Like I have mentioned a couple of hours ago, the recent Blogging Network Event that I attended was full of  fun, joy and entertainment. I met new people, I made new friends and I got the good news that Pinoy Teens Online has occupied the 10th spot in the Philippine Blogoshpere for the Top 100 Blogs of 2008 according to Andrew‘s Ratified.Org Algorithm.

But that was way not all. Let me start from the very first thing that happened. I was lost. Stranded, in other words. I had to seek for a station that would allow me to transfer my G-Cash into real money because I ran out of it. (that damn taxi I took was really fast in terms of counting money). You might come to wonder why I was lost. Well, I didn’t arrive at the correct venue when I got off the Taxi, I went all the way to the Waterfront. Lol.

I honestly forgot the exact location of the event, and I was lost in Lanang because I go there very rare and my knowledge around that place is very scarce. But somehow, with the help of my girl friend, I managed to make it still. She texted me the exact location of the event and I was enlightened. “Sabi ko nga, sa Hotel nga mismo!” But there was still a little bump in my way. “San nga ba yun?”

And again, I made it somehow. And again, a bump came up. They almost didn’t allow me to enter because I am still 17 years of age, something that some people don’t believe in. (haha). Yet I managed to exchange a couple of words and convince the guards that I will stay only at our assigned venue. So there we go and there I go up the stairs of the hall.

Arriving at the venue, my fellow friend invited me to share a table with them and I did so. And on that particular table, the first person I started being-“makulit” to was the popularly known Drama Queen of Davao City and the Philippine Blogoshpere. I also came to meet our table neighboors, Grace and her buddies who were also around during the event. She’ll be the one who will accompany me to General Santos city. Then I noticed different voices speaking. The people where introducing themselves to everyone and just after a couple of minutes, my turn came. And hey, it was like trash. It wasn’t anything sensational but the rear opposite of it. I felt tensed and nervous at the same time because the people in attendance may be a bit less than the Software Freedom Day, but of some higher class, including Mindanao Bloggers head Kuya Blogie who was just a table away from me. I was able to introduce myself as Kevin Paquet the author of Pinoy Teens Online, Poetic Notes and the man in-charge of th free hosting service PhilippineHost.Com

After each and everyone of the blogging enthusiast where able to introduce themselves, the real thing kicked off. And that with a couple of words from Ate Janette of which I can’t recall a single one because I wasn’t listening since I was checking my Blog’s Comments XD (peace). Then the talk in front went on and went on, while I, Ghenessa, Meiyah and Faust kept on talking and talking about WordPress related stuff and struts like some of the coolest plugins in town that everyone needs. (I’ll have a weekly plugin session here soon, watch out for that).

And the mood for me which settled from being pretty much laxed and neutral to a bit more tensed and excited as I noticed a couple of very familiar blogs flash on the projector infront. The top 100 blogs for 2008 according to Ratified.Org are about to be introduced for the very first time. And then, the good news came. Pinoy Teens along with Lyle Santos’ Pinoy R.N made it to the top 10th and 3rd (correct me if I’m wrong) respectively. Both of us were called to go to front and share something and again, ridiculous nonsense words came out of my mouth. (I mean it, I wanted to say so many things haha)

After the first part of the program, Party Time was next to hit the floor. Peope danced, others drunk a bit and a couple of Photo Addicts took pictures from almost every angle and every place of the room. But hey, I won’t give in that easily and went to photo mode as well with my lonely Kodak Digital Camera in hand.I got a couple of shots with Blogie and some with the strange foreigner whose name I can’t recall.

The Group of Ara wasn’t the only one who took pictures during the event, Charles joined the troop as well and took a picture from me in the midst of the crowd and another one while holding a beer glass, but believe me guys, I didn’t drink anything from it.

I took pictures solo with a couple of cute girls like Ara (who has linked to me from her article about the event, yay!). I also got a bunch of pictures from other bloggers who were around. Excluding those few bumps that came along prior the event, the whole evening was pretty much perfect for me or let’s say was “almost perfect” for me. But again, my age made me play the underdog.

Despite the fact that I arrived quite late at the said event, my registration number, still made me win 500 Pesos, which I was unable to claim. Those 500 Pesos were given out in coupon which could be used to play at the Casino, which I’m unfortunately unable to do. I decided instead, to give it over to one of my friends who could benefit more from it and after all, it turned out that the coupon came back to me. With no loss nor win at all.

