BDO Cap’s Francisco is the New IAFEI Chairman

Wazzup Pilipinas!

BDO Capital & Investment Corp. president Eduardo V. Francisco is this year’s chairman of the International Association of Financial Executives Institutes (IAFEI).

He becomes the third Filipino elected to helm the top post, apart from the late Romeo Co, who was Chairman in 1979-1980, and Dr. Conchita L. Manabat, who was IAFEI’s chairperson in 2005-2006.

The year 2019 will be a significant year for IAFEI as it will be celebrating its 50^thyear. Plans for hosting an IAFEI Asian Day in Manila in conjunction with IAFEI’s golden anniversary is now in the works, said Francisco, who, prior to his election was the vice chairman of IAFEI and also a former president of the Financial Executives of the Philippines (FINEX).

The other members of the IAFEI Executive Committee for the year 2019 include Juan Alfredo Ortega (Mexico) as Vice Chairman; Aberlardo V. Cortez (Philippines) as Secretary; Nicolaas Van Wyk (South Africa) as Area President for Africa; Fernando Lopez Macari (Mexico) as Area President for the Americas; Hirohaki Endo (Japan) as Area President for Asia; Anastassios Rodopoulos (Greece) as Area President for Europe & the Middle East.

IAFEI is a professional association of National Financial Institutes composed of financial executives of leading businesses all over the world engaged in financial policy making and control, sharing a common interest in financial management, financial accounting and reporting.

It was established in 1969 with the FINEX as one of its founding members together with the Financial Executives Institutes of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Spain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and the combined Institutes of USA and Canada.  At present, IAFEI has 17 active members with a total membership of over 10,000 financial executives.

Lenovo's CES 2019 Products Are Built to Unlock Your Potential

Wazzup Pilipinas!

At CES 2019, Lenovo announced a new group of intelligent devices from across its portfolio – products designed to transform and improve the way people live, work, and play. By harnessing the power of smart technology, via Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), Lenovo’s newest innovations unlock human potential, empower users to break boundaries and enhance connectedness.

Lenovo’s new innovations are built for Intelligent Transformation, the idea of people improving their lives through the use of transformative technology – for play, work, or in the home, and the Lenovo products announced today at CES 2019 do just that.

Transforming the Way We Live

Lenovo Smart Clock with the Google Assistant^TM

Lenovo has teamed up with Google® again - this time to unveil the Lenovo Smart Clock with the Google Assistant, the latest addition to Lenovo’s innovative smart living product line. Purpose-made for your bedroom, the Lenovo Smart Clock helps you unwind in the evening, kickstart your day, control your smart home and listen to your favorite music with multi-room audio grouping. As the latest device in Lenovo’s smart home family, the Lenovo Smart Clock adds to an ever-growing line-up that now includes the Lenovo Smart Display and theLenovo Smart Home Essentials, bolstering Lenovo’s continued commitment to making families’ lives easier and more productive. Read the Lenovo Smart Clock blog for more details.

Lenovo Smart Tabs powered by Amazon® Alexa®

Collaborating with Amazon, Lenovo created Lenovo Smart Tabs, a new category of 2-in-1 tablets which turn into full-function smart screens with Amazon Alexa. They’re a must-have for households and is remarkably simple to set up. Just place the Lenovo Smart Tab into the complimentary Lenovo Smart Dock, and the tablet transforms into a “Show Mode” smart screen device, with full-screen visuals and crisp, room-filling sound that complements Alexa’s responses from nearly anywhere in the room. With Lenovo Smart Tabs, households now have access to a fully-featured Android^TM tablet that doubles as a hub for smart home devices. That capability makes this new 2-in-1 tablet plus smart dock much more than the sum of its parts, opening up new and exciting ways to make households easier to manage. Read the Lenovo Smart Tabs blog for more details.

Transforming the Way We Play

The Smartest Consumer Yoga™ Computers Yet

AI coupled with advanced audio and display technologies is making Lenovo’s next-gen Yoga computers their smartest yet. Whether you’re a digital nomad, business professional, digital content creator, or designer, the technologies in the new Yoga S940, Yoga A940, Yoga C730 with AMOLED and Yoga Mouse with Laser Presenter can help you get things done faster and make life easier.

