The view from the outside

Wow, I have to say, I am completely amazed with the blogging community here in the Philippines. The big event at Taste Asia last night (maybe one of the biggest bloggers events ever so far in the Philippines), has given rise to an incredible response in the blogger's community.

Ok ok, I know, what do I know about the blogger's community right? I've been blogging for what....16 hours??? Well, so far I have been reading up on as many blogs as I could, and everything is about Taste Asia, Aileen Apolo and Google, SM Hypermarket, Yehey and Mall of Asia. I think I must have read over 50 blogs so far with hundreds of comments, but I had to stop reading because I still have to get up early and go to work tomorrow! These are compelling reads, and it is incredibly fun to read about all these people who have known eachother for quite a while -- in some cases even years, but never even met in person.

Sara Cada's blog even said: "They're not anymore the cool writer who comes up with nice content for his blog. They're now friends, and commenting on their blogs and reading their comments now has a different feel to it" and although I didn't get a chance to talk to many of the bloggers present, the atmosphere was absolutely relaxed, friendly and fun and I have the feeling that as a noob blogger (as in!!), I'm entering into a world of friends rather than into something unknown...

Thanks to all pinoy bloggers!!

A few pics from Taste Asia

Some of the pictures I took during the Bloggers Fest at Taste Asia.
I know that I probably don't know a lot of you, but feel free to comment on the pictures! Some of you will probably even recognize yourselves on them... :-)

Aileen starting off the evening	Robert Kwee announcing the prizes
Ahhh...The chocolate...	The party went on outside
For the smokers among us...	Everybody was up for a shot!
One of the sponsors

Bloggers Fest at Taste Asia

For the first time ever (as far as I know, I am just a first-time blogger, but this is what I heard during the event), a REAL Bloggers EB was organized by Google, Yehey and SM Hypermarket. The venue was Taste Asia at Mall of Asia on Tuesday July 3, 2007 at 7:30 PM.

Aileen Apolo (of course everybody knows her from An Apple a Day) was the one who managed to invite all bloggers she knew, and the response was simply amazing! Well over 240 bloggers (some solo, some in pairs, others in packs!), guests and sponsors freed up their evening time to join the EB where free snacks and food were in abundance and drinks were free flowing. More than 40 bloggers even ended up going home with cool free give-aways but one of the highlights of the evening must have been the magic show by Mister Vader (I was really amazed how he got the rubik's cube done on-stage in under 10 minutes, blindfolded! Haha!).

I got to Taste Asia just before 7 PM. Having the honor of being one of the judges, I had to be early but the downside is that I can not enter anything to try to win the trip to Kuala Lumpur (the grand prize for the best blog in the contest)... :-)
As soon as some of the bloggers started arriving, I immediately saw the casual and relaxed atmosphere taking shape. It was as if this was an area full of friends, people who have known eachother for years and years. After an hour or so I found out though, that a lot of the people had not even met any other bloggers present! I think that the casual, friendly and relaxed idea as it was cooked up by Robert Kwee and Aileen contributed to this and really got everyone feeling right in their element.

As soon as bloggers entered, some even immediately started blogging in the corner where HP and Acer had laptops ready to go, connected through the free WiFi available at Taste Asia. I even read a few blogs that were written during evening at the event!


I think it took only about an hour or so and at around 8 to 8:30 PM, the place was packed. Aileen introduced herself on-stage, the hosts got the evening going, Robert presented the prices to be won (with a huge ovation when he mentioned the trip to Kuala Lumpur as the grand prize!) and everybody just mingled with everybody. It was absolutely great!

Although I wasn't really hungry after eating a very late lunch at 3:00 PM, I couldn't help but allow myself to enjoy the food. I really enjoyed the Chicken Pandan, the Chips as prepared by Apet himself, the tempura, the pizza slices, the siomai, the chocolate, the ...everything! I know I just summed up a lot of food, but if you see me in person, you will understand... ;-)
Hats of to Taste Asia! The food was absolutely excellent!

In short, I think the evening was a huge success.
I have read blogs from at least 20 bloggers during and after the event ended (in other words, in the last 24 hours), and everybody was thrilled and excited about the event. I hope this event sets an example that will be followed soon, because I am definitely looking forward to the next one!

Congratulations Google, Yehey and SM Hypermarket!!

One thing I know for sure. Because of the great atmosphere, excellent food and of course, the free Wifi, whenever I have the time, you will find me blogging at Taste Asia!! Hope to meet you bloggers there... :-)

Don't forget to check out the SM Hypermarket website
Another place to blog for free: IAMD Blogs (I just started this, so there is only 1 blog there so far!)