Last July 14, I was invited to the Google Global Community Management Talks on the topic “Working With Sponsors” facilitated by Dan Franc, Google Developer Relations Program Manager from Czech. Topics covered were values that communities can provide to potential partners, how to find sponsors, how to engage a potential sponsor, information to send to a potential sponsor, managing sponsor’s expectations and working with sponsors post-event. Big thanks to Chelle Gray,  Community Manager – APAC, Developer Ecosystem Team of Google for the recommending me. I am no expert at the topic but I enjoyed sharing lessons and tips based on experience…

Last June 15 at the Philippine Tech Community Leads Meetup #8,  I gave a presentation on How to Close the Deal: Sponsorship Tips & Tricks. We had a really good discussion with lessons and stories from our own struggles as tech communities whose main source of funding is through sponsorships. I’ve was the former Executive Director of DevCon Philippines, a national non-profit volunteer organizations for developers for almost 4 years who now has a reach of over 50,000 developers in the country. Like fellow tech communities, DevCon’s main source of funds come from sponsorships. During the 4 year course, DevCon raised…

On my first solo travel outside Philippines, I stayed at EZ Lodgings, a small colorful place in #Gadong #Brunei I found through #AirBnB. Owned and run by Dina, a very accommodating Bruneian interior designer. Some rooms are for dailys and some are for monthly tenants. I made friends with 4 of the monthly tenants who apparently just knew each other quite recently. They accompanied me for the two places I wanted to visit and the rest of the trip I spent hanging out with them: chilling at cafes, eating takeout pizzas, and hanging out at each others’ rooms.  The room…