19 Mar 2013
in Entrepreneurship, La Union, Other Events Tags: Ben Francia, Digital Filipino, Digital Influencers Marketing Summit, DIM2013, Janette Toral, Joma Giron, Juana Change, La Union, Nick Fontanilla, Poro Point, seminar, summit, Team Spyder, Thunderbird Resorts, Tof Salcedo, Vanj Padilla, Vincent Tabor
Sometimes, fate has a way of allowing you to find the people you need the most. That is how I view my experience on those two fateful weekends that I spent in Thunderbird Resorts – Poro Point in La Union, and Binangonan, Rizal.
To be honest, I never thought I would find myself in such a summit – the Digital Influencers Marketing Summit – because for a time, I disliked the word “marketing” and everything associated with it. I felt that I did not have the required guts to be involved in anything related to “selling.”
But after years in theater and events, and a full year at a rock bar where I did pretty much everything myself, I realized I have been doing marketing without really knowing it.
When I needed customers to come to my bar and other events, I did marketing. When I needed sponsors for my events, I did marketing. When I met with my suppliers, I did marketing.
I have been doing marketing ever since I have been traveling, “marketing” the places I go to by posting my experiences, my photos and any information related to these places. I have been doing marketing since I put that online retail shop, Kikayism, with my good friend from graduate school PJ Valenciano, now designer and owner of Palamuti- a line of handmade accessories made for women. I have been doing a lot of marketing and I never actually realized it.
I found out about the summit from my friend Ana Locsin, the woman behind Pitaka Lifestyle Billfold, a line of tarpaulin wallets with adhoc Filipino designs, who shared the summit’s poster on her wall. At first I was really just interested in being able to come see Thunderbird Resorts.
There were two venues on two different weekends. One was for February 2, at Thunderbird Rizal, which was quite close to where I lived. Another was for January 26, at Thunderbird Poro Point in La Union – less than an hour away from the surfing capital that is San Juan. At first thought I decided I was going to the one in Rizal because of the proximity. On second thought, I thought going to La Union was also a good excuse to come out there to do some surfing.
I compared the two schedules, modules and speakers and found that they were not too similar, and that I could benefit from attending both. And so I did.
Part 1: DIM Thunderbird Poro Point
The Journey:
I took the 6-hr bus ride from El Nido to Puerto Princesa, flew in to Manila, and took the 5 hr-bus ride all the way to La Union, from Thursday til Saturday. I arrived in San Fernando very early in the morning, quite freezing and very sleepy, but very happy to be there. I got to see the sunrise and had delicious coffee with the view of the San Fernando sea.
I was the very first to arrive at the resort and was perhaps, the first one too to the coffee table. I needed it.
The Speakers:
The speakers were varied, but I loved them all. From the honesty of Vanj Padilla of Pangalatalk.com, admitting how she found it hard to switch from traditional to new media, and how difficult single motherhood was (and how I loved her in every way!)
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10 Feb 2013
in Entrepreneurship Tags: bazaar, little ninjas, plush toys, The Reading Room, UP Fair, UP Fair 2013
“Handmade with love and a very sharp katana.”
A product of The Reading Room, an exquisitely interesting little shop located in Cubao Expo, these little ninjas are out to reign over terror, and bring mankind peace & cuteness-overload-moments throughout the coming centuries.
The plush ninjas remind me so much of the little Ugly Dolls that I used to collect and makes them extra close to my heart.
“Uglydoll is a brand based upon a line of plush toys which began as a long distance letter between the creators David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim. The Uglydoll line was first launched in January 2001 and is distinguished by its definition of the word “ugly”. In the “uglyverse”, Ugly means unique and special…that we should be celebrating that which makes us different, never hiding the twists or turns which make us who we are, inside and out. …
Uglydolls were awarded the Specialty Toy of the Year award by the Toy Industry Association in 2006.” – Source
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09 Feb 2013
in Entrepreneurship Tags: bazaar, Pitaka, UP Fair 2013
PiTAKA prides itself with Pinoy ad hoc designs inspired by everyday Pinoy culture.
