I am here at Subic, Zambales to attend the 20th Philippine Advertising Congress. This is only the 2nd time I will be attending the biggest advertising industry gathering here in the Philippines. The first one was back in 1997 at AdAsia Manila which was actually the Asian Advertising Congress held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). I was able to attend that event because several classmates and I were student volunteers together with other Communication students from other universities. It was one of those first fine moments when I had a glimpse of my future career.



20th Philippine Advertising Congress Logo

The mega-event started tonight with a Keynote Speech from John Gokongwei but we were not able to see it since we left the office at 7:00 pm. He talked about his riches-to rag-to riches success and the companies and product he built and introduced like Cebu Pacific and Universal Robina Corporation's C2 Juice Drink, which changed the landscape and perceptions of consumers and how we do business.

The business session starts tomorrow with best-selling author and celebrity speaker Neil Gaiman leading the pack. He will be talking about "Imagination and Creativity in The Contemporary World". I am truly looking forward to his speech. I haven't read any of his books but I definitely know him and his best-sellers. My ex was the one who actually introduced me to him through his book American Gods. Then there were also Neverwhere and Stardust which was turned into a film recently.

The theme for this year's AdCon is "The New Order". The congress will discuss the collaboration and competition between traditional marketing/advertising and new-age technology. It will set to understand how one complements and compete with the other. The sessions are divided into four phases: imagination and creativity, marketing and media, creativity, and going digital. Focused topics on emerging mobile and Internet marketing trends will also be discussed with SMART's very own Bong Mojica to talk about Mobile Advertising.

Speaking of SMART.

This is one of those moments when I am very happy and truly proud to be a SMARTee. We are just mere presentors and merchandising sponsors for the event yet our hardworking Event Team did one helluva job in dressing up Subic. The very long road stretch from the San Fernando Interchange all the way to Subic was filled with our streamers, banners and merchandising floaters and inflatables. It's "Power To Lead" literally and figuratively. This is truly bad for our competitor who gamely claimed that they are the event's "official telecom provider". Duh? It doesn't look like they are. [EDIT: read this guy's post of Smart's good branding at AdCon]

The AdCon will end by Saturday night with the ala-Famas Araw Awards as culminating event. I will be missing it since I have to be back in Makati on Saturday morning for a Finance For Non-Finance class with my team. I am staying at The Camayan Beach Resort (near Ocean's Adventure) with Jenny and Diane who are also from my department. The resort is really nice, the beach is very inviting and the rooms are very cozy. It would have been perfect if it's not 30 minutes away from the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center where the AdCon and all the evening parties are. We were late in the registration so our marketing team was not able to book all 25 of us in a nearer hotel. But no complaints since these are all free. :)