DAVAO CITY— A promotion firm, in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Philippine Women’s College (PWC) of Davao, will hold a business conference aimed at providing young entrepreneurs a place to discuss market opportunities.
Dubbed as “Shaping New Millennials”, the conference will be held on Saturday (September 30) at PWC. It primarily seeks to assist young entrepreneurs acquire knowledge to become globally competitive and seize a share of the billion dollar ASEAN market opportunity.
Kirby Arafol, promotions head of TDC Prestige, said his company is organizing the event and will be using the platform on “ASEAN on Stage Business Conference” to showcase, present and discuss market opportunities in the region for micro, small and medium enterprises in terms of accessing the ASEAN single market.
It aims to inspire and motivate young people to become social entrepreneurs, develop as well as promote more business towards the ASEAN market, he added.
Arafol said TDC, which is a career development center, is eyeing youth in school or out of schools, would-be entrepreneurs, industry practitioners, the small and medium enterprises, overseas Filipino workers, cooperatives, non-government organizations, farmers, industry practitioners in agriculture, real estate, tourism, infrastructure, transportation, and technology.
During the event, the participants will be given a chance to “Pitch In” and display business proposals that may draw interest from entrepreneurs and the government to invest or support.
Among the topics are: “How to Tap the Billion Dollar Market in ASEAN ?” to be discussed by Senen Perlada, Director, Export Management Bureau of DTI; “How to become digitally competitive in the ASEAN Region ?” by Arlene Padua, president, Philippine Marketing Association; “Social Enterprise in Japan : How can Mindanaoan Millennials benchmark with Japan Best Practices ?” by Japanese national Chiaki Ozawa; “Leveraging on the role of ICT development in ASEAN integration”, by Myrna Padilla, founder and CEO of Mynd Consulting; “Opportunities for young entrepreneurs in corporate social responsibility” by Gina Lopez, environmentalist/philanthropist.
Arafol said a lot of opportunities await when the economy becomes borderless.
“We need to connect to the world and to our neighboring countries,” he said.
He said the interconnection between ASEAN countries through economic integration would give our millennials the opportunity to compete with improved market services.