The Slim and Smarter Yoga S940

The Yoga S940 ultra-slim Windows® 10 laptop delivers security and privacy without sacrificing productivity and convenience thanks to an entire suite of Lenovo Smart Assist AI-enabled features.¹Leveraging AI, this includes the option toautomatically filter out most ambient noise and blur out distracting backgrounds during video calls. The minute you turn your head away from your laptop screen, the Yoga S940’s AI-powered sensors¹ can detect your absence and auto-lock the display to protect your data from others seeing it. It can also detect and alert you when a nosey neighbor is shoulder surfing from your screen, or help increase productivity by shifting open windows and content contextually to a connected external monitor, based on your attention, intent and focus. The new Yoga S940 is also the world’s first laptop with Contour Glass that wraps around its bezels – reducing the look of its already razor-thin bezels for a streamlined design.² Read the Yoga blog for more details.

Get Creative on the Powerful Yoga A940

For artists and designers, nothing is better than sketching with a pencil on paper, right? The new Yoga A940 all-in-one desktop is here to challenge that notion. Built for digital content creators, the Windows 10 Yoga A940 is a powerful creative canvas with a large 27-inch optional 4K IPS touchscreen display with Dolby Vision®, which brings entertainment to life through ultra-vivid picture quality. It features a rotating hinge that enables the display to tilt to a comfortable 25-degree drafting mode, for remarkable flexibility and stability when drawing, sketching or annotating with a digital pen. It also features the Lenovo Precision Dial, a controller that’s tailor made for designers, photographers and videographers to make more precise selections and adjustments to their content. With Lenovo Smart Assist AI-enabled features,¹ a Dolby Vision-enabled 4K wide angle display with stunning brightness, contrast, color and detail, and boosted by Dolby Atmos® Speaker System for rich, moving audio, the Yoga A940 is the ideal centerpiece in any content creator’s home or workspace. Read the Yoga blog for more details.

See the Difference on the Yoga C730 with AMOLED

Equipped with JBL® speakers and Dolby Atmos which delivers immersive audio over any pair of compatible headphones, the 15-inch Yoga C730 2-in-1 convertible laptop gets an upgrade with up to a 4K AMOLED display. AMOLED brings a noticeably more vivid viewing experience with an incredible degree of color clarity and contrast for higher-quality resolution. It also emits less harmful blue light – making it easier on the eyes while providing amazing video picture quality. Portable and powerful, the Yoga C730 features 8th Gen Intel® Core^TM i7 processors, Windows Ink™ for digital pen input, Windows Hello™ for instant log-in, and the smart convenience of Cortana® and Alexa.³  Read the Yoga blog for more details.

Just Twist and Point with the Yoga Mouse with Laser Presenter

Today’s professionals have more than enough to carry with them when running from one meeting to the next – from their laptops to phones, chargers and more. With this user pain point in mind, we streamlined two accessories into one and designed the latest generation Yoga Mouse with Laser Presenter. With just one twist, it converts from an ergonomic mouse with up to 1,600 DPI for high-precision tracking on nearly any surface into a flat, fully functional laser presenter (and vice versa). No more fumbling with a handful of devices at your next presentation with the latest Yoga Mouse in hand. Read the Yoga blog for more details.

Lenovo Legion™ Gets More Savage with Performance Boost

The latest Lenovo Legion gaming line-up is more powerful than ever -- with a new range of high-performance PCs and an entire family of re-designed gaming accessories and monitors. The latest gaming additions to the Lenovo Legion line-up include:

●      Savage new Lenovo Legion Y740 and Y540 Laptops

●      Sleek Lenovo Legion K500 RGB Mechanical Keyboard and M500 RGB Gaming Mouse

●      Ergonomic Lenovo Legion H500 Pro 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset and H300 Stereo Gaming Headset

●      Stylish Lenovo Legion Y27gq Monitor and Y44w Monitor for ultra-fast, smooth and immersive gaming

●      Upgraded Lenovo Legion T730 and T530 towers and C730 and C530 cubes to the latest NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060 GPUs

Each of these products are designed to deliver the speed and performance gamers need to succeed at the highest level, whether at home or on the go. We know that gamers come from diverse backgrounds as students or working professionals, which is why we designed the new Lenovo Legion portfolio to look just as great in a living room as it would in a conference room. This gaming line-up is engineered to handle the toughest technical challenges while retaining a clean aesthetic that won’t feel out of place in any environment. Read the Lenovo Legion blog for more details.

The Way We Work

Perfecting the ThinkPad X1

In 2019, we’ve refined the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga laptops and made broad improvements the most discerning users will appreciate. What’s more, we have listened to our customers and evolved the laptops’ look and feel to represent a contemporary and dynamic workforce.

