1st Iloilo Startup Weekend opens today

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=826628
• Friday, November 13, 2015

(PNA), BR>FPV/AJP/MADE LOS SANTOS/CBF

ILOILO CITY, Nov 13 (PNA)-– Let the startup battle begins.

Students and professionals from all over Western Visayas and nearby regions are all up to their sleeves for the 1st Iloilo Startup Weekend which starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the University of the Philippines Visayas Iloilo City Campus auditorium.

The participants will battle for the best business or entrepreneurial ideas which they will develop with the help of selected mentors, who are startup experts.

“Iloilo City is going premier, it is about time that we host this kind of event,” said organizers Jeffrey Teruel and Kyra Dianon.

The event is part of the Startup Weekend that is happening in at least 150 areas all over the world.

Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate and empower individuals, teams and communities, they explained.

It is a 54-hour “no-talk-all-action” event designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs, they added.

On the first night, the participants will start pitching their business ideas, meet the speakers and coaches, and start forming teams.

On the second day, teams are expected to craft their business plans and create basic prototype of the business with the help of their mentors.

On the third day, they will present their business ideas that will be evaluated by a panel of judges.

One of the mentors is Ilonggo Karl Balingit. He is the community manager of WeAreLATech, a startup based in Santa Monica and the host of an inspirational Filipino podcast “Filspiration”.

Other mentors are Althea Tan, founder of online advertising company Bluagile; Noreen Bautista, social enterprise developer and founder of SlashIgnite Inc.; Juanito Jacela, PPC Strategist and a practicing paid advertising professional; Julian Teodoro, a pioneer Unmanned Aerial Services systems operator and integrator in the Philippines;

Jonathan Lansangan, co-founder and COO of Dynamic Objx; Kenn Costales, regional assistant brand manager, New Brand Launches for Procter & Gamble Singapore; Agustin Busamante, founder of My Happy Fireflies, a child development milestone tool; Godfrey Beray, who has been in the academe for more than 10 years, and almost two years as System Administrator/Java Developer @ F&C Group of Companies; and Maria Albana.

Judges include former Iloilo City councilor Jason Gonzales, who is also an entrepreneur; Eddie Ybañez, CEO and co-founder at miCab; Lloyd Tronco, who is an expert in outdoor advertising in the Philippines; Yosuke Fukada, founder and CEO of YOYO Holdings Pte. Ltd. and YOYO Philippines; Prim Paypon, a voluntrainer who founded The Dream Project PH; Bea Querido, the Development Manager of Airport Operations for the Port of Seattle; and Dr. Arnold Fuentes, an animator, Software Developer, Game App Developer, painter, comic illustrator and a writer.

Startup Weekend participants can learn more about entrepreneurship and how to put together an actual startup strategy.

They can learn from experts and potential investors and partners; can network with like-minded people as well as finding potential partners/co-founders for the start-ups; and learn everything from target markets to go-to-market strategies, then giving a full presentation of a working prototype, then getting validation of the concept from a panel of expert judges.

Winners will take home the following prices: USD27,000 worth of Bizpark from Microsoft; three months free use of space from Dojo 8 Coworking Space; Dojo 8 Coworking Space shirts; Notebooks from miCab, and 3-5 minuter Corporate Audio-Video presentation from Xane Production. Awarding is on November 15, 2015.

Other organizers are Yen Felipe, Jover Nuevaspana, Katrina Bayog, and Juanito Jacela.