I am a brand advocate for Pitaka: Your Lifestyle Billfold. I absolutely love these cute little things, that I blog about it enough, promote it as much as I can, recommend it to my friends, and even gave nearly everyone a little pitaka as a Christmas token.
Read my other blogs about this Proudly Pinoy-made brand: Pitaka: Your Lifestyle Billfold (August 15, 2012) and My Favorite Brands at the Global Pinoy Bazaar 2012 (November 7, 2012).
This year, Pitaka is also participating in the U.P. Fair bazaar, along with The Reading Room, with a booth located at the left side of the stage. Here is a map of the area and we are located at booth A9! (Click on image to view original size). Do drop by any time from February 12-16, because we will be there!
Along with wallets, organizers, passport holders, iPad sleeves, mobile cases, travel pouches and bill clips, are also available, with prices ranging from Php35 – Php400.
Mobile phone cases
Click HERE for more photos.
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17 Nov 2012
in Design, Entrepreneurship, Friends and their Interests, Other Events Tags: Agos Pilipinas, ArteSana, Global Pinoy Bazaar, Global Pinoy Bazaar 2012, Palamuti by PJ Valenciano, Pitaka, Pitaka Your Lifestyle Billfold, Punchdrunk Panda, Rockwell Tent, Travel Essentials, Yabang Pinoy
Every year, I make it a point to go to the Global Pinoy Bazaar, held every second week of November at the Rockwell Tent Makati, and showcases Filipino products made with 100% Filipino love and pride. “At Global Pinoy Bazaar 2012″ seems like such a boring blog title when it really should be more aptly titled “Lia Goes to the Global Pinoy Bazaar 2012 (And Has A Field Day)”. Indeed, my annual visit to the Global Pinoy Bazaar has documented my journey of motherhood. From being a harassed new mother to a harassed full-fledged mother to a toddler, Global Pinoy Bazaar has seen it through. When I used to buy baby clothes and toys, and things for myself like clothing, shoes, accessories, bags, and make-up, my purchases this year were for toddlers alone. My toddler was too caught up with so many things that we didn’t get to stay long enough to look at other things, much more buy any. Lia wanted to know the names of everything we saw, “What’s this?” “What’s that?” and she wanted to check out things I didn’t want to check out and she wasn’t interested in the things I wanted to look at – except if it was food. We got hungry from all the taste testing we did.
After going around all the booths quickly, Lia and I went back to the booths we liked. Lia absolutely loved this booth selling felt finger puppets and funky hats. She entertained other shoppers while there.
This row had all the booths selling items for kids, which weren’t a lot, and right next to it was the booth of “Likhang ArteSana“, and they had books, journals and other crafts items.
I was told by the owner who was manning the booth that their items are also being sold at Powerbooks. How I love the items at Powerbooks!
Likhang ArteSana, Inc.
17 P.Gomez St. Pasig City
Cellphone: +63.917.836.2250
Telefax: +632.641.0201
Email: info.artesana@gmail.com
Lia fell in love with the “Fun Artivity Book” and though I thought it was a bit complicated for her age, she didn’t want to let go of it anymore, so we brought her one.
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07 Nov 2012
in Design, Entrepreneurship, Friends and their Interests, Other Events Tags: Agos Pilipinas, barabags, Global Pinoy Bazaar, Global Pinoy Bazaar 2012, Kikayism, Palamuti, Palamuti by PJ Valenciano, Pitaka, Pitaka Lifestyle Billfold, Punchdrunk Panda, Travel Essentials, Yabang Pinoy
PHMADE PRODUCTS WORTH BUYING FOR
The Yabang Pinoy Filipino Pride movement celebrates its 8th year by celebrating PHmade products worth buying, at the 8th Global Pinoy Bazaar on November 10-11 at the Rockwell Tent, Makati City.
