Y4IT 2010, by ebarrun.

The biggest IT conference in the country yet, the Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology (Y4iT) 2010, had 19, 772 registered delegates; and Mozilla Philippines was one of its exhibitors. A call for all Mozilla Student Reps to join the 4 day event was made days before it but most of them are too busy in their academics to come. Joell and I decided to join on the 3rd day with Regnard, the community leader of Mozilla in the Philippines.

We started to roll by 6:30am from Calamba, Laguna by bus going to Diliman. We noticed an unusual entrance going to UP Diliman, it was like an alley that we have to walk through a bit. We asked for some directions from students on how to go to the UP Theater from that point. Even Joell was looking at a map on his phone. One UP jeep with an ikot signage was waiting for some passengers, we asked if he can drop us at the UP Theater but he said that it’s just a few walk up on that block. So we just walked and asked anyone who passes by for directions, then we finally made it. We need to set up the booth at the Bahay ng Alumni with our Firefox tarp and net book for registration. A lot of the delegates were visiting our booth. They even have to wait in line when Regnard arrived by 10:30 with additional tarp and swags.

It’s just a small booth and we can feel the heat. Even if the venue was not air-conditioned, it didn’t stop the delegates to register in our booth. Lunch time with pasta and bottomless iced tea was served to give us some relief. We got a chance to talk about the materials needed for a booth set up for our school road show. By 2:15 we had to cut the registration to be with Regnard in the other building where he will speak about the open web. The crowd was off their seats to grab some swags that Regnard was throwing at them before he started, some sort of ice breaker. The talk was brief and gave a lot of ideas about other alternatives in using the technology of open web. The audience was responsive that they asked a lot of questions during the open forum.

Then we’re back again at the booth to continue the registration and after the day, we got more than 200 of registrations. With their emails, we can use those to contact them for our school road shows. A lot of the delegates showed their interest to make a contribution in spreading Firefox. Even the teachers and a member of a foundation showed interest to know more about the Mozilla Philippines.

It was a fruitful day for us being part of such big event. Big thanks to Myra Siason, one of the event organizers and also a Firefox volunteer, for visiting our booth. I am hoping that more Firefox volunteers will join the next Y4IT. See you Guys!

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