2013-04-21 ~ Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Startup Weekend Manila is Here!

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Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success?

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.

The non-profit organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington but Startup Weekend organizers and facilitators can be found in over 200 cities around the world. From Mongolia to South Africa to London to Brazil, people around the globe are coming together for weekend long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.

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Las Farolas.....The Fish World.

A living museum......The first and only one of its kind in the world !!!

One aspect of the environment which is adversely affected by man's wicked activities is the freshwater biodiversity which is among the most threatened in the world. Human activities such as overfishing, pollution and economic development have pushed a number of species to the brink of extinction. Estimates show that 7.5 million people depend on freshwater fish for food and income.

Another boon to the tourism industry, Las Farolas.....The Fish World opens its doors to the public in the form of a living museum of ornamental freshwater biodiversity.

Kanto Freestyle Breakfast : Sumptuous Gourmet Breakfast by the Street

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Our next restaurant feature is not really a restaurant, but a street-side wonder that serves breakfast meant for the VIPs or the picky eaters that will soon get you hooked once you've tasted the surprisingly yummy breakfast dishes from Kanto Freestyle Breakfast.

It's a hearty and filling breakfast available all throughout the day that's so affordable as well. Its been called gourmet breakfast by many and hailed by a lot of media outfits already as a unique offering of wonderful breakfast dishes worthy of several praises.

We went there during the night for dinner, and got back home still dreaming of their delectable meals. Hey! I can still remember the taste of the buttery pancakes in my mouth - for sure a leading restaurant that boasts of yummy fluffy pancakes will get envious once they get a bite of it.

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I was invited to attend the official launch of Elance. Elance is the world’s leading platform for online work. It is a pioneer in today’s freelance revolution where, as their tagline states, "people work differently".

Today over 500,000 businesses and 2 million freelancers use Elance in 170+ countries. Innovative global enterprises, small businesses and startups tap into the Elance talent pool, building teams from software engineers, application developers and web and graphic designers to copywriters, market researchers, data scientists, social media marketers, customer service agents and other business professionals. More than 1 million freelance jobs are completed through Elance annually.

I was the first one to arrive at the official launch of Elance in the Philippines which was held at the Society Lounge located at the Atrium building in Makati city. To make most of the time I decided to make a video interview which you will see later in the middle of this article.

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It seems just like yesterday when five ladies won the top five titles for miss Earth, and now the search is once again on for the next batch of Miss Earth candidates for the year 2013.

Members of the media got a first glimpse of the candidates as they strut in their swimsuit outfits at the poolside of the F1 hotel at the Bonifacio Global City in Tagig.

It was also a day when members of the media get to vote for the Darling of the Press Gold, Silver and Bronze, where each one of us representing a media outfit gets to have one vote to declare the three winners.

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A quarter of a slabwich, soup, salad and raspberry tea slush for only Php 299!

That's already a fulfilling meal that's reasonably priced enough to satisfy your craving for some good food to please your hunger.

You can choose which slabwich (wheat or white Ciabatta bread) you want among the many choices that are uniquely but weirdly called : French Kiss, Off the Hook, Adobo Dobol, Faking Duck, Hamsome Threesome, California Waki, Hey Sexy, among many other choices with fancy intriguing names.

For the soup you can choose Cream of Mushroon or Tomato and Basil, and for the salad - its a choice among four kinds (Caesar's, Martin's Buffy, Grilled Vegetables, or Waki).

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UT POP-UP! Manila will be launched on Thursday, April 25 at Ayala Triangle in Makati City, and will last until April 26, Friday.

Filipinos can expect the same UT experience at other UT POP-UP locations worldwide (like the largest ever UT store in Tokyo Japan that was held last March 28 to April 7 at the Shibuya Station, Tokyo's largest train station averaging 2.4 million passengers daily on weekdays).

A huge UT sign is set-up at the center of Ayala where one can see the various UT designs as well as other culture and arts display.

A UT camera will be set-up where everyone will be welcomed to pose for a photo that will be displayed at its large monitors onsite and can be seen globally.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

I've voted on the World We Want poll and nominated what I think are the six most pressing issues that the world is facing.

In any case, if you haven’t voted yet, you should vote as soon as you can. There’s only less than 1000 days left before the current Millennium Development goals’ deadline is reached and come 2015, world leaders will be setting new goals.

The World We Want is a project of the United Nations. Like any developmental org, the UN has a bunch of goals that they have set for a certain period, and the current set of goals will be reached in 2015. They are beginning to draft their plans for 2015 onwards, but this time, they want input from people they would not otherwise reach.

We have our own little way of sending them a message so they would consider prioritizing what we think is more important for us.

Foursquare Philippines Held Successful Foursquare Day Event

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Foursquare Day is a special event celebrated around the globe to acknowledge Foursquare’s growing number of active users.

The Philippine leg of Foursquare Day was held at The Mega Atrium of SM Megamall last April 16 where guests showed their Foursquare Day 2013 badge to register. It was considered a success as a good number of bloggers, digital marketing groups and Foursquare enthusiasts gathered to celebrate the occasion.

It was a fun-filled event headed by Foursquare Philippines and SM Cinema’s e-PLUS—your most convenient access to the movies. The affair commenced with a few welcoming remarks from Mr. Allan Florendo, Business Unit Head of e-PLUS Digital and CJ de Leon, Foursquare Philippines Ambassador; a special greeting from Foursquare New York was also played. Papa John’s provided sumptuous pizza treats to guests.

e-PLUS gave away two GE Cameras to lucky individuals who signed up for an e-PLUS membership on the spot. Moreover, as Foursquare trivia game prizes, SM Cinema gave away shirts and caps along with Papa John’s cute notebook giveaways. Starmobile, on the other hand, gave out a mobile phone via a Twitter hash tag game.

