AIESEC convenes 2nd Philippines Youth to Business Forum (November 2013)

    AIMED at establishing the significant role of the youth in forming a globally competitive economy for the country, AIESEC Philippines held its second Philippines Youth to Business (Y2B) Forum last October 23 at the Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU).

     Hosted by Daniela Louisa Tan, Conference Committee President of the Asia Pacific Congress, Y2B included talks and workshops that promoted interaction between young leaders and business industry giants.

     “Skills are most valued in today’s competitive world,” said Member Committee President Audrey Elumba of AIESEC Philippines in her keynote address.

     Speakers Miriam Quevenco, International Student Identification Card Project director, Eugene Teves, Hewlett Packard APJ Service Management manager, and Mark Bantigue, marketing manager of Groupon Philippines stressed out during the opening forum the competitive advantages of the Philippines, the youth’s responsibility in shaping a globally competitive country, and the image of the nation in the forthcoming years.

     Topic Spaces, as dubbed on the event, included series of talks emphasizing education, technology, and global experience that may prepare the delegates for the future.

     “To be globally competitive, we must be globally competent.” said Quevenco in her speech on education, adding to the discussion the purpose of learning, the duty of global citizens, and accountability as the role of the youth.

     Association of Southeast Asian Nation countries’ resiliency to global economic slowdown, attraction of investors through good economy and governance, and the growth of information technology by transforming it to utility were few of Teves’ core agenda in his speech on technology.

     Meanwhile, Pakistani Project of PH Realty Syed Raza discussed the perks of travelling abroad, self-realization on learning, and his belief on failure as a kind of success.

     For the holistic personal development of the delegates, workshops on personal branding, online marketing, social business, and value-based leadership were conducted.

     “The greatest ability in this world is availability,” said Pocholo de Leon Gonzales about personal branding. De Leon is the voice master who established Creativoices Production, and founder and main anchor of Radio Inquirer’s show “Voice of the Youth Radio.”

     According to Bantigue, speaker on the subject of marketing, there is better business through online platforms. He then added that the sources of innovation today are porn industry, gaming industry, hackers, and the street.

     Associate Editor of Yourstory Media Alessio Pieroni shared his beliefs and tips regarding social business. Leadership styles and needs of leaders were conferred by international economist Rahul Maira, AIESEC Asia Pacific Coordinator, in his talk on value-based leadership.

     “Open Spaces,” where the youth delegates were given time to answer 12 questions noted to test their absorbed knowledge on being sustainable in the economy, was carried out after the workshops. The delegates wrapped up the event with thoughts on promotion of technical literacy, advanced learning environment, proposed partnerships and investments, and upholding local product industry.

     The host concluded the event with a closing forum, giving the delegates ideas to ponder on with regards to the vision of other countries towards the Philippines, and the targeted future of the country which is parallel to the duty of the youth today.

     The forum was attended by 415 delegates from different universities, including University of Santo Tomas (UST), ADMU, De La Salle University, University of the Philippines-Diliman, University of the Philippines-Los Baños, University of Asia and the Pacific, Miriam College, and Assumption College, who were screened through online registration.

     The Philippines Youth to Business Forum was in partnership with Hewlett Packard, in cooperation with Manila Bulletin, Nuffnang Philippines, WhenInManila.com, BusinessWorld, Chalk Magazine, 99.5 Play FM, Monster Radio RX 93.1, and Radio Inquirer’s Voice of the Youth Radio. The event was covered by local campus media including UST’s TomasinoWeb and Thomasian Cable Television.

Courtesy of TomasinoWeb

Pocholo "The VoiceMaster" Gonzales on MMDA On the Road (June 2014)

Pocholo Gonzales 'The VoiceMaster' featured on AHA GMA 7 (September 2013)

Pocholo 'The VoiceMaster' showed his talent in Sweet Life QTV (November 2013)

CHInoy TV Hosting and Personality Workshop: On Standing Out, Learning Chinese and Living Life (May 2012)

     Last May 5, 2012, my friends at CHInoy TV together with John Robert Powers held the TV and Personality Development Workshop at Ramada Central Manila.

