Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Thursday, November 26, 2015

DLSU-D JFINEX Launches its First Students’ Summit

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As one of DLSU-D’s most active Recognized Student Organizations, Junior Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (JFINEX), together with CFA Society of the Philippines and Bloomberg as content partners, will spearheadanevent entitled the “DLSU-D JFINEX STUDENTS’ SUMMIT: INVESTMENT INSIGHTS AND ASEAN INTEGRATION” to promote financial literacy and responsible investing through the insights imparted by esteemed resource speakers.

The conference will be held on December 9, 2015, Wednesday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Ugnayang La Salle, DLSU-D. In this event, distinguished speakers from finance sectors and Bloomberg Singapore are invited to talk to 2000 business students and professors,as well as young professionals, from different universities and colleges within and around Cavite. This activity aims to enhance the knowledge of the students about smart-investing and its rewards and returns.

This event’sline of top-caliber speakers and guests feature some of the country’s most successful finance and investment professionals, as well as regulatory officials and representatives of leading financial institutions.

The panel of speakers includes:

The Apprentice Asia Winner Publishes Motivational Book for the Gen Y

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Jonathan Yabut, the proud Filipino winner of the hit reality TV show The Apprentice Asia Season 1, will be launching his autobiography and motivational book, “From Grit to Great” on December 3, 2015 at Fully Booked Forum. There will also be book signing, and hopefully our favorite selfie opportunities as well.

The book shares Jonathan's life journey from humble beginnings to winning the “world’s toughest job interview” to finally land him a job in one of the great airline companies in the world, AirAsia.

Jonathan today is Southeast Asia’s leading business icon representing the Gen Y workforce. He is best known today as a motivational speaker and consultant for Fortune 500 Companies focusing on development and management of millennial workers. What started out as a series of posts on his popular Facebook Fan page (Facebook.com/AAJonathanYabut) became a collection of stories on how Jonathan won the show through leadership and grit.

Written by a millennial icon for his fellow millennials, “From Grit To Great” is a delightful treat for aspiring students, rockstar yuppies, and budding entrepreneurs looking for inspiration and motivation on "making it big". The book is a compilation of Jonathan’s personally written articles and blogs during his one-year apprenticeship featuring:

Fuelling success from grit: What is grit? How do you develop grit? Jonathan explains that you don't need to be an Einstein, a Richie Rich, nor a royalty to succeed in life—what you need is grit.

Behind the scenes spilled: From bedroom to boardroom, Jon reveals juicy secrets and life lessons he learned from Mr. Tony Fernandes and fellow candidates.

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Bonifacio Global City (BGC) of Taguig has formally launched the start of their holiday season festivities.

At an event held at the BGC High Street area fronting Italianni's restaurant, a couple of choir groups presented some Christmas songs to the audience. Followed by some introductory statements coming from the host, followed by a BGC management who gave the Welcome Remarks.

The curtains, all red and glorious, were temporarily closed down, and when finally opened, revealed Santa Claus with his elves who went towards the audience to give away Santa Claus hats filled with a colorful Christmas-themed cookie.

Later we learned that the Santa hats were our ticket to the event activities happening soon. The red and white hats have 3 golden stars which indicates the three main attractions, namely Meet and Greet with Santa, Santa's Mail Station, and Christmas Carriage Rides, where we could experience the holiday spirit from the mentioned activities.

For those not at the launch, they can avail of the Santa Claus hats just by presenting purchase receipts from BGC establishments worth Php 2,500, or a donation of Php 500 to the BGC or Fort Bonifacio Development Foundation, or you just need to be a BGCitizen which requires you to submit any proof of BGC residence or employment.

iTrueMart, Thailand's Biggest Online Retailer, Is Now in the Philippines

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Thailand's number one online retailer is now in the Philippines!

iTrueMart Philippines was formally launched to members of the media on November 24, 2015 at Discovery Primea in Makati city.

