The 20th Philippine Advertising Congress is probably the best industry event I've been to this year. I truly learned a lot from the sessions and I had fun in the various parties and company gimmicks that were offered.

Here are some of the highlights and pictures.

November 22, Thursday

[1] Jenny, Diane and I arrived very early at the site to get our IDs and registration packs. While we were waiting for it we decided to hang-out at the GSM Blue booths where they had comfy beanbags and took some pictures.







[2] We had Sarah Geronimo as Breakfast Entertainment. Jollibee's the sponsor of the breakfast so it's but natural to have her. I just find it odd to watch her too early in the morning.





[3] We were able to seat at the third row of the middle aisle at the Plenary Hall! Yey! Full view of Neil Gaiman and the other speakers!

[4] Neil Gaiman is so enigmatic! His speech on "Imagination and Creativity in the Contemporary World" brings forth a standing ovation and a crowd who will never underestimate again the power of imagination and the world of "what ifs" after hearing his speech.



[5] SMART is here. SMART is there. SMART is everywhere! Our SMART mega-booth dubbed as "Pentagon" rocks...and with foreign models to boot!





[6] The New Generations Survey that was conducted by Cartoon Network gave us fresh insights in understanding the preferences and buying influence of 7 -14 year old Filipino kids. This is one of the most important studies that was presented in the conference.

[7] The AdCon is notorious for its trade exhibit booths and its numerous freebies. It's the mother of all freebies. It was like a shopping spree! I went out of the hall carrying a big bag full of items ranging from button pins to canned beers.

[8] This is my favorite line to Diane while we were conquering the booths: "I am wearing heels and we lined up for this?" *while I point to one obscure paper bag/promo item to the other*

[9] Best Trade Exhibit Booth (for me) – Philippine Star (who actually bagged the award) and Nokia (they got free popcorns!).









[10] No sign of Aileen. The only friend I knew who was at the Ad Congress was her and I did not even see her. She was busy with their Kodak booth the entire time.

[11] Speaking of friends. I saw several friends and former suppliers at the AdCon. There was Monique (my friend from Assumption), Marvin, Dem and my former AE's from Business Mirror and Philippine Star.

[12] Thursday's lunch was from Philippine Star and they brought in Edu Manzano, Parokya Ni Edgar (headbanging and jumping at lunch) and two Toyota Vios as prizes.

[13] I saw some girl who I am not supposed to see before the afternoon session started. Just ask my colleague Anthony how he feels. Sorry!

[14] Mindshare's James Chadwick's presentation on "Understanding The New Order of Asian Communications" was really good but he encountered some technical problems so he sang instead! He's one of our favorite speakers!



[15] The Print Media analysis of Helen Pemberton (AC Nielsen), Sandy Prieto-Romualdez (Inquirer) and Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng (Summit Media) made waves as they defended the so-called dying medium.

[16] I learned that PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) helped increased sales of their print counterpart, YES Magazine, after it was launched a year ago. YES and PEP’s most popular feature was the confession of Pops Fernandez against Martin Nievera.

[17] Lisa stressed the following on her speech: magazines will thrive in the years to come; magazine publishers see digital as the Holy Grail; and print and digital complement each other.

[18] While we were at the SMART's Pentagon Booth there were some students who were taking pictures beside me. They did not ask me to leave and I did not budge to move either (thanks to more than 12 hours on heels) so Jen decided to take some pictures, too. It ended up like this:



[19] Solar Sports made us wait for more than an hour for dinner! Good thing the food served by Hizon's was the best-ever conference meal.

[20] Diane, Jen and I immediately unpacked our trade exhibit goodies as soon as we reached the hotel. I packed mine according to categories – personal stuff, foodies and usual give-aways.



November 23, Friday

[21] Jen is one of the new converts of Lamoiyan Corporation, makers of Hapee Toothpaste. The speech of their CEO encouraged her to switch to Filipino-made products like Hapee. They were our breakfast sponsor for Friday and I was expecting to see Lea Salonga in the flesh. Their merchandising is quite good, too.





[22] Michelle Green dubbed as the 'Most Powerful Woman in Asian Advertising in Asia' of Leo Burnett gave one of the most applauded presentation on "Engagement Marketing". She also showed various award-winning case videos. One of them was Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty TVC last year.

[23] My most favorite speaker and presentation was the one of Tay Guan Hin of JWT Singapore. His presentation on "Magical Creativity" was very engaging and informative. He discussed effective copywriting and he even performed magic tricks to convey various messages.



[24] I like the speech of Derek Callow (Google) at the AdCon better than his presentation at SEMCON '07 which I attended last September. A number of us like Derek and I was not surprised when one of my colleagues dragged me to have our picture taken with him. We stalked him backstage! Hah!





[25] All of us were required to wear SMART shirts when our Wireless Center Division Head, Bong Mojica, had his presentation on Mobile Advertising.

[26] I love the lobby lounge of the venue. They had non-stop free soda, chips, coffee, hams, corned beef and juice for all delegates.

[27] GMA 7 outdid everyone in their sponsored dinner. While the others have raffle, entertainment and freebies...they had Bingo games and Marimar!

[28] I almost won P75,000 in the Bingo Game sponsored by GMA 7. We were playing "last man standing" Bingo Game and I was one of the last 5 (out of 3,000 guests) who still have an unpicked number card.

[29] Guess who won THAT Bingo game? Some guy from ABS-CBN! What a sweet revenge! The host, Arnel Ignacio, doesn't know what to do or say! It was truly one of the most memorable AdCon ironies.



[30] Jenny and I went home at 7:30 am on Saturday so I can catch up with my team for our Finance For Non-Finance class in Makati. We missed Neil Gaiman's book signing and the Araw Awards BUT we were able to take nice beach pictures!



More pictures at my Multiply as usual.
Until AdCon 2009!