Interview Responses about the Filipino ReaderCon
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| Official Poster - 3rd Filipino ReaderCon, created by Trizha Ko (img src) |
It's been a little over a month after the 3rd Filipino ReaderCon, and friend and book blogger, Ron Lim, who also happens to write for Manila Bulletin, has just come out with an article entitled "Readers Unite." His intent was to feature the Filipino ReaderCon and the past three years of its existence.
It's a lovely article, and I urge you to check it out. Ron sent me interview questions which I answered in my usual long-winded fashion. Owing to the exigencies of space, word count, and unity, I suppose, everything I said can't be included in the article, so this being my blog, I figured I'd just make the responses public.
The FilReaderCon is an event that happened because of the desire and work of so many people, so though the germ of the idea started from a few, it never would've happened had not all the writers, book bloggers, and book club members rallied to support it. You can even check out the initial discussions in this 2011 Filipino Friday post.
In 2010, a friend, Tarie Sabido, and I, were at a LitFest. At that time, I had already been book blogging for over a year, Tarie for much longer. We were also part of the very enthusiastic Filipino Book Bloggers community, and I had been a member of a large online/offline book club called Flips Flipping Pages for over two years. I mention these things to point out that by 2010, we felt that there was a large community of Filipino readers online who talked about books both online and offline. So, when we realized that there wasn't much reader participation in the LitFest, mainly because it was directed towards writers and teachers, over lunch during one of the festival days, we started talking about our "ideal conference." Of course, we meant it for readers. We laid out what we'd like to happen and who we'd like to invite. It was going to be an event that put readers in the center of things, and we would hold it to celebrate existing Filipino readers and announce not just to the book industry (few of whom at that time seemed to know we were there) but to the whole country that there was a big bunch of readers who discuss and promote books, thereby, hopefully, encouraging more readers to come out of the woodwork.
Admittedly, it was very ambitious, but that is still what characterizes the ReaderCon today: the ambition that the nation will not bemoan the lack of readers but recognize that there are a great many Filipino readers, celebrate them, and thus create more readers. We had no initial numbers or studies to back up our belief. We just believed in it enough to try and make it happen.
2. How long did it take you to organize the first Readercon? What were the challenges you encountered?
After Tarie and I had that epiphany during the LitFest, we decided to pitch this idea to a small group of writer and blogger friends [Not in the original interview answers, but these would be Paolo Chikiamco, Carljoe Javier, Charles Tan, Chachic Fernandez, and Kenneth Yu]. And when they got excited, we talked about it some more on our blogs. Book bloggers, of course, responded right away. For a few months, it was shelved, though, because we weren't sure how to raise the money for everything. We weren't a formal organization by any means. Around July of 2011, though, I happened to ask a friend what the going rate was for renting a room at SMX during the Manila International Book Fair for an intended Filipino ReaderCon. This was a well-connected friend, so she went through the trouble of contacting the organizers, explaining why I asked, etc. In the end, Primetrade, the MIBF organizers, wanted to give us a free room. Because, readers. And then we were able to find another sponsor. When we had the venue and the food, we decided, we were ON!
It wasn't difficult at all to get volunteers. Nearly everyone in the book blogging circle I knew wanted to volunteer. Which sort of told us that people were waiting for something like this to happen. We decided not to overextend ourselves by keeping it to one afternoon, with an audience of 70, because that's the maximum that could fit in the room. So, two months from the date that we settled the venue and the first sponsor, we were able to put up the first ReaderCon.
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| 3rd Filipino ReaderCon volunteers |
Through the years, the organizers have been pretty consistent. I took lead that first year and have been head organizer since. The first year, it was a very informal thing, with bloggers volunteering to do one thing or the other. The second year, we set up a core committee, a structure that we carried over to the third year. Apart from myself as the core committee/program committee head, the only other consistent core committee member has been blogger Tina Matanguihan.
When we started the Filipino Readers' Choice Awards in 2012, we've also kept the organizing committee consistent, with bloggers Blooey Singson, Tarie Sabido, and Tina (again).
4. What were the activities in that first Readercon, and how has it changed over the years?
The first ReaderCon was our coming out party, if you will. We wanted to introduce the online reading community composed of book clubs and book bloggers to the larger Filipino reading community and book industry. We had the theme, "Filipino Readers Make It Social." So, we had a plenary talk from author Carljoe Javier, who talked about the blurring of lines between reader and author, in that you have readers who've entered the conversation about books more actively through blogs and book clubs. Then, we had two panel sessions: one on book clubs, where we invited three large online and offline book clubs to talk about how they started and what they did; another on book bloggers, where we had five bloggers from different reading niches talk about why and how they started their blog.