The world's second biggest online shopping portal has launched before December arrives as we all know that it would definitely be among the busiest months with the coming of the holiday season. Christmas is definitely just around the corner and would entail many people to generously splurge on a shopping spree for gifts and other stuff to pamper themselves and their loved ones.

But with the influx of people all wanting to visit their nearest shopping malls, this would normally result to traffic congestion, long queues in cashier stations, gift-wrapping counters, ATMs, taxi lanes if you commute or parking lots if you bring your own car, etc., This would eventually force you to dine outside because of the hours spent at the mall which further burdens you financially. Most of the time, a day is not enough since most of our time is wasted on these difficult and delaying situations that extremely stresses us out and robs us of our precious time.

We have seen many netizens now resorting to online purchases for some of their needs ranging from gadgets, appliances, clothes, beauty products, and a lot more. The number of online shoppers have tremendously increased as well due to the added security features that are now available online.

Delivery methods are now reliable and faster, plus the products available for online purchases have grown exponentially that soon malls may eventually just evolved into showrooms or places where people can just try out products before they buy. The actual products would just be delivered directly to the buyers after they have picked their choices. But who knows, maybe soon there would be virtual shopping portals where buyers can seemingly experience using the products even through realistic digital technology. With that invention, people can just remain indoors and everything gets delivered to their directly to their homes.

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The largest sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship (ONE) has announced the complete fight card for ONE: SPIRIT OF CHAMPIONS which takes place at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena in the Philippines on 11 December. The card is headlined by a spectacular showdown between Brandon “The Truth” Vera and Chi Lewis “Chopper” Parry for the inaugural ONE Heavyweight World Championship.

In addition to the main event, five exciting new bouts featuring local and international MMA athletes have also been announced. These bouts will include the Lee siblings from Singapore, Angela Lee, with her younger brother, Christian Lee making his professional MMA debut. Angela will face Lena Tkhorevska from Poland while Christian meets Australia's David Meak. Filipino fighters Geje "Gravity" Eustaquio and Eugene Toquero are also on the card and will face Yang Jian Bing and Wu Ze respectively. Bruno Pucci returns to the ONE cage to battle Indonesia-based Dutch fighter, Anthony Engelen.

CEO of ONE Championship, Victor Cui stated, “Manila has always been one of our favourite cities because the support for ONE Championship and MMA is tremendous! We have prepared an amazing lineup of fights for our passionate Filipino fans who are eager to witness our unique brand of world-class MMA. These five additional bouts are guaranteed to satisfy fans hungry for action as we hold nothing back in our spectacular return to the heart of the Philippines.”

Tickets for ONE: SPIRIT OF CHAMPIONS are available now at www.smtickets.com.

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Ericsson Mobility Report provides insight into the future of 5G networks, including a forecast of 150 million 5G mobile subscriptions by 2021.

South Korea, Japan, China and the US are predicted to lead with the first, and fastest, 5G subscription uptake. 5G will connect new types of devices, enabling new use cases related to the Internet of Things (IoT); the transition will open up new industries and verticals to ICT transformation.

The report, a comprehensive update on mobile trends, reveals a significant increase in mobile video consumption, which is driving around six times higher traffic volumes per smartphone in North America and Europe (2015 to 2021). North America data traffic per active smartphone will grow from 3.8 to 22 GB per month by 2021; in Western Europe, the increase is from 2 to 18 GB per month.

With 20 new mobile broadband subscriptions activated every second, global increase in mobile subscriptions is another clear driver for data traffic growth. As of now, there are the same amount of mobile subscriptions as there are people on the planet; in 2016 we will reach the four billion mark for smartphone subscriptions alone.

Rima Qureshi, Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, Ericsson, says: "5G is about more than faster mobile services - it will enable new use cases related to the Internet of Things. For example, Ericsson has built a prototype testbed for applying 5G networking functions and data analytics to public transport, which can save resources, reduce congestion, and lower environmental impact. ICT transformation will become even more common across industries as 5G moves from vision to reality in the coming years."

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In line with the celebration of World AIDS Day on December 1, the advocacy group LoveYourself, Inc. will be holding back-to-back events in a massive awareness campaign to help curb the rising cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the country.

LoveYourself will be conducting a free and confidential HIV screening on November 29 to raise awareness about sexual health, particularly about knowing one’s HIV status. The event, dubbed as “Ito ang Tamang Panahon” in reference to the hugely popular celebrity couple Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, is the group’s second free HIV Screening Day for this year and will be conducted in Victoria Court, North EDSA in Caloocan City.

“There’s no better time to know your HIV status than now,” said Ronivin Pagtakhan, founder and executive director of LoveYourself, adding that regular testing goes a long way in combating the spread of the virus. Pagtakhan also invited everyone to sign-up and register at go.loveyourself.ph/TamangPanahon.

Aside from free HIV testing, LoveYourself will also be holding the first Mr. and Ms. Fratpad, a pageant for “ambassadors of self-worth” aimed at spreading HIV/AIDS awareness in the country through clans and groups of young Ms. Winners of Mr. and Ms. Fratpad will be crowned in a culmination night on November 28 at the Kaban ng Hiyas Hall, 3/F Mandaluyong City Hall, which will include performances from renowned acts, such as, the Philippine All-Stars and Leah Patricio, among others.

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the most anticipated shopping sales in the United States, are made more accessible and affordable to digital-savvy GCash customers through the international shipping provided by GCash American Express Virtual Pay in partnership with My Shopping Box.

“This is the fourth year for GCash American Express Virtual Pay to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale and once again we’re giving our customers a better way to enjoy the biggest discounts and most amazing shopping deals from their favorite international online retail stores,” said Xavier Marzan, President and CEO of G-Xchange Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, operator of GCash.

With a waived annual fee of USD 25 from My Shopping Box, GCash American Express® Virtual Pay customers will also be able to enjoy an additional 3% rebate in their international shipments. GCash American Express Virtual Pay’s subscription fee for this year was also waived.

To be celebrated on November 27 this year, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving which marks the unofficial start of the U.S. Christmas season and is often associated with huge shopping discounts. Cyber Monday, on the other hand, happens on the Monday after Thanksgiving which falls on November 30. It also involves large price cuts from smaller online retailers.

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Aiming to cultivate technological entrepreneurship in Dumaguete, the first ever Startup Weekend Dumaguete 2015 will be held on November 27-29.

“We want to introduce the local community to the idea that it is possible to locally grow alternative businesses that use non-traditional business models,” said Danah V. Fortunato, Executive Director of ICT Association of Dumaguete and Negros Oriental (ICT DGTE).

The inaugural SW Dumaguete is a 54-hour event that begins with participants pitching startup ideas, developing such concepts into feasible businesses, and presenting them to judges on the final day. Winners will have their business ideas undergo development for possible launching to the market.

SW Dumaguete will be at Audio-Visual Theater 1, Multimedia Center, Silliman University, Dumaguete City.

The event was pushed for by Fortunato, Randolf Bandiola, along with members of the local tech community and the support of ICT DGTE and Department of Science and Technology Information and Communications Technology Office’s (DOST-ICTO) Mon Ibrahim and Emmy Delfin.

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Men traditionally rule the startup world, particularly when it comes to technology startups. However, an increasing number of women entrepreneurs are driving business innovation in the Philippines and across the Asia-Pacific region.

While there are still gender challenges, women in the emerging markets are overcoming obstacles to break through the glass ceiling. As these developing countries advance technologically, and become increasingly startup-savvy, women are helping to revolutionize the business landscapes in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

And it’s not only individual businesses that are affected by the presence of women at C-level. According to a recent report from EY, tapping into women’s economic potential could have the equivalent effect of an additional one billion people in business and in the workforce.

From managing directors, to frontend developers, co-founders to product managers, global real estate portal, Lamudi, employs women from all over the world to lead its international teams. Lamudi Philippines was founded by young female entrepreneur Jacqueline van den Ende, who was invited to speak at the Asia CEO Young Leaders’ Summit earlier this year.