Category: Events

Last friday, I joined my mom to celebrate mid-autumn festival (more commonly known as ‘Moon Festival‘) with her former colleagues.  While the custom or tradition to celebrate the Moon Festival is by floating sky lanterns, burning incense, planting mid-autumn trees & fire dragon dances, we, on the other hand, celebrated by playing a dice game referred to as “Mooncake Dice Game“.

During old times, prizes were mooncakes.  We, however, following modern times, used practical items like food & household items.  Mooncake is still part of the event though 🙂  We ate different kinds of mooncake while playing the dice game.

image from Wikipedia.org

There were about 13 of us who gathered at Sky Dragon Restaurant in Ongpin.  We had dinner first, sang for a short while then started the game.  Our prizes were simple items like junkfood, drinks, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.  Pretty cheap but it’s the company and the enjoyment that were more important.

The rules of the game are just simple.  We need 6 pieces of dice, 1 glass bowl & prizes for the winners.  Prizes are split into six, categorized as to the combination of dice that would come out.  These are the ff.:

• 6th Prize – throw 1 four

• 5th Prize – throw 2 fours

• 4th Prize – throw 4 of the same kind (except fours)

• 3rd Prize – throw 3 fours

• 2nd Prize – straight/full sequence or 3 of a number & 3 of another

• 1st Prize – throw 6 fours, 6 ones, 6 of any kind, 5 fours, 5 of any kind, 4 fours

There’s also 2 combination of dice that are considered as 1st prize but there’s also a catch.  If you throw it, you can win 1st prize and also ALL the prizes in the table (even if others have won it already).  Others usually take this rule out so everyone can go home with something.  Anyhow, those 2 combinations are really rare to throw so if you ask me, I would want to keep the rule.  None of us got it last friday.

We played for an hour.  My mom and I took the ff. prizes, not much but at least, we have something to munch on when we watch TV hehehe 😛

How about you?  How did you celebrate Moon Festival? 🙂

Technology is really emerging fast.   The ones that are very successful nowadays are from technology & digital media.  Good news to us as Manila Jaycess (JCI Manila) will feature them in the 3rd Entrep Summit happening at SM Mall of Asia, Center Stage Cinema on August 28, 2010.

The event is called “Click – Technopreneurs’ Secrets, Revealed!“.  The title itself really caught my attention.  I have been blogging for quite some time, attended a couple of social media events but it’s usually in these events that I get information that I already know.  I really hope that this time around, I get to learn stuff that I need especially since I’m planning to do social media full time very soon.

This event looks very promising especially because it’s organized by the Manila Jaycees.  Their events have always been very successful.  Looking at the speakers lineup, I do know that they have gotten some of the best in the fields.  Let me enumerate them here.  I’m looking forward though to the talks that will be given by Abe Olandres, Dustin Andaya & Nix Nolledo.

• Lex Ledesma (Proprietor, Whistlestop Restaurant)
• Jay Fajardo (Founder & Former CEO, Airborne Access)
• Vince Golangco/Doy Roque/Yves Gonzalez
• Cesar Flores (President, Smartmatic Asia)
• Abe Olandres (Professional Blogger & Owner, YugaTech)
• Dustin Andaya (Chairman & Marketing Director, Island Rose)
• Ibba Bernardo (Founder & President, Mothercode)
• Nix Nolledo (Co-founder, Chairman & majority shareholder: Pinoyexchange.com)
• Martin Lichauco (Managing Partner, Global Gateway Venture Capital (G2VC))
• Paco Sandejas, Ph.D. (Managing Director, Narra Venture Capital)

12 speakers in one event!  Wow!!  Definitely would be a jampacked event!  There really is a lot of information that can be had with so many speakers, and even if one speaker isn’t to your liking, you just can’t go wrong with that many speakers.  I know for sure, as bloggers, we know who Abe Olandres is, and this is why I’m also interested to hear his talk.  And the reason I also would like to listen to Dustin Andaya is that his company Island Rose is a company that I have already had the pleasure of dealing with, and I know just how much of an impact their online presence has had in their business.

These are all successful individuals that have leveraged and used the online world to their benefit while also providing a great service to consumers and end users.  Even Nix Nolledo is someone we should all listen to since he and his team has been able to develop the biggest online community of Filipinos — that’s a real big deal in my opinion.

Anyway, there’s just so much that I won’t be able to summarize what each speaker has to offer, that’s what the seminar is for!

Tickets are being sold at Php1,200.  If you’re interested & would like to join me in attending the Entrep Summit, go purchase tickets at TicketNet.  I’ll see you there & let’s learn together 🙂

Last weekend, I attended the Keep Your Kids Safe Online seminar at Victory Greenhills.  Though I don’t have kids, I also feel that the things that were talked about were all things that are also critical for all of us to know and understand.  Keep Your Kids Safe Online which is now called, “Keep Your Families Safe Online” is a program developed by blogger friend, Sonnie Santos which aims to help parents guide & protect their children online.

Sonnie had Chay Saputil & Carlo Ople as speakers for the seminar.  Sonnie opened the event and shared how important it is for us to train our children to use social media properly.  Chay, on the other hand, taught us how to control our kids’ access to internet while Carlo shared his gaming experience and how we can use our passion for productivity.

