Friday, November 25, 2011

Where We Are

Let's see... since we last posted in September (not counting yesterday's return):


1. TEDxDiliman 2011 is officially done. You can view all the talks here. We had so much fun so we'll do it again next year... at least we hope to. Right now, we're thinking of a unifying theme, and then we'll begin curating the talks. Will keep you posted.


2. We officially launched three new books. Tahan Na, Tahanan is the latest in our roster of original children's stories.

3. The other two books - Kulayan and CANVAS Collection - are from our Global Giving initiative. And we're happy to report that this one is up and running. We raised enough funds to publish 5,000 copies of each book, ALL of which are going to be donated to public schools, orphanages, daycares and directly to disadvantaged children all over the Philippines.

We've already started by giving with organizations and people who do work directly with these children. Over 1,200 of the books have already been coursed through Museo Pambata, Sarilaya Foundation, the Joey Velasco Foundation, BenCab Art Foundation and the Onesimo Foundation. And we will be giving away all the books in the next few weeks, hoping to get them all in the hands of kids before Christmas.

The only thing that we've asked all our partners is to take good pictures, so we hope to post them soon!

A big thanks as well to MasterCard and to the BenCab Art Foundation for their support! Speaking of which, at least for Kulayan, MasterCard partnered with the Ayala Malls to make Christmas shopping more meaningful - every P2,500 purchase at any Ayala Mall using your MasterCard gets you a copy of Kulayan for free, which you can then keep or donate back. So we're hopeful that it's actually much more than 5,000 copies that are going to children.

4. Rizalpabeto is a bit delayed. No excuses. But we promise, it will be worth the wait!

Next time... where we're going... :-)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

A New Start

Sorry for being out for so long. We've been quite active, not just with events and activities, but also on social media - it's just much much easier to update people on Facebook.

But there are a few things that a blog does better.

First, we can write longer posts. Facebook, and even more so, Twitter are basically just a collection of teasers, feeds and links. It's a good way to keep the community engaged, but it doesn't allow us to get as much depth.

Second, it's easier to get a sense of what we've done in the past (and therefore where we stant, through a blog than through Facebook.

And third, and probably most important, writing posts gives us a chance to focus without too much distractions from our other friends. Not that we don't like the distraction. It's just good to focus in quietly by and for ourselves every now and then.

And so we're back... hopefully more regularly.