Global Pinoy Bazaar 2012 will feature a lineup of brands and products made with 100 percent Filipino Love and Pride: in ladies’, men’s, and children’s apparel, accessories, jewelry, bags and shoes, beachwear, travel accessories, home décor, home and wellness products, as well as Filipino art and design.
I absolutely love Global Pinoy Bazaar. I have been actively promoting and participating in it since 2009 with the exception of 2011 when I was based in Naga City and busy with the bar.
Check out the blogs:
A Day at the Global Pinoy Bazaar (2009)
What You Missed at the Global Pinoy Bazaar 2010
Here are my favorite local brands:
Yabang Pinoy Home Brand: Agos Pilipinas
‘Agos Pilipinas is a brand fit for the active yet laidback philosophy of the eager outdoor addict. Agos brings out the passion for the tropilokal spots through its shirts, sandos, barabags and rashguards. Agos is more than just a label. Its the outdoor instinct. It’s a lifestyle.’
Website: http://www.agospilipinas.com/
I first saw their booth at the Global Pinoy Bazaar 2009 and bought myself a CamSur wallet. I also wanted their surfing shirts and rash guards and absolutely loved their barabags! I bought two barabags from them – that we use to carry our snorkel and fins about. I blogged about the barabags here but the photos are missing because they were embedded from their Facebook account. Note to self: download and have own copies of photos so they don’t go missing. My barabag is by the way stuck at our house in Pili, Cam Sur because I brought my stuff there earlier this year when I was planning to go see and swim with the Butandings of Sorsogon. They have new stuff this weekend and I’m raring to check them out.
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Yabang Pinoy Home Brand: Punchdrunk Panda
They are a team of Filipinos that ‘funkifies’ the world with passionate, like-minded people through functional graphic-designed products and happiness-inducing events.
Now, Punchdrunk Panda carries ladies’ and men’s footwear, camera straps and other fun stuff.
Website: http://www.punchdrunkpanda.com/
I have their Paper Cranes laptop sleeve. And its my mac’s best friend. Photo below was taken at Pukka Bar, El Nido, Palawan last July. (Click here for the blog.)
PROMO ALERT!
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15 Aug 2012
in Design, Entrepreneurship, Friends and their Interests Tags: Ana Janer Locsin, design, entrepreneurship, Filipino culture, Global Pinoy, iPad sleeve, passport holder, Pitaka, Yabang Pinoy
One Bikolano artist and entrepreneur that I fervently support is Ana Janer Locsin, the woman behind Pitaka: Your Lifestyle Billfold. I met her for the first time at a restobar in Katipunan Avenue for a little meeting about her products and only then did I find out that we went to the same high school, she was with the same batch as my sister and that we share a lot of common friends.
I am immensely proud of her.
After seeing her products, I suggested she join the Global Pinoy Bazaar held annually at the Rockwell Tent by Yabang Pinoy advocates, another Filipino project I am very passionate about. I was joyous at the news that her products were sold out at the bazaar and that afterwards, she participated in more bazaars with similar success.
I have some of her pitakas and I use them wherever I go. They are sturdy, they are colorful, and they have really nice designs that show Filipino culture.
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About Pitaka
PiTAKA prides itself with Pinoy ad hoc designs inspired by everyday Pinoy culture which is evident in its designs.
Description
Pitaka wallets are made from outdoor tarpaulin, with custom and pre-made designs. It measures approximately 3 x 5 inches where you can store personal i.d.’s, coins, and even a small mobile phone. Aside from its durable material, the PiTAKA Lifestyle prides itself with Pinoy quirky designs inspired by everyday Pinoy culture which is evident in its designs.
The PiTAKA wallets are also intended for corporate giveaways and event souvenirs as the wallets can be “custom-made”. For corporate giveaways, the PiTAKA team can have the company’s logo and other elements to be used for marketing promotions and/or corporate branding.
PiTAKA wallets are also open to both online resellers, individual representatives and physical stores. Costing for these group is slightly different.
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Pitaka started out with 3×5 wallets.
