Monthly Archives: May 2019

Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Event Management, Travel, Work

TeamAsia turns 27!

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Today marks our 27th year.  As I look back, I can’t help but reminisce a bit, seeing this behind-the-scenes ingress video of one of our events in the TeamAsia LinkedIn Page.

We started in 1992 as an event management company organizing the Asian Management Awards for the Asian Institute of Management and the Far Eastern Economic Review in six Asian countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines). Back then, we were just a team of four: Mike Hamlin, my sister Pinky, Myles and me.

Mike and I would travel to each country, meet with the judges, the AIM board of governors, the AIM alumni association, business management schools, as well as local and regional media to invite companies to enter the Awards.  We would print several thousand letters and nomination packets and send them out by snail mail.

Once the entries started coming in, we would pour over each one to ensure completeness of the responses. We would then organize meetings in each country to shortlist and then select winners, and with the media to promote the Awards.  Once the winners were known, we would write each one to invite them to a gala awards dinner with the head of state as keynote speaker.

Raising sponsorship money to cover the cost of the project was another nail-biting challenge, as well as coordinating with the venue, caterers, florists, stylists, audio-visual suppliers, photographers and the like to ensure a successful press conference and awarding ceremonies.  Why, we would even have to write the script ourselves.

Days before the gala awards in each country, our team would arrive armed with the glass trophies designed by Impy Pilapil and the exhibits that we would then have to physically carry and set-up ourselves.  We would coordinate with the local registration team, print out tags, set-up registration, and brief the hired ushers for the event.  We would arrange seating for between 500-700 VIP business guests, supervise the setting up of the backdrop and the styling of the venue, then dress up in formal clothes to greet the guests and manage the actual event.

Looking back, I am amazed that we were able to successfully organize the Awards for three years, at a time when there were no mobile phones, no faxes, no emails, no Internet.  Truly, we’ve come a long way since then.

When we learned about the importance of sustainability through the League of Corporate Foundations, we decided to practice greening not just in our office, but in our events to reduce waste and impact on the environment. In the early days of event management, we would print thousands of direct mail invitations and send them by snail mail.  As new technology was developed, we graduated to fax marketing and email marketing, supported by our team of dedicated telemarketers.  Today, we promote our events through digital media, and hold virtual coordination meetings to avoid time-wasting city traffic.

We use event technology as an enabler to make the planning and marketing process easier, to engage guests and enhance their delegate experience, to capture online and onsite registration, share up-to-date event information to guests, collect their feedback, strengthen security, measure ROI, and more.  We develop award-winning websites, mobile apps, AVPs, chatbots and audience response systems, and use different technologies for the WOW factor. Speaker presentations are no longer printed and bound in folders, but posted on the website and sent to guests for downloading.

While technology has in many ways made life easier for us, I must say that the secret ingredient to TeamAsia’s success is still the amazing people who create innovative ideas and deliver next-level experiences for brands using integrated marketing strategies.

From intimate executive briefings, corporate anniversary celebrations, and employee engagement activities to large-scale global conferences, TeamAsia handles each event with the same passion, excitement, and painstaking attention to detail.  Armed with excellent organizational and story-telling skills and a creative approach to problem solving, our Experience, Creative, Content and Digital Marketing teams create unique turnkey events that bring next level experiences to brands, helping them connect meaningfully with their audiences.

Happy 27th anniversary, TeamAsia!   It’s been an amazing adventure.

Childhood, Children, Faith, Family, Gradtitude, Life, Love, Women

Did she feel the same way I do?

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May 12, 2019. Mothers’ Day.  This morning, at mass, Fr. Chris told us that aside from God, we will only feel real, unconditional love from one other person, and that is not our love partner, but our mother.  He urged each of us to thank our mother and let her feel our love, while she is here.

I am fortunate to have my mother, Pilar or Dada as we fondly call her, still with us.  White-haired, a little bent, much weaker, a bit forgetful,  but still as beautiful as ever, Dada is now 84.  She’s been through the toughest of times, having been widowed at 32 with five young children to bring up in a foreign land.

