#Shift Davao Social Media Conference (Part One)

I am with the brilliant Maria Ressa. 

“Maria Ressa. Bianca Gonzales. Yes, and they will be here in Davao City to talk about Social Media on July 27, 2013, Saturday at Ateneo de Davao University. Social Media? Like facebook, twitter, instagram? Oh, what about these social media? Sound interesting… But, wait.. There is a Php450 registration fee.” 

      These were my thoughts as I read the post at the College of Governance and Business, University of Southeastern Philippines. I love to attend this conference and Wilfred, my new found friend because of social media, urged me to go with him to this seminar. “ I know Kuy you will just go there because of Bianca Gonzalez. Alam na”. And Wilfred replied, “ No, it is because of Maria Ressa, a famous Filipino journalist. “ Still, I am not convinced. And Wilfred registered me to the conference on Thursday, July 25, and he paid me for the meantime because I went home and I was not able to give my payment to him. And maybe because I am not that interested, but Wilfred insisted, “ Adto ta didto kay blogger baya ta. Manguha tag tips ba. Connections. Connections.” 

     And yes, it is July 27, 2013. My iphone4s beeped at around 7:10 a.m. and I knew where that text came from. “Kuy asa naka? Naa nami ADDU.” I immediately took a bath and charged my iphone ( because I know my iphone will be useful for pictorials. LOL) Wilfred was with his teammate, yes teammate according to him. She is Joan from the Institute of Computing, USEP. “ Lagi. Lami pa unta matulog. Padulung nako. Chill!”, I replied hastily. “Dalaa imung student ID.LOL, “ he continued.

    #SHIFTDAVAO, here I come. “Puro mani students diri kuy. Atay.”, my immediate line to Wilfred. “Hulat lang. Naa man professionals. Si Clark muapas rato”, Wilfred responded. Clark is also a blogger. He was my student before in English 2. We stood for 20 minutes and I could see the excitement and interest of the participants, and most of them were students. And it was just amazing because there were participants not just from Davao City, but also from Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Samal Island, Panabo City, Bukidnon, and Cagayan de Oro City. While waiting, the aroma of coffee from Coffee Bean was so tempting, but we could not ask for a cup since Wilfred and I are on fasting. And at around 8:25 a.m., we entered the Finster Auditorium. We sat in front to have a clear glimpse of the distinguished speakers. The three writers from The Collegiate Headlight, the official publication of USEP, were also there. Ms. Juliet Vasay and Mr. Arjay Arcena, my co-teachers in the Language Department were in the crowd also. Juliet was with her fellows from University of the Immaculate Conception, while Arjay with his students from San Pedro College. These two instructors are super heroes, shall I say. USEP, ADDU, SPC, UIC, DMSF. These are their kingdoms. 

     And here you go. MARIA RESSA was the first speaker who shared her brilliance about the power of social media. The audience was in awe. Oh. Maria Ressa was talking before us. We could not believe this. “Amazing”, Wilfred exclaimed. Maria Ressa has been a journalist in Asia for more than 25 years, most of them as CNN’s bureau chief in Manila then Jakarta. She has worked for every television network in the Philippines and was one of the founders of independent production company, Probe. In 2005, she took the helm of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs. Maria Ressa is now the head of Rappler, a social news network.

      “We need to be authentic. We need to be who we are in the social media.” These were the lines that Maria Ressa emphasized during her talk. Majority of the Filipinos are now hooked into social media, in fact, we are now tagged as the “Social media capital of the world”. In social media, it revealed that most of the Filipinos are happy as reflected in their posts on facebook, twitter, instagram, etc.

     The point of Maria Ressa is that anything you post in social media, make sure you know it, you mean it, and you can act on it. Do not post a stuff that you can’t stand in the real world. If you tweet that she is ugly or pretty, make sure that you can say this to her offline. One participant asked this question to Ressa: How do you lead the team? And Ressa directly responded, “ I set the direction. I am a cheerleader. I give them the freedom.”