Time for Bloggers to Shape Up or Suffer the Consequence

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Thanks to Vigattin Radio of Radyo Inquirer, we are no longer just getting invites as a blog site or online media but as an accredited media practitioner too.

Vigattin is short for Victory in Governance and Technology Information Network which primarily guests technopreneurs and startups who would like some exposure. It also highlights both government and private initiatives and projects dwelling in science and technology. We would also sometimes have guests from other industries that we welcome with open arms.

We were at a press conference a few days ago and we noticed that there were no bloggers invited for that particular media briefing of what I believe is a very important news scoop that needs to be shared to as many as possible. There were several people from print, TV and radio but no bloggers. Then we realized that we've been to their other media briefings and no bloggers were there too.

You know what we did? After we asked our question during the Q&A, we also suggested that the organizers consider inviting bloggers to help them disseminate the information to a wider audience. There was also this media practitioner who raised a question on why it was very rare to hear news about one of the agencies and it was probably only because their activities and projects are not getting enough media exposure.

We know that may be the only reason because one of our relatives works for a government agency, and they have so many activities that are not known to the public. They do not practice the habit of distributing press releases or photo ops at every activity that they do, unlike politicians who would always share even their littlest feeding programs or charity donating activities.

We recommended to the organizers that they include bloggers in their event invites so we can help them in social media presence.

But why were bloggers not invited to the said press conference in the first place?

10 Lessons to Starting-up From YouthHack Manila’s Startup Challenge 2015

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Ushering in a new generation of empowered youth, YouthHack is an organization that educates students on the world of startup, technology, and entrepreneurship through holding various events that allow participants to pitch their own ideas, and have a go at creating their own business.

Started only one year ago by incoming University of Pennsylvania Sophomore and Xavier School graduate David Ongchoco, YouthHack has already generated much clout and is on its way to disrupt how the youth think of entrepreneurship and technology. What started out as a two-day event in Manila back in July 2014 has now become a global community with events and programs held in the US, Singapore and later this month, Hong Kong.

For this year’s YouthHack Manila Startup Challenge 2015, Kalibrr CEO Paul Rivera, ABS-CBN Chief Digital Officer Donald Lim, Katasyt.ph CEO Pinky Natividad and Chikka Founder Dennis Mendiola all came in as keynote speakers to share their story and gives pieces of advice. YouthHack also brought in workshop speakers from fast-growing startups and incubators like Kalibrr, Uber, Shopinas.com and IdeaSpace to talk about topics like ideation, marketing, product development, growth hacking and more.

Here are a few lessons we took away straight from the event held last July 25-26, where over 200 student participants came together in Xavier School. 

YouthHack Manila 2015 Startup Challenge - “Where Will You Go That You’re Not Supposed To Be?”

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Last July 25-26, 2015 at Xavier School Greenhills, aspiring technopreneurs from both high school and university were faced up to this question. The YouthHack Manila Startup Challenge offered two days worth of activities to help these students think, create and innovate as they learn to assemble their very own startups. Through keynote speeches, workshops, a startup fair, and a startup competition for the participants, eyes and minds were opened and participants slowly began to find their answers to the proposed question.

To kick off the first day, YouthHack Founder David Ongchoco delivered his welcome address by sharing his origin story. “It felt surreal for the 18-year-old who just graduated high school,” he says. YouthHack sprouted from David’s realization that the youth of today can play a vital role in revolutionizing “technopreneurship”—the blend of technology and entrepreneurship—in the startup world. The organization is living proof of this belief, as aside from the Manila Startup Challenge (considered “the biggest and baddest YouthHack event” to date), YouthHack is currently growing and making its away outside our nation’s borders to places such as Philadephia and Singapore.

In the first keynote speech, we learn some of the startup industry’s secrets from Kalibrr CEO Paul Rivera. When it comes to the core of your startup, he advises them to be inspired by something more than profit. Though sometimes this would mean pursuing a riskier path, Paul persuades the participants that “[t]his is the time to be experimenting. This is not the time to play it safe.” Failure is inevitable in the startup world, and Paul reassures everyone that this is part of the process and something entrepreneurs learn to move on from. “Entrepreneurs take calculated risks and tolerate uncertainty,” he says.

“Your network becomes your net worth.” He stresses the importance of finding the right people who will help you take your startup to greatness, teaching the crowd that “[l]ife networks matter” and they must “[p]lug into the right ones.”