WordCamp Philippines 2008 : A Success!

It has been a busy week for Pinoy Bloggers. Yesterday all WordPress users, enthusiasts, and developers together with Mr. WordPress himself gathered in College of Saint Benilde in Manila for the first WordCamp Philippines.

WordPress Pins for Early Birds

A day before the event, all volunteers were requested to go to the event venue for the final meeting, ingress and the assignment of tasks. Its been a while since the last time I took part in an event and when Ria informed me that I’d be assigned as the Media and Speaker’s Coordinator, I felt relieved since I already knew most of the speakers and the task wasn’t anything new for me.

Campers Badge

Considering I only got an hour’s sleep because I went to the San Miguel Oktoberfest kickoff the night before, it was no problem waking up early probably because of my enthusiasm to meet fellow WordCamp volunteers, WordPress users, and friends.

Blogger Volunteers

After a quick shower, I dropped by 7-11 in DLSU to meet up with Gwen, Paul and Chiq before heading to the venue. As early as 6am, students blogger volunteers were already busy preparing Kits, ID’s, T-shirts and completing the rest of the tasks.

Matt Mullenweg’s Laptop – Isnt it Cool?

Everyone was working together including the organizers Ria, Winston, Migs, Andrew, Bloggie and Juned. The work flowed smoothly for the most part despite occasional panic moments which really is unavoidable when organizing an event like this.

WordPress Idol

Most of the campers actively participated in each of the talks given by the speakers. Gail Villanueva‘s talk about Creating WordPress Themes & CSS Power was the most attended talk and the rest of the talks were also a big hit among the campers! Lunch was hosted by Chowking and desserts were provided by Spot.ph.

I want that Camera Bag

Aside from the fact that the Philippines ranked as 24th largest WordPress user, WordPress.com is the 24th most popular website in the world. Pinoy Campers are lucky to witness Matt as he delivered the very first “State of the Word” address in South East Asia.

Friendster Pens Anyone?

Matt Mullenweg commended the organizers for having a successful Davao and Manila WordCamp and for having the most fashionable WordCamp T-Shirt ever created:) He also announced the upcoming WordPress version 2.7 which will be released this November.

CSB Student Volunteers, Blogger Volunteers and Wordcamp Organizers

Some features that will be included for the WordPress 2.7 will be the navigation redesign, drag and drop powered dashboard, dynamic navigation in the navigation bar and more.

Fritz and the Gels

After the sponsor’s presentations, Matt Mullenweg gave way for the Question and Answer session with Pinoy WordPress users and developers. Ria announced the post WordCamp contest sponsored by Cebu Pacific which was called Cebu Pacific’s Blogging Challenge where winners get 1 roundtrip ticket to the local destination of their choice. She also announced the After-Party @ mag:net café, The Fort.

WordCamp Organizers with Ms. Aileen Apolo

Matt also accomodated a “Photo with Matt” session to finally close the WordCamp Philippines 2008. Together with Gail, Marc, Eric and Nina, we headed to Serendra to eat dinner at Abe Restaurant.

Photo Session With Matt Mullenweg

Wordcamp Philippines was the first WordCamp event in Southeast Asia and second in Asia, Beijing being the first to hold the first Wordcamp last year. WordCamp Philippines sets the record by having the most number of registered participant in Asia and one of the most attended WordCamp in the World.

I’m such a Fanboy LOL:)

Truly, WordCamp Philippines is one of the most talked about “Blog Event” in the Philippines this year and I will definitely join again in the upcoming Wordcamp Philippines 2009.

*Other Wordcampers who’ve posted about their experience: