In fact, the response from the Malaysian participants was very encouraging. It was my first time in Kuala Lumpur, and I had no idea what to expect because the event organizers weren’t able to provide me with a profile of the conference participants. However, I did know that the Malaysian WP community had had a WordCamp already (held on 22 May 2010), and that, to date, WordPress.com is one of the top ten most-visited sites in Malaysia.

I was given only an hour to do my WordPress presentation, so I focused on the fundamentals of Web content publishing. Of course, I also touched on the form and function aspects of WordPress site development. Judging by the amount of feedback I got afterwards, I believe I was able to convince the audience of the power of WordPress when it comes to delivering content online. Although, I did hear this one complaint consistently: that the presentation was too short!

That’s why I’m hoping the couple of offers I got to return to KL will materialize. I’d really love to be able to go back and conduct a more in-depth seminar on content deployment & management via WordPress.

Here’s the link to the presentation I did at KL: Web Publishing with WordPress. I designed this presentation to last 3 hours actually — I’m hoping to do that in KL soon! And below are a few of the photos taken during the conference.

I had a very good time in KL, and it was a fulfilling experience because of the enthusiasm and hunger for knowledge among my fellow WordPress lovers out there. Hopefully I’ll be back again and soon! I’d like to thank the people at My Events International (organizers of the 1st Asian Bloggers & Social Media Conference), and my Malaysian friends who made my stay unforgettable.

Too bad, though, Matt Mullenweg wasn’t in town when I came calling — he was in Ireland then. But, I was happy to have finally met Maya Desai, who gave me a tour of their space in Pier 38. Here are some photos I took. I know, I know… I should’ve taken more. But I was just so excited to be there I neglected to do so.

The place is huge! And it doesn’t look anything like an office at all. The wide open spaces and the high ceiling gives it a comfortable, homey atmosphere. Maya tells me that it was actually meant to be a restaurant.

While in San Francisco, I was also able to spread the word about WordPress to a high school there. This was part of the IVLP, the San Francisco leg of which was arranged for me by the Institute of International Education, and it was for me the best part of the program.

At the high school, I was able to give a talk about blogging, WordPress, and the various opportunities online publishing presented to virtually anybody. It was a class of seniors, and it was very fulfilling indeed seeing the glimmer in the eyes of those young men and women. I hope that I was able to inspire at least a few of them to take up blogging and succeed in the endeavor.

Together with my good friend and fellow Filipino blogger, Juned Sonido, we will deliver a joint presentation at this milestone event. This wonderful opportunity is thanks to Mozilla’s Gen Kanai, who gave our names to the conference organizers. Mozilla was our co-presentor at WordCamp Philippines 2009.

Along with other representatives of their respective Asian countries, Juned will give a primer on the Philippine blogosphere, and thereby provide a picture of how active Filipino bloggers have been vis-à-vis the East Asian region. I will talk about a particular activity that has been close to my heart ever since the inception of the Mindanao Bloggers Community: Peace Initiatives through Blogging.

BlogFest.Asia will run from 5 to 8 November 2009, in Hong Kong. Many Asian countries are expected to be represented by their contingent of bloggers and resource speakers. I sure hope there’ll be more Filipinos attending the event!

For updates, you can follow @blogfestasia on Twitter.

We hope to see you in 2010, Matt!