That first year, the room was packed, and there was a fun vibe as audience members shouted out questions and were eager to share their reading experiences with the panelists. Throughout the next two ReaderCons, we sought to maintain that vibe of eagerness and excitement, which is, I believe, what happens when you get readers in a room together.
The following year, we used the theme "United We Read" to emphasize that we might read different things or even have different roles in the book community, but we are all basically readers. That year, we kept the panel discussions that touch on different aspects of reading and reading in the Philippines. One of the best panels we introduced that year was called "Authors as Readers." We invited popular authors to talk about their favorite books. Some of them even gave a few books away. That year, we also invited book clubs to host a book discussion, to give non-book club members a taste of what happens in each club's discussions or to allow readers to just geek out about a book with others. Then of course, we held the first Filipino Readers' Choice Awards.
In 2013, we kept most of the previous activities, but added a Book Recommendation Fair, where book bloggers and organizations had tables with lists of their book recommendations. It was a fun way to meet book bloggers and to find your next read.
5. Has the number of Readercon attendees increased over the years? When did it have the highest number of attendees?
Yes. Every year we sought to make it bigger, doubling attendees each time. During the first year, we could only fit 70 people, SRO, into the venue. The second year, we targeted and hit 150 people in Filipinas Heritage Library. In 2013, we aimed to have 300 people, which we also hit, in Ateneo De Manila's Rizal Library.
6. What has been the general feedback from people who've attended the Readercons?
Almost all of the feedback for the ReaderCon has been positive and enthusiastic. We wouldn't have continued doing this otherwise.
The thing about the ReaderCon, which I believe is reflective of its roots, is that we value feedback from people. Most of us, after all, are bloggers, who met each other in social media because of our common love for books and reading. As bloggers, we're used to getting feedback and engaging in conversation. So at the end of each ReaderCon, we tell people about the evaluation form and encourage everyone to fill it up. Or give feedback to any of our social network accounts. The organizers and the attendees enjoy and value the ReaderCon. But the only way we can keep everyone doing so is to keep making it relevant by hearing what people would like to have.
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| New FRCA logo |
After the first ReaderCon, a writer friend, Carljoe Javier, and I were hanging out in a milk tea place, discussing how unfortunate it was that local award winners were often unknown to most of the readers in the country. Which brought us to the fact that what readers seemed to like weren't the same books that the judges for these awards liked. And then we got around to dreaming about a readers' award, so that readers also add their voice to the local industry, and give their favorite writers and publishers the recognition they deserve. But then, we both worked for publishers then (he no longer does; I still do), so we discussed the idea with other Filipino book bloggers, and that's how we came up with the organizing committee and that it would be held during the ReaderCon.
The initial challenge was to come up with the mechanics. We settled on popular voting for the first round, and then coming up with a short list of three (3) after the popular vote, which will then be subjected to judging, care of a panel of readers. So then, we had find judges for each category. Once the short list was settled, the organizing committee also found it a challenge to source the books in time for the judges. And of course, we struggled to make the awards known to more people.
It's only on its second year, but, as with the main event, the ReaderCon, we plan to keep improving on the mechanics, categories, and marketing. Thankfully, in the first year, there was an amazing response from the writers and publishers of the shortlisted books and winners. That allowed us to grow the number of votes this year to 300% of the first year.
8. How do you want the Readercon to grow in the coming years?
This year, we finally plan to formalize the ReaderCon with its own board members and officers. That way, it'll be much easier for us to organize the main event and possibly other smaller events in and outside Metro Manila. We'd also like to encourage more participation from kids and teenagers because if we're building a nation of readers, they're the most important factor. We're open to working with publishers and authors who want to find a community of readers. And of course, we're going to keep working on growing the Filipino Readers' Choice Awards to the point that most of the people in the country have heard of it and will vote for their favorite books.
My peg has always been international book and reader festivals where it seems the whole city is involved and championing books and reading. The ReaderCon may initiate that or may just form a part of it. In any case, we get what we want: a widespread celebration of the Filipino as a reader.
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| Art for the 3rd Filipino ReaderCon, created by Trizha Ko |
That ends my interview responses.
What's going to happen for the 4th Filipino ReaderCon? Bigger things, we hope. I had a couple of discussions already with our long-time supporter, the National Book Development Board. We're planning to hold it during November, which is Book Development Month. And maybe, just maybe, we can come closer to the peg I mentioned above of a larger and more consolidated book event, of which the ReaderCon is part.
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You can also find the Filipino ReaderCon at the following sites:
Official Website: http://filipinoreadercon.wordpress.com/
Facebook: FilReaderCon
Twitter: @PinoyReaderCon
Hashtag: #filreadercon
Comments
ReaderCon this year is going to be legendary. :D