I would say it was all worth the effort for the organizers of the Philippine Blog Awards. Yehey! President Donald asked me during the cocktails who the president of bloggers were, but I surprised him by saying that the PBA was just an effort of volunteers. It is much more fun to help out in events initiated by pure volunteerism and I salute the efforts of Abe, Gail and Jayvee for organizing the Philippine Blog Awards. That's why I didn't hesitate in helping out when they asked me and Sasha to be the emcee for the evening (uh I didn't know what I was getting into, I thought they weren't really serious about it LOL). Anyway, it was a pleasure to work with friends and see how the blogging community has grown. (That's me and Sasha during rehearsals. Photo by Karla)
The audience was quite... quiet! Well, they're bloggers! And bloggers are supposed to be noisy online and not really offline. (And I was right, the blogosphere's full of PBA stories). Pffft! I hope we didn't bore the audience. Jomar's Dad, Mr. Frank Hilario said that the event was simple but he could feel the anticipation. Retz, winner for Best Entertainment Blog, said that the adlib Sasha and I were doing when we were waiting for the presentor to announce the winner almost killed him and someone in the Pinoyblogosphere mailing list said, "Masaya yung blog awards no...". And a lot thought that Sasha and I were best friends! Hihihi. Well what's important is everyone had a grand time and appreciated the efforts of the organizers. Whew! (That's me with Noemi, Sasha, Bryanboy, Abe, Marc and Jayvee. Photo by Chris Haravata) 
The fun continued afterwards at the Hula-Hula Bar at the EDSA Shangri-la Mall. The party was sponsored by 2BU of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and we had loads of fun together with Franklin, my visitor from MV. Afterwards we had a post-dinner feast at Jay-jays Grill.
Super duper congratulations to the organizers and the volunteers! It may have been a really simple ceremony, but it is definitely a milestone in the Philippine internet industry. And, of course, congratulations to the winners! (Photo by Karla)
Main Category Winners
Best Personal Blog: Misteryosa
Best Home & Living Blog: Wifely Steps
Best Socio-Political Blog: Philippine Commentary
Best News & Media Blog: Inside PCIJ
Best Fashion & Lifestyle Blog: Bryanboy: Le Superstar Fabuleux
Podcast of the Year: HappySlip
Best Technology Blog: Leon Kilat: The Cybercafe Experiments
Best Business/Entrepreneur Blog: Reflections of a BizDrivenLife
Best Entertainment Blog: Retzwerx
Best Sports & Recreation Blog: Who rides a Vespa?
Best Travel Blog: Ivan About Town
PhotoBlog of the Year: Señor Enrique: Wish You Were Here
Special Awards Winners
Best Blog Design: Far from Neutral Notions
Best Free Custom Theme: Blu3zin3
Best Plugin/Extension: iPap
Best OFW Blog: Kwentong Tambay
Bloggers’ Choice Awards: MarketManila
Globe Broadband Awards Winners
Blog Achievement Award: The Mommy Journals
Pinoy Ako Blog Award: ederic@cyberspace
Family Blog Award: About My Recovery
Blogirl Award: Well Whatever
Deliblog Award: Dessert Comes First
Thanks to you and Sasha! You know the audience was quiet because they were filled with anticipation with bated breaths. haha
ReplyDeletegreat job to you and Sasha! you guys were lovely!
ReplyDeletebest emcee ever :P
ReplyDeletehehe nice to meet you ms. aileen ;) great job at the PBA 07
Nice job at the awards. Some people say that the emcees suck. You could just hear it. I thought that was just plain rude. My props goes out to the emcees for doing a pro bono.
ReplyDelete@pinoyharbinger: Haha. I don't care what they say :) And as we said we ain't professional hosts, we're bloggers! I've read a lot of not-so-nice comments about the PBA, which I think is normal, and I say, "let the first person who has not sinned cast the first stone". Next time mag-volunteer sila at tumulong instead of ranting! They don't know what the organizers went through for the PBA.
ReplyDelete@pinoyharbinger...