Rounding off the PC announcements is a selection of accessories to complete the office, home or travelling users’ digital ecosystem:

●      ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7^th Gen and X1 Yoga 4^th Gen are both thinner and lighter than ever

●      X1 Yoga 4^th Gen now available in an all-aluminum chassis

●      New display options, including a 400 nit FHD display with ThinkPad Privacy Guard

●      New Dolby Atmos Speaker System with four far-field mics

●      Latest 8^th Gen Intel Core processors

●      New Cat16 LTE-A option and enhanced WLAN and WWAN antenna design

●      ThinkShutter now available on both HD and IR cameras

●      New ThinkVision 43.3-inch P44w monitor offers dual-display capability without bezels

●      A selection of accessories including the ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gen 2, a Lenovo Pro Stereo USB Headset, the Lenovo VOIP 360 Camera Speaker, the Lenovo Powered USB-C Hub, the Lenovo 700 Ultraportable Bluetooth Speaker and a Lenovo Commuter Backpack.

New design options will be the most noticeable feature of the latest generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga. The former can include a visible carbon fiber weave top cover and the latter has been redesigned and re-engineered from the ground up. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga is now a precision-machined all-aluminum laptop in a beautiful iron grey color.

Improvements are more than skin-deep. Enhanced security features such as ThinkPad PrivacyGuard and a faster Match-on-Chip fingerprint reader will keep end-users protected. Device experience has been enhanced with more display options, Dolby Atmos audio, four inbuilt microphones and improved wireless capabilities for the best possible collaboration and productivity experience. Read theThinkPad announcement for more details.

Further product blogs, specs, images and more are available in the StoryHub press kit. Learn more atwww.lenovo.com/CES.

US Pricing and Availability⁴

●      The Lenovo Smart Clock is available at $79.99 starting spring 2019.⁴

●      Lenovo Smart Tab with Tab P10 is $299.99 with pre-orders starting January 2019 on www.amazon.com andwww.lenovo.com.⁴

●      Lenovo Smart Tab with Tab M10 is $199.99 with pre-orders starting January 2019 on www.amazon.com andwww.lenovo.com.⁴

●      The Lenovo Yoga S940 will start at $1,499.99 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com and Micro Center starting May 2019.⁴

●      The Lenovo Yoga A940 will start at $2,349.99 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com and Best Buy starting April 2019.⁴

●      The 15-inch Lenovo Yoga C730 with AMOLED is expected to be available in select markets starting March 2019.⁴

●      The 17-inch Lenovo Legion Y740 Laptop will start at $1,979.99 and the 15-inch model will start at $1,749.99, both are expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com and select retailers starting February 2019.⁴

●      The 15-inch Lenovo Legion Y540 Laptop will start at $929.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.com and select retailers starting May 2019.⁴

●      Pricing and availability of the Lenovo Legion T730, T530, C730 and C530 desktops with upgraded NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPUs will be shared later.⁴

●      The Lenovo Legion M500 RGB Gaming Mouse will start at $59.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.comstarting April 2019.⁴

●      The Lenovo Legion K500 RGB Mechanical Keyboard will start at $99.99 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com starting April 2019.⁴

●      The Lenovo Legion H300 Stereo Gaming Headset will start at $59.99 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com starting April 2019.⁴

●      The Lenovo Legion H500 Pro 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset will start at $99.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.com starting April 2019.⁴

●      The Lenovo Legion Y27gq Monitor will start at $999.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.com starting April 2019.⁴

●      The Lenovo Legion Y44w Monitor will start at $1,199.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.com starting April 2019.⁴

●      The Lenovo Yoga Mouse with Laser Presenter will start at $69.99 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com starting June 2019.⁴

●      ThinkPad X1 Carbon will start from $1709 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com and business partners from June 2019.⁴

●      ThinkPad X1 Yoga will start from $1929 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com and business partners from June 2019.⁴

●      ThinkVision P44w will start from $1299 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com and business partners from April 2019.⁴

●      ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock Gen 2 is available now on www.lenovo.com at $319.99.

●      Lenovo Pro Stereo USB Headset will start from $249.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.com from March 2019.⁴

●      Lenovo VOIP 360 Camera Speaker will start from $249.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.com from March 2019.⁴

●      Lenovo 700 Ultraportable Bluetooth Speaker will start from $149.99 and is expected to be available onwww.lenovo.com  from April  2019.⁴

●      Lenovo Powered USB-C Hub will start from $79.99 and is expected to be available on www.lenovo.com  from January 2019.⁴.

