First Laguna Social Media and Blogging Summit

Last September 27 and 28, 2012 at 8:00am to 5:00pm with the support of the Provincial government of Laguna under Governor Jeorge "ER" Estregan Ejercito, the FIRST Laguna Social Media and Blogging Summit (1LaBS) was held at the Cultural center of Laguna. The expected 300 participants from all around the Philippines who are compose of writers, bloggers and students became 600 on September 27, 2012 and on September 28 was 900, these are students from LSPU, STI, AMA and bloggers from Manila and Pampanga who allotted two days of their time to attend this historical event. 

Pagsanjan Mayor Girlie Javier Ejercito welcomed everyone and even sang the Pagsanjan "Bangkero" song that made the opening of the summit more memorable.

The Opening Remarks came from the Lead organizer of the event Engr. Grace Bondad Nicolas who not only a social media one of the most influential blogger, columnist and advocate but also a speaker herself at different summit in the Philippines and who is also a Lagueno from Calauan. 

Here are the list of speakers and their topics who came to Laguna not just to share their expertise in blogging and Internet but also to experience and promote the tourism of Laguna.

(Tony Ahn) Agency Confidential: Behind Blogger Relations 

Keynote Speech: Tony displayed a blogger event budget and discussed  how and why agencies charge what they do in order for their clients to engage with bloggers. 

Blogging for Advocacy (Sonnie Santos)

 Advocacy and Social Media (Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines National Chairperson Elizabeth Angsioco)

 Impact of Social Media on Voters Education (Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez)

Social Media in Good Governance and Advocacy (Congress Chief of staff Wenchie Flores Sabban)

What To Do With The Money You Earn From Blogging (Award winning financial speaker Fitz Gerard Villafuerte)

 iBlog for Health (presidential awardee for health Nurse Alvin Dakis)

The Art of Personal Branding (Famous voice talent and GNN producer Pocholo Gonzales)

Blogging for motivation and empowerment (Best selling author Lloyd Luna)

 (Benjamin Vergel De Dios) Executive Director- Knowledge Community

September 28 Speakers;

Welcome Address from the Regional Director of the Philippine Information Agency  (Norito Cabotaje)

Keynote Address from Dr. Nestor De Vera, President of Laguna State Polytechnic University (LSPU) 

Ethics and Etiquette in Blogging ( Juned Sonido)

The State of Education in the Philippines–present conditions, needs and prospects for reform. (historian and rocket scientist Dean Jorge Bocobo)

 Travel + Photography and Social Media (Jaypee David)

Marine Life Advocacy (Jayvee Fernandez)

Actionable Start-Up SEO Blogging Strategies. (Mark Acsay III)

Strategies to Maximize Facebook Business Pages – (Jonel Uy)

Politics in Blogging (Author Janette Toral)

 The first Laguna social media and blogging summit is a success. The event hashtag which is 1LaBS or an acronym of the summit TRENDS on Twitter at number 6 that day. Trend is a twitter term which means its the MOST talk topic in the WHOLE Philippines. 

The objective of the summit is to bring to Laguna the best speakers and writers from social media to share to Lagueno the benefits of technology today. This in return, because the speakers are famous plus with writers and media as participants who are there not only to learn but to cover the whole summit. This will give mileage to the province in terms of tourism. 

The organizers would like to thank Governor Jeorge "ER" Ejercito of the Province of Laguna, Laguna 2nd District Board Member Neil Andrew Nocon, Andrew Grace Home Builders, Tiny Buds, Tony Ahn & Co., Melba's farm, Teen Azkals, OneA events place, Cafe Lupe, Asia Blooms hotel, KCs Catering, Jonessa Enterprises, D Star salon, Walk this way, Solid hosting, Geiser Maclang, Gardenia, Chowking, SM, When in Manila, Creative Voices, Microsoft, STI, AMA, Laguna State Polytechnic University, Manila Blogger, Phil IT, Philippine Information Agency 4A, Mary Pauline Salon, PRC, Kliping Times, McCarranz Graphics International, ALAM, Comelec and Mayor Ed Pamintuan of Pampanga, TaG Media and public relations. 

PICTURES:

Gardenia Booth

Registration

Customized IDs from COMELEC

#1LaBS Technical Team

Philippine Information Agency Regional Director Norito Cabotaje

Laguna State Polytechnic University President Dr. Nestor De Vera

Dean Jorge Bocobo with the Gardenia Representative and Rod Magaru

Laguna 2nd District Board Member Andrew Neil Nocon, Janette Toral and the 1LaBS Team

Marine Life advocate Jayvee Fernandez

Jaypee David on Photography and Social Media

Juned Sonido on Ethics and Etiquette in Blogging

Mark Acksay on SEO

Sonnie Santos preparing his presentation

Jonel Uy

1st day Participants

2nd day Participants

Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines National Chair Elizabeth Angsioco

Fitz Villafuerte

Motivational Blogger Lloyd Luna

1LaBS Sponsor Mernels Chocolate Cake owner with Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez and Laguna Tourism Officer BM Andrew Neil Nocon

Nurse Alvin Dakis

Congress Chief of Staff Wenchie Flores Sabban on Good Governance and Advocacy

GNN Producer and Creative Voices Pocholo De Leon Gonzales 

Rod Magaru interviewing the participant

Productivity Improvement Program

When the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) launched the Productivity Improvement Program I would say it was one move that will benefit both the employee and the whole organization or company. The Productivity based pay is also an output production measurement and must give an awareness to the employee about their capacity and balance between the input and output.

On August 23, 2012, out from the 23 manufacturing companies at the Laguna Techno Park (LTP) at Binan, Laguna, only 7 are still not practicing the new DOLE program. The majority from this group shared that the program gives more strength and opportunities for the whole organization. The program according to them gives consistency, institutionalized a process, clarity and transparency. The program also gives more strength to the workers according to an HR Manager from Panasonic Precision Devices Philippines Corporation.

To encourage more the different companies not only at TLP but to all manufacturing businesses in the Philippines, the DOLE Region 4A under Director Alex V. Avila with Robelinda dela Rosa, Board Secretary of RTWPB IV-A initiated the giving of certificates of acknowledgement to those companies that complied with the Productivity Improvement Program (PIP) and Productivity Based Pay Program (PBP).

Assistant Vice President under Yutaka Manufacturing Philippines Atty. Ma. Fatima U. Liu gave a message to the HR Managers and employees at the Amtek Manufacturing Company Hall with media practitioners headed by the Philippine Information Agency 4A.

Here are the companies that complied with the programs;
F. Tech R&D Philippines, Inc.
Ichinomiya Electronics Philippines Corporation
Katolec Philippines Corporation
Yutaka Manufacturing Philippines Incorporated
Fujitsu Ten Corporation of the Philippines
Meinan Philippines Incorporated
Wakorepco Manufacturing Philippines Incorporated
Swedish Match Philippines Incorporated
Superflex Logistics Incorporated
Ryonan electric Philippines Corporation
Surtec Philippines Incorporated
NIPPI manpower Services
Sapphire Industrial Laundry Services Incorporated
Takata Philippines Corporation
Panasonic Precision Devices Philippines Corporation
Nihon Garter Philippines Incorporated

A background from May 2012 launched of the program. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said that Wage Order No. IV-15 issued by the CALABARZON Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) introduced for the first time a two-tier wage system consists of a floor wage.

The first tier, which covers all workers and functions as a social safety net, and a productivity based pay, while the second tier is determined jointly by workers and management based on agreed set of parameters and is linked to individual, group or organizational productivity, performance or a combination of criteria. Under the wage order, companies are required to set up within three months after its effectively the so-called Productivity Improvement and incentives Committee (PIIC).

