Shifting to Social Media

About a year ago, I transferred to Gen. Santos City, where St. Antoninus House, our mission house in Mindanao is located. I used to sit in the editorial board meetings of Davao Catholic Herald once a month, upon the invitation of Fr. Ritsche Gamaya. Even when I was already residing in Gensan, I would still attend the editorial board meetings in Davao City. It gave me a reason to visit Davao and to be out of Gensan once in a while. In one of our meetings, about a year ago, we suggested to come up with a social media conference in Davao City. Initially, the idea was for parishes and religious groups to be able to make use of the social media as a tool or means for evangelization. But since I moved to Gensan in August last year, I lost track on the suggestion for a social media conference. Until about a few months ago, I saw the announcement about #SHIFTDavao Social Media Conference on the newly reformatted website of Davao Catholic Herald. Ms. Cheryl Vilog informed me through a text message that the social media conference is happening on July 27, 2013. “Please attend #SHIFTDavao Social Media Conference. You suggested, and we picked it up!” was her text message to me.

As I looked at the line up of conference topics and guest speakers, it gave me an impression that it is a big event, complete with endorsements from the Commission on Higher Education Regional Office XI and Archbishop Romulo G. Valles, DD of the Archdiocese of Davao. July 27, 2013, was a date I marked on my calendar as a day to look forward to.

I arrived at the Finster Hall of Ateneo de Davao at about 8:00 AM for the registration. (Thanks to Ms. Cheng, one of the event partners, who gave me a free slot for my registration!). A lot of students, teachers and lay people are already lined up, waiting for the auditorium’s doors to open. As I entered the hall, I saw Fr. Ritsche Gamaya, talking to Perry Paul Lamanilao, the project head and event coordinator of the conference. An air of excitement exudes inside the hall. The young people, who are a great majority of the audience, are obviously excited about this conference and the learning that they are about to discover.

The presentation I found most interesting and enjoyable was “Social Government” by MMDA’s Atty. Yves Gonzalez. He is currently the Consultant for Technology and Communications of MMDA. He shared how the Metro Manila Development Authority was able to effectively use Twitter as a tool in traffic management.

Ms. Maria Ressa’s presentation, “The Power of Social Media”, really gave us a very clear picture of the power of social media in the context of her occupation as a broadcast journalist. A new learning I got from Ms. Ressa was the phrase “seeing from God’s eye view.” She showed us “pictures” or “snapshots” of how people are connected through the social media. This helps us have an idea of how people behave through the social media. This, according to Ms. Ressa, is “seeing from God’s eye view.”

I also learned a lot and was inspired to go online in multi platform from Bianca Gonzalez’s presentation, “10 Tips on How to Get Your Voice Be Heard on Social Media”. Among the important and interesting things I got from her were “content is king” and “write your idols”. A key point she underlined was it is important that “whatever you do (or post) on social media, you have to follow with action.”

The other topics and speakers who were equally interesting and educational were “Climate Change” by Secretary Lucille Sering of the Climate Change Commission, “Travel, Photography and Social Media” by Jaypee David, and “The Future of Mobile” by Michael Josh Villanueva.

The entire conference was on live video streaming via Rappler’s website, with youth volunteers in the forefront and behind the scenes. Kudos to #SHIFTDavao Social Media Conference! It inspired me more to make that shift and be active on social media!