🇵🇭 CANDON • First Ilocandia Content Creator Conference: a Success

The cultural characteristics of Candon and its collectivist society are what make this city a birthplace for many organic community-based initiatives.

• I took the honor to talk about travel content creation—though my lecture was focused on the traditional form of blogging that became popular in the 2010s.

• I wrote my ideas on my phone, organized it, and made an outline while waiting for the event to start. [...] the ideas I'd be sharing that day were already inside my head naturally.

🇵🇭 CANDON, ILOCOS SUR

Content creation in the Ilocandias, particularly in Ilocos Sur's Metro Vigan area and the First District, is I think very individualistic. We do not have a well-established b/vlogger groups or communities in Ilocos Sur aside from random informal small groups of creators formed among friends. Compared to some regions outside Ilocos, blogger communities are well-established and are influential. They have formal organizations and regionwide participation and influence. What about Ilocos?

Candon is the de facto capital of the Second District of Ilocos Sur. While Vigan is somewhat a purist "Ilocano" city, Candon is quite different. Around the periphery of Candon are communities of culturally cohesive indigenous peoples like the Itneg, Bagbag-o, and Kankanna-ey. This makes Candon a very vibrant city and a melting pot of cultures.

The cultural characteristics of Candon and its collectivist society are what make this city a birthplace for many organic community-based initiatives. It's not a surprise that a community initiative of bringing content creators in Ilocandia into one event happened in Candon, and it was organized by community leaders of Candon.

 ►  An Invitation to Become a Resource Speaker

Due to changing priorities in my life, I haven't written any blog updates on edmaration.com for a while. You know, this blog has become a piece of me. I've invested a lot of time, money, and effort just to maintain my EDMARATION blog. Despite not being able to update my blog regularly, it's always in my heart and mind. The bonus here is that some people in my network of connections still associate me with being a blogger.

I was in Mindanao when a Candon-based connection—who happened to be a dynamic community leader—messaged me if I could be one of the resource speakers of the upcoming Ilocandia Content Creators Conference (ICCC). This is the first of its kind here in Ilocos Sur.

You know, blogging has always been a part of my local identity in Vigan (for those who know me), and I really wanted to attend this event; but I was still in Mindanao trying to finish a personal travel project in Cotabato province (while maximizing my travel flexibility) as a digital nomad because I'm afraid I may lost this status anytime.

Making a decision was really hard. I really wanted to speak at this event because to be completely honest, this event would add more to my credibility—and this is something that I'm continually working on. I want to leave a legacy to the new generation of content creators in Ilocos Sur; but at the same time, it's a little bit too early to go home in Ilocos without finishing my travel agenda in Mindanao, knowing that I also spent resources to accomplish my Cotabato travel goals.

THIS WAS THE PUBMAT THAT WAS CREATED FOR ME.

I replied to Niño Gadingan (the organizer) to give me time to think. So what made me decide to go back to Ilocos? I realized that this was the first of its kind in Ilocos Sur, and I would like to be part of history. The genesis of this event is only once in a lifetime, and I thought that I could always go back to Mindanao.

So, I packed my bags and went home to Ilocos after 3 months of staying in Mindanao. While I was in Manila, my flight back to Ilocos was delayed due to Typhoon Carina. At that time, I thought that I may not be able to attend the event anymore. However, due to the typhoons, the event was also postponed. I was stranded in Manila for a week. To cut the long story short, the event came into reality on 2024-August-10.

 ►  Meeting Fellow Resource Speakers

Meeting fellow Ilocano resource speakers was one of the highlights for me. I was excited to meet them because I also would like to hear their stories and their personal take on content creation.

The panel of speakers was diverse. We had a cartoonist/graphic designer, a beauty influencer/creator, a comedy creator, a culture and heritage creator featuring the Ilocano music, and a founder of a community-based online journalism page. I took the honor to talk about travel content creation—though my lecture was focused on the traditional form of blogging that became popular in the 2010s.