ReplyDeletehaha. buti nga nag-ka-awards night. aileen is correct! they should volunteer, they --have NOOO IDEA how many kilometers I ran that night, how much pawis did Jun, Mark and Gail experienced when the flash presentation didn't work at first, how thisty the volunteers were (did they even notice them?) and how shell-shocked abe was the night before because it was his personal money on the line?
They truly do not know. Next awards, I expect these people to show up and help. Its a blogger event, not ABS-CBN! Its was run by volunteers --whose names most people DON'T EVEN KNOW, much less-their URLS.
The HOSTS?!? Maybe it should be known that they only knew they were hosting a few DAYS before the event because of some personal and unbloggable events. They did a wonderful job! try talking 1 hour straight in ultra-highheels -with your legs showing thru the glass rcbc podium, looking pretty and engaging to an otherwise unresponsive crowd. Its tough work. And they SERVED everyone well.
Eh, Apple, ginawa naming forum ang blog mo. Saya no?
Jomar,
Philippine Blog Awards 07
Program Director,
Program Committee Head,
Stage and Decor Committee Head,
Event MicroManager
P.S. Mahaba pa ito, itutuloy ko sa BLOG ko.
I expected that the best of our culture, bayanihan and teamwork, would've highlighted by the event. But sadly as I was going through the blogs I just saw criticism. Was it really worth mounting then? Oh well, at least meron naman kahit paano mga naging masaya. Lesson learned lang, there would be days you meet people who are nice to you upfront, but when you turn your back they would start backbiting you. How sad, how really, really sad.
ReplyDeleteyou & sasha are lovely! never mind the criticism...hah, what's new? kahit sinong presidente umupo sa malacañang, pinag reresign...it's the same! hay pinoy...
ReplyDeletemaganda ka sister :)
ReplyDeleteOk naman ang paghost nyo ah... baka gusto ng iba sa chatroom na lang ganapin ang blog awards. :)
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean we get a higher PR, Aileen? :-P
ReplyDeleteI don't regret helping Gail, Abe and the rest of the PBA Organisers. Even when I took some unwarranted hits that made me want to ask, "what did I ever do to you?". I'm even grateful for the opportunity to be part of something as positive and relevant as the Blog Awards cuz I know I am a part of the community that it aims to empower.
People (organisers, volunteers, judges, finalists, bloggers, media and mere spectators) are key to the event's success.
I had hoped that with this endeavour, we can showcase to the world how Filipinos can be great in this arena, too. But with all the crab-mentality going around it's now quite embarrassing to push to our foreign counterparts the alleged beauty and "great voice" that the Philippine blogosphere can offer. (Marketer's nightmare is an understatement.)
I'm saddened by the fact that they're willing to burn bridges too quickly by not watching what they say about people and things.
In order to grow, people should believe that there's more to blogs than just mere words and images. Also, that bloggers are real people.
Just my two cents.
Basta, I'm happy that everything went well and everyone looked G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S to me! Hehe. ;)
I wish I was there....
ReplyDeleteToo bad andito ako sa Davao. But I got the chance to meet you at the Blogger's Party over here..
Yup, dont mind the criticsm even if Im not there.. im sure the volunteers went all out... with trying to make sure the awards night went great. and it sure did...
:)
@tina - hi! kamusta? babalik ako diyan hopefully soon! diyan na lang kaya ako tumira? hehehe.
ReplyDelete@sasha and jomar - sigh... ganun talaga, but they won't wipe off my sun-shine-y
@liz - thanks for the vote of confidence! mahirap talaga maging artista LOL hihihi
@cess - thanks cessna! (hugs)
@jedi - thanks din for the vote of confidence. sige! next time sa chat na lang! mabilis ako mag-type! :)
hi aileen, you looked great and napaka-witty pa, it takes a lot of confidence for someone to talk and be gay pa even though their audience is so unresponsive, you and sasha did a great job and don't let any other people who don't know any better make you feel otherwise! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the vote of confidence!
ReplyDeleteMakapal naman mukha ko eh haha :) I was just sad over all the negative comments the event had. But I'm okay now. Back to my sun-shine-y self.
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