My participation in BlogFest.Asia was thanks to Mozilla’s Gen Kanai, who recommended me and Juned Sonido to the event organizers. We were also joined by two other compatriots: Tonyo Cruz, who talked about Filipino bloggers’ response to Typhoon Ondoy; and Atty. Jimmy Soriano of Creative Commons – Asia. (Please read my ‘official’ post about the event here.)

This was the second time that I was part of an Asian conference, although this was bigger than the first. The first time was in July 2005 when I joined fellow Japanese-language teachers & scholars from all over Asia at a week-long conference held in Taichung and Taipei, Taiwan. In both occasions, I was able to glean insights into different Asian cultures, and gain a deeper understanding of our differences and commonalities. Also, on both conferences, I felt that attending them was the next best thing to visiting the delegates’ own countries.

At BlogFest.Asia, I had some firsts. It was my first time to meet someone from Kyrgyzstan (although it wasn’t my first time to meet Central Asians, because at that 2005 conference I met people from Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan). I also found out that people from Mongolia use the same patronymic family names as people from Iceland. It was my first time in Hong Kong. It was also my first time to bring the Mindanao Bloggers Community (MBC) outside the borders of the Philippines.

Interacting with the Asian delegates gave me the chance to bring the MBC to a wider audience. And it was a fruitful exercise because I believe my contribution to the conference left a good impression on some of the delegates. Bloggers and new media practitioners from Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other places approached me after my talk and congratulated me for having delivered an “inspiring and insightful presentation.” You can’t imagine how elated and buoyant their generous words made me feel.

I have fellow Filipino bloggers like Janette, Avel, Juned, Manolo and Aileen to thank for my successful participation in BlogFest.Asia. They are my friends, but more importantly, they are people who possess an uncommon influence in their fields and exude a passion that stirs the soul. Moreso, I am grateful to my fellow Mindanao bloggers, because it is for them that I felt compelled to bring the MBC’s message to the world.

OK, on to lighter stuff.

I was extremely pleased to have sampled authentic dim sum with Juned on our last day. Going to Hong Kong, you see, I told myself I should be able to eat Chinese dumplings where it was invented. Juned and I were able to find this off-the-beaten-track restaurant that served excellent dim sum. It’s called Ho Choi, on the 3rd floor of a building near HSBC in Yau Ma Tei. No tourists there, just locals, plenty of them. One of my favorite dumplings is hakaw (shrimp in translucent bags), and they serve it at Ho Choi. It was so yummy!! Now I don’t know if I can still enjoy local dumplings…

There were many things I wasn’t able to do in Hong Kong, though. I was supposed to go to Disneyland (a friend was going to give me a day pass), but didn’t have time for it. I stayed in Kowloon the whole time, so I’ll have to save going to Hong Kong central for my next trip. I must say, I actually can’t wait to go back. I found the place simply fantastic! And I envy their transportation system — going around Hong Kong via the MTR subway was amazingly simple and convenient.

While I look forward to another trip to Hong Kong (and Taiwan, of course), I’m more of a mind to experiencing other exotic destinations. Hopefully, I will be able to pay my new blogger-friends in Bangkok, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur and other Asian cities a visit in the near future!

There were delegates from all over Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, mainland China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Myanmar. Conference participants were bloggers, new media watchers and influencers, even traditional media practitioners. A number of the participants became very interested in the Mindanao Bloggers experience, especially in the area of community building, after I delivered my Peace Initiatives through Blogging presentation (see below).

The gist of my talk was to showcase the fast-growing community of bloggers across Mindanao, and the objectives of the MBC. I related to the BlogFest.Asia audience that the point of our existence was not to help achieve peace, but to show the world that there is peace in Mindanao. That Mindanao is a vibrant place with a variety of cultures, traditions, histories and peoples. Interestingly, it was the process of community building that shone through for the BlogFest particpants.

In fact, community building became one of the birds-of-a-feather discussions on the second day. The Vietnamese delegates, in particular, were very interested in the Mindanao experience because, apparently, the idea of organized bloggers doesn’t seem to sit well with their government. Delegates from other countries also expressed varying degrees of difficulty in building bloggers’ communities due to government repression.

Another salient issue that seemed to be common to many was the problem of censorship, most outstanding of which is the ‘Great Firewall of China.’ Delegates from the People’s Republic related to us how challenging it was for bloggers and users of social networking services to attain freedom of speech in a repressive regime. And yet, China has, according to one of the speakers, millions of bloggers.

I was joined by Juned Sonido and Tonyo Cruz at BlogFest.Asia. Juned and I were recommended to the organizers by the Mozilla Foundation, Tonyo by GlobalVoices Online. Juned was supposed to have delivered an update on the Philippine blogosphere, but due to time constraints was not able to; he was, however, able to contribute during the ensuing discussions. Tonyo gave a very inspiring presentation on the contribution of bloggers to society when Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines.

During my stay in Hong Kong, I was able to touch base with a couple of non-profit organizations that could become partners of the Mindanao Bloggers Community in its endeavor to achieve its goals. Also, I was able to invite them, as well as the BlogFest delegates, to join us in Zamboanga City for the 4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit. It would really be a welcome and exciting development should our annual Summit become an international event in 2010!

MBC’s presence at BlogFest was, I believe, an opening salvo. There will certainly be more opportunities for us to become involved in more international events. Aside from the recognition that this brings to the Community, our participation in such events brings goodwill to Mindanao, and deeper appreciation of the beauty of our beloved island.

BlogFest.Asia was the first of its kind in the region. Kudos to the organizers and hosts for a wonderful and eye-opening experience! Hopefully there will be a second pan-Asian bloggers conference in another Asian city next year!