Event date: May 18, 2011
Time: 11:00AM to 1:00PM
Location: Top Shelf in Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street

When one of the PMC moms announced that there would be an event by Intel, I knew immediately that I must attend – rain or shine. And working for a computer brand before, I know I’d learn a lot from the said event. It was a bit odd for me though why Intel picked mommies as their audiences instead of tech bloggers. It was soon I realized why when I finally attended the event.

First things first, Bonifacio High Street is a very far place for me. I needed 3 sets of rides just to be able to arrive there (LRT, MRT, then jeep). I woke up 8:00AM, took a bath 8:15AM, and got out of the house around 9:00AM. I texted mommy Ning of Anything and Everything’s Free to wait for me since we agreed to meet up at around 10:00AM in Market! Market! and I felt that I won’t make it on time. I arrived Market! Market around 10:30AM and texted mommy Ning again, she told me that I was early! I guess that means that my time’s really advanced. Well at least I’m not late?

After meeting mommy Ning (who I think is a very jolly person), we had a very short conversation and went straight to Fully Booked. It was still closed. So we had to use the service elevator (I think it was a service elevator) and got ourselves up to Top Shelf.

When we got there, they were still preparing and arranging the tables, so we thought we were very early. We were asked to fill out the attendance form, gave us a kit, and asked to be seated.

Few minutes passed and other mommies started to come. There were mommy Trish of The All Around Mom, mommy Joy of Gastronomy By Joy, mommy Leira of Pagaspas Family Blog, mommy Cherry of Domestic {cherry}, mommy Pehpot of Tech Pehpot, mommy Vix of Jared’s Little Corner, and mommy Donna of Ja-Rab-Le. (Please tell me if I missed out someone )

(Grabbed the photo from mommy Donna found on FB)

We were asked to eat before the event itself started and the dishes were actually delicious (especially the baked salmon with cream cheese). Too bad I was not able to sample a taste of the mango salad which, according to mommy Pehpot, was also delicious.

For the event proper:

1st speaker was Ms. Jaye C. Bautista who is the author of Techie Mommy from one of Manila Bulletin’s column under "Lifestyle – Technology”. She discussed about how technology, including gadgets, helps us moms (including herself) in parenting.

2 types of moms were discussed: SAHM / WAHM, and Professionals. I’m sure some moms, in one point or another, had the professional life as one of their dreams, but had to let go because of their kids. But there’s nothing to worry about, because being a SAHM / WAHM, there are actually more advantages than of those professional moms – no more hassle of commuting, no need for lunch money, no dress-codes (I so love this), proximity, healthier (less prone to pollution), etc. And being a SAMH / WAHM, there are also online work opportunities, which one can do during free time (yes, no more attendance issues!). From online tutorials, online surveys, data entry, being a VA, writing jobs, etc.

On raising tech savvy kids, security was the main topic, and making sure that we, as a mom knows what our kids are doing or searching online. Parental control is a must, and it’s best to limit the time of usage, and best of all, always monitor.

All in all, on being a mom, technology does help us with our parenting, but we need to be responsible as well for our little ones’ well being.

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2nd speaker was Ciel Cena Luy from First Academy of Computer Arts, who discussed digital art and how it enhances kid’s development.

3 types of computer arts were mentioned: Media arts (graphic arts), Animation, and Game development. Personally, I would love to learn all these 3.

As discussed, every child has his own creativity which can be honed through computer arts. Which is why they offer workshop for kids. I’m sure my daughter would love to be enrolled here someday.

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Lastly, 3rd speaker was Randy Kanapi, Marketing Manager from Intel Philippines who showed us how powerful the new 2nd Generation Intel Core Family is.

Being a hardcore gamer before (thanks to the never-ending advancement of technology that my laptop and I was not able to keep up with the games’ requirements) and someone who worked for a computer brand for almost 3 years, I was intently listening as he discussed the power of the said processor. I’ve actually known about these processors not so long ago but was not really able to see its power in action.

It’s great that he showed us how fast it was to transcode using the new processor’s integrated graphics card compared to a dedicated GPU (I think he was using an ATI Radeon graphics card (or was it NVidia?) unfortunately I was not really able to see the specs of the discrete GPU used). An almost 1GB 1080p movie file was converted to an Apple iPod compatible extension for 2 minutes and 54 seconds using the dedicated GPU, while it only took Intel’s HD graphics card 28 seconds! That was seriously amazing!

I have been transcoding files myself and believe me, it takes an awful lot of time that sometimes, I just press the cancel button, and I’m sure if I get myself a laptop (or a desktop), I’ll make sure I’d get a 2nd gen i7 processor, but still with a dedicated video card for high end gaming purposes.

Another good thing about this is that I was also able to see Wi-Di (wireless display) in action! I always knew how it works but never got to see it live. But for this to work, the laptop itself must be WiDi capable and a wireless adapter should be connected to an HD TV for it work.

Speaking of getting a computer with Intel Core 2nd Gen Family processor, Intel Philippines is also giving away 3 laptops rigged with these processors. Just upload either a 30, 50, or 70-second video with the theme “My Computer, My Life” and get a chance to win one of those 3 notebooks. (I really want to join but I don’t have a video camera to start with! Yikes!)

How to join:
1. Like Intel Philippines here: http://www.facebook.com/IntelPhilippines
2. Click on “Digital Showdown”.
3. Then click “Join Now!”
4. Upload your 30-second, 50-second, or 70-second video.

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All-in-all, I believe the reason why Intel launched an event for mommies (especially blogging mommies like myself) is that they know how important it is for us moms to document each and every kiddie milestones while juggling the tasks of being a mom and wife. With the help of Intel Core 2nd Gen Family processors, we don’t have to wait long hours just to be able to save, transfer, transcode, share, upload, or download files and have more time to finish our never-ending chores.

PS: I wasn’t able to take pictures since my phone went dead when the event started. Poor me.