the social media through brand exposure and online branding, sponsoring the Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 can be your ticket to gain relevance and distinction in the blogosphere and social media in Cebu, in the Philippines and even in other countries.

Bloggers are known social media promoters. But they don’t just promote what they think is mediocre. They can be picky and will only spread the good things about a certain brand or product when they think that a certain brand, product or service  is among the best they have experienced or tasted. The appreciation of bloggers can spread throughout the social media, creating a potential buzz.

If you want to experience buzz marketing for your brand, product or service, the bloggers can be of great help.

Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. is seeking sponsors and partners for their line up of events and activities within the organization and the blogosphere. We deem the partnership as valuable and so we provide creative services to cater the expectations of the partners.

To partner with Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc, the first step is to provide your details in the form below. You can use the same form if you want to sponsor Visayas Blogging Summit 2011.

 

*(denotes required field)

Acceptable file types: doc,pdf,txt,gif,jpg,jpeg,png.
Maximum file size: 1mb.

 

To check the sponsorship packages for Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 sponsors, please check the page: Why Become a VBS Sponsor.

 

Thank you!

 

From Content Management Committee

 

Chairman: Bjornson Bernales

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Featured Post

Is Blogging Really… Dead?

October 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ladies and Gentlemen of Cebu, blogging is dead.

Social media has delivered the final blow to bloggers worldwide. Twitter and Facebook has allowed people to convey their content and ideas at a much faster pace and a wider content than blogs could only dream of. And here comes Google Plus, where your tech daily tech updates aren’t of much interest anymore since the new content that you once pride your blog with, is now being shared to the world by power players in social media such as Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki and Tom Anderson faster than you can type your content.

So why bother?

 

Blogging is dead.

 

Is this even news?

 

Blogging’s decline started half a decade ago when everyone joined the blogging bandwagon. And what polluted the blogosphere was the amount of content that didn’t really help anyone at all.

 

In fact, blogging started as a means of sharing personal experiences to the masses populating the Internet. Just simple, plain and long, content-driven status updates.

They became big. They were early. That was then.

 

But as the years rolled by, social media made sharing those personal experiences, once only found on blogs, now readily available for just about anyone. Sharing personal experiences on blogs has become irrelevant. They’re all on Facebook.

 

Blogging is dead.

 

But bloggers never say die.

 

What once was a flourishing community sharing smart information has now been drowning in despair.

 

But the bloggers, they don’t give up without a fight.

 

And what was once called blogging has evolved into a wiser, more powerful entity called Content Marketing.

 

Sonia Simone describes it as the creation of valuable content that has a marketing purpose. Promotional, in other words.

 

Cebu is a beautiful place. Every step down a road leads to another interesting venue. Every venue holds a unique, creative concept to help make Cebu, and the country in general, a better place.

 

And it’s our job as writers to promote that. To promote an idea. To promote a venue. To promote an event.

 

Not with a blog of copy and pasted ideas and information, but content-driven information aimed at educating people, guiding them along a path of uncertainty, taking a leap of faith, simplifying life and learning to enjoy it in Cebu.

 

Blogging is dead. And is reborn as content marketing.

 

Hear the War Drums

 

Sound the trumpets! Start the war drums! Let your voices be heard!

 

It’s time to let go of blogging. It’s dead. It will never be back. Social media has made sure of that. But hope still lives on.

 

Let it be known, that Cebu, our hometown, our pride, is banging on the gates of glory, knocking down the competition, and yearns to claim the hearts of the world.

 

Promote our land. Let the world know of its beauty and wonders. It’s so exciting to be alive and in Cebu right now.

 

Open up your site, play The Day of the Baphomets in the background, and start writing.

Are you still just blogging? Or are you marketing your business, or an idea, or Cebu, or the Philippines?

 

Josh Sarz is a writer, food lover and Internet junkie. He works for Thumbtack, an Internet-based marketplace for local services in the U.S. He also writes about Simplifying to Enjoy Life, in his blog at Sagoyism.com

Filed Under: Blogging

Donate for I Luv Farmers

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Philippines deviates itself from being an agricultural country to an economy largely based in  service industry. However, agricultural outputs still contribute to the portion of the Philippine economy. The sad thing though is that those who have worked hard  in producing the products that bring food to our plate are still suffering from poverty due to many factors. One of those factors is the industrialization of agriculture produce alienating indigenous farmers who rely on their hands and the strengths of their backs and knees to cultivate crops.

I Luv Farmers, a cause that helps the low-earning farmers of the Philippines, reminds us that there is the hope in eradicating neglect that many Filipinos now view about the farmers. It is a worthy undertaking that many youths now, including the members of Cebu Blgogers Society, Inc, have embarked in, to aid the farmers. From this cause, there is this hope by helping the farmers elevate from poverty.

Farmers are the unsung heroes of our society.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: PUB Talk

RAFI Triennial Awards Calls on Entries for Blogging Contest

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

To promote the inspiring stories and work of recognized development workers in the Visayas and Mindanao, the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) is calling on individuals between 13 and 35 years old based in the Visayas and Mindanao to join the RAFI Triennial Awards Blogging Contest.