●      Lenovo Commuter Backpack is expected to be available from January 2019. Check www.lenovo.com for pricing.⁴

Watch the product tour videos for more information:

●      ThinkPad X1 Carbon and ThinkPad X1 Yoga

●      ThinkVision P44w

●      Yoga S940

●      Yoga A940

●      Lenovo Legion Y740 and Y540

●      Lenovo Legion Y27gq Monitor

●      Lenovo Legion Y44w Monitor

●      Lenovo Smart Tab P10 with Amazon Alexa

●      Lenovo Smart Tab M10 with Amazon Alexa

●      Lenovo 700 Ultraportable Bluetooth Speaker

Unique Vacation Ideas You Need to Try Out

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Living in an archipelago, it’s natural for Filipinos to frequent the country’s many beaches as vacation spots. After all, most of us are maybe one to three hours away from the nearest body of open water—wherever we are in the country. But you’ll have to admit that after a while, spending some vacation time by the sea on sandy beaches can feel old pretty quickly. So if you’re looking for something new to do for the next long weekend, here are five unique vacation ideas you can definitely try out.

Undertake Volunteer Work

It may not be the most obvious choice, but embracing your altruistic side could indeed be a great way to spend your vacation. Beyond helping out a community that’s in great need, you can even choose a place with a scenic view and take in some fresh air.

Indeed, in addition to helping out an underserviced community, you can tour the surrounding areas during your downtime. No matter where you choose to volunteer, you’ll definitely have a truly unique and fulfilling vacation experience.

Gaze at the Stars

As towns and cities become more and more populated, their residents inevitably erect streetlights for nighttime safety. But with all the resulting light pollution, we forget how much the night sky is filled with planets, stars, and other heavenly bodies.

Thankfully, you won’t need to venture far, even if you’re based in a metropolitan area. For example, Metro Manila residents can get easily take a drive to Tanay, Rizal and go to Big Handy’s Grounds for public stargazing events. If you’re a photography enthusiast, you can even take a clear picture of the night sky and the Milky Way galaxy under the right conditions. And once you and your friends or family are done craning your necks towards the skies, there are other things you can still do.

You can even step things up by doing a more luxurious take on the traditional camping activity. “Glamping” is the latest craze for many groups who want to forgo the usual stargazing trips at the usual resorts. There are now many glamorous camping spots around the country that offer this unique experience. Places like Zambales, Clark, and Tagaytay have upscale camping areas with all the amenities that a high-class resort can offer and more.

Get on a Yacht

If you’re feeling like you deserve having a bit of luxury sprinkled on your next vacation, then why not enjoy the open sea with a party on a yacht? And before you balk at the cost, we’ll remind you that you don’t have to buy a yacht just to enjoy one.

In fact, you can get a taste of luxury by renting a yacht. If you’re knowledgeable about boating yourself, you can go for a bareboat charter and skipper the vessel yourself. But depending on the package that you can find, some yacht charters can also be skippered. This means it includes a captain and a complete crew. Though definitely still costlier than most items on this list, you’ll definitely end up with the most fun memories by having a fun party on a yacht.

Of course, if you want to go all out, there are many places that offer yachts for sale in the Philippines. Companies like Europa Yachts Philippines cater to those specifically looking for high-end vessels that can fulfill their need for a luxury vacation in amazing locations like the islands of Palawan, the coves in Batangas, or the various diving spots in Mindoro.

Go on a Spontaneous Road Trip

This may be the simplest option on this list. All you need is a car, enough money to last for a couple of days, and a sense of adventure. You can go for more planned trips by taking on oft-traveled yet still amazing trips like a drive across the Cordilleras.

You can even plan your road trip around a specific activity that’s unique to a particular destination. Do you love surfing and other activities by the sea? Then why not take a trip to Baler for some fun under the sun and the surf. If you’re more of a foodie, then when Pampanga is a great place to visit for some of the most delectable dishes the country has to offer.

Alternatively, you can just pick a direction and go where the wind takes you. No matter which path you end up taking, it’s best to feel free and enjoy the spontaneity of your road trip. And whenever you and your companions are tired, just stop at the nearest hotel or inn and take in as much of the local culture and cuisine as you can.

We’ll be the first to admit that some of the above suggestions may not have even crossed your mind before. Or you may have previously eliminated them from contention for other reasons. But if you’re looking for a more unique getaway on your next vacation, then you can’t go wrong with trying something new.