The hour long Pictorial finally took its end and the bloggers took off from the venue one by one or let me say crowd by crowd. I was supposed to be fetched by my mother dearest yet she was unable to respond to my missed calls and text for over an hour as we (namely me, Charles, Migs, Faust and co) went downstairs to interview one of the first iPhone 3G Users of Davao City (well, he’s the first that I know). A post regarding the iPhone 3G will be posted as soon as possible.

After the short interview, given by Migs which was recorded by the four of us, we decided to go to the Parking Lot accompanied by Blogie and Janette and their fellas. Bluegre was the next destination on the list. Unfortunately, not all of us fit into the vehicle, so WhyNotCoconut.Com owner Charles, Faust and I decided to ride a Taxi instead.

While in the Taxi, we discussed about a couple of very vital plugins that a blog should have, some of those that we were able to mention include All In One SEO, Google XML Sitemap, FD Feedburner and a lot more which those two would like to get more information of.

And guess what we were talking at the Cafe? Our discussion regarding blogs continues. We talked about copywriting, how bad it would be to copy paste content from others, what would be a competitive and interesting way to take advantage of hot topics you see on other blogs.

We all came to the conclusion that whatever you’re doing whether you’re one of the top people in terms of SEO and own a very high page ranked domain name, it’s still the content that makes you King and decides who among the many will go to the frontpage of Google and the other Search Engines.

When we departed from our last destination (Bluegre) I was able to shot a couple of “Filipino Teens” who are  “active at night” some of the less fortunate brothers and sisters of ours who felt a little bit happy the moment they’ve been caught on camera.

This concludes my 7 hour journey, another unforgettable experiance adding to the list of the couple that I have already. It seems like one event after another comes with even more unflagging success and the Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2008, looks as promising to be one of those great events that is already knocking on the doors of the Bloggers around the General Santos Area and the Bloggers from the Mindanao Bloggers Community.

Hope to see some familiar faces in General Santos City, who among you will be going there?

And also another question, could you add me in my Yahoo! Messenger? :p i.believe_11 I’d like to extend my network of friends around the Durian City.

Other people that I forgot to mention in this ubberlong post whom I was able to exchange a couple of words with:

• Pvegeta
• Alritch

Leave a comment guys, nawala ang list of URLs ko XD

Video

• Digital Filipino Club Group Blog (Aice)

Photos

• Candid, Group, and Pictorials at the Davao Blogger Event (Charles)
• Meiyah (will point to actual set once created)
• Digital Filipino Club – Bloggers Eyeball (Raphael)

Blog post

1. Bloggers Networking Event (Jedmeister)
2. Digital Filipino Club Event (Neolle)
3. DigitalFilipino Club Davao Bloggers Networking Event (Denxioz)
4. DigitalFilipino.com Club Networking Event at Grand Regal Hotel (Meiyah)
5. Me & My Food at Blogger’s Night (Badz)
6. Bloggers Networking Meet Ups
7. DigitalFilipino.com Club – Bloggers Networking Event (Ara)
   
8. DigitalFilipino.com and Davao Bloggers Networking Event
9. Davao Bloggers Networking Eyeball by DigitalFilipino.com Club (Lyle)
10. Digital Filipino Club Networking Event (DeeJames)
11. Blogger’s Fellowship Night (Louraine)
12. Food, Fun, and Cash at the Digital Filipino Club Bloggers’ Eyeball (Kathy)
13. Davao Bloggers Eyeball at PAGCOR (Bambam)
14. DigitalFilipino.com Club – Blogger Eyeball Photos (Mary Grace)
15. People at DigitalFilipino.com and Davao Bloggers Event (Charles)
16. Digital Filipino and Davao Bloggers Networking Party Last Night (Charles)
17. DigitalFilipino Club – Bloggers Networking Event (Dennis)
18. The DigitalFilipino Club – Mindanao Bloggers Fellowship Night (Gagay)
19. Just Got Back from a Bloggers’ Networking Event (CyNurse)
20. DigitalFilipino Blogger’s Gathering at Grand Regal Hotel (Rhodilee)
21. DigitalFilpino.com Club and Bloggers Davao Networking Event (Oliver LV)
22. DigitalFilipino.com Club – Bloggers Eyeball (Raphael)
23. Ratified.org Top 100, We’re #10 (Kevin)
24. DigitalFilipino.com Club and Bloggers Davao Networking Event (Cesar)
25. DigitalFilipino.com Club networking event (Migs)