Who would have thought that by simply checking my social networking accounts (Facebook and Twitter), would lead me to an event of seeing one of the best renowned journalists of Southeast Asia, Maria Ressa.
For those who are not familiar with her, here's a brief background from Wikipedia:
She is a Filipino journalist who worked for Cable News Network (CNN) as Manila Bureau Chief from 1988–1995 and as Jakarta Bureau Chief from 1995-2005. As CNN’s lead investigative reporter in Asia, she specialized in investigating terrorist networks including videotape coverage of what experts believed to be Osama bin Laden’s private videotape collection in Afghanistan. Ressa also spent six years in ABS-CBN (2004-2010) as head of the News and Current Affairs. She is now an author-in-residence at The International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) of Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
I first saw her in a local news and right at that moment I was fascinated with the way she speaks. Soft, clear, elite-sounding and very convincing that anyone would really stick their eyes on TV and listen. Well, that's exactly what happened to me. From then on, I became curious of who she is and finally decided to include her in my "A moment with..." photo collection. It is just a dream collection of great people who I want to have a picture with if given a chance.
One of my college friends shared a link in Facebook which is an article entitled, 'Maria Ressa: Courage makes a woman sexy' 10 Things You Should Know About Maria Ressa by Bianca Gonzales in philstar.com. After reading it, I checked Maria Ressa's twitter account just to find out her reactions for the article. Then I noticed one her RT'd (Retweeted) tweets mentioned my place (Davao) and suddenly my heart started to beat fast when I discovered that she's going to have a speech in Ateneo De Davao University for the Move.PH organization entitled "Baha! Kami Bahala, Social Media for Social Change".
The super excited "ME" did all the research to confirm the event. Then I came across Move.Ph's Facebook account and asked for details including the fee that I need to pay to witness the event. They immediately replied and said that I would be very welcome to attend and that the event is for FREE (a yehey for that!).
I immediately cancelled all my appointments the next day and prepared for it. I strongly believed that a camera would be necessary. Though I can use my phone to take pictures and immediately upload it my Facebook and Twitter accounts, it could drain my battery that fast. So I saved my phone for Twittering and Facebooking and just borrowed a digital camera from my friend.
I arrived at the venue early and was able to have a seat right at the back of Maria Ressa! Isn't that great?! =)
The entire event was very amazing, I've learned a lot not only from Maria Ressa but from the rest of the speakers as well.
There would be a separate post for the event so that I can clearly share what I learned from each of the speakers. -niceurdaneta-
