The Micro, Small and Medium Size Enterprises (MSMEs), here in Bohol, had a chance to present their products and services to the Boholano people . The event was held at the ICM Activity Center on November 27, 2008. The theme for the event is “MSME Xperience: Unleashing the Boholano Entrepreneurial Spirit”. Just like the theme says, it allows MSMEs to show their entrepreneurial skills to possible customers. The event was sponsored by the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) – Bohol.
The event was jump-started by an Opening Program in the morning, which was graced by Regional Director Asteria C. Caberte (DTI – Region VII), Mr. Argeo Melisimo (BCCI – Vice-President), Hon. Dan Neri Lim (City Mayor), Hon. Erico B. Aumentado (Governor), Ms. Joyce Natalie Yang (National SMED Council – Visayas Representative), and Ms. Nanette Arbon (DTI – Bohol Provincial Director) who in turn gave messages for the participating MSMEs.
There was also a program launched by the DTI of the RM Catalogue, Product Catalogue, Product Dev Program SPIN, and the BPLS MOA Signing. Updates of the SMEDSEP Report and SPIN program were also presented, as well as a Creative Presentation of Punta Cruz : A Lesson for Surviving Today’s Business Environment by the Maribojoc Collective.
In the afternoon, a press conference took place at the Prawn Farm Conference Room. Afterwards, a talk show centering on the Tourism , Food, Crafts products & services was held at the Activity Center followed by a Speed Networking Session; while a Financing Forum also took place at the Upper Ground Floor participated by DBP OTOP Facility, FCB Microfinancing, LBP Lending Programs, and the BPI-Ayala-Globe Microfinancing Program.
And lastly but not the least, a presentation on Technopreneurship: Taking Advantage of Networking Technologies followed suit. The first speaker was Mr. Sonny Paredes of ETC Solutions talked about his company’s ICT Success Story on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). He was then followed by Mr. Jerome Auza of Auza.Net who tackled on “Using the Internet for Marketing & Communications”. Mr. Auza presented their company’s online marketing & communication services such as the BoholClassifiedAds.com, BoholBiz.com (an online business directory), BoholNewsDaily.com, Bohol.info (a search engine just for Bohol), dyrdam.com and Bohol.Asia (an online portal only for Boholanos). Afterwards, a demo was done on Bohol.Asia where interested clients were shown how it works.
Bohol.Asia is unique because the accounts which includes an email address are given only to real Boholanos who sign up at Auza.Net Internet Media Center. It also uses Google Apps which enables several collaboration features like chat, shared documents and email with at least 7GB of space. The accounts are given for free and will follow this format: firstname.lastname@bohol.asia.
The entire event used one of Auza.Net’s services, the Internet for Rent where the participants accessed the Internet on location via WiFi. This service is useful when Internet connection is required by the event. It is a turn-key solution where the event organizer doesn’t have to worry about the technical details required. This is available in areas where Auza.net have wireless network coverage, such as Tagbilaran, Dauis, Panglao and Baclayon.