ASEAN Blogger Festival 2013

It's a great honour for me to get an opportunity to be a participant in ASEAN Blogger Festival 2013, which is held in Solo City from 9-12 May. As we know, ASEAN Blogger Festival is a conference for bloggers from the ASEAN countries. So they come to the conference, meet up, share, and discuss something with other bloggers. This year, the theme of ABFI2013 is "Reinventing the Spirit of Cultural Heritage in Southeast Asia". There're more than 200 bloggers came in ABFI 2013, 10 foreign and another hundred are local bloggers. 

9 May

All of participant went to Hotel for registration. They're separated in two hotel, Kusuma Sahid Prince Hotel and Sahid Jaya Hotel. At night, we had a gala dinner in Loji Gandrung (official residence of the mayor of Solo).

Opening show by Solo traditional dance. 

Crowd on the right side.

Middle side.

Crowd on the left side.

10 May

The conference was held in Kusuma Sahid Prince Hotel, started at 8am - 5pm. First topic was about "Re-inventing the Spirit of Cultural Heritage in Southeast Asia". Who were the speakers? They're Hazairin Pohan from Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Republic of Indonesia, Thomas Bill from US Mission to Indonesia, and also Muh. Dian Nafi as a history and culture expert.

From left to right : Hazairin Pohan, Thomas Bill, Muh. Dian Nafi

Second topic was about "Into New ASEAN 2015" with the speaker, Prof. Hermawan Kartajaya as The President of World Marketing Association. Well i've never met him before, but since i met him yesterday i do admire him.

Hermawan Kartajaya 

Next, Third topic was about "The Role of Social Media in the ASEAN Socio-Culture Community Building" with the speakers Budi Putra as a CEO of The Jakarta Post Digital and a Director in Viki Inc, and Driana Handayani or usually called Venus as a Blogger.

From left to right : Venus, Moderator, Budi Putra

The last but not least was about "ASEAN Tourism Potentials" with Fransesca Nina Soemitro as a Director of Market Development Information the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy Indonesia, and Widdi Srihanto as a Head of Department of Tourism Solo. 

We closed the Second day of conference by Blogger Batik Fashion Show and performance of Blues Community Solo. :)

note:

As a blogger we can make a change of everything in every aspect in ASEAN such as tourism, economic, social, ect. Blog is "OPEN and UNLIMITTED". Blog is a great way to share. ASEAN is in your hand, be the change maker of ASEAN, be the change maker of our country, Indonesia. 

11 May

The third day was more fun than the second. Why? Because the foreign and local delegation presented about their country. The delegation from Philippines gave us a unique-brochure-design of Philippines tourism place. The delegation from Brunei Darussalam said that water in Brunei is more expensive than their oil/petroleum. He told us to visit Brunei on 2nd,3rd, and 4th day of Hari Raya, because The King will open his palace for public, so we can meet him up and also The King will give us many presents. I immediately asked my friend to go there on august haha XD.

Philippines tourism's brochures.

Brunei Darussalam's delegation.

On the third day, we had two sessions class and we were separated in 4 classes in every session. i  attended in cullinary class with Arie Parikesit and Photo Blogging class with Jessica. Arie Parikesit said that cullinary have no borders. He shared everything he knows about cullinary. One of the participant asked him "Makanan apa yang paling keras dan paling lunak yang pernah anda makan?". He answered, the hardest food : Chhurpi from Nepal, and the softest food : Kembang tahu from Indonesia. Chhurpi is a traditional cheese consumed in the Himalayan region. He said that Chhurpi is not like the usual cheese, Chhurpi doesn't melt in your mouth, it tastes plain and feels like eating ceramics.... 

Mr. Arie also told us about Randang. Randang is favorite food in the world, and you know what? there are 100 different types of Randang. WOW!

Arie Parikesit.

Ended the culinary class, we moved to the second floor, photo blogging class with Jessica. She said that photo blogging is not about using blogger, wordpress, and tumblr only for posting your photo. However, tweetpic and FB-pict photo blogging also.
She also explained to us that the good photo blog has:

- large lamp & clear photographs

- photos that tell a story 

- photos that capture emotions

- interesting contents

- good captions

- clean lamp & simple layouts

- Regular updates

The most important thing from your photo blog is the identity.

Jessica from Malaysia.

After the Jessica's class, we had lunch and went to Sukuh Temple or Sangiran. Only 50 participant  s could join the trip to Sukuh Temple. We were only have 30 minutes, so we took some photos there and went back to Solo to Urban Forest.

The gate.

Mr. Joko (guide) tell the history of Sukuh Temple to the participant.

Left to right: KC (Malaysia), Hani (Pontianak), Sasa (Jogja), hana, and me.

Internet connection  is already on at Urban Forest.

Take a picture with Mbak Susie (Kepsek Akber Bekasi & Blogger Bekasi).

12 May

The day was the end of ASEAN Blogger Festival 2013. The closing ceremony was held in Karaton Surakarta Hadiningrat. I could'nt attend the last event. But overall i'm really really happy to be a participant in ABFI 2013. It's unbelievable moment. 

I promise to myself to write more often, and also write something GOOD and stop to write unimportant things on my blog. :)

Written by : Raisa Amelia (@ichiiii)

Photo taken by : Hanna Suryadika