For updates on e-PLUS events and activities, please visit www.facebook.com/eplus.sm.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Earthday Jam 2013 : Rocking the Earthman's Consciousness About the Environment

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Rocksteddy, Abra, Kitchie Nadal, Moonstar 88, Sandwich, and a lot more, rocked the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) when the Earthday Jam 2013 once again "rocked" the consciousness of many people including the youth to repect and save Mother Earth and all ist natural resources and wonders.

In between band performances (consisting of three songs each), informational AVPs plus groups or organizations involved in advocacy programs or movements that help protect the environment were presented to the public after every band performances.

Majority of the audience were teenagers which are considered nowadays as the most involved and concerned of the lot that makes up the community that represents Earth.

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A job fair organized by the Philippine Daily Inquirer was held at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City. Several companies, many of which are from the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector and some companies from the real estate, hotel, tourism and retail sectors took part in the fair. The job seekers, of which a lot were new college graduates, attended in the event hoping to find their luck and land a job that day.

The Job Market Career Expo 2013 will help all job seekers to get hired in jobs that will allow them to reach their full potentials and fulfill their career and personal objectives.

Aside from the PDI Job Fair which also provides a series of seminars that job applicants can listen to, job seekers could also get job-hunting tips from the Inquirer broadsheet’s Working People section while frequent Internet surfers could check vacancies listed on the Job Market Online.

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Join Mabuhay Restop's Bayan Tour and make your summer more meaningful! Enjoy an interactive 3-hour tour about the Phils and the Filipino in Rizal Park... It's a 3-part tour- "Bayan, bayani, Bayanihan".

Enjoy our 3-hour guided BAYAN Tour in Rizal Park- a uniquely fun, interactive, educational tour about the Philippines, the Filipino, and the spirit of “bayanihan.”

Ride a kalesa, walk through the floating Phil map, enjoy a one-of-a-kind art exhibit (entitled I am Filipino, based on Atty. Alex Lacson's poem), do some street theater, listen to our singing tour guide, and enjoy other fun surprises.

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It is with great admiration to see local governments take the extra initiative to implement environment friendly advocacy programs. They take time to go beyond the traditional and invest on more beneficial projects that will be of importance in the coming future.

In keeping with the Earth Day observance, we now share with you another environmental initiative, this time from the local government unit of Cagayan de Oro (CDO) City.

The City Government of CDO will soon take steps to establish a rainwater harvesting system in the flood-affected community of the Mahogany Resettlement Site in Calaan. The new system will contribute to addressing the overflow of waterways and inundation of streets in the city, as well as provide an alternative source of water for backyard agriculture and other domestic water uses. The system will also help protect aquifers by discouraging excessive communal ground water extraction.

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If you are thinking of a place to put up a new business, consider Pasig City. You can get your business permit in this city in less than a day.

Pasig City has officially adopted a simplified business permit and licensing system (BPLS), which takes effect May 2013. The new system was the result of a commitment of Mayor Bobby Eusebio and his administration to make the registration process easier for new business applicants.

The new process requires only three steps - (1) submitting the application form and getting an assessment; (2) paying the taxes, fees and charges; and (3) claiming the business permit. If the application form and the required documents are complete, the business permit can be issued in less than a day. Before, it took 15 steps to get a business permit for a new business covering 10 to 74 days.

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This coming May 31st will be the biggest event in MMA history, especially in Asian MMA. Decades have passed and Asian MMA attracted almost a hundred thousand Japanese with its events. Now, it is becoming prevalent in the Philippines. Thus, let us all witness our fellow Filipinos One FC featherweight champion Honorio Banario, Kevin Belingon, and Rey Docyogen and their respective Japanese opponents Koji Oishi, Masakatsu Ueda, and Yosuhiro Urushitani as they wave their flags, fight their best, and go for the win at SM Mall of Asia Arena.

The top of the card is occupied by 3 bouts featuring young combatants from the Philippines against veterans from Japan. This can be a passing of the torch moment in Asian MMA, with three bouts featuring a Filiino mixed martial artist against a Japanese opponent. ONE FC featherweight world champion will be defending the belt for the first time against Koji Oishi, Kevin Belingon meets Masakatsu Ueda in the ONE FC Bantamweight Grand Prix final and Rey Docyogen fights in front of his compatriots against Yosuhiro Urushitani.

For decades, Japan have been the hub for Asian MMA, with events attracting up to 40,000 people during its heyday. However, The Philippines has taken over the mantle as Asia’s most passionate MMA country, with thousands of fans clamoring for a glimpse of their MMA heroes at every public appearance. The upcoming event in MOA Arena is likely to draw an attendance that is the largest in recent years, with 20,000 expected to be in attendance.

Japan : Day 1 and 2 of the 10-Day Summer Immersion Program

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Since 2009, the Department of Education Bureau of Secondary Education, in partnership with The Japan Foundation Manila and other foreign agencies, has been giving capability-building type of training for teachers who were assigned to foreign languages.

The undersigned has been blessed with the privilege and the opportunity to be part of this pioneering special program on foreign languages (Japanese) since its inception in April 2009, when it was first offered under the name “Course on Japan for High School Classroom Instruction”.

In the Summer of 2010, the program evolved into Course on Japan for High School Classroom Instruction (Entrée 1). Around twenty-seven (27) teachers from all over Metro Manila participated in the program. The following year, in the Summer of 2011, twenty-four (24) teachers from the Entrée 1 program continued on with Entrée 2.