The WordCamp Philippines 2009 held at Asian Institute of Management last Saturday was a blast. It was hosted by MindanaoBloggers.com and Mozilla.com with the help of several sponsors. It’s an annual affair where WordPress enthusiasts meet and talk about blogging and of course, WordPress. This is my first time to join WordCamp, and I am really excited about it. Kaya naman eto at magkukuwento ako ng aking first ever WordCamp experience.
I really thought hindi na ako makakapunta sa WordCamp Philippines 2009. Overtime ako the day before, at inabot kami ng hatinggabi. Siyempre, umaga na akong nakauwi. Alas-nuwebe na ng umaga noong nagising ako. Tinutunaw ko na yung possibility na makaka-attend pa ako. Kasi anong oras na noon! But Marck suddenly texted me and he said that it is still possible for me to attend. Haayy. Sige na nga.
Nagtext ako agad noon kay Maiah para itanong kung tutuloy ba siya. Gabi na rin ito nakauwi nung Friday, so alam ko groggy rin ito. Buti naman at nagising na siya noong nagtext ako, at nagsisimula na rin daw siyang magprepare. Since hindi naman kalayuan ang bahay niya, in sync yung oras namin, dahil habang siya e nag-aayos, ako naman e bumibiyahe na. We decided to meet up at Powerbooks in Greenbelt, at noong napunta ako ng Glorietta pa lang e nanibago na ako. Noon ko narealize na ang tagal ko na palang hindi nakakatungtong ng Glorietta. Well wala naman talagang special na pagbabago. Nanibago lang talaga ko. 
Hindi nagtagal at nagkakitaan din kami ni Maiah. Hindi ko talaga alam kung papaano pupunta sa location, so buti at nandiyan si Maiah to guide me. Tagal ko nang hindi nakakatungtong ng Makati e. All I know is nasa tapat siya ng Greenbelt 1. Pero how to get there e hindi ko alam. Thanks to Maiah, we were able to get there in time – for lunch.
So here’s the breakdown of what is good, and what is… ehh.. you know. 
What was good
- Sobrang bait ng mga tao. Lalo na yung mga nasa registration booth. As in! Very accommodating.
- Great talk on Open Web made by Seth Bindernagel. Ngayon lang uli ako nakapanood ng ganoong klaseng demo na napa-wow talaga ako. Hindi lang sa Open Web kung hindi sa kanyang Macbook Pro. :drools:
- Ayos sa food. Hindi ako nakapag-almusal noong pumunta ako sa event dahil sa nagmamadali ako. Pero iba yung pagkain. Nakakabusog talaga. Lalo na yung gulay. Sarap!
- Ito yung naabutan naming talk noong dumating kami. Sayang at hindi ko nasimulan. It’s about citizen journalism and standards stuffs. Dapat kong matutunan ito.
- I was able to talk to some bloggers there like Menard who is also a Mapuan. Nagkaintindihan kami about the challenge of writing blogs in English. Hehe.. Nakapagkwento rin siya about his experiences when he posted his insights on some sensitive issues in his blog. Great guy.
- Reunion with Maiah and Marck. Well hindi naman talaga ito about WordCamp talaga, pero naging stepping stone ito para magkita-kita uli kami ng mga kaibigan ko. Naging maganda rin ang aming mga discussions noong pauwi na kami.
What was bad
- The freebies. Though this thing is no biggie to me, I am still sad that I wasn’t able to get the Firefox ID lace. Wala lang. I thought they would reserve it to early bird registrants. Kumbaga, una kang nagregister e. I believe they should at least be given the upper hand especially in terms of freebies that are of limited supplies. Kaso since late kami ni Maiah, kahit pa maaga kaming nagparegister, hindi kami nakakuha ng lace. Well nabigyan nga pala kami ng ID lace, kaso yung plain black lang, pero me Firefox na pin. Sabi nga nung speaker, parang IE upgraded to Firefox lang. Again, no biggie.
- The talk. Well hindi ako naka-attend last year sa WordCamp, so hindi ko talaga macocompare. Honestly, mas maganda pa yung talk noong umaga kaysa noong hapon. Kasi noong hapon, masyado nang naging technical, na may mga talks na halos wala nang nakikinig. Why? Hindi dahil sa impolite sila, kung hindi dahil sa hindi nila maappreciate yung topic itself. Kung pagsasama-samahin mo yung mga WordPress enthusiasts, hindi mo dapat i-assume na puro technical people yan. Sana mas napili nila yung mga ididiscuss nila. Or, sana hinati nila yung technical people sa mga non-technical. I was expecting that there would be a talk about SEO, comment systems like IntenseDebate, Automattic’s newly acquired After the Deadline, how to garner readership, etc. Kahit pa hindi sila totally WordPress-ish, there are options that you could integrate them with your WordPress blog, so I guess they are worth to talk about.
That’s what I have to say about the recently concluded WordCamp. I am really thankful to Blogie Robillo and the rest of the Mindanao Bloggers for putting up this kind of event every year. I really hope they would continue to do these affairs so bloggers around the country would be able to gather around and speak WordPress.
Update: Here are the pics taken during the event. Sorry late upload. 
