Digital Technology for Social Change in Baguio City (British Council)

We traveled all the way to Baguio from Manila to catch the Digital Technology for Social Change seminar by the British Council Philippines. It was the fourth leg- one among the five legs to be implemented in various key cities in the Philippines such as Manila, Davao, Bacolod, Baguio and Naga. It was a day full of fun learning and realizations on how we, the youth, can create impact in a society where people are brought closer to each other by technology. In simple words, how can we make a difference in our own communities now that almost everybody's blogging and using Facebook?

As a blogger and as a student of life, I couldn't dare miss this wonderful opportunity to discover what more can social media do, apart from being an effective marketing tool in use today and also as a source of income for many bloggers and social media entrepreneurs who refused to be tied down to ordinary desk jobs.

Indeed, it was about taking digital technology and social media marketing to the next level! I am thankful for the British Council Philippines for creating such an amazing project. I hope that in the future, they'll be able to reach out to more people (bloggers and social media practitioners should experience this too) and get everybody really participating in advancing social responsibility in the country. 

Our first speaker was Mr. Jay Salazar, Managing Director of ProPinoy.Net. Mr. Jay formed ProPinoy in 2010 as a political awareness tool for Filipinos in making their electoral choices. Afterwards, the site reinvented itself to take Filipino online patriotism a step further. On top of bringing political developments to light, ProPinoy aims to work toward civil engagement, social and environmental awareness as well as local tourism and industry promotion.

Our second speaker was Ms. Micheline Rama, Creative and Strategic Planning Director of Dakila Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism. She specializes in digital media and advertising. Her organization, Dakila, is the group behind the projects such as Active Vista, a biennial human rights film; Digibak, digital advocacy training seminars and Tik Tok, a climate action campaign. Prior to turning to advocacy work full-time, she conceptualized and produced digital-led campaigns that won international awards for creativity, effectivity and innovation. These projects ranged from a global digital-led 360 campaign, social media-based brand advocacy building, viral video marketing, applications, blogger promotions and new media innovations.   

Our third speaker was Ms. Niña Terol-Zialcita. Ms. Niña describes herself as a “communicator, connector, idea curator, and changemaker.” Aside from being a co-founder of Writer’s Block Philippines, she was formerly editor-in-chief of asianTraveler, the Philippines’ longest-running travel magazine, and is currently President and Deputy Editor of ProPinoy.net, winner of the 2010 Philippine Blog Awards for the Society, History, and Politics category. In 2010, she had a “grand slam” year in the speaking circuit after having been invited to speak at all three of Manila’s most-coveted events, Ignite Manila, Pecha Kucha Night, and TEDxManila. In 2011, she was recognized as a finalist in the first-ever Tatt Awards (“The Advocate” category) for her advocacy platform, Changemakers Philippines.
[Source: http://writersblockphilippines.com]

Our fourth speaker was Mr. JP Alipio, Executive Director of Cordillera Conservation Trust (CCT). Mr. JP is a National Geographic Young Explorer recognized for his research in the Environment and Culture of the Cordillera Region. His organization, CCT, is an organization that seeks to provide relevant practical and sustainable solutions to environmental problems arising in the Cordillera region. CCT managed to incorporate social media in their forest-building activities most especially in the recent Occupy Baguio, an event that gathered concerned citizens all over Luzon about the uprooting of thousands of trees to build commercial infrastructures. JP is also a correspondent of Rappler, an independent citizen news site online.

After the four resource speakers, we heard from the five Global Changemakers of the British Council who were present during the event. From left to right is Mr. Dwight Ronan, Mr. Joseph Mansilla and Ms. Jecel Censoro.

The other two Global Changemakers were Mr. Ponce Samaniego and Ms. Anna Oposa.

Here is one of the many insightful and interesting slides presented during the seminar. This was created by Ms. Micheline Rama. As a Marketing professional, it is so nice to have a sort of a review of my Integrated Marketing Communication classes in an advocacy seminar setting. Indeed, to communicate an idea effectively, one may use the story-telling technique and mirror real-life behaviors from the target market who you are talking with. Find a compelling detail that can communicate the whole story that is based from a equally compelling insight. A classic example of this is the successful "Langhap Sarap" campaign by Jollibee which mirrored a real-life behavior of the Filipinos while eating- Filipinos used to smell their food before they take the first bite.

That's how the "Langhap Sarap" campaign was brought to the world. Pretty amazing huh?

Passion + Strategy that is based on Insight will result to Effectiveness and Success.

I sometimes call this Directed Creativity and I got this term from one of my classes in MarkProf.

This is a really cool illustration of the kind of responses that marketers would like to obtain from their target market.

This slide was created by Ms. Niña Terol-Zialcita. I am really thankful that she shared this slide to us especially to me who had just founded a group of bloggers and social media marketing practitioners who would like to harness the power of social media for social responsibility. Because of this slide, I realized that I should not be limited to just writing about and sharing my thoughts online when trying to create a positive impact for the world. I realized I must be able to really go "out there" and work with real people in real situations in order to bring forth real positive change.

The Alphabet of Change. Thanks to Ms. Niña Terol-Zialcita for this slide.

Aside from the overflowing insights and knowledge I gained from the seminar, the British Council also served us really awesome lunch meals and snacks that day. Yummy!

After the seminar, we took a group a picture with the Global Changemakers as well as with the other participants from Saint Louis University and other universities in Baguio.

I am very proud of this certificate! I hope I can attend more advocacy seminars like this in the future.

Thanks to the British Council for organizing this event and to Saint Louis University in Baguio City for allowing us to use their school as our venue for this event.

[Speaker Profiles were from the British Council Philippines.]