The PIIC shall serve as the implementing mechanism of productivity-based pay with equal representation from both workers and employers. Its functions include determination of productivity-based pay schemes, parameters, measurements, coverage, and amount of productivity-based pay to be given to covered workers.

Sotto against a Million Bloggers in the Philippines

August 16, 2012, A lot of Bloggers at the Social Media site Twitter pours their outraged over Senator Vicente Sotto III after his interview with ANC's Headstart Karen Davila was reached the Netizens with his statement " Bakit ko naman iqu quote ang blogger? Blogger lang iyon." (Why am I going to quote a blogger? She's just a blogger.)

With the Senator statement, he obviously didn't realize the capabilities of bloggers. From wikipedia " Social networking is one of the most active web-based activities in the Philippines, with Filipinos being declared as the most active users on a number of web-based social network sites such as Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, Friendly and Twitter. The use of social networking website has become so extensive in the Philippines that the country has been tagged as "The Social Networking Capital of the World," and has also become part of Filipino cyber culture. Social networking is also used in the Philippines as a form of election campaign material, as well as tools to aid criminal investigation."

According to the internet, "A blog from the term web log is a discussion or information site published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Until 2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often were themed on a single subject. More recently "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, interest groups and similar institutions account for an increasing proportion of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "micro blogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into societal newstreams. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."

In the Philippines with more or less than 100 Million in population and counting which according to some advocates are because of the lack of Reproductive Health Bill (lack of education, poverty and accessibility to hospitals, accessibility to condoms, pills and other reproductive health services and products for free among others), the country garnered more percentage in online usage, meaning, majority of the population are voters every election and the Senators statement from some bloggers was very discriminating.

From Jon Russell of Asian Correspondent.com "Asia dominates the world’s biggest social networking markets according to research from blog 24/7 Wall Street who compiled a list of countries where Facebook penetration (usage per population) is highest."

The Philippines tops the list with 93.9 percent of the nation reportedly signed up to Facebook, the full list is below with the summary from each Southeast Asian market following.

Philippines 93.9%

Israel 91%

Turkey 90.9%

Chile 90.2%

Argentina 89.2%

Malaysia 88.4%

Indonesia 87.5%

Peru 87.2%

Colombia 86.9%

Venezuela 86.2%

What is interesting is just how high Twitter usage amongst the three Southeast Asia countries while LinkedIn remains particularly low.

1. Philippines

> Facebook: 93.9%

> Twitter: 16.1%

> LinkedIn: 1.9%

> Internet Use: 29.7%

Social network penetration is incredibly high in the Philippines, reaching 95%. Facebook is the country’s most popular website, more so than Google, and has a penetration rate of 93.9%. The Philippines is also the eighth most popular country for Twitter use on a global scale, with a penetration rate of 16.1%. The popularity of photo sharing has increased by 46% in the country in one year, largely due to Facebook. Social networking is so popular among Filipinos, the country has been nicknamed “The Social Networking Capital of the World.” - Jon Russell

Discrimination against bloggers without knowing what they could do or maybe the Senator thought that bloggers are just those people who are using different Social Media tools for chatting and gossiping and it must be a wake up call to the Senator with majority of the bloggers show their sentiments by using a twitter hashtag #bloggerslangkami (we are just bloggers).

To make the story short, a blogger could be anyone, might be a doctor, architect, engineer, teacher, a government official like USEC like Manolo Quezon, Commissioner from the Bureau of Customs Ruffy Biazon, Senator Pia Cayetano or might be a computer engineer, Information Technology practitioner or the majority of the Philippine population.

Senator Sotto might be in power right now and his vote for the Reproductive Health Bill might be important but from his background as a Television host for sure never adds up to his credibility.The Filipino people elected him to be competent, reliable and fair to everyone, he must understand that as the one in a government office, it is not about him (when he said something about his child who died because of the complication which according to him was because of the pills) but about the majority of the population, rich or poor, for all Filipinos welfare.