A no-nonsense, practical woman, she converted our house in the university belt to a boarding house, woke up each day at dawn to go to market, cook for her family and her boarders, get us ready for school, bring us lunch every day, tutor us when we got home, attend our school events, and love us unconditionally.  She never remarried, and instead concentrated on taking care of us.  And when we had all grown up, finished schooling, started working, fallen in love, gotten married and started having kids, she took it upon herself to take care of her grandchildren.  Her love for us is boundless, limitless.

She was very strict, and there was a phase when we were very young that we got spanked almost every day for being naughty.  Spanking stopped when my father died, and my mom had to work really hard to take care of us.  I could see that life was difficult, but mom never complained.  I vowed to finish my studies right away so I could take care of her and the family.  I was hard-headed, strong-willed and impetuous, and must have given my mom quite a few headaches over the years, as did all of us children.

Drawing on my own experiences as a mother, I began to reflect on what it must have been for her as a young mother, far from her native Spain.

I wonder if she felt the same kind of excited ‘want to shout this news to the world,’ yet partly apprehensive love that springs forth when first she learned she was expecting me or my siblings.  Did she worry too, when her body began to change?  When she felt  that first kick and realized that there’s this other person growing within, did she wonder what lay ahead?  Did she also wonder what her children will be like? What kind of persons they will become? And if her children will love her too?

Did she, like me, feel that awesome love that takes root in a mother’s heart that precious moment when first we see our child, carry her in our arms and realize that life will never be the same?  That this little person will always come first, and that our lives will be intertwined forever?

Did she feel that tender, nurturing love when we cradle the baby in our arms and croon her to sleep?  The ‘grit your teeth, bite your lips’ dogged kind of love that lets her suckle, even when your nipples bleed, or carry her for hours even when your back aches.

Did she, like me, have that fierce, determined drive to protect our children from harm, and to discipline and guide them to develop the values they need to survive.  Did it break her heart too each time her children cried from scruffed knees, doctor’s visits, failed quizzes, childhood scrapes, and later from the disappointments of break-ups or misunderstandings?

Did she feel proud when her children garnered honors at school, or acted in a play, or won a school competition?  Did she too have that gut-wrenching feeling of seeing her children grieve over their father’s death, and of not knowing how to kiss this kind of pain away?  How did she manage to pick up the shattered pieces and patch everything back so that her children will feel secure?  How was she able to console her grieving children, when she couldn’t even breathe from pain herself?

Did she too experience the same hurt, when my once adoring children, now teenagers, begin to question me or worse rebel, and I feel them slipping away to become their own person, making their own decisions and living life apart from me?

Did she revel when she realized, like I do now, that the babies I once cradled in my arms, are now full-grown men and women?  That these children can now stand on their own.  Live.  Laugh.  Love.  That they in many, many ways are a better me.  And that somehow along the way, I must have done something good for them to turn out so well.

As I watched my children in the kitchen cook a special Mother’s Day lunch for Dada and me, I whispered a prayer of thanks to the Lord for blessing me with the inestimable joys of motherhood and for allowing me a taste of heaven here on earth.

Thank you, Dada, for bringing me into this world, and for loving me the same way Abuela loved you, with the same kind of unconditional love that makes women soldier on no matter what, through all the pains and heartaches of motherhood.  Indeed, we carry our mother and our mother’s mother, and all the mothers before us, in our heart.  As will our daughters do, some day.

Tourism, Uncategorized, Women

Jobs and Women in Philippine Tourism Forum

At the Jobs and Women in Philippine Tourism Forum organized by the Department of Tourism on April 30, 2019, we tackled various concerns of women in tourism, current trends in gender equality and women empowerment, as well as job opportunities in different sectors like farm tourism, travel and tours, and M.I.C.E. (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions/Events).

A staunch supporter of women empowerment and herself a role model of women leadership, DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat officially opened the forum.  She shared her experiences as DOT Secretary and previously Undersecretary for the Department of Agriculture, where she met women from all walks of life as she traveled all over the Philippines, and how they warmed up to her once she talked about being a widow at a young age and having to take care of two children. Indeed, stripped of job titles, we are all women at heart, bound by a common desire to take care of our loved ones, and make a better life for them.