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29 Nov 2010
in Design, Entrepreneurship, Friends and their Interests Tags: Global Pinoy, Global Pinoy 2010, Global Pinoy Bazaar, Rockwell Tent, Yabang Pinoy
Took me long enough to post about my experience at the Global Pinoy Bazaar this year, but may I just say that it was, “Awesome!” Being one of the exhibitors this year made the experience tiring but I totally enjoyed my two days at the bazaar. I spent a lot of money! About P8,000, actually. And I could have bought more, except that, that was just too much shopping for two days. I spent more than I actually gained, and to tell the truth, I did not gain anything, except all the goods I shopped and an empty wallet. *straight face goes here*
I tried to take as many photos as I could, tried to take photos of all the shops, especially the ones that I liked, but there were just so many booths and there were a lot of people at times that that made that hard. Still, I came home with a good number of photos.
Our Kikayism booth was tiny, it couldn’t hold everything we had, but it was the only space we could afford!
We were selling Pinangga clothing and bags, Supladita clothing and espadrilles, Merkins bikinis, Letterbox t-shirts and Palamuti accessories.
And these were our neighbors, handicrafts: More
10 Oct 2010
in Entrepreneurship Tags: Global Pinoy Bazaar, Rockwell Tent, Yabang Pinoy
I remember making this (almost same) post last year about the Global Pinoy Bazaar. I remember how excited I was at going to the bazaar and buying some of the products I saw on the teasers. I remember actually getting to the bazaar and going gaga over the many stalls and products, and just losing almost all of my money to various stuff I fell in love with. Hahaha! I remember making a blog post about my visit to the bazaar and whatever stuff I bought.
This year, I am bracing myself for yet another wonderful day at the Global Pinoy Bazaar in Rockwell Tent. This year, I am even more (overly) excited about going to the bazaar. Why? Because we are one of the merchants! Unbelievable, yet true! Much thanks to my partners, PJ Valenciano and Nikki Valenzuela for making this happen! Catch Kikayism at the Global Pinoy Bazaar 2010!
And with us will still be some of my favorite merchants/sellers/shops: More
21 Nov 2009
in Design, Entrepreneurship Tags: design, Global Pinoy Bazaar, handicrafts, Indie Art and Brown Label, products, Yabang Pinoy
Indie Art & Brown Label was the very first booth we got to at the Global Pinoy Bazaar. I just went absolutely nuts. I loved everything about this shop. From the CD boxes to the pencil boxes to the journals, stationery, stickers and even the pins!
CD boxes at P350
Book boxes at P250
Hand carry pencil boxes at P180
Blank Note Cards with Envelopes Set of 3, PHP 125
12 PCS I love Tree Note Cards for PHP 170
(Clicking on the photos will bring you straight to the Indie & Brown Label site at blogspot.)
I was just about to take out my wallet to make a purchase of whatever but then.. I saw this!
Waiiiiit! I have this! I bought it at Powerbooks Bonifacio High Street December last year. I made it into my own baby journal. 
I went home and looked for it in my book shelf. And here it is..
I am so proud of myself! Sure I never got to finish the journal because we moved, I traveled for a bit so on and so forth.. But it was really wonderful to rediscover that journal. It made me sooo happy.
Here are the wonderful illustrations found within this beautiful journal.
MDM Journal Book Project
Here are some photos I took myself.
Children’s Journal Book Project…
The MDM Design & Journal Book aims to support and sustain the “Yamang Isip – Children’s Journal Book Project;” designed as a simple, innovative means to engage individuals, particularly Filipino children, in creative writing and illustration to develop their compositional skills and enhance their imagination!
A unique book which features graphed, lined and blank sketch pages traditionally used by writers and illustrators constructed with the highest quality to last a lifetime.
-MDM Design 2008
Who wouldn’t love this journal?
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Click here to read more on the The Journal with Creative License.
Click here to read more about the label that is Indie Art & Brown.
About the Label
…And wow!!! Another reason to make my way back and again and again to Cubao Expo: the lifestyle and design store that is Heima.
Heima Store at Cubao Expo
Click here to go to visit the Heima Store website.
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