Of Avenue Plaza Hotel updates, plus, plus; MLQ3 link; Bicolano Bloggers Summit; grateful thoughts; and apologies

1. THE QUACKROOM. First of all, let me just thank everyone who has made me realized that The Quackroom, this humble site of mine which I still consider to be in its 'formative stages' if you may, is being read or at least being checked regularly for updates by a good number of people (na pala). I appreciate your emails and your text messages. Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Keep those insights coming, please. I also appreciate those who personally let me know that The Quackroom is within their radar, so to speak, and that I am not, after all, just talking to myself or just to my honey Erica who also writes, blogs, and wonders; Mr. Tim Capellan of Unscathed with whom I have had a series of discussions in the past, the most animated being on my post that first got a link from Manuel L. Quezon III (one of those young personalities whom I really respect; the country's leading pundit-cum-blogger; and someone I personally would love to have as a Guest-of-Honor/Guest Speaker/Special Guest in the proposed Bicolano Bloggers Summit with Ms. Janette Toral whose Filipina Writing project is another addition to her impressive list of creative and great projects, Ms. Shari Cruz, Ms. Bianca Gonzales, Mr. Jim Paredes, and the Neil Gaiman himself being in my personal wish list as well. Dream on Ducks.); or to my former seatmate/classmate Irvin of Filipinayzd, whom I would like to congratulate for his leadership, initiative, and efforts that paid off recently when his project, the Bikol Wikipedia, has been conditionally approved. I hope I could soon be of help to your cause bro. Malugaran lang talaga ako ning dara-dakula, makontribwer man ako. Pasensya na muna tabi Vin.

Big thanks also for those who voted for, campaigned for, and supported my entry in the Wika 2007 Blog Writing Contest spearheaded by Pinoyblogosphere.com. I also would like to congratulate the men and women behind these noble projects (the website and the contest), some of them are proud Bicolanos too like Andianka and Bratyfly who celebrates her 2Xth birthday by giving away "a 1 year domain registration (plus a webhost?) and a surprise gift to two lucky commenters" as a "way of saying “Dios Mabalos Po!” for supporting her website. Happy Birthday again Braty -- ba ba bam! Ha-ha! :)


2. THE AVENUE PLAZA HOTEL. However with regard to some of the emails, I apologize to those who inquired about matters that concerned The Avenue Plaza Hotel because sadly, I do not have all the answers to your queries. Further, while I do have for some of your questions, I chose to refrain from answering to give way to the already activated management team of Naga City's newest hotel to function officially. I have already forwarded your emails to them. But rest assured that I personally asked them to respond to you as soon as possible for your convenience. Anyway, thank you so much for your interest. (Update: The Avenue Plaza Hotel website is now ready to be activated - very soon, as I was told by Mr. Pedrito Quiamjot, the general manager of APH. I'll update in awhile. I will just confirm. Thanks.)
(Update 2: Magno "Dude" Conag of Mobius Strip Studios just called me up and confirmed that there are still some nitty-gritty about the APH website that are being perused by the management. So in lieu of the official website, a "Splash Site", as what Dude calls it, or a temporary site will be activated tomorrow where you may view basic information about the hotel and reserve rooms online.)


Lastly, currently, the hotel, as revealed by my latest conversation with my immediate boss and G7Holdings Corp President, Mr. Allan S. Cu, is already almost fully-booked for September. And for all those who have been asking/raising their concerns about this, yes, the hotel will be operational this September (Update: September 7 to be exact, according to Mr. Ped,with the Philippine Association of Medical Technologists (PAMET) as its first institutional client. PAMET will have its Southern Luzon convention here in Naga City, as confirmed by Mr. Rexy Alvarez, the amiable RMT of G7Bank and the FLC Foundation, Inc, the corporate social responsibility arm of the FLC Group of Companies for which I previously worked as its Program Director/OIC). You may have already heard that it had its soft launch last July 28, this year, which I blogged about here although almost taciturnly. I promised more updates, but alas, they did not come. To which, I sincerely apologize again. Sigh, so many things to do, so little time.

3. BLOGGING & MORE APOLOGIES. Thankfully, Naga City's most essential blogger, Willy Prilles, fluently reported about the event on his blog. On the same post, by the way, Willy also told us about Dr. Danilo Gerona's conferment of the rank Professor by Fr. Joel Tabora, Ateneo de Naga University's president, "in a celebration that overflowed with food and wine". Highly deserving; my congratulations to Professor Danny and his family. The read brings me back to the many meaningful encounters that I had in the past with him, one of which I even blogged about. I am not sure if you have noticed but in that post I once again stated that the article would be continued. Until now, the continuation is yet to be written. Sigh, you know what's coming your way, more apologies. The reflection of Dave Bercasio, my cousin and former Executive Director of Naga City People's Council (and whom I wish would resume blogging again soon), about the need of a blogger to actually allocate certain portion of time everyday to blog leaps into mind. But then again my failure to follow through some of my posts is not just about the lack of commitment on my part to allocate time, but also about the lack of time/available time altogether especially during those times when I was very busy with a lot of things (which even induced me to step back at the end of the year). Good thing that I am already joined by another Atenean and Development Communication graduate,Mr. Stephen Paul Dichoso, in the Marketing/Events department of Avenue Square. Paul is a former Disc Jockey for Ateneo's Beat FM, former Media Studies Society officer, and former trainer for Governor L-Ray Villafuerte's English Proficiency Program. Watch for his own blog to come out soon, or so he says.

4. BICOLANO BLOGGERS SUMMIT. There is a proposed Bicolano Bloggers Summit, tentatively set for November. I have been meeting with Mr. JR Relloso, a seasoned Marketing instructor from Ateneo de Naga who is volunteering his group to help Bicolano bloggers organize this event. I wish Bicolano bloggers can close rank and make this dream a reality. Avenue Square's Convention Plaza can be a possible venue for this event. Avenue Square is a possible sponsor. If there are Bicolano bloggers out there who may have stumbled upon this post, please feel free to air your ideas regarding this proposal. We are set to meet again probably next week, so I wish to invite any Bicolano blogger who might be interested to help organize this to join us. Just let me know, please, in advance if you wish to attend.

5. AWESOME SEPTEMBER 2007. Awesome September, one of our most successful campaigns last year, is in for another run this year. In my previous post regarding this, I revisited the events that took place under its banner and also called on possible corporate sponsors that may want to partner with us this year. I am happy to share that a number of reputable companies have already joined us for this year's staging of Awesome September events, which include San Miguel Beer Corporation, Smart, Studio 23, ABS-CBN, MOR Radio, Coca-Cola, Goodyear, Suzuki, Bayan Telecommunications, Energizer, Eveready, Schick, Shakeys, Max's, and The Coffee Beanery. In connection with this, let me say that I am quite impressed with the aggressiveness of homegrown business houses like Naga Orienatal WOK (Naga City's only authentic Chinese restaurant) and Lisam Enterprises (Bicol's largest and most trusted one-stop-shop for car owners/buyers) and its newest sibling, the Autoyard Detailing Center. Of course, we are also happy to know that our long-time partners are still there for us like the City Government of Naga, the Camsur Watersports Complex, Bicol Mail, Soleil/Havaianas, and my favorite news and current affairs radio station, DWNX. Not to mention all our tenants here at Avenue Square. Negotiations are still on-going with other groups, institutions, and companies.

6. AWESOME SEPTEMBER EVENTS. Details tomorrow. Promise na talaga. Sure na yan. For the meantime, here is a peek at one of the events everyone should look forward to here at Avenue Square, Bicol's first and premier lifestyle center, via this teaser placed hereunder.




God bless everyone.