On Thursday night I got to attend the 2nd Taste Asia Blogger's Party held at Taste Asia at SM Mall of Asia (MOA) primarily sponsored by SM Hypermart. I had managed to attend the first party back in July so I figured it would be worth it to go again this time around.
Arrived pretty much on the dot for 07:30pm and there were already a number of people present. Finally got to see Arbet again after pretty much two years, which is kinda mind-boggling when I think about it now. He was at the desk with HP Laptops available for everyone's use and there I got introduced to PJ Punla, who I remembered somewhat from the last event since she had also advertised her blog when it went open mike.
What I liked most about the event this time around was the concept of giving everyone sign sheets so it would encourage people to go around and introduce themselves in order to get as many signatures as possible. While I admit I was not very keen on making the rounds, I did my best as a "passively social" signature gatherer by being nice enough to talk to whoever approached and signed any sheets shoved my way. It was part of a game with a prize at the end but I opted to keep my sheet if only to give me a list of attendees and a reference of blogs I might want to check out later on. Expect to see me hit various blogs in the near future because of this quasi-directory, haha.
Eventually met up with AJ, who again was my coordinator for this event. Of course we took the time to say hi to Aileen Apolo, local Google consultant and primary coordinator behind the event, too. We eventually met up with Lauren Dado, who was wearing a wicked cool red WordPress shirt. What an attention-grabbing conversation piece! LOL!
Food wasn't as fun as the last time, I have to admit. The servers were really aggressive in pushing drinks and appetizers before the buffet formally opened, which didn't make sense to me since we weren't going to for anything ourselves. They even felt bad when you got your drink from someone else - weird! The dinner was kinda ho-hum - I miss the young bamboo shoots since they were really interesting. Biggest loss was that there was no chocolate fondue fountain! Outrage! Ah well, at least the Clique Booth was still there, although again I did not have my photo taken. Boo me. At least I took loads of pictures (none of them with me in them) although I have yet to find the time to upload them just yet. I'll get that done this weekend - I promise.
There were prizes abound for pretty much everyone, although I still didn't have a calling card to drop into the bowl - boo me again! I went home with the Unilever gift bag with way too much Knorr Sinigang Mix - Makulay ang Buhay! Still, it was a pretty cool event and at least I actually met new people this time around. I wish I had managed to meet up with Steve who was at the event but we were both pretty much preoccupied with a respective social groups.
I'm getting more used to attending these things although I promise to work on my social skills and get those darned blogging cards ready. I have my caption ready - Rocky Sunico - Performance Writer, hahaha.
See you all at the next event!
Thanks for coming! Minsan naman labas tayo ni AJ!
ReplyDeletehahaha, why not? sounds like a fun idea. =D
ReplyDeleteSayang you had work. I had fun at our little "circle"
ReplyDeleteI think we had the best pens! hahaha
I did too! It's a shame duty called, haha.
ReplyDeleteWe need to ask Aileen to stop having these things on week days! =P