The Blogapalooza 2014 Experience

IN A NUTSHELL, Blogapalooza 2014 just showed everyone why it's SO MUCH FUN TO BE A BLOGGER.

Nuff said. :)

From being postponed last September 20, WhenInManila and organizers pulled all stops to push through with the event yesterday, October 11, at the SMX Convention Center, SM Aura. Over 700 bloggers signed up for the whole day event, it was open to everyone, entrance was free, and so many awesome brands were there!

We didn't get to finish the whole event because  I promised to be present for the 7th birthday of my inaanak aaaand of course promises are promises! So we had to run back to Laguna by around 3:30 PM. We really just had four hours to explore everything. I would have wanted to attend the talks and performances but we didn't have the time.

HOWEVER, one of my main goals was to check out what kind of businesses were there, as this is essentially a Blogger-to-Business networking event, and I think we were able to achieve it in that sense. I'm creating a separate blog for that so I could keep this one focused on the experience and the random things I learned while navigating the whole fair.

What excites me is the fact that Blogapalooza is poised to be an annual event for the whole blogging community, and more and more bloggers will be joining it in the next few years, so might as well share the experiences I had as a first timer, yes? :D

• It helps to come early. We came there an hour after opening but the lines were already long!

• As of the moment, majority of the brands are from the Technology, Food, Fashion, and Entertainment industries, so if you blog those fields then this is for you!
   
  
   

• For us who were under time pressure, we had to take note of the booths that we wanted to visit first and then just work on the others while we had the time. Good thing Our Awesome Planet already posted a 'floor plan' and the list of participating partners so it helped a big deal in the 'planning'.

• Call cards come in handy! We were advised by our friends to bring business cards with us so we wouldn't have to keep filling up forms, so we came up with calling cards just for this event! O diba! :p A lot of booths still wanted us to write on paper though so don't leave your pen at home, buuut there are booths who give freebies ONLY if you leave them your card. SO. And well I think it's a great idea to have a business card solely for blogging/ freelance purposes too.

• Your ability to socialize and communicate comes in handy as well.  You can just start with a smile, don't be afraid to ask questions, because the partners are more than willing to answer your inquiries. And of course if you don't talk chances are you won't be noticed and you wouldn't get a freebie! Hahah!

• We'll try to be less shy next time. Okay let me narrate Papa Ray's major disappointment of the day - he didn't get a FREE BIG UMBRELLA. Hahahahaha!! He's been wanting to buy a new one for weeks and was delighted to see people with umbrella freebies in Blogapalooza.

So we surveyed the whole place to find where the umbrellas were coming from and found that it was in My Shopping Box. We played their game where if you shoot two balls you get an umbrella, if you shoot three you get a powerbank. Papa Ray got to shoot 2 but didn't make the third, BUT the booth handler was kind enough to give him the powerbank instead. I was like "wow yey we won a powerbank!" but Ray was downfallen and kept murmuring "kaso pano na yung payong…". HAHAHA! Jusko!

We were too shy to ask for the umbrella because the powerbank was supposed to be the grand prize and Ray just couldn't get over it until we went home. Hahaha!! Moral lesson: Do not be afraid to ask!!

Smile kahit bigo! hahaha!

• There's free food! I didn't get hungry because there was free pizza from Yellowcab, free cookies from Chips Ahoy, free make-your-own-donut from Krispy Kreme and more! Yey! Free lunch in Yakitori was also provided for everyone who signed up with Zap. :D

Lunch at the SM Aura foodcourt courtesy of Zap and Yakitori

Free food inside the fair!

• Photosouvenirs! Me and Ray got a kick out of posing for the camera. Hahah.

picture lang ng picture!!

• Bring  a HUGE ECOBAG. They hand out lootbags during the registration, so I thought that would be enough. But noooo, it appears that booths have their own paper bags as well and before we knew it there were like four to five lootbags/paperbags in our arms! And that can really be a hassle when you're moving around, taking photos, talking to people, playing games and stuff. And THIS was the source of my major disappointment of the day. We lost one of our lootbags. :( And it had freebies and flyers from several booths that we were really interested in. :( I'm not sure where we lost it, me and Ray are still busy blaming each other HAHAH but that really made me sad. So moral lesson:  bring a HUGE ecobag so we could keep everything in the same place!

• I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but it somehow felt like a mad dash for freebies. Okay of course who doesn't want them? I guess it's part of pampering-the-media-sort-of-thing, and people really tended to run first to booths who had nice goodies to offer. Hahah! Buuut what I noticed was that the booths somehow tended to just talk mostly about the freebies and we had to really talk to them before we even knew what their service was about. I think this kind of defeats the purpose of them introducing their business/service. I can't blame them though, because it would be tiring to keep repeating a lengthy introduction given the number of people who drop by. 

This is where strategizing and planning should come in. A booth that comes to mind is Zomato, where they engage you in an activity, and then give you a quick background about their service BEFORE they hand out their freebies. So that's a win-win situation for both the blogger and the partner right there. :) I'm sure there are other strategies but I think that was a good one. On the side of the blogger, I guess there should be a conscious effort to keep from being too freebie-centric. Heheh! We have to keep in mind that while they're there to advertise, there's also a role for us to play. :)

• Haaaving said that, yes, the rumors are true. There are a hell lot of freebies, gift certificates and awesome treats up for grabs at the Blogapalooza 2014. Partida nawalan na kami ng isang lootbag nyan at apat na oras lang kami sa event. Hahah! My friend and fellow blogger Maila even won a 15K healthcard from Maxicare!! IMAGINE jusko hindi po napupulot yon!

• Still on freebies, I don't think you really need to get hold of all the giveaways, we only chose the ones we were interested in because we didn't want to have to throw the others away. And oh! One booth gave out expired coupons. Hehe I won't tell who. :P
• Oookay we had a lot of fun but it can get real tiring. Proof:

  

  So tired he couldn't be bothered to smile. Haha!

Hahaha lastly, don't forget to take your vitamins because it can really drain you, but it's real fun! Promise! :) 

I'm hoping that they get to invite more brands next year, I'm looking forward to more tech updates and start up businesses, and samplers of their actual products. Yep, I would definitely want to be part of this again! CONGRATS Blogapalooza!! :)