The great aspects about this seminar is all the real world examples that come along with the topics at hand.  Sonnie shared with us a family that had just put too much information out there on the internet and was being harassed online.  And even Chay shared with us the specifics of how to navigate the sometimes complicated means of protecting your kids online.  She’s a windows expert, and she’s using much of her expertise in providing information on how to use the available services that both Microsoft and Apple has with their operating systems in order to protect your children.

There were some great tips that I didn’t even know, so I’m sure these would also come as a wonderful surprise to parents.  There really are a lot of tools out there that we can use, and Chay did a great job in sharing with us all that information.

I appreciate the effort that Sonnie put into this program considering that it’s all done for free.  What a great way to give back to the community!  Internet & social media is really growing.  More & more people, especially kids, are being exposed to it.  As most of us know, the internet can be used to do good or harm.  We wouldn’t want our family to be a victim right?

I certainly don’t, that’s why I attended the seminar.  I hope you do too!  So let me share the schedule lined up for the rest of 2010.  You only need to allot time, everything else is free.  The information you’ll get is priceless.

• 8/28/2010 – Philippine Alliance Christian School (Pasay)
• 8/31/2010 – WWCF Auditorium (ACCM Bldg., 102 Valero St., Salcedo Village, Makati City)
• 9/14/2010 – WWCF Auditorium (ACCM Bldg., 102 Valero St., Salcedo Village, Makati City)
• 9/25/2010 – CCF Auditorium (St. Francis Square, Julia Vargas Ave., Mandaluyong City)
• 10/16/2010 – Walter Mart (Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati City)
• 10/23/2010 – Walter Mart (Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati City)
• 11/13/2010 – Walter Mart (Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati City)
• 11/20/2010 – Walter Mart (Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati City)

If you want to know more or if you want to reserve slot/s for future seminars, just contact the Web Safety for Parents team at reservations@websafetyforparents.org.

I got an invite for the Insider Secrets to Google Adwords event in my gmail inbox a few days ago.  I guess it’s because I have a Google account.   It’s been on the back of my mind for the past few days already.  I really want to attend the event as I really want to learn how to improve HeaRty’s Haven especially when it comes to search engine optimization.  Currently, I don’t have the slightest idea how to do it.  The only struggle I have is that I don’t have a budget for it right now (the Google AdWords event is pegged at Php 10,595.00+VAT).  For those who have the budget for it, I urge you to join now.  They have pretty good promos like the ff.:

• You’ll get discounts if you register on or before June 10, 2010, early bird rate is at Php 9,795.00+VAT.
• If you register for 5 or more people, rate will be slashed to Php 9,295.00+VAT per person.
• 1st 50 registrants will receive a special bonus CD, the Jealously Guarded Secrets of Google AdWords.

I still have 5 more days to decide as early bird rate will end at June 10.  Waahhh!!! I really super want this! 🙁  Anyway, to register, you can call (02) 470-1055 or SMS at +639053364486.

Insider Secrets to Google Adwords is a one-time event that is actually a first in the Philippines.  Event will be on June 24-25, 2010 from 8:30am-5:30pm & will be held at Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila.

Featuring 2 international speakers that will share the Insider Secrets to a Google-friendly Website:

• Simon Leung – retired most senior Google optimization specialist & Google insider for search & advertising results.
• Fabian Lim – Asia’s top pay-per-click & search engine optimization expert trainer.

Going to the event for these two speakers I think is worth it enough.  There’s just a lot of knowledge that you can’t get anywhere except in a one time event like this.  I’m sure there will be questions that will be asked, and considering just how much of an expert these two are, there really is just so much value in this event.

Personally, like many bloggers out there, we love to write, but sometimes writing without a solid readership is daunting, and eventually, one really wants to be read considering the amount of work and love we put into each one of our articles.  I think as bloggers, these events should definitely be attended as our readers become the most important part of why we write to.

The Course Outline is pretty interesting… wahhh I really wish I have enough budget for this.  Let’s see if I can join.  For the kind-hearted out there, you might want to donate to my Insider Secrets to Google Adwords fund hehehe 😛

• Understanding The Google Ardwords Fundamentals
• Building Relevant Keyword Lists With The Right Research
• Writing Converting Ads With Only 95 Characters of Space
• Putting Together The Most Effective Account Structures
• Planning Your Bidding Strategy To Minimize Costs
• Designing Landing Pages That Google Absolutely Loves
• Setting Up A Google Friendly Lead Generation System
• Converting New Subscribers Into Paying Customers Instantly
• Why Search Engine Marketing
• Market and Keyword Research
• Google Ad Networks
• Basic Pay-Per-Click (PCC) Concepts
• PPC Campaign, Ad Groups and Ads
• World-Class Case Studies
• Your Own Live PPC Ads

Some interesting things that I personally would pay close attention to as a personal and lifestyle blogger would be understanding the fundamentals, market and keyword research, as well as a closer look at just what these “World-class case studies” are.

This is definitely a rare event.  If you use the internet for your business, then Google Adwords, the lessons that will be covered are definitely crucial to gaining an online presence.  You shouldn’t miss this one-time event in the Philippines!