AngelHack Manila: Global Hackathon Attracts Hundreds of IT Specialists ( Day 1)

12th Floor  Anson’s Building , Asian Development Bank  Avenue , Ortigas Center ,  Pasig City- Metro Manila -Philippines

Anson’s Building

This is the biggest hackathon challenge that every local and even international IT specialists are waiting to participate .  There close to 300 Philippine -based developers attempt to hack their way into Silicon Valley in the United States of America  and win more than 2 million pesos worth of prizes by joining the local leg of the Angel Hack Spring Global Challenge.

I am  very excited to be chosen as one of the few bloggers/ writers to cover this once in a lifetime opportunity . Although i got a chance to cover some local hackaton events in the past  , I think this is the creme dela creme of  the I.T. competition.

volunteers manned the secretariat / registration counter group picture

Day 1: Secretariat

I have met some of the volunteers during the registration period , some of them are still students  while some are already working .  They are the life blood or unsung heroes of the event.  They are also part of the team which we call ” Walang Tulugan ” – ( No Sleep) since they will be manning the registration and the activities for more than 24 hours !

 

participants

The venue  is hosted by Voyager Innovations and Chikka company located on the 12th floor  and 13th floor of the Anson’s Building .  The area is festooned with a lot of red and white ballons ! It is a fiesta -like  or a valentine dating event .  Everyone is in the festive mood.

Mr. Earl Valencia

He’s the President and Co-founder of IdeaSpace -Philippines (Click here for their website). He’s also the Head of Strategy in Smart Communications. A Stanford graduate.

Mr. Greg Gopman

Mr. Greg Gopman is the co-founder and CEO of Angel Hack  greeted all the participants . He enthusiastically said   “Manila is a hotbed for developer talent, not just in Southeast Asia, but worldwide ” .  His presence during the Manila leg of Angel Hack makes the Philippine event even more important .

Mr. Josh Constine

Mr. Josh Constine is the person behind Tech Crunch.com and a regular contributor in several technology based newspaper and magazines.  He is also an art lover and music lover .

Techcrunch.com: http://techcrunch.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/techcrunch

Mr. Franco Liu Eisma

Amazon web services – country manager ( Philippines)

Mr. Greg Gopman together with the Angel Hack- Manila ambassadors and organizers

Mr. Josh Constine together with Mr. Ren Joshua D. Ramirez and Mr. Nikko ( volunteers)

Mr. Rafael Oca

He is the CMO , and Co-founder of HobbyMash which is registered in Singapore.

The recipient of multiple digital startup awards, HobbyMash Pte. Ltd. has clients in Singapore, the Philippines, and the United States. Their client list includes ABS-CBN (Philippines), Summit Planners (Singapore), and Maddington Consulting (USA).

Website: http://www.hobbymash.com/

Angel Hack -Manila 2013 organizers and sponsors

A hackathon ( also called to as hack fest , code festival )  is a contest where a developer team conceptualizes ( usually 4 to 5 person per team)  create  programs  to develop their apps and presents a software  application to a panel of judges, within 24- hours  .   In some cases , some global hackaton events can last for several days or even weeks !

lunch buffet

Food is not a problem in Angel Hack – Manila , Food is served buffet style with several viands like mix vegetables, lumpiang shanghai , fish fillet , lechon and Filipino sorbetes ! One of the participant said that it was like a FOOD Festival .

Mr. Paul Pajo with the Asian Institute of  Management students

Mr. Paul Pajo a social media evangelist together with a group of students from Asian Institute of Management who help the hackaton groups in their business model.

Mr. Mark Anthony Wagan

Mr. Mark Anthony Wagan caught in a light moment playing . He is the manager and CEO of  Soft Micro Enterprises.  Aside from software devices . His company conducts regular business seminars in relation to I.T.

Website: http://softmicroenterprises.webs.com/

 Mr. Ken Daganio and Mr. Diego Jose Ramos ( in Iron Man head mask) playing

 This mascot was brought by a team to brighten their day

a participant preparing a software device

group picture with Mr. Josh Constine

Our group had a short press conference with Mr. Josh Constine before we left the venue place at around 6:00pm

Please visit the Angel Hack- Manila  ( Day 2) :https://renz15.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/angelhack-manila-global-hackathon-attracts-hundreds-of-it-specialists-day-2/

Angel Hack- Manila Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AngelHackManila

ICT Innovation Converge 2013 in Calamba, Laguna

2nd Floor Jollibee , Calamba Crossing, Calamba City – Laguna province, Philippines

I left our home somewhere in northern Metro Manila early dawn and took the first MRT trip at around 5:05 am bound for Buendia ( Senator Gil Puyat) station.  Then took a provincial bus going to Santa Cruz , traffic is not heavy  since it was early in the morning .  I finally arrived in SM -Calamba branch past 7:00 am and then walked for a few minutes towards the venue site.

Secretariat

I was warmly greeted by the event organizer , Mr. Mark Anthony Wagan and the rest of the secretariat .  They offered a breakfast meal and we talk for a couple of minutes . Slowly the participants appeared .   I was  worried that with such a wonderful list of topics and speakers,  the tendency of some registrants is to be late or did not physically attend the summit  !

Mr. Mark Anthony Wagan

After the brief introduction , the first speaker was formally introduced to the crowd.

Mr. Eusebio Barrun Jr.

Mr. Eusebio Barrun Jr. is the Mozilla -Philippines country manager from Calamba , Laguna . A Mozilla representative and a ReMo mentor.  He is a graduate of AB Communications from Aquinas University of Legazpi and is currently taking -up Masters in Information Technology Management. He is also a faculty in Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Calamba .

To summarized Mozilla ,The mission which is a non-profit Global organization , Public benefit while its Mission is Choice, Innovation and Participation. In fact there are at least 12 Mozilla country representative .

Mr. Joben Rara

Mr. Joben Rara is currently a technical evangelist at Microsoft promoting the development of modern applications on Window 8. He loves all kinds of technology