Atty. Edwin R. Enrile, Chairperson, Gender and Development Focal Point System (GFPS), Department of Tourism discussed Trends in Gender Equality in the tourism industry.  It was interesting that the only male speaker in the morning heads Gender and Development at DOT.

Ms. Sandra Sanchez Montano, Board of Commissioner, Philippine Commission on Women, shared her passion about helping women succeed, and ensuring their health and safety, especially after her near death experience during an earthquake. I was happy to meet a fellow ASEAN Awardee, one who broke the barriers in a male-dominated field, driving ambulances and leading search and rescue missions during calamities.

Ms. Grace Baldoza, Deputy Program Manager, Bureau of Local Employment, DOLE shared statistics on In-Demand Jobs for Filipino Women.  It was alarming that women workers in agriculture were declining, while women workers in other industries were on the rise.

Inspiring women to go beyond traditional careers and go where men only dared, Chezka Raumae Gonzales-Garrido relates how she, as a flight stewardess, decided to learn how to fly a commercial plane. Chezka is now a First Officer at Air Asia.  She makes it her mission to continually inspire women to become achievers.

I spoke on MICE as a new product of DOT,  and the job prospects open to women in MICE, from organizing business events as project managers to owning their own event management companies.  Women dominate the Business Meetings industry in the Philippines, as can be seen from membership in the Philippine Association of Convention and Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers, Inc. (PACEOS). My own  company, TeamAsia is women-owned and women-led, with 7 of 8 management committee members being women. Majority of our workforce are women as they exhibit the qualities needed for project management: excellent communication and people skills; ability to multitask, plan strategy and lead a team; creativity in designing and marketing events; being detail oriented; and managing and controlling a budget.

Likewise, Josie Costales of Costales Nature Farms spoke of the joys and benefits of working on agri-tourism.  What started as a weekend retreat transformed into a thriving business, as she and her workers provided farm-life experiences to city guests.

Gina Romero of Connected Women shared how women need not be tied to a fixed schedule and be penned in a fixed work environment as they can do digital work from the comfort of their home. Proof that Connected Women is a vibrant network was palpable when a big group of participants suddenly asked to have a photo with Gina onstage.

Aileen Clemente, CEO of Rajah Tours, moderated the morning panel, which dealt with issues such as how technology is affecting or better yet enabling women in tourism.  As Sharon ably put it, we women should support each other and practice ABC: 1) audit ourselves to know our strengths and weaknesses, 2) build our network, and 3) collaborate with other women.

The Department of Tourism envisions to empower women by creating more job opportunities, and to make the tourism industry a gender-responsive, community-and women-empowered. DOT is definitely on its way to achieve its objectives.

The afternoon featured a talk by Diane Zoleta, CEO of Yapak.ph, who shared success stories of Filipinas who served as tourism drivers fir their community, such as Apo Whang Od, the oldest mambabatok of the Butbut tribe whose fame as a tattoo master draws enthusiasts to her village for a chance to be tattoed, willingly trekking for miles. A woman vendor in Marikina, famed for her street food, draws foodies to her community to try her smokey delicacies. Another woman dared get into lantern making in Pampanga, a male-dominated industry, and her fame has attracted followers wanting to own one of her lanterns. As an aggregator of tourism drivers, Yapak.ph opens opportunities to women in Philippine tourism to show what they are capable of, helping make their communities thrive.

Mylene Abiva, CEO of Abiva, international ambassador for Robotics, and a fellow trustee of the Women’s Business Council Philippines, talked about iMakeHistory, an installation of various Philippines tourist sites built entirely out of Lego pieces, which can be found in intramuros. Mylene a staunch supporter of women in STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, encouraged the participants to make use of their skills and technology to further tourism in the country.

I served as moderator for the afternoon open forum, tackling issues like work-life balance for women, sponsors who gave them a leg up in their career, overcoming odds and succeeding, and finding their passion in life.  Mylene and Diane gamely answered the questions of the participants, and shared their thoughts on how we can all be tourism drivers.

The forum ended with closing remarks by DOT Undersecretary Bong Benzon, who reiterated DOT’s thrust to further improve opportunities for women in Philippine tourism.  Truly, this was a forum that mattered, not just in highlighting women empowerment in tourism, but in connecting like minded women in their quest to succeed.