I was honored to be invited to this once in a lifetime opportunity event and listen to great speakers whom I can learn from.  I love this kind of gathering because I am able to get the most important insights that I can easily relate to from these inspiring people.

The E-commerce summit started at exactly 9 a.m. and I arrived at the Home Crest Hotel 15 minutes later since I was having colds the night before and felt drowsy after taking medicine for my allergy.  I would not miss it for the world because I was invited by a good friend close to my heart and I felt  this is a good opportunity to meet new people and learn the industry as well.

During the event, the first to speak and introduce the objective for the program was Ms. Janette Toral of Digital Filipino/i-Metrics Asia-Pacific Corp. The floor was given to the host/moderator, Karla Stefan Singson from the Davao Digital Influencers who has a good sense of humor through her pick up lines.

The first speaker to inspire us with her story was Ms. Marc Wales, Papapel products who is known for her attractive packaging designs (the original products were the square boxes she first made).  She was able to create more designs and boxes that comes in different shapes and sizes like soap and lipstick boxes, etc.  mostly inspired by her friends who are into business.  As she began her story, I learned that she wanted her products to stand out from the rest, to be simple, triggers emotions (most probably good ones) and mirror buyer’s values.  Visit her store at http://lazada.com.ph/shop-papapel

The second person to speak up was Ms. Abigail Lim of Alfox Printing Services, who is into product packaging.  They produce glossy white stickers, frosted stickers and transparent stickers.  For the add-ons, they have hand tags, small boxes, paper and canvas bags. According to her, packaging is important and she wants to help customers to make their brand memorable and recognizable which will differentiate it from others and create a perceived value as well.  To avail of the services, email at sales@alfoxprinting.com or visit http://www.alfoxprinting.com

Listening to these two lovely women gave me inspiration to continue looking for my passion and from there, learning must never stop.

Christopher Guarin, PhilYes, is among my favorite because he lively discussed the dos and the don’ts of the industry and how he made it to where he is now.  He has a chain of stores that sell burgers near schools  in Manila.  He is definitely planning to open up more branches as he highly recommended PhilYes ( first  online B2B opportunity platform) where it helped him in his businesses because he can conveniently transact while giving his full trust that he can gain more income by using the online platform 24/7 accessibility.  He foresees that more B2B sites are expected to rise in the Philippines from 2017 onwards.

The last speaker that morning was Archilles Reyes from CheckMeOut who promoted an easier way to online selling where products are being delivered to buyers- all with a checkout page.  The convenience lies on both parties as sellers can collect payments from buyers through secure payment options while buyers can be notified via email.

More interesting topics were covered by  “powerful speakers” as discussions become more and more interesting in the afternoon. Much to my delight, I didn’t feel sleepy  and my mind was able to absorb each motivational speakers who were invited for this event. These people were :  Edrian Bautista from BlogAdia who launched a bloggers & advertisers marketplace for blog related campaigns with the help of his team ; Genesis Reonico, Online Jobs University, inspired everyone to become a freelancer and become successful like him in this kind of workplace environment.  He gets to travel to different places and enjoy every minute of it while earning as he offers his services and continues to improve oneself while extending to bigger opportunities around him; Mr. Mannix Pabalan of Hashtag Digital and Jun Baranggan of PTB Digital Hub, caught my attention as they spoke  about learning advance and cost-effective e-commerce marketing approaches.  They are knowledgeable in their own field and expounded well on the marketing strategies, the social media and performance marketing.  I feel that I still have more to learn from these men who are smart and career-driven.

The host for the day, Karla Stefan Singson ,who is also into business, briefly showed a power-point presentation of what it is all about.  Her talent paved the way  for her to engage into business such as arranging and designing floral, chocolate bouquets and a  lot more.  She is the owner of Gifts Davao-Free Delivery, you can check her out on facebook – https://www.facebook.com/giftsdavao

The highlight of this gathering was the presentation of marketplace projects by Certified E-Commerce Specialist, Entrepreneur and Professional Progam Students who were Tom Claudio, Maria Celeste Noblefranca and Jana De Vara.

Tom Claudio of Etours Davao shared how he came about the business he is into with his wife and family who gave him a never ending support.  His sleepless nights in order to make his business more appealing to his clients paved the way to a successful travel and tours business at present.  He inspired me too because he spoke from the heart and he humbled himself by saying he started from scratch and now he has his own office along with his wife and the loyal staff who operates the business.

Jana De Vara, Wealth Market, introduced her online service promoting financial literacy and services.  Its objective is to help people manage their finances and help each individual use this for their best interest.  They are still looking into more improvements by adding more features to this program online.

Maria Celeste Noblefranca of LogEx Solutions – Farm to Market Asia, as it promotes farm products through E-commerce.   This will serve as a premier agricultural marketplace for fresh produce and agricultural by-products. The good thing about this is those who haven’t heard about agricultural products from good farmers will likely know their existence and even help small time farmers introduce their products of good quality.

I had a good time and just by sitting there the whole day listening to these speakers, I made a realization that I can also make a difference in life and it is not too late to discover where should I go and what I should do 5 years from now.

CONGRATULATIONS to the organizers: Marc Wales and Maria Celeste Noblefranca.  And to the sponsors who made this possible: PLDT SME NATION (major sponsor), BlogAdia, ALFOX Printing Services and CheckMeOut.