#Filreadercon 2015 recap

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Hello, December!

We just wrapped up the 5th Filipino Reader Conference this weekend, and it’s been such an exhilarating experience. I’ve been a volunteer for the ReaderCon since its inception, and it’s a lot of hard work that stretches out for months, but like the rest of the people behind this annual event, I’m happy to make the effort to empower the Filipino reader.

This ReaderCon was busier than usual for me as I was part of a panel in the morning and was involved in preparations both for the Flips Flipping Pages book discussion and the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards in the afternoon (where is a time turner / vortex manipulator / TARDIS when you need one?!?), so I’ll be linking a lot of stuff to this post to give you a better recap of the event.

My day started bright and early as the “Readers Take the Reins” panel was slated at 9:30.

The day started with a keynote by NBDB Executive Director (and in the past, a ReaderCon volunteer), Graciela Cayton:

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Then I went on to join fellow bookish fangirls Tarie Sabido and Eriele Japsay in “Readers Take the Reins.” Our head honcho (slash Mockingjay :p) Honey has very helpfully storified our session, so you guys can check out the discussion: https://storify.com/fantaghiro23/filreadercon-2015-readers-take-the-reins.

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with Tarie and Eriele

Had to run for some book club prep after that, but this author speed date session looked mighty interesting:
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In the war room with Gege and Lynn (and Dianne, behind the camera) preparing what else — lootbags!
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The gang’s here: Flips Flipping Pages and friends!

Meanwhile, the Spoken Word session was underway: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMH3P6HFDzV6jeJNSU53s8GPqBF4wdJm9

Followed by the Flippers’ discussion of Martial Law Babies:
IMG_9562I read the book and enjoyed it, but I couldn’t stay for the whole discussion as we needed to prepare for the FRCA ceremony.

On my way back to the war room, things were heating up at the Romance Class live reading:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23romanceclass (hahaha, and I was momentarily distracted from unboxing FRCA trophies)

And finally, the FRCA ceremony!

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Thank you, Gege and Art for hosting the ceremony (and hello Shani haha).
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My welcome remarks were a vast improvement from last year (when I had laryngitis)!

The complete list of FRCA2015 winners is up on the FilReaderCon website:  https://filipinoreadercon.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/2015-frca/

Thank you to all our judges (and citation readers), and congratulations to all the winners!
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Here is Honey giving her wrap-up speech:
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And here’s our little ReaderCon family, woooot! (photo grabbed from Honey)
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You would think we’d wait a while to recover, but by Monday morning we were discussing plans for next year’s ReaderCon already! But that’s material for another post (and for later, when plans are underway).

See you at the next Filipino ReaderCon!

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Photos by Dianne Singson

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