Last weekend, Saturday, May 19, 2012, the First Baguio Blog Conference was held at the University of Baguio Square Hall. The aim of the conference was to inspire more people to express their passions through blogging, increase the online presence of Baguio Bloggers and Cordillera Bloggers, as well as gather bloggers from the region, and inform Baguio based businesses of how powerful blogging can be as an advertising medium.

So, you’re probably asking why this post is posted here and not on my personal blog, well the reason is because I was asked to be one of the speakers for the event and I happened to discuss food blogging. If you’ve been a follower of my blogs, then you already know how I got into food blogging in the first place, but for those who are new readers (and hopefully new followers ), you can read about how I started this food blog, here.

I wasn’t just the speaker, I also co-hosted the event with local journalist (G-String – Baguio Midland Courier) and tv personality (SkyCable Turismo Show), Gaby Keith.

This event was spearheaded by Baguio based blogger, Vincent Tabor of Lakbay Baguio with the help of fellow Baguio based bloggers, myself included, Dean , Dan, Emil, Joven, Kat,and Yam. We were able to gather enough sponsors and speakers that made the event a successful one. I think it was a success. We prepared for 150 attendees and we managed to get 140+ people to participate in the conference. We also managed to get popular bloggers from Manila to speak at the event. I think we did pretty good for our first try, rest assured that the next Baguio Blog Conference will be bigger and better.

with co-organizer, Vince of Lakbay Baguio. {photo courtesy of Azrael Coladilla }

As mentioned earlier, this blog conference aims to encourage and inspire more people to express themselves through blogging, with passion as a driving force. However, I observed that more people were drawn to blogging because of the possibility of earning money from it. True, it is possible to earn money from blogging, I do (not with this blog though ), however, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort before you can even earn a decent living from blogging. You have to establish a good online reputation before you earn money from your blog, that’s where Personal Branding comes in, which was also discussed by one of the speakers.

cam-whoring as usual.  {photo courtesy of Dean Cuanso}

I started blogging back when Friendster was cool, and most of the things I blogged about then are still the same things I blog about today, my life as a mom, love and food. It amazes me how much I have remained the same blogger I was then and yet I feel that I have also grown as a blogger. Is that weird? Probably.

As I’ve said, I was a speaker at the event and I talked about food blogging. Out of all the niches, why food blogging? For me, it’s simple, I love food, so why not blog about it? I don’t earn money from this blog and I don’t eat in the restaurants I feature in this blog for free. Contrary to what most people think, I really don’t let the restaurant know that I am a food blogger once I am there. I take pictures inconspicuously as to not tip them off that I am a food blogger, it would be nice to get some VIP treatment and eat for free, but that would defeat my purpose of reviewing a restaurant and their food. You see, if I let them know that I am a food blogger, they’d probably treat me differently, they’d pay more attention to me and then I won’t be able to experience the restaurant and the food for what it truly is and that might lead to me writing a misleading review about a place, which I don’t want to happen. But, I am a food blogger, not a food critic, there’s a difference. I do let the restaurants know I’m a food blogger once I’ve posted my review, that way, they’ll know what to improve and they can invite me for a do over if they feel like it. So far, only Jim’s Retro Diner has asked me back to dine for free to sample his best sellers, others merely thank me for a wonderful post. There aren’t a lot of food bloggers in the city so as expected, there aren’t a lot of events, hopefully, this conference will change that, but I have been to one food event, that was for Mario’s 40th anniversary, that’s where I met Dan of Igorot Journal.

talking about my relationship with food..

Anyway, I was so very glad to have met the speakers from Manila, they were so awesome to have taken the time to help us out and make our event successful. Until next year!

THE SPEAKERS:

Janette Toral of Digital Filipino on Making a Difference Through Blogging and Social Media Marketing

Florencio Jusay Jr. of Manual to Lyf  on Making Blog Posts Exciting

Joven Chico of Travex Travels on Travel Blogging

Dean Cuanso of WatWatWorld on Monetizing Your Blog

Antonio Carranza Jr. of Pusang Kalye on The Do’s and Don’t of Events Blogging

Azrael Coladilla of Azrael’s Merryland on Personal Branding and Social Media

Fitz Villafuerte of Ready To Be Rich on Increasing Traffic To Your Blog

Thank You to our very generous sponsors for helping make this event a successful one!

• Smart
• Azalea Residences
• Sun Cellular
• Unilab
• Solid Hosting
• University of Baguio
• 18BC Music Lounge
• Kubong Sawali

*photos courtesy of Dean Cuanso and Azrael Coladilla.