     Chinoy TV Personality Development and TV Hosting Workshop
It was a packed whole-day event for CHInoy TV host hopefuls to learn valuable insights from the media world’s insiders on what it takes to succeed in the industry.
It was a healthy mix of:

Amazement          Pocholo Gonzales (CreatiVoices)
Wit                         Vince Golangco (Mellow 94.7/When in Manila) and Valerie Tan (GMA 7)
Engagement         John Robert Powers
Realization           Cris Garcia (Confucius Institute)
Inspiration           Chinkee Tan (Motivational Speaker)

     I didn’t realize how much one could learn from a compilation of speakers. I was under the impression that you’ll just get really tiny bits and pieces of advice from a cast like this, but I was dead wrong.

     It was a meaty day of event from start to finish. Just read along if you want to have a piece of the action and learn what made me turn to Alvin Tan, CHInoy TV head, and say…
“These guys got in here for a bargain”



On Standing Out

     There is a massive amount of people who wants to be on T.V. With so much competition, you can’t simply just blend in with the crowd. You should definitely stand out!

CHInoy TV Workshop was packed!

Here are the tips and tricks of the trade from the industry insiders!
Pocholo Gonzales (CreatiVoices) : Personal Branding

Pocholo Gonzales on Personal Branding

     Heard of Coke? Colgate? Apple? Of course you have. These are the top brands in their respective industries. People associate certain qualities for each one and have specific expectations on what they can deliver.

     This is how you should see yourself. You must create a personal brand for yourself in order for people to quickly recognize you and pick you out from a crowd.
Pocholo, for example, branded himself as the Voicemaster. This was eventually picked-up by different media outlets who then perpetuated this image through various features and interviews.
    
 Think Bruce Willis (Action), Megan Fox (Sexy Bombshell) and Adam Sandler (Comedy). Personal branding gives the people a clear idea of your identity and what your skills are, thus carving out that specific niche in their mind that belongs only to you.
Vince Golongco (Mellow 94.7 / When in Manila) – Fake it ‘til You make it

Vince Golangco and Valerie Tan sharing their industry experience

Question: Do you still get nervous when you’re on air?

Vince: I do, but I just fake it ‘til I make it (paraphrased :) )
I found this answer to be funny and insightful at the same time.
Vince shared that when he gets asked if he was nervous or not, he’d just brush it off and say he’s fine (despite being a nervous wreck). He just kept pretending to be confident and cool until little by little he actually is.

This is a testament to the power of mental fortitude and how our actions externally could actually affect us internally. He kept positive reinforcements close by through saying “I’m fine” that it eventually led him to actually believe it.
Of course pretending could only get you so far, would you go on an exam pretending you know the answer? Of course not.

What is important here is the mental game. You need to believe that you can go through any obstacle you may face. Granted, you can still be defeated regardless of your mental preparation, but without it you are certainly doomed for failure.

Valerie Tan (GMA 7) – Success is when preparation meets opportunity

Valerie shared the famous quote above during her talk, which the participants readily ate up.
They learned that opportunity is objective. It comes and goes as it pleases regardless whether you are ready for it or not. In short, you don’t have any control over it.
What you can control though, is your preparation. Constantly improve and develop your skills, talents and packaging. And don’t wait for the opportunities to just come. Seek it out.
When that time comes, you’ll be more than ready to take advantage of it.
Having said that, I personally think that it is important to point out that you will never be 100% prepared for anything.

Showing up is half the Battle

Take the participants of this CHInoy TV workshop for example, not all of them have been preparing to audition. Some even just joined at the last minute. But by attending and participating, they placed themselves in the best position to succeed.
Oftentimes, half the battle is won just by simply… showing up.
John Robert Powers – Putting your Best Foot Forward
We learn best by doing. And John Robert Powers sure delivered.
The participants learned about:
on-camera appearance,
calming relaxation techniques and
tons of acting exercises (with critiques) to help them in their audition later in the day.
It was the most engaging part of the workshop where the talents were given on-camera exercises to show what they got and receive constructive critiques in return.

Relaxation exercises c/o John Robert Powers

Talents were taught the basics of on-camera appearance

On-camera exercises and critique

Talents actively engaging in the Q&A
The highlight definitely was the “Tiger Balm” exercise where each talent was given a limited time to create a commercial to sell this medical ointment. Doesn’t sound like the sexiest of products, right? Think again.

