In true “Bold” fashion, BlackBerry Pilipinas celebrated its first year anniversary last Friday, June 29, 2012 at Republiq Club, one of the most prestigious clubs in Manila. Of course, BlackBerry Empire was at the prestigious celebration. Continue reading for this BlackBerry Empire exclusive.
The anniversary party was thrown by Research In Motion for BlackBerry Pilipinas, which represents the entire BlackBerry community in the Philippines, including RIM itself, partners, developers, media, and most importantly, BlackBerry customers.
The event was hosted by two of Manila’s most in-demand DJs, Sam YG and Suzy. Both Sam and Suzy are known for their ability to engage crowds, and seemed perfect choices to host the event. The party officially started much later than announced, but Sam and Suzy seemed to have managed keeping the entire evening fun for the partygoers.
BlackBerry 10 wasn’t mentioned or discussed during the event. The highlight of the evening was an anniversary video presentation featuring BlackBerry Pilipinas milestones, and a quick message from one of RIM’s Executives. I personally found it a bit odd that RIM didn’t talk about BlackBerry 10, somehow expecting that they would take the opportunity to clarify matters or to reassure people. Instead, games and contests for the partygoers seemed to have taken most of time for the event. Nothing wrong with that, though. After all, the event was for BlackBerry Pilipinas – to give thanks for a great year that was.
For the contest prizes, RIM gave away several BlackBerry smartphones, including the latest Curve 9220 smartphone, and a BlackBerry PlayBook. Several phones were awarded that evening – I actually lost count of the exact number of phones they gave away. It’s no wonder that partygoers, professionals at that, were willing to sing and dance like Nicki Minaj (who will be in the country for her BlackBerry and Globe Telecom sponsored Philippine Concert)!
Food and greatly-mixed drinks were served by Republiq for partygoers. One of the interesting things I enjoyed was ordering through the BBM Table Service. After scanning the barcode and adding the BBM contact, food and drinks were just a BBM away. It was a creative way to feature BBM in the party. Check out pictures of the VIP table for BlackBerry Empire below.
All throughout Republiq, various screens were set-up, projecting the on-going discussions on Twitter. Greetings and messages for BlackBerry Pilipinas were displayed there.
Check out some of the other pictures taken during the event.
While waiting for the actual party to begin, I had the chance to talk to RIM’s PR team about the recent developments on BlackBerry 10. They shared their optimism, citing how many Filipinos opt for BlackBerry phones because of BBM, and for the reasonable price of the phones. I have to agree. And it does seem that with the current line of BlackBerry Curve smartphones, including the recently-launched Curve 9220, many Filipinos’ mobile phone needs will be met.
On hindsight, I realized that for the country that made text messaging really big (at one point leading all other countries in number of text messages sent per day), people seem to value BlackBerry for how it keeps people connected. There has been much hype about BlackBerry 10, but this should not affect the way we value the current line of BlackBerry smartphones. Yes, BlackBerry 10 promises a host of significant improvements, but hey, BlackBerry smartphones are great the way they are now. The unique capabilities that the current BlackBerry smartphones offer, like BBM, BIS, BES, and now Mobile Fusion, allow people to do so much on-the-go with just one device, and keep people securely connected.
Looking back at how people seemed to have fun during the anniversary party, participated in the games and contests, and expressed their appreciation for the BlackBerry smartphones they won, it does seem that BlackBerry Pilipinas remains contented…so long as they have BBM, push email, and BIS/BES for their social networking activities on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.
Congratulations again for a great year, BlackBerry Pilipinas! Here’s to many more years, and bigger things ahead! Cheers!