I did not expect I will be going to my first international conference so soon after attending Pista ng Mapa in Dumaguete City, Philippines last August. I almost lost the opportunity to attend the conference because of the passport and visa processing delays I encountered. Fortunately, I was able to! I guess lady luck was on my side.

[Scholars of SotM Asia 2019; ©State of the Map Asia Instagram]

In my opinion, my SotM Asia 2019 experience began as soon as my flight landed at Dhaka’s airport and I met my fellow scholars at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. I’m so happy I became friends with Tri, Yeni and Silvi, my new friends from Indonesia and also my co-scholars for the conference.

Attending the conference was nerve-racking for me as a first-timer. During the first day, mixed anticipation and nervousness were what I felt because I was in a foreign land by myself and I’ll be meeting many people who came from different countries.

[From left to right: Sir David Garcia, Silvi, Tri, Yeni, and me; ©Yeni]

Day 1 started with a bang with a very entertaining keynote presentation from Sir David Garcia, who was actually my upperclassman (we came from the same student organization, geography department and GIS professor!). There were a few delays and schedule changes for the sessions after the opening, but everything was worth it. The sessions and speakers were really good. I enjoyed listening the most to the Map with AI presentation by Dr. David Yang from Facebook because I’m really anticipating mapping building footprints using AI! My friends Yeni and Tri also presented during day 1 and I and Silvi cheered for them!

The food and snacks served during lunch and tea break for day 1 were delicious. I liked the pastry with chocolate the most, but what made the food better was talking with people about random topics we were interested in to get to know each other better.

After the sessions for day 1, we (Tri, Silvi, Yeni, and me) went to eat dinner near our accommodations and got to experience riding the rickshaw for the first time. That rickshaw experience was unforgettable for me. I experienced mixed emotions; fun, rush, thrill, nervousness, anticipation, and fear (of falling from the rickshaw). I don’t think I fit on the seat. Either the seat is too small for me or I was too big for the seat, and I’m not exaggerating. HAHAHA. Guess I can blame my height for that. I also had a good laugh with Tri, Yeni, and Silvi because Tri kept on screaming.

I started day 2 with startling calmness that even I can’t believe myself. Usually, I would wake up with butterflies in my stomach on the day of my presentation, but for some reason, I was not.

[Panel discussion of YouthMappers chapters in Asia]

During the morning, I got roped into a panel discussion with the representatives of other YouthMappers chapters in Asia. We were asked about our chapters’ activities and experiences. It was very interesting to know about how the other chapters are doing and what are they currently up to.

After lunch, I had my presentation. I presented our chapter; starting from a bit of background about how the organization was established to its members and activities. I gave a summary of our events and also introduced to the audience our chapter’s current project, the Building Resilient Communities in Bohol Through OpenStreetMap. I was glad I got to share what we in the UP Resilience Institute YouthMappers do. I felt so achieved I got to represent and present our beloved chapter. I think the only thing I regretted was I did not manage to attend Sir David Garcia’s workshop since we were having the panel session while his session was ongoing.

[©State of the Map Asia 2019 Facebook page]

The conference was both tiring (since it was jam-packed with sessions) and invigorating. Every effort and sweat paid up in the end because I got to meet new people and learn new things.

Salute to the organizers who worked hard for the conference to happen. Special mention to Sawan, who was the scholars’ coordinator, for being patient and helpful for us. Thank you!

Attending State of the Map Asia in Dhaka was so rewarding! Sadly, I did not have enough extra time to explore Dhaka, but maybe I will in the future. I’m looking forward to visiting Bangladesh again!

I almost spun around on my office chair when I received an email confirming my travel grant application was accepted. Excitement, anticipation, suspense, and nervousness were what I felt after reading the email. Excitement and anticipation because it will be the biggest conference that I’ll attend so far. Suspense and nervousness because I will be travelling alone outside Luzon for the first time and will be staying by myself in a city far from home. But lo and behold, my GIS/cartography professor and a former orgmate will also be attending the conference! I was so happy when I learned about that because I’ll see familiar faces around.

I almost felt numb the day before the event. I had mixed emotions that I barely slept the night before my flight, so the first thing I did after arriving at my (shared) accommodation was to sleep. On the way and while at the airport, my mom also kept calling me because she thinks I might get lost in Dumaguete or miss my flight. It was actually both funny and embarrassing because she thinks her twenty-year-old daughter would get lost. 😂 If I really did, I’m an embarrassment of a geographer!

