CEL Manila 2008 opening day video

Update on the Consumer Electronics Live! (CEL) Manila 2008 expo, which started today at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City:

For those who haven’t been able to come today (like me), here’s a quick look at the happenings there:

Gadget discounts & raffles at the CEL Manila 2008

I love going to events, conventions, tradeshows, exhibits, and expos — especially those that concern science and technology. As a DOST intern, I was allowed to tag along with the DOST media relations team in the 2000 Philippine Conference on the Knowledge Economy. Then I attended Macromedia Unleash the Power seminar years in 2001 (4 years before the Adobe acquisition), eBay Explained! that was graced by Uncle Griff’s presence in 2007, and then more recently, the WordPress WordCamp Philippines 2008 with founder Matt Mullenweg, no less.

If registration fees for these kinds of events aren’t usually that prohibitive, I’d perhaps go to every single event I can find time for. Often I’d just content myself with going to the SM Megatrade halls (World Trade Center in Pasay is too far for me) or the usual tiangge. I’m a very visual person, you see. These events provide a kind of voyeuristic thrill, letting you get a first-hand look at the latest, the trendiest, or the  state-of-the-art — you get a glimpse of the future.

So…I’ve had the good fortune to be invited to the Consumer Electronics Live! (CEL) Manila 2008, which will begin tomorrow, Friday, October 24, 2008.  Venue is the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City. On exhibit would be new products and/or services from Apple/Senco, Canon, HP, LG Electronics, Nokia, Samsung and Sony (major exhibitors), as well as Bose, Creative, Fuji Xerox, JBL, Myphone, Sennheiser and Western Digital.

See this nifty poster I was able to get my hands on?

Consumer Electronics Live! (CEL) Manila 2008 poster

Gadgets! Discounts! Raffles! Won’t that entice you enough to make you want to come to this 3-day event? According to a reliable source, these are things you can expect there:

• Launch of Sony VAIO and new Alpha cameras
• Up to 40% off on selected Canon items
• Up to 70% off on selected My Screen items
• A chance to get a free one month subscription of Sun Cellular Broadband for every purchase of HP laptop or personal computer
• A chance to get free luggage worth PhP1,000 for every Certina purchase
• Launch of Popcorn Hour product
• A chance to win a Bose Sound Dock and Nokia & Samsung cellphones in the daily CEL Gadget Give-Away

There’s an entrance fee of just PhP50. But if you bring and flash your copy of the October issue of T3 magazine at the entrance, you even get in free! The official CEL Manila website is: http://www.celmanila.com. And here’s the quick link to the online registration form: http://www.celmanila.com/register.html

If I chance upon any new juicy info, I’ll post it here.

Updates:

Here’s the short YouTube ad for CEL Manila 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXKru29AgJM

If you’d like to see the different posters for this event, out of curiosity or just because you’re like that, here they are:

Keep your Friendster account (if you have one)

A lot of people are abandoning their Friendster accounts for newer, snazzier online communities. There are valid reasons why they do so. Actually, I’m one of those who are spending more time with my Facebook or some other community recently, out of disappointment with Friendster.

But a network of your own built over the years is invaluable, even if it’s just composed of a hundred people or less.  So I drop by every now and then, and poke around a bit. And I’ve come across some pleasant surprises.

Friendster may be relatively unknown outside Asia, but for a long time, for many Asians, it’s the equivalent of Facebook and MySpace for North Americans and Europeans.

If you have a Friendster account, go revisit. Head over to my Friendster blog to find out why.