April 26, 2025
April is the month when hospitals all over the world celebrate World Voice Day (WVD), specifically on April 16. On this day in 1999, a group of voice care specialists chose to highlight the value and care of the human voice in Brazil. Since then, the practice of World Voice Day spread to other countries, serving as an education campaign to inform the public of the importance of the human voice and the need for preventive care.
April 16 is an important day in the calendar of Philippine Academy of Laryngobroncho-esophagology and Phoniatrics (or PALP), a sub-organization of board-certified otolaryngologists (or ENT-HNS specialists) with special interest and additional training in the care and management of diseases that affect the patient's voice, airway and swallowing. Care of the professional voice is one of the main advocacies of PALP.
Therefore, it was such a stroke of providence that for WVD this year, PALP had the opportunity to collaborate with Voice Con PH, a premier voice mastery event especially curated to benefit content creators, entrepreneurs, and professionals who rely on their voices to earn their daily bread. It is a joint brainchild conceptualized and executed by Ron and Joyce Titular of BrightSpeak, Peter Veriña of Finest Media and Brien Ordiales of Cloud Studio.
Only on its maiden outing this year, VoiceConPH promised an immersive learning experience which will impart science-backed, real-world strategies that can transform how one speaks and his confidence in delivering his message. Enrolling in VoiceConPH carried a premium price tag, either in-person or online, but it did gather top voice experts as faculty to teach attendees how to use their voices "for influence, impact, and income."
After getting confirming my attendance as a guest at the registration desk and having my wrist stamped, I was admitted into the convention venue located on the second floor of the SMX Convention Center Manila beside the SM Mall of Asia. Paying VIP (P24K) and Regular (P8K) delegates had a colorful lanyard and ID, as well as a pen and notebook in their kits. There was an exhibition area with booths of the various industry partners and sponsors of the event.
PALP had been given its own booth, giving out brochures about voice hygiene and the directory of PALP members, supported by PALP's generous partner Ms. Auldrey Silpedes and S.V. More. PALP has done this activity to fulfill our commitment to the advocacy of our umbrella organization, the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (PSO-HNS) for additional public awareness of the various subspecialties of our specialty.
At 9 am, all the seats in the meeting area proper was already almost completely full, the place abuzz with excitement. After the National Anthem, the emcees were introduced, namely award-winning radio host Jordan Escusa and popular motivational podcaster Myrza Sison, who wasted no time getting the program started with infectious energy, setting the positive and fun mood which was going to inhabit that room for the rest of the day.
The first speakers were the real-life husband and wife team of Ron and Joyce Titular, both DJs of NU 107 in the past, and passionate voice coaches and voice talents currently. Their morning session was entitled "Making the Voice Connection." They posited a metaphor of public speaking anxiety as the fear of seeing a T-Rex. We need to overcome this panic in order to reach a safe calm state, for which they taught a number of vocal yoga exercises.
Ms. Joyce started with the vagal massage, starting from the back of the ears going down the side of the neck. This was done for vagus nerve activation needed in order to keep our calm. She proceeded to teach about the foundational breath, essential for achieving relaxation. She then taught about humming, which was essentially massaging the vocal folds. There were also various relaxing stretching exercises while making animal sounds, like the Cat-Cow.
Up next was the keynote speech by the inspirational Mr. Francis Kong. I've only heard his talks via online videos before and already knew he was good. However, hearing him speak live in person exceeded all my expectations. As he discussed about investing in your voice, his talk was full of quotable lines and funny jokes. He emphasized that delivery is an important as the content, and he was truly an impressive embodiment of that tenet.
The first session after lunch featured another very popular content creator, Real Time Darbs. His hard-hitting talk was about creating Viral Content that Converts into Sales, about becoming an effective influencer. In order to create content that people will watch, one should follow his tried-and-true formula of Hook, Value and Pay-off, the proven secret path to success for a number of unlikely multi-millionaire TikTok businessmen.
The next lecture was Audio Technicalities, a title that seemed to suggest a formidable sound engineering tech-heavy talk. However, when Ron, Joyce and emcee Jordan all acknowledged the next speaker Mike Pedero as their mentor in their careers as radio DJs, you too will sit up and listen to him. His easy-going fatherly speaking style made his subject matter about how to choose and use a microphone very engaging and easy to understand.
Ron and Joyce returned with their second lecture-workshop session of the day, this time entitled "Setting Up Your Voice for Success." They talked about the shape, color, and range of the voice we produce, citing experts like Don LaFontaine and Dr. Albert Tomatis. They taught straw phonation and other vocal warm-ups before speaking in public. They talked about varying our intonation, volume, pace and phrasing to give further character to our voices.
First at bat for PALP was current PALP chair Dr. Shamylle Quinto who talked about the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the vocal folds. She shared videos of her patients whose problematic voices were helped by available therapeutic options. Former PALP chair Dr. Mary Arlene Bongosia then took the stage to share about her tips for Vocal Hygiene to prevent serious vocal disorders. The whole delegation of PALP was called onstage for a photo op.
For her third session, Ron and Joyce talked about how to develop a boss voice with correct Bruegger's posture, mirroring voice idols, saying it like you mean it and telling stories (and how these made you more memorable to your audience). Joyce shared a traumatic speaking mishap she experienced on a TV variety show and related how she built up her confidence in public speaking back up to become a respected voice talent and coach now.
The name and face of financial adviser and influencer Chinkee Tan was prominently featured in the posters of VoiceConPH as a speaker. Unfortunately, he was not there in person. Instead he endorsed a video lecture about his TAPE Framework in monetizing communication to advise prospective influencers on how to start their online brand. However, he did oblige to have a live Q&A session via Zoom call so the audience was still able to interact with him.
The final part of the program was a casual discussion of Ron and Joyce, Jordan and Myrza with special guest Ms. Inka Magnaye. Everyone was just seated comfortably on a sofa and their conversation about their careers focused on their voices was free-flowing and unscripted, making their sharing feel very genuine and sincere. Magnaye was a big hit with the crowd, as she gamely and skillfully fielded a number of questions from the audience. After some closing messages, this full-packed whole-day event finally concluded at around 7pm.
I have to say, the multi-generational audience (more than 1,000 pax strong) of this first VoiceConPH was very impressive. When Ron went into the crowd for them to return-demo the various vocal exercises being taught onstage, those chosen were very game with the activities. When some delegates asked questions during Q&A sessions with speakers, their voice sound so good, it was obvious that they were formidable voice talents themselves who expressed themselves very well.
Kudos to the organizers of VoiceCon PH who envisioned this to be THE premier voice development event in the Philippines, and succeeded with flying colors. The theme “Bringing Confidence to Your Voice" was achieved by teaching all aspects of the human voice -- from its basic anatomy and physiology, all the way to the maximizing the potentials of social media to expand the reach of that voice to spread one's message to the whole world. PALP will be willing to partner with you in this advocacy for future VoiceConPH's to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment