by admin | Mar 5, 2016 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita, Tech Talk
The Philippine Society of Information Technology Educators – Region 7 holds the 8th Bohol IT Student Congress at the Alumni Educational Media Center at the Holy Name University on March 5, 2016.
Ms. Amie Rosarie Cabalo, Dean of Computer Studies of Holy Name University, facilitated the activity which was attended by computer and IT students from the different universities and schools in the province.
Bohol ICT Council Chairperson, Ms. Delilah Biliran, spoke to the students about the status of Bohol’s IT initiatives in order to attract BPO locators in Bohol. She updated the students on the government programs that will help improve IT competitiveness such as Tech4Ed and the scholarships that the students may avail at TESDA which cover certain skills in IT. She also discussed on freelancing as an option for employment. She encouraged the students to participate in the various competitions on technology startups and maker events.
Jerome Auza, Bohol ICT Council Vice Chairperson discussed on the details of Startup Weekend Bohol and encouraged the participants to join and pitch their ideas in the competition. Mr. Charles Barette of FabLab Bohol discussed the FabLab facilities and the various activities held at Fablab. Mr. Jay Paul Aying of Bagol Labs added more details about Ideaspace competition and how to join the TechTalks.PH Tagbilaran community.
Some of the participants of the 8th Bohol IT Student Congress together with the speakers from the Bohol ICT Council and technology startup enthusiasts at the Name University Alumni Educational Media Center (Photo by Ms. Lai Biliran)
by admin | Mar 5, 2016 | Opinion, Tech Talk
By Zion Campo
So, curious about what Startup Weekend is? Want to know what happens during the three days of grueling days and nights. Here’s a little glimpse of what goes down during these three days from a participant himself:
In school, we typically run into situations where we are forced to finish a school project in a short span of time. To beat the deadline, you are thrown into a weekend overnight gathering with your projectmates trying desperately to finish your project before Monday.
There is coffee, there are midnight shenanigans, good memories with friends and a whole lot of stuff that goes down over the weekend.
But Startup Weekend is a lot more than that.
You’re given 54 hours over the weekend to create something. From ideation to creation, Startup Weekend will up the stakes of your typical school weekend project overnight with a taste of startup drama!
You will get to feel how your idea gets turned down because you’re awesome world changing idea wasn’t given any stars at all. You will get to experience being high in Cloud 9 because a lot of people love your idea and has been chosen as one of the ideas that get to pitch at the final pitching showdown!
Then magically, over the weekend, you meet your team, yes, your A TEAM! Finally! You start working on the startup and then you get into problems. Your idea may not be viable after you try to validate the idea.
You have a couple of choices, pivot your idea, overhaul your whole idea, or push it.
After thinking over what is your team’s next move, you and your team reach a consensus. We’ll make a couple of changes to the idea!
Then pitch day comes and you are ball full of nerves, you stand up on stage and you either fail at pitching what your idea is to the judges and audience or you will flawlessly and eloquently present your idea and well, might get a shot at winning the Startup Weekend Bohol 2nd Edition winner!
And after accepting the reality that entrepreneurship is no mean feat – that there is a whole lot to starting a startup than just an idea and technical skills, you understand why a lot of people say that starting a business is risky but a risk worth taking
After all the drama you go through Startup Weekend, you look back and realize how much you have grown over a short span of time and how much you enjoyed getting out there and doing stuff and not just talking over and over and over your idea like a broken record.
by admin | Feb 27, 2016 | Local News / Bohol Balita, Tech Talk
In 2015, the Philippines business process outsourcing (BPO) revenue was nearly US$22 Billion compared to the US$27 Billion of OFW remittances. The BPO industry is forecast to reach US$48 Billion by 2020. Bohol still lags behind many other provinces and cities in this industry with only a handful of homegrown BPO and KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) companies operating as of last year.
Unfortunately for Bohol province, we experienced a setback in our efforts to attract large BPO companies to locate in the province after the 2013 earthquake. The next two years were spent on rehabilitation.
The Bohol ICT Council, led by its Chairperson Ms. Delilah Biliran, is spearheading initiatives of the province in attracting BPO operators from Cebu, Manila and other cities to open up a facility in Bohol. The council had some level of success last year as we got a few seriously interested companies who did feasibility studies and conducted dialogues with the various stakeholders. However, the final decision to locate in Bohol is still elusive.
Bohol must take a slice of the BPO industry if we are to ensure that the Boholanos have more job opportunities without having to migrate to other cities. We are promoting Bohol as an ecotourism destination and BPO jobs are a perfect complement to ecotourism because the BPO industry do not consume raw materials and do not have hazardous waste by products.
For this reason, the council is working on several fronts:
– encourage local real-estate investors to put up facilities that can be leased to BPO companies
– encourage the local tech and maker communities to conduct and participate in tech events like Startup Weekend Bohol, Geeks on a Beach, Ideaspace competition. This will help our manpower pool become confident and gain experience.
– encourage our technology and design graduates to pursue freelance jobs as alternative to finding jobs in other cities.
In the discussions with the prospective locators, we did realize that much has to be done with regards to talent development. For the talent pool, we have to address labor analysis, inclusive of long-term prospects. We know we have some of the best educational institutions right here in our backyard but we will still be tasking the university system to discover the specific workforce needs for academe-industry matching. We’re also asking our TESDA and TVIs to roll out the more or less P10million peso scholarships intended for IT-enabled and BPO businesses’ requirements. Most importantly, we have to put in place relevant programs, supported by allocated government assets, to close any talent devt gaps.
The provincial and city governments must legislate their incentive packages for the potential locators to help attract them to choose Bohol as their next location. We already have success stories from other cities like Dumaguete, Iloilo, Davao and Bacolod so our legislators have a model to follow in crafting our own legislation.
With the new Bohol Airport in Panglao expected to be operational in 2018, it is the best time to institutionalize the idea that the existing airport be converted into an IT park. We will have about two years to come up with a good marketing package and participate in BPO events to help attract locators. Now would be the best time to sort out the details on setting up our own IT park. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel as we have Cebu as the model for such conversion. Cebu’s IT park in Lahug was formerly an airport also.
(with reports from Ms. Lai Biliran and Jerome Auza)
by admin | Feb 27, 2016 | Local News / Bohol Balita, Tech Talk
Why Support Startup Weekend Bohol?
If you’re curious what Startup Weekend Bohol can do for you and your awesome business, well, here’s a list of benefits that you’ll be showered for your kind hearted gesture!
1. Get a Seat in the Spotlight
Startup Weekend Bohol isn’t just an event. It is a BIG event. Last year, we had around (insert number of attendees here) that came all over Bohol and even outside Bohol just to get a taste of entrepreneurship.
Sponsoring Startup Weekend Bohol will give you a chance to expose and market your own startup to early stage companies, entrepreneurs and prospective clients!!!
You don’t only get the word out there about what your company is and who you are but you’ll also have the opportunity to find possible new leads.
2. Find Great Employees
Startup Weekend Bohol attendees are no ordinary people. They’re innovators. They’re hungry. They’re all around awesome. When you put yourself out there, trying to build something, it’s a badge of honor. Not everybody has the guts to start something and that is what separates the average employee and the superstar employee! Startup Weekend attendees are a mixture of developers, designers, sales, admin, content creators and a whole lot more.
Startup Weekend Bohol is a cornucopia of talent just waiting to be tapped!
We don’t know, the employee that will help catapult your business into the clouds might be a Startup Weekend Bohol attendee. You don’t only get brand exposure from sponsoring Startup Weekend Bohol, you’ll also be able to network and connect with a lot of people.
3. Give back, give back and give back!
Sharing is caring.
What better way to give back to your community than supporting local initiatives like Startup Weekend Bohol!
Sponsoring Startup Weekend Bohol will give you great credibility for being awesome and well, just downright awesome.
If you’re still not convinced about the roster of benefits sponsoring Startup Weekend Bohol provides, you can reach out to us at bohol@startupweekend.org or through or rockstart gorgeous Lead Organizer Ashley Uy at 09178080655.
And if you want to participate instead of sponsor, purchase a ticket at www.swb2.eventbrite.com. Early bird rate ends this March 7!!!
by admin | Feb 20, 2016 | Headlines, Tech Talk
By Zion Campo, Startup Weekend Bohol Marketing Lead
Startup Weekend Bohol 2 is Coming!
Have you ever had that itch? That certain craving to just go, do something and hopefully change the world?
Did you ever want to change the world for the better by creating great solutions that makes waves in communities?
Or do you just want to enjoy a weekend with great people?
Turn your ideas into reality at the Startup Weekend Bohol 2 on April 15-17.
Well, Startup Weekend Bohol 2nd Edition might just be your cup of tea!!! And you’re in for a lucky treat! SWB2 will be held on April 15-17!
Startup Weekend is like compressing the first 2 months of developing your business idea in a span of 3 days. It’s a tough pressure-cooker environment where participants learn by doing along with their peers, mentors, and the local startup community. Despite that, it’s a risk-free environment where the logistics are provided (food, venue, internet, mentoring, coffee, the works!) so all you have to do is to focus on building your idea and get a chance to prove the viability of your startup.
Startup Weekend will teach you to be strong smart and a superhero because creating something, building something that might change the world takes courage.
And you’ve got spirit if you join Startup Weekend!
It’s not for everybody, but it’s for everybody who has the guts, the spirit and the balls to take that one step, that one step in starting something.
You won’t turn into a Mark Zuckerberg over the weekend and build something like Facebook. Your team won’t probably last over the weekend. Your idea might not even live to see the light of day even if you win Startup Weekend.
But you’ll learn to finally scratch that itch.
Because if you created something over just 54 hours over the weekend what more could you possibly do over a span of 365 days.
Got an itch to scratch?
Join Startup Weekend. Register at http://bit.ly/1SYfr9s or www.swb2.eventbrite.com.
by admin | Feb 20, 2016 | Local News / Bohol Balita, Tech Talk
Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (CEDF-IT) will conduct its next Phil IT General Certification Examination on February 27 at the Holy Name University on February 27, 2016. The registration is Php250 per examinee. Pre-registration is required at the CEDFIT website at http://cedfit.org/philitgce.php.
The certification is conducted in collaboration with www.itpros.ph, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), and the European IT Service Center Foundation (EITSC).
The examination is open for all graduating Computer Science, Computer Engineering and IT students.
The PHIL-IT GCE is considered as an overall evaluation of the graduate’s level of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning as specified in B.S. Computer Science; B.S. Computer Engineering; B.S. Information Technology; and, B.S. Information Management curricula, as well as the graduate’s knowledge, skills, and attitudes pertinent to advanced or latest trends in IT as required by industry.
The PHIL-IT GCE consists of a cluster of “generic examinations” that likewise assesses the graduate’s overall readiness to become a professional in both IT subjects and non-IT subjects. In a way, the PHIL-IT GCE serves as an interim solution for the need for a board examination, testing the IT skills of Filipino would-be professionals, with IT skills set by Filipino IT professionals, yet addressing international industry benchmarks.