THE CONFERENCE: Day 1

Day 1 started with a bang. The keynote speakers were awesome! The presentation about data as ice cream (as a fellow ice cream lover) captured me the most. I can no longer look at data without thinking of ice cream now! 😂 One of the keynote speakers was Sir Nick Brown, whom I met in the pre-socials event the day before the conference. He was also the one who gave me the cute sticker below!

For the first day, the first parallel session I attended was the Data Storytelling with Open Contracting Data. The session really inspired me as an aspiring government employee. I plan to use what I learned from the session to make sure that the processes, procurement, and system of my future workplace/s will be clear, correct, and orderly. Overall thought/realization: Data will talk and tell the truth!

[Guess who was in a daze while looking at this!]

The next session inspired me to learn more about Python. I don’t have any knowledge or experience with Python so I was “???” almost the whole session. It was actually refreshing and exhilarating! It has been so long since I’ve felt that (I think) so I was fired up to take Python courses/classes (in the future, because I’m currently broke 😂) so I can use it in GIS. Overall thought/realization: Python looks complicated for now, but will not be after I learn/master it!

[Me and Ate Diana]

Last but not least, the session that I was so competitive of: Collecting street-level imagery for the commons. I had fun in this session with (ate) Diana (my senpai and orgmate when I was a student)! Mapping those fire hydrants and pedestrian lanes using Mapillary was really fun. I even won a shirt, yay! I didn’t know that such an amazing app exists! I will definitely use Mapillary now whenever I go to new places so I can contribute useful images to the community! Overall thought/realization: Mapillary is so useful! Can be used for future fieldworks!

[13th OHOHO]

THE CONFERENCE: Day 2

[It’s a potato!]

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! <- me after waking up for Day 2, because ‘this is it’. It was finally the day where I’ll present in front of many professional mappers! (meanwhile me: just an ordinary potato in the crowd) I was really nervous before presenting because it was like my debut in the conference of adults and professionals. I was full of thoughts that I must do well because I’m no longer a student (and cannot have any excuses), so I was really happy and relieved that my presentation turned up well. Sir David Garcia, aka Mapmaker, even praised me! (Cue my inner fangirl!) Overall thought/realization: Senpai, thank you for the praise! This junior will strive to be a great geographer like you! 😭 I’ll use the experience for the future conferences to come! P.S. The other presentations/presenters were exceptional! I’m so honored to be a travel grantee like them! Special mention to (ate) Nikki who was also my roommate!

[Me and my new friend, Ardie]

[Me and Ma’am Ony <3]

The first parallel session for Day 2 made me so proud and thankful. Ardie (a new friend I made during the conference) said that my GIS/Cartography professor (Ma’am Ony Martinez) was so cool! Ma’am Ony is my role model in GIS and the one who got me into mapping in the first place so I was really happy from his words. Ma’am Ony and her teammates also presented, and the outputs of their countermapping activities were eye openers on how marginalized groups can have more voice in the society through countermapping. I also loved the QGIS session following the countermapping. I’m more adept in using ArcGIS than QGIS so the rundown about its features and interface helped me a lot. Overall thought/realization: Must participate in a countermapping activity in the future! (and) Must familiarize myself more with QGIS now!

As a woman, the last plenary session by GeoLadies inspired me the most. Women really do make big impacts in the world and this inspires me to do better! I am so proud to be a woman! Overall thought/realization: Women have a big role in mapping because their perspectives make a difference. In this world, different perspectives are needed because we cannot always have a single train of thought!

[Image above contains: “Mga taong busog for sure!”]

“Bitin and busog”, these were what I felt after the conference. The sessions and presenters/speakers were all great. There were so many parallel sessions to choose from and all were interesting that I regret I cannot attend them all.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the Pista ng Mapa 2019 organizers, especially Sir Erwin Olario, for giving me the opportunity to attend this wonderful conference! The conference was a big moment in my life and I will surely cherish this experience.

Pista ng Mapa 2019 is a kickoff of my mappy days ahead. So I would love to look back and reread this entry again in the future to see how far did I go in my endeavors! Cheers!