The contest highlights the RAFI Triennial Awards and its awardees and finalists. Guided by the theme, “Shaping the big picture of change”, entrants are expected to do background research on the lives and works of RAFI Triennial awardees and finalists nearest their area.

The RAFI Triennial Awards is an awards program of RAFI given every three years to recognize the philanthropic, humanitarian, and holistic efforts of individuals and institutions in the Visayas and Mindanao in enhancing the quality of life of the communities they serve. It is now on its 5th run with conferment of awards in 2012.

To join the RAFI Triennial Awards Blogging Contest, individuals should register through www.rafi.org.ph. Entrants must have an existing and updated blog for at least six months.

All blog entries must be original and written in English, with a minimum of 1,000 words and maximum of 4,000 words. Entries should not have been entered or won in previous competitions. Writers must at the end of their blogs indicate, “This is an official entry to the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) Triennial Awards Blogging Contest.” and include a link to the RAFI website.

The criteria for judging include 50 percent for content (originality and alignment to the theme and research value) and 50 percent for writing style or composition (including technicalities).

A contest participant is allowed a maximum of three blogs that feature different awardees and finalists.

After posting their entries on their blogs, entrants should email application form, URL of the blog post, and electronic copy of at least one valid ID to ellen.red@rafi.org.ph with the subject header: Entry to the RAFI Triennial Awards Blogging Contest.

The blogging contest started last Sept. 30. Deadline for the submission of blog entries is Dec. 15, 2011.

Entrants must ensure that their blogs are accessible until winners are declared in January 2012.

First prize winner will receive Php 25,000; second prize Php 20,000; and third prize Php 15,000. All entries of winners and finalists will be consolidated and published into a book.

For more information on the RAFI Triennial Awards and to check on the awardee or finalist nearest you, visit www.rafi.org.ph.

Filed Under: Blogging, Featured Post, Press Release

Thankful for No Typhoon

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I was expecting for Typhoon Ramon to hit today, Wednesday.

When I went to work in the morning, I noticed many highschoolers from a nearby Catholic institution packed themselves back to their respective homes ( and I know some going where their feet would lead to) while I was hoping for a jeepney to ride for work.

Cebuanos expected the typhoon to hit Wednesday, October 12, 2011 in the afternoon, perhaps, at 5-7 Pm as PAG-ASA reported.

In the afternoon, I was asked to attend a roadshow about Retail Treasury Bonds at Marco Polo Hotel with the department head where I’m currently working with.

By the way, if you want to invest in Retail Treasury Bonds, their public offering is going on from October 10-17, 2011. Ask your favorite bank, preferbaly Metrobank, BDO, BPI and Chinabank about this kind of marketable securities.

Now, while I was attending the event, a speaker relayed his optimism about the Philippine economy and about the weather in Cebu. The economy is bright enough to be compared to the EU crisis.

True enough, though it was not so dusky but cumulonimbus clouds started to blanket the afternoon sky closer to twilight, the weather didn’t indicate a possible coming of a strong typhoon.

Tropical depression Ramon, though it hit other parts in the Philippines, was not destructive as we thought it might be, possibly bringing more floods to the city of Cebu and its nearby cities such as Mandaue.

Thankfully, the typhoon alleviated itself into tropical depression. However, Cebuanos should expect for more rains to downpour especially now that we are nearing the cold season with longer nights and shorter days.

Do we have to blame PAG-ASA for the false reporting?

We don’t have to for PAG-ASA only reports what it can predict about the weather. There is no accuracy in the weather forecast system in Cebu especially now that we are experiencing climate change.

However, one event was forced to postpone because of the typhoon that said to hit the city and the entire Cebu. The Moonwalk for Breast Cancer Awareness should have happened this afternoon but was impeded to occur because of “Ramon”.

Note: I referred to the date October 12, 2011, Wednesday the typhoon expected to bring unfavorable disaster in the metro and the date the events I’ve mentioned here. 

BY: Bjornson Bernales

Filed Under: Blogging, Cebu

Brace yourself for Typhoon Ramon This Wednesday

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Tropical depression Ramon is expected to bring storm to the areas in Visayas and Mindanao.

Heavy rains have already been felt in Cagayan de Oro and Surigao. Signal number one is forecast in these areas:

  •  Eastern Samar,
  • Western Samar,
  • Leyte provinces,
  • Bohol,
  • Biliran,
  • Camotes Island,
  • northern Cebu,
  • northern Negros,
  • Capiz,
  • Masbate,
  • Ticao Island,
  • Surigao del Norte,
  • Siargao island,
  • Surigao del Sur,
  • Agusan del Norte,
  • Agusan del Sur,
  • Dinagat Island,
  • Camiguin Island.
This is based from PAG-ASA report.

Typhoon Ramon has gustiness of up to 80 kph, with winds whirling at a maximum of 65 kph.

In Cebu, rains have been pouring since Friday, October 7, 2011. Floods should be expected on roads and traffic will surely be a headache.

And will there be classes tomorrow?

Tune in to radio stations for updates or call your school.

We’ll try to update you on this development at our Facebook page.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Cebu, News
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