Our Awesome Planet in 2010 and Beyond

An Awesome 2010 to OAP Friends! 🙂

We had a great Holiday Season, especially since my brother and his family from the US were on vacation, so we went on back-to-back trips.

OAP is now 5 years strong. 🙂 Thank you for the continued support and for joining us in our food and travel adventures.

My first official post was entitled Life and Death in 2005 on January 1, 2005. I was already starting to blog before that (when I opened my Typepad account in November). For some reason, I found my blog posts corny so I decided to delete them. But ever since January 1, 2005, I decided to keep the blog posts — you’ll see the evolution of OAP in terms of writing, photography and blogging since that time.

My driving force was to be able to document the adventures of our family with our kids. After 5 years, we are now blessed with three boys and we are expecting the bunso to debut in OAP in early February. I just realized that our brood is growing so fast and it is already becoming a riot when we go out as a family.

Now, I would like to share with you my plans for OAP for 2010 and beyond (let me know if you have some builds):

1. Foodie and Travel Adventures. We will continue to share our journeys with OAP friends so that you too can have an awesome adventure with your loved ones. I don’t really like being referred to as a “Critic” because I actually see myself more as a “Discoverer” who shares awesome finds with the community.

I don’t cook and I just love to eat (like a lot of people). We eat out for more than just good food; we’re after a memorable experience with friends and family — experiences that, years from now, would be fun to remember and retell time and again. This is the spirit behind OAP. 🙂

2. Our Awesome Planet : Philippines Book. When I resigned from P&G, I told management that I’m resigning because I wanted to write the OAP Book. This year, I’ve decided to write and share it with you here in the blog. I want to write it with you and get your inputs. I’m writing it for the foodie community as a “Thank you!” for all the support throughout these years.

3. Living an Awesome Life until 100. Ever since my Capiz visit for the 100th birthday celebration of my lola, I’ve been obsessed with how to live a healthy and strong life (to reach at least 100 years old!) I’m still struggling because I love to eat. I’ll focus more on healthy, organic and natural living in OAP. I also feel that I have a moral responsibility for the health of the community and for being a role model to my kids.

4. Awesome Pilipinas Tours. I’ll be launching my own brand of tours in collaboration with Ultimate Philippines tours and the awesome guides in different regions. These tours will be for the international market to really showcase the beauty of the Philippines. I’m not contented with just talking about it through the blog; I want to present it myself to every tourist who will visit our country.

I believe we will see breakthroughs in tourism in 2011 after the Puerto Princesa Underground River is announced as one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It also helps that the international travel community is beginning to notice the country and travel magazines are starting to feature the various destinations in the Philippines.

5. OAP goes Mobile! Yes, I’ve finally found the right technology partners to make OAP available to any phone. Blog posts will be automatically pushed to you in your mobile phone once you are subscribed. Also, OAP will be available in iPhone — watch out for that! 🙂

6. On Parenting. This is one of the toughest topics that I want to tackle in OAP. It is hard to become a parent in 2010. For parents out there, it is a struggle to keep up because the environment of our kids is so different already, from the types of schools/ education choices available, to the gadgets and Internet, and to different security and sexual concerns out there.

7. On Lifestyle Design. In Living an Awesome Life, there are different mindset shifts that one needs to have, and it begins with aligning oneself with what one truly wants. A bold decision then has to be made to pursue that passion. In that respect, I’ve failed a number of times and succeeded too in the past few years. Now, I want to share these learnings with OAP friends and those who would like to follow the same path.

8. Ultimate Taste Test Events. We already have a lot of success stories on how we’re able to help out Foodie Suppliers who want to introduce awesome stuff to the foodie community. We would like to continue these events and share our discoveries based on foodie ratings of the community. We plan to hold them at least every quarter, with a big final event in November, showcasing all the best discoveries throughout the year.

9. Contests and Promotions. We will continue to have regular contests and promotions in OAP. I’m open to sponsors who would like to offer awesome prizes. I prefer having easy competitions like photo contests and contests where you only have to comment. I don’t like “chance” contests where you win through raffles or by luck. Let me know if you have inputs on this on how we can make OAP contests more fun and exciting.

10. Our Awesome Weddings. Finally, I plan to launch a Destination Wedding Planner / Event Management service for OAP friends. We will help in planning the destination wedding, provide consultation on the food and travel places, and cover the entire event through photos, videos and blogs. 🙂 I’m just looking at one client per month. We are currently finalizing the details. This is in collaboration with my brother’s venture, Cinematic Concepts.

That’s it for now. 🙂

May you truly Live an Awesome Life this 2010 and beyond!

 

Anton Diaz
Founder, OurAwesomePlanet.com
Mobile: +63917-LOVEOAP (5683627) 
Email: anton@diaz.ph
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