🇵🇭 CANDON • RESOURCE SPEAKERS WERE GIVEN THIS ID.

🇵🇭 CANDON • ME TAKING A SELFIE BEFORE THE EVENT STARTED

Hearing the stories and speeches of the other resource speakers made me realize how diverse content creation has become. As a "traditional" blogger myself, I think that I have been stuck to my niche and its related topics. I was confronted by the reality that the landscape has changed so fast that I couldn't catch up. I've been living in my old-school bubble. With the introduction of the vertical video, short video, and other social media formats, I found it strange—though I wasn't surprised—that many of the Gen-Z delegates weren't aware of how we did "blogging" back in the 2010s.

It was also a fascination to hear the perspectives of my fellow resource speakers. Their stories of how they built their online presence reflected their beautiful individual journeys in the realm of online content creations.

 ►  Random Thoughts About My Lecutre

I'm not going to write in detail about my lecture, but I'm going to write what happened in between. I think that I missed the best part of creating a powerpoint presentation. I knew that I didn't have to because everything I would say was already in my heart. It's something that I could confidently lecture spontaneously. However, upon seeing the presentation of my fellow speakers, I knew that I should have exerted a little effort for that.

In fact, I only made an index of my topics a few hours before the event. I wrote my ideas on my phone, organized it, and made an outline while waiting for the event to start. Like what I have said, the ideas I'd be sharing that day were already inside my head naturally. You know, I've been doing it for more than a decade. It's not hard to lecture about something that you really love doing for a decade.

🇵🇭 CANDON • ME AT THIS CORNER WRITING MY OUTLINE ON MY PHONE 2 HOURS PRIOR TO THE START OF THE EVENT.

🇵🇭 CANDON • THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN BY XHIAN VLOGS, ONE OF THE DELEGATES.

🇵🇭 CANDON • PHOTO OP WITH THE ORGANIZERS, NIÑO GADINGAN AND TEAM

I was the only one among the speakers who used a traditional old-school blog as a platform. I also have an inkling that none of the delegates uses a website/weblog platform in creating contents. Truth to be told, I really didn't know how to explain SEO, Search Engine ranking, and website monetization in the least complicated way possible. Most (if not all) of the delegates are creators on Facebook and YouTube. In fact, many of them are successful on Facebook that some of them have 100,000+ followers.

I certainly didn't lecture on how to grow followers on social media because that's not my forte for sure. I focused on the qualitative side of blogging like branding, story-telling, longevity, and creating quality contents that leave an impact despite having a little social media following online. I told them that the articles I wrote 10 years ago are still being read up to this day and still ranking high in search engines.

 ►  Ending Thoughts

Content creation is for everyone. However, the relevance and impact you build on content creation are usually not for everyone. While everybody could be a content creator, not everyone will be given a chance to be recognized as a community leader. To be fair, everyone could be successful in their own way defending on the goals we all set for ourselves.

To be honest, the delegates who joined the conference are community leaders and impactful creators. I'm humbled to see that the delegates are successful in their own ways—that I also learned something from them.

To be vulnerable about it, accepting the task to be a resource speaker also comes with the risk of the pressure from the public that I should be more successful—but no. Being a resource speaker doesn't necessarily mean that I am the most successful and influential in my field. In fact, there are a lot of creators in Ilocos that are better than me miles away. It's just that, public speaking is another skill set. You can be the most successful creator, but you may not have the skill for public engagement. So, we need to compartmentalize these things.

I'd like to note my gratitude to Niño Gadingan and the Star Power Media family for trusting me in this endeavor. This event was also not possible without the host Hotel Van Gogh of Candon. Its cutting-edge concept on hospitality elevated the elegance and quality of the venue of the first ever Ilocandia Content Creators Conference.

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UPDATE HISTORY FOR THIS BLOG POST
• 2024-October-01: This post was published.