It was my first time to attend Wordcamp Philippines which finished its third year last October 2 at the De La Salle College of St. Benilde in Manila. Actually, I failed to register and I'd like to thank the people behind Wordcamp PH, especially fellow blogger Winston Almendras, for accommodating my request for coverage at the last minute:) Now I can say that attending a Wordcamp is an absolute MUST for people engaged in blogging/web publishing or even those just interested in it. Why pay 20 to 40 thousand pesos for so-called internet workshops when you can get valuable knowledge for P1,200 (plus a free kit!) The opportunity to network with known experts is also priceless.

Just like the first year, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg flew to Manila to attend the event. We were able to interview him at his hotel previously, but unfortunately we were not able to hear him deliver his "State of the Word" this time, as he spoke later in the afternoon and I stayed only half a day. We are sure that he's very much impressed with the active and vibrant WordPress community in the Philippines.

If you're curious what happens in a Wordcamp aside from it being fun, you choose what classes you attend from a wide range of topics. The tracks are either for beginners or advanced users, depending on one's level of knowledge with the WP platform.

I felt like a student once again as we hopped from one classroom to another to listen to our lessons. I was able to attend three classes for the morning session and I loved every minute of it, even as I regretted not attending the other classes which were held simultaneously.

My chosen first teacher, web and search engine usability expert Hans Koch, talked about Plug-in Must-Haves to use with one's WordPress site or blog. It was very helpful and enlightening as he gave us precious tips on how to make one's blog run better from the standpoint of SEO and navigation. I also got acquainted with plug-ins I wasn't too familiar with.

The second speaker ,Jonas Roque, gave an insider's guide on how he set up his popular blog Facebuko, and customizing it so that it actually looks like Facebook. Seasoned WP designer Gail Villanueva spoke on "Adding Muscle to your WordPress Site" and she showed us how to play around with functions.php on our WP theme editor to enable one to do a sundry of things, like a shopping cart.

Plenary speakers at Wordcamp Manila included Mullenweg, Rob Angeles who spoke about WP and Social Media, UP professor Danny Arao on Blogging Ethics and Aileen Apolo on Google University.

The other bloggers and experts who held "classes" at Wordcamp Manila included Markku Seguerra, Micaela Rodriguez, Jonel Uy, Misty Belardo, Regnard Raquedan, Kring Elenzano, Kevin Codamon, Marck Ronald Rimorin, Juned Sonido, Jayvee Fernandez, Elaine Po, Colin Ho and Eric Malloy.

Our congratulations and thank you to Avatar Media (a group of mostly Davao-based bloggers) for organizing Wordcamp Philippines 2010!