You’ll be surprised what a few minutes of preparation and a deep desire to be on TV could do.

I was blown away by their creativity, the number of “RARR” reference (complete with the scratching motion) and instant transformation from quietly sitting in a chair into a whole new person in front of a camera.
It was a blast!

Ivica Say, Cheryl and Vince Golangco of When in Manila share a light moment :)
Of course, CHInoy TV hosts Jayson Kiong, Stephanie Obiles, Lesley Tomas, Alice Lee, Jason Tomas, Benedict Yujeco, Kendrick Chua and (workshop host) Norman Ong didn’t back down and gamely joined the exercises and put on funny and witty displays for all the participants to enjoy and learn from.

CHInoy TV Hosts

They are pretty much ready for the audition.
Just one more thing…
Learning Chinese

After the whole day workshop, everyone was revved up and ready to go.
The director then gave them the lines they will use for the VTR and as an aside they will be in both English and Chinese!
Nothing to be surprised about, this IS CHInoy TV right? But I noticed a collection of nervous laughter and cold sweat all-around.
The Mandarin Chinese part was absolutely dreaded.
But it shouldn’t be that way.
Cris Garcia (Confucius Institute): Opportunities and Second Chances

Cris Garcia on opportunities and 2nd chances with Mandarin Chinese
Cris Garcia could attest to that. Amazingly enough, Cris, who himself is without any Chinese ancestry, is a Mandarin Chinese teacher at the Confucius Institute at Ateneo de Manila University.
He shared the strength of China’s economy and the sheer number of people speaking Mandarin Chinese. Being a fluent Mandarin speaker opens a lot of doors to you in terms of employment and business. Including being a host at CHInoy TV ;)
He shared that a lot of his students are Filipino-Chinese who just memorized their way through out their formal Chinese schooling. And are now studying Mandarin Chinese once again to make up for the lost time.
Taking language classes at language institutions such as the Confucius Institute is a great way to (re) learn the language and take advantage of the worldwide trend towards Mandarin Chinese.

It is a dynamic language that could be learned by ANYONE regardless of age or background.

There is a catch…

Learning from school could only take you so far. If you never use it outside of the classroom, it will gradually disappear.

Use it or lose it.

You must actually find time in your day to actually use or be exposed to the language. It shouldn’t be something you HAVE to do but something you actually WANT to do.
This is where Money in Mandarin can help. I know you all are busy and simply don’t have a lot of time to dedicate solely to learning a language. I hear you, because so do I. Just make it as part of your life.



Courtesy of Money in Mandarin

Record breaking crowd attends TechTutor5

Manila, Philippines – If attendance is any measure of interest, the fifth annual TechTutor seminar clearly shows how technology has created an impact in the way people do things – in work, in play and in education.

The one-day seminar held on September 24, 2013, at the Mall of Asia ARENA, drew a record-breaking crowd from nearly sixty (60) universities consisting of educators, learners, administrators, and parents. The theme of this year’s Techtutor seminar is all about “Gamification of Education”.

“In its five years of existence, Techtutor5 is the biggest ever and we only have the Lord to thank. He provided us with a beautiful weather that enabled our attendees to come to the venue safely. Of course, we would like to thank all our attendees as well for making Techtutor5 a huge success,” said Jerry Liao, Chief Operations Officer of Infochat. “Our crowd was treated to an afternoon full of fun and with a new found knowledge that gamifying education can be more effective and be more efficient.”

Experts from various fields like Johanson Tiu (Science), Noel L. Flores (Art), Archie Lawrence P. Geneta (Communication), Pocholo Gonzales (Voice Acting) and Ms. Olen Juarez-Lim (Image development) were at hand to share their expertise and to demonstrate how gamification can be applied to their respective subjects.

Techtutor5 is supported by Acer, AMA University, Brother, Canon, Dell, Engenius, Fujifilm, Globe Telecom, HP, iSecure, Kaspersky, Lenovo, Microsoft, MMD, Samsung, Smart Communications, Sony, and WSI.

Gamification of Learning typically involves applying game design thinking to non-game applications like education to make them more fun and engaging. Gamification can potentially be applied to any industry and almost anything to create fun and engaging experiences, converting users into players.

Courtesy of Tempo Online

The VoiceMaster Pocholo Gonzales on Aksyon TV