Deconstructing the iBlog5 Summit

Hold on to your knickers boys and girls, here comes my no-holds-barred assessment of the just concluded iblog5 summit– that gathering of bloggers, blogger-wannabes, and the most recent classification in the pinoy blogosphere, the PGBs.

The event was fun! Too many bloggers congregated in one location that I feared the Philippine blogging universe would be reduced to nothingness if an atomic bomb were to be detonated in the middle of UP Diliman’s Malcolm Hall. Fortunately, nothing of that sort happened. But that would have been inevitable had prospective suicide bombers joined the event and stayed to listen to some of the speakers. I was even tempted to do the deed myself but I couldn’t stand the sight of blood so there.

Still, as I said, there was a heavy turnout! Bloggers were Plurking and Twittering while the summit was in full swing. Anyway, that I found myself trolling the halls of UP’s College of Law, smoking endless cigarettes, was courtesy of a blogging friend who had to forcefully drag me by the hair while my computer headset was still attached to my ears. Despite all my virtual kicking and screaming I was still delighted and touched that he cared enough to get me out of my room. You see, I seldom venture out of my room these days so the prospect of being inside another room with hundreds of bloggers was a bit of a daunting task. But I managed to compose myself, smooth my unruly hair, & actually listened to people talk.

Some of the things I heard were eye-openers like this guy from Yehey! who talked about the plethora of blogging events these days. I was like “Blogging events?! There are actually blogging events that bloggers are invited to? Dude, how come I didn’t know about these things?” I asked my friend. He looked at me as if I just crawled out under some prehistoric rock. He looked me in the eye, and said “Dude, those are invite only events. Only those big bloggers are invited. You, on the other hand, are small fry.” “Oh, now that you put it that way.” Bugger, that was a direct hit.

Bagongbotante’s presentation was a joy to listen to! I was about to zone out prior to his presentation expecting some trapo to spew mouthfuls of ostentatious self-aggrandizing crap but the guy’s delivery and the way he gave us a glimpse of the innerworking of the COMELEC was very refreshing, albeit naive in certain aspects. I particularly take exception to the restrictions (or the lack thereof) that they’ve set for Internet campaigns. Lay off personal blogs? Man that’s one big hole right there. I could probably come up with an Internet political campaign strategy the size of a Boeing 747 and fly it through that hole(actually, I think I will, and see if there’d be any takers). I kid you not.

Now here are some dicey parts.

The pre-program activity, asking the bloggers to come hither and introduce themselves and their blogs was hilarious. It was like watching amateur hour or a blogging version of Alcoholics Anonymous. Him I’m Spock and I’m a blogger. Really cracked me up. Would have been cool if a page in iblogph.com was set up to list the names and the blogs of the participants. Less hassle that way and saves lots of time.

Some of the speakers were, well, let me leave that hanging. But seriously folks, I don’t expect you guys to be raging, awesome presenters but c’mon, you could do better than that. Practice your presentation before you come on stage why doncha? And for pete’s sake, come prepared. You’re being asked to do a presentation and you do an impromptu speech? I don’t give a rat’s ass what your background is, if you’re gonna present before hundreds of folks who expect to learn from you, the least you can do is bring a presentation material even if it’s only a one-pager.

One of the unfortunate things about the summit was the glaring lack of time. There was not enough time allocated to Q&A which reminds me of school where the teacher shouts at the end of an exam ‘FINISHED OR UNFINISHED, PASS YOUR PAPER!’. Also, it was bad enough that there was very little time for questioning and yet some character decided to hog the microphone making the question and answer portion his personal playground. I think this is an area for improvement as well for organizers to make sure that other folks would have the chance to also ask questions. And no, saying that you can just ask questions during the breaks doesn’t cut it. Maybe next time there could be multiple locations so presentations can proceed simultaneously and people can just attend those presentations they’re interested in. Just a thought.

Overall, I think the summit, despite the time constraints, was successful. The organizers did a very good job of organizing the event, getting sponsors, and spreading the word through the pinoy blogosphere. That there were delegates coming from outside of Luzon was proof to that. There was even a party afterwards. Too bad the afterparty venue was a bit far from the summit location so a lot of participants weren’t able to make it. Still it was an awesome display of event planning and organizing. Hats off to you guys!