Mary Jane's PhotoBlog

“SM believes that no customer should be left behind”
-Mr. Abraham Imas

Last month I was able to attend the DigitalFilipino Club and Bloggers Meet-Up in Bacolod. As I have said in my blog post about that networking event in my personal blog, I have always wanted to meet my fellow bloggers and online friends so when an opportunity for a meet-up presented itself I did not hesitate to go, even if it was in Bacolod. That event was truly successful, no doubt about that. And going to Bacolod was so worth it.

So when I got invited to attend the very first bloggers event to be held here in Iloilo, I didn’t even think twice, of course I will attend! Aside from being a virtual assistant, I’m making a living out of blogging as well so it’s just natural for me to attend these kinds of events. I was really excited to meet-up with the Iloilo Bloggers again and to finally meet those bloggers that I haven't met yet. The event I'm talking about is the one I attended yesterday, July 31st. The name of the event according to the invitation I got on Facebook was "Bloggers Event at SM City Iloilo." And it was described as "..the first ever bloggers' event in Iloilo. All bloggers and forum members are invited to join in the fun...." So of course I expected the said event to be for bloggers, forumers and IT people only. Which was not meant to be. Read on to find out.

Tim and I arrived around 1:30PM. The invitation on Facebook didn't specify where in the mall the event would be held so we assumed it’s going to be at the activity center (or area, whatever they call it). So we went straight down to the ground floor and hoala I saw a large crowd at the activity area! I told Tim that we are so late and I didn't know that there were that many bloggers and forumers in Iloilo. But when we got nearer the stage I saw a big smiling face of an upcoming presidentiable and the huge word - VILLARDS. Oh yeah we are so late all right. We were about to pass by that crowd but then I saw Efren "Bata" Reyes himself! And he was playing chess (yes chess, not billiards). Of course I wouldn’t let that opportunity pass without taking photos. Then I saw Ronnie Alcano and Francisco "Django" Bustamante too and took photos of them as well.

After my fan girl act I went back to searching for the venue of the so-called bloggers event. Finally, Tim saw Junelle sitting on one of the chairs located at the ground floor entrance of the mall, beside the food court. We found the venue! Oh wait this is the venue? I saw a number of chairs and two tables. After a quick look at the venue I concluded that it was going to be a small event with few bloggers and forumers attending. And yes there were bloggers there already. But no sign of the event organizers yet. Hhhmmmmm. And I thought we were already 30 minutes late. After a brief chat with Junelle, Marcos and some bloggers, Tim and I decided to eat lunch at the food court first which is just beside the venue because we haven't eaten yet as we were in a hurry not to be late. I came all the way from Oton amidst the heavy rains and Tim was only on lunch break and he was still going back to work after checking out the happenings at the event (which again, hasn't even started yet). And then after we had lunch we went back to the venue, still hasn't started yet. Okay, already past 2PM, I am still willing to wait. That's when my friends Monica and JonhaR arrived but Tim had to go back to work so he said goodbye to everyone without even a glimpse of the wifi launch. And then to pass the time away we took photos and talked. Before 3PM, some of the bloggers gave up waiting and took off. That's when one of the organizers arrived and apologized to us for the delay because of some technical issues. Okay, we understand that. Then Junelle decided to take off as well because she had to go to work. That's when the registration process finally began. So we lined up to register, received our gift cards from the various sponsors and our raffle coupons. And that's when we saw Lolo and Lola Techies! I thought the event was for bloggers, forumers and IT people only but it actually was not. It was also for the Senior Citizens, the families of the OFWs, people from OWWA, and various IT organizations and students from the different schools here in Iloilo as well. By 4:20PM, after everyone had registered the program finally started. It was SM's mall wide WiFi launching. The Opening Remarks was said by Ma'am Majella P. Liboon, the Mall Manager. A message was said by Ma'am Nimfa Hirang, Philcom's Sales and Marketing. Then the fun part - raffle of more gift cards! Monica, Jonha and I all won a gift card and we were entitled to 1 cup of brewed coffee from Figaro. After the first raffle Mr. Steve Santos, Operations Manager of SM Cyberzone also gave a short message. Then a countdown to the launching of the Wifi system was made by connecting to the SM Website (around this point most of us who brought our laptops were already utilizing the free wifi so the countdown was just a formality). Another round of raffling of GCs ensued. Then we all witnessed the quiet live video stream of SM City Cebu's wifi launch. SM Cebu, SM Bacolod and SM Iloilo launched their mall wide free wifi simultaneously by the way. The Closing remarks were given by Mr. Abraham Imas, Education Supervisor, Info. Comm. Tech. of SPED, DepEd, Division of Iloilo. On the final raffle a member of the Senior Citizens won a Nokia cellphone! Congratulations Lola! The emcee announced after the short program that there will be a seminar to be given by Angelo Arendain, the Network & Systems Coordinator of DepEd. There was also a free tutorial for OFWs and the Elderly to be facilitated by STI College.

All throughout the program I was taking notes and photos. The event would have really been successful if it was held at a larger venue because so many people attended. The chairs were not enough and there were no tables for the laptops some of us brought. We were all cramped beside the food court. I don't know if it was a lack of proper organizing or preparation of the event’s hosts or they didn't foresee that much turn out. And I am also wondering why the wifi launching was scheduled on the same day that the presidentiable was going to the mall too. Was that planned or not? Which was scheduled first, the Villard or the wifi launching? I won't ask anymore which event was more important because if it's going to be based on the venues, I already know which one it is. I don't have anything against the organizers but I just would like to suggest that next time, when you invite bloggers to an event, make sure to start on time. And more importantly - give us the correct time. We wasted about 3 hours waiting for the event to start. We didn't go to either the seminar or the free tutorial anymore because obviously it wasn't meant for us. Only for the students and the elderly. We took more photos of the venue and the participants before Monica, Efren and I opted to make use of our Figaro GCs. We also claimed our Jollibee meals (it was one of the freebies).

Ahem. Before I forget I would like to thank the sponsors of the said event. Thank you SM City Iloilo for inviting the Iloilo Bloggers to attend your wifi launching. We enjoyed the freebies and the free wifi. And thank you Figaro for the cup of brewed coffee. Thank you Jollibee for the meal. Thank you Netopia for the Click Club membership card and Microsoft Training gift card. Thank you also to Café Celina, Mister Donut, Our Home, Saint Café, Picture City, Bo’s Café, Text Terminal, Q-Solutions and Philcom. Aside from making us wait that long and the cramped venue, we are still happy that you invited us. I did meet other members of IloiloBloggers.com anyway. May this be a learning experience to all future sponsors and event organizers, if you don’t want to hear/read negative comments about your events, please make sure that it will be a successful and well-organized one if you want to hear/read good reviews about it. I mean that’s the whole point right?