Prominent event organizer from Australia, Marco Selorio, organized the first-ever Basketball Convention (BasketballCon) in the Philippines featuring Los Angeles Lakers Assistant Coach Phil Handy. Event organizer Marco Selorio is the main man behind this exciting event showcasing basketball, street dance, and the Web3 community.
The basketball convention, or basketballcon, will be held this coming Sunday, June 25, 2023, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Paco Arena in the City of Manila. It is not only a convention for basketball lovers, enthusiasts, and thought-leaders, but it will also feature the street dance community, the sneakers community, and the Web3 community in the Philippines.
Short Story About Basketball Conference (BCON):
According to Marco Selorio in an interview with one of the country’s leading news outlets, PhilStar, he remembered when he used to live in the Philippines back in 1985 when his parents took him to a Shakey’s restaurant, watching an NBA Game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Washington Bullets.
Those memories about basketball keep on reminding him even when he migrated to the Land Down Under or in Australia, but his passion for basketball had been lit then.
Marco also noted that in Australia, he was the first to produce PBA Legends Tours in 2005; since then, he dreamt about creating an expo or conference event to bring fans and players together, like a fan fest.
Since 2022, the event organizer from Australia has already been heavily involved in the street dance community, so it was just a matter of curating cross-cultural events that could bring hip-hop and basketball under one roof.
This is why the Coinchella founder, Marco Selorio, brings us to BasketballCon, or BCon for short, here in the Philippines, a lifetime event that brings together everyone who loves the game of basketball, Filipinos’ favorite pastime.
Basketball Conference 2023 Venue:
The basketball conference is scheduled this coming Sunday, June 25, at the air-conditioned Paco Arena at Leroy Street, Corner San Gregorio Street, Paco, Manila, Philippines.
The Paco Arena in Metro Manila is a popular destination for various social gatherings and activities. It also hosted tournaments like the UNTV Cup, a men’s charity league featuring the best basketball teams organized by government agencies and guested by celebrities and ex-pro and amateur players.
The arena was also used by popular celebrity and content creator Donnalyn Bartolome for her recent music video titled “Shawty,” which generated more than 6.7 million views and is still counting on YouTube.
Guests & Prominent Personalities for BasketballCon:
The Basketball Convention Lifestyle Event in Paco Manila will showcase PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo and Jared Dillinger, avid Web3 enthusiasts and Key Opinion Leaders. He was also featured in the recently concluded Bull or Bear Online Debate.
The highlights and centerpiece of the event is the opportunity to meet and listen to three-time NBA champion coach Phil Handy of the Los Angeles Lakers, a personal friend of Marco Selorio.
Coach Phil Handy made a name for himself in the United States for training the greatest players in the history of basketball, from Kobe Bryant to LeBron James, Pau Gasol, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, and many other popular NBA stars and world-renowned basketball superstars.
The organizer also announced on his social media account that legendary PBA coach Joe Lipa will grace the event in Manila on June 25 as he will discuss his new book, BASKETBALL101, plus an autograph signing after his talks.
Aside from the above-mentioned well-known personalities, BCON will also add excitement with the presence of streetball exhibitions and World Supremacy Battleground (WSB) dance battles. Celebrities like Eric “Eruption” Tai and DJ Loonyo will be gracing the event also.
Web3 Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) and speakers Martin David from SoleMovement, former Australian pro ballers Bruce Bolden and Andre Williams, founders of LobX, and representatives from House of Crypto and BreederDaO will share their experience with cryptocurrency and Web3.
More About BasketballCon:
BCon will have basketball industry thought leaders and Web3 founders, an Anta Shock The Game 4×4 full-court tournament, a brand-new BCON 7-To-Smoke one-on-one showdown, Battlegrounds Manila street dance battles and PBA stars, as well as exhibitors who will showcase basketball products and technology.
In a news report posted by Manila Bulletin last June 8, 2023, BasketballCon is a fusion of basketball, Web3 technology, and culture. They invite enthusiasts to a first-of-its-kind basketball festival celebrating Filipino passion for the sport, Web3 innovations, and vibrant local talents.
BasketballCon will feature a unique mix of activities, including panel talks featuring NBA legendary coach Phil Handy and PBA Coach Joe Lipa, Web3 technology key opinion leaders, streetball exhibitions, competitive dance battles, and live hip-hop music performances.
The conference will also host a unique speaker line-up that includes former professional players, coaches, sports analysts, blockchain experts, and entrepreneurs from renowned platforms like SoleMovement and LobX.
Partners and Supporters of the Basketball Conference:
Marco Selorio’s Coinchella also confirmed on social media that their first basketball uniform collab with Supreme Basketball Company and CHLOMARS will be launched at BCON on June 25, 2023.
The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Asia’s oldest play-for-pay professional basketball league, also partnered with Coinchella as an official marketing firm.
Supporters of the BasketballCon include Ehtereum Philippines Community, Hanes, XO Guild, Anta, WSB Street, 94 Feet of Game App, Secret Fresh, SMMPh, Bitskwela, MDC Sports, DvCode, and DBuzz built on Hive blockchain, to name a few.
The DBuzz logo is prominently displayed on the banner of the first-ever Basketball Conference in the Philippines through the efforts made by Chris Rice, DBuzz founder and long-time Hive user.
Having the DBuzz logo in the poster distributed online through social media channels and the event being reported by prominent news outlets here in the country, like the Philippine Star and the Manila Bulletin, will surely add value to the Hive community.
Who is Marco Selorio:
Marco Selorio is a Filipino community builder based in Australia and known for his involvement in the World Supremacy Battlegrounds (WSB), a hip-hop and street-dance competition popular in Australia and around the globe.
Marco Selorio is also the Filipino behind the MAS Music Group, the first Australian-Filipino independent record label in Australia that released the Blue Label Show during the year 2019.
MAS Music Group has built a stable list of producers, beatmakers, songwriters, artists, and influencers under its management. The company is behind the success of Australia’s Got Talent grand finalist Geneses Cerezo and dance champion Kookies N Kream, R&B Singer Alysha Erhan, BBOY star Michael Flores, and Wollongong acoustic singer Blessie Pica.
Marco Selorio has worked with Grammy Award-winning stars all 4 One, Backstreet, Chris Brown, and Rihanna before launching his music platform for aspiring music artists and content creators in the Filipino community.
He previously organized basketball events through a company, Hoop Dreams, that used to collect a lot of 3×3 competitions, PBA Legends Tour in Australia. He is one of the pioneer promoters of the popular PBA Legends Tours, working with PBA superstars like Alvin Patrimonio, Allan Caidic, Gerry Codiñera, Chito Loyzaga, Samboy Lim, and Jojo Lastimosa, to name a few.
Selorio used to work as a marketing manager with the Sydney Kings, a champion team of the National Basketball League (NBL) in Australia.
The PBA Legends Tour in Australia caught the attention of the Filipino-Australian Basketball Community, and that was the beginning of Marco Selorio’s journey as an event organizer.
Marco Selorio said he was involved with the Web3 community during the pandemic, hoping to merge technology with one of his passions, basketball.
When he realized that Web3 and blockchain could create more opportunities for basketball clubs and fans, he came up with an idea to connect basketball enthusiasts to Web3.
