Summer is already in the Philippines and most of the people travel to other places to enjoy summer. Common things to do during summer is going to the beach for a swim and also chasing waterfalls which Cebu also offers and of course, take summer photos too! But have you ever thought of spending summer in the concrete jungle? In Grammer Session Cebu, we always think of ways to always put a twist to every season and event details all the time. Now, we continue to grow and meet more grammers as we bring life to the second wave of Grammer Session Cebu with the theme “Summer in the City“.
Registration
Grammer Session 2.0 : Summer in the City happened last April 7, 2019 in partnership with Mad Monkey Hostel Cebu. It was held at the rooftop pool and bar of the hostel. The registration was announced in the official instagram account of @grammersessioncebu last March 25, 2019 to give time to all aspiring and interested Cebu instagrammers to submit their names. All the grammers who submitted their applications were required to post one pre-event photo saying as to why they are excited to celebrate summer in the city with us with four of the event’s official hashtags:
#grammersessioncebu
#summerinthecity
#monkeymadness
#cebucity
There were nine grammers who participated with us during the event plus five of the organizers which makes a total of 14. The registration started by 12:00 PM since the event will start by 1:00 PM. It was a good thing since all of the grammers who registered were on time and some of them were even there already before the registration started.
During registration and attendance check, all the participants were required to write down their names and fix their signatures on the registration sheet that was provided. All of the grammers were also given a menu from the hostel’s restaurant during registration so that they can choose their own food and drink that will be served in the middle of the event and it was for free! Thanks to Mad Monkey. 
Activities
I hosted the event from the start until the end. It was fun and it was very exciting since I have seen a lot of familiar faces that I have joined with in my previous insta-meets and also new faces who are first timers as well. It sounded awkward at first for those shy-type grammers but all of it was changed when the set of activities that we prepared started.
Below are the list of activities that we have prepared for our grammers in Chronological order.
Introductions
The first part of the event was to let everyone be heard. Either you’re the loud type or shy type of person, everyone will be given the chance to voice out themselves. One of the main reasons why Grammer Session Cebu was established was to give way for grammers to interact with other grammers too. Everyone was asked to introduce themselves, share their instagram usernames, tell everyone when they started using instagram and share their expectations for the event.
Workshop: Creating your Own Brand &Content
After everyone introduced themselves, it was then followed with a workshop on how each of us can create our own brand and content. The workshop was good and was a great help for those grammers who are planning to start creating their own content. There was a presentation that was prepared by Aldrin Suan who is one of our co-founders of Grammer Session Cebu, Social Media Lead of Cebu Content Creators, Content Creator and the man behind The Aldrincore.
Introduction to Mad Monkey Hostels
Right after the workshop, everyone was excited to hear about what Mad Monkey really is all about. In my previous blog, I actually wrote an article about Mad Monkey Cebu. Most of the details of that content were from the man who welcomed us and who gave us idea about Mad Monkey Hostels. The next guest that we had during the event was one of the most respected people in Mad Monkey, the marketing manager of Mad Monkey Philippines. His name was Sir Mykee, a name he preferred to be called. All ears and eyes were on him during that time but it was more of interacting with the grammers rather than a talk. He was so friendly to everyone and talked about the experience that we will get in Mad Monkey.
Dividing of Teams
This is actually the most awaited part of the event! The grammers were split into two teams and the way how everyone was divided was something new and has never happened yet among all the instagram events that I have been to. We prepared shot glasses for everyone with fully loaded Jose Cuervo Gold with salt and lemon. All of the shot glasses were on a big tray and was served at the center table in front of everyone. Everyone actually had a cheer to start the heat up!
After the grammers drank their tequila shots, everyone was told to take a look at the bottom of their shot glasses. Surprisingly, all the shot glasses were labelled with two numbers, either number 1 or number 2. The number at the bottom of the grammer’s shot glasses that they have with them will be their official teams.
Photo Content and Contest
After the groupings, everyone gathered together with their respective teams and started planning out what would be the plans for the next activity. Both teams have two team leaders to monitor them. My team was those grammers who have number 1 on their shot glasses, together with Aldrin. On the other hand was Team 2 with their team leaders, Ken (@kenxii) and Charly (@charlyveers).
The moment everyone was already divided into groups, the foods that they choose from the menu during the registration were all served. We gathered the entire food first in one long table for flat lay photography for those who would want to take photos as well.
The activity runs for 3 hours. In three hours, all the grammers will work with their teams to produce quality and creative shots for their solo photo entry and group photo entry which will be a contest for everyone. Some locations were bit challenging since there are no sunlight but artificial lighting only which might be hard for those feeds who are more into natural lighting.
These are the set of locations that everyone needs to take photos:
– Dormitory Room for 8 people
– Rooftop Bar (can be the billiard area, arcade, playground, restaurant or the bar itself)
– Rooftop Pool (all the grammers were given access to use the pool)
Raffle Prizes and Winners
All the teams were amazing and had their own entries at the end of the day. Their entries for the solo photo contest were required to be submitted on the day itself while the group photo entries was given 5 days to be posted on their instagram accounts so that they could decide which photo to submit for their team entries. The winners for the photo entries will be announce together after Grammer Session Cebu gets the scores from Mad Monkey and the organizers. During the event as well, we actually had some random question & answer portions and some raffle prizes. Below are the list of the prizes as well that we have for our grammers who participated on the event. See set of winners and prizes below.
Q & A Winners :
1. Q&A : What are the other branches of Mad Monkey Hostels in the Philippines besides Cebu City?
Winner : @_cielsby (answered Nacpan Beach, Boracay and Siargao)
Prize : Gift Certificate from Boodle Art
2. Q&A : Name at least two nightly activities that Mad Monkey Hostel Cebu have.
Winner : @beancentie (answered DJ Nights every Saturday and Beer Pong Tournament every Sunday)
Prize : Brand New Android Cord
Photo Content Winners :
Pre-event photo winner:
Everyone was required to post a pre-event photo upon registration starting March 25, 2019 and we have chosen the one that stood out among all entries
Congratulations! @ayanarose
Prize: Island Souvenirs Gift Certificate worth Php 500.00
Solo Photo Content Winner
All the grammers were given the chance to post their solo photo entries on the day itself. Among all the the entries, the judges have selected one who really stood out.
Congratulations! @ayanarose
Prize: Php 500.00 Gift Certificate from Hausbrandt
Team Photo Entry
Both teams have their photoshoots in all the designated areas. All the entries were great and were stunning! The best team photo was chosen by the organizers, Marketing Manager, Sir Mykee Dizon and the owner of Candiez Cafe.
Prize: Php 1,000 Gift Certificate from Candiez Cafe
TEAM PHOTO ENTRIES
TEAM PHOTO WINNER
All entries from each group were unique and were very creative. The judges from Candiez Cafe and Mad Monkey Hostel Cebu have already chosen the winner. The best team photo goes to Team 1!
Congratulations!
Prize : Php 1,000 Gift Certificate from Candiez Cafe
All the winners were also announced in the official instagram page of Grammer Session Cebu (@grammersessioncebu) and they were also contacted each by the organizers for their prize.
The session ended around 7 PM and it was a successful one! All of us also received one Mad Monkey shirt from Mad Monkey Hostel Cebu as souvenirs.
Overall experience, I was just so happy to see some old Instagram friends in person again and of course new Cebu grammers too! It was a day of interacting and sharing of creative ideas from one person to another as expected. This would not also happen if not for the participation of all the creative grammers who came, the organizers, Candiez Café and Mad Monkey Hostel Cebu.
For next Instagram sessions, you can follow us @grammersessioncebu for future updates or don’t hesitate to send us an e-mail to grammersessioncebu@gmail.com and somebody from us will get back to you as soon as possible.
