Day 122: Conference Day 1

First day of the conference today. After a quick Jollibee's breakfast we headed over fairly for the start of formalities - keynote speeches from both the CEO of TBEX and another well-known blogger (who I'd been chatting too at the Wednesday night drinks, funnily enough!).

As there were several seminal/presentation-type things on at the same time, Shandos and I agreed to split up and cover as many interesting ones as possible. So today I went to sessions about making compelling video content, social media research and using drones for videography, while Shandos went to the ones that interested her.

Later in the day were some speed networking sessions which I didn't partake in (I'm not a real blogger, you see), so I just hung around outside the room getting to know other people. We were starting to form a decent sized group by this point which was nice! Everyone is fairly unpretentious and welcoming - different from the cliquey behaviour you get in Sydney all the time.

Tonight's party was back over in Makati City at Raffles, and was put on by Travel Massive (a community of online travel bloggers that Shandos has been part of for a while). Although it originally wasn't supposed to be, suddenly it was an official Conference Event which meant we were chauffered there in 25 seater minibuses with a police escort clearing traffic for us - we got there a bit quicker than the other night!!

It was also pouring rain at this point due to an incoming typhoon. It wasn't expected to be a serious one, but you never know what the weather's going to do in this part of the world. Anyway we got to the party quite quickly, paid our 800 peso ($25 AUD) for "Happy Three Hours" and got stuck into the Singapore Slings. Chatted to lots of people here as we were both far more comfortable with the whole socialising business - surprisingly it takes time to get used to other people when you've spent months only talking to your spouse!

Stayed out a bit late again, home by 11:30pm, but it was a great party and lots of fun. Definitely better value than Raffles in Singapore where we paid $28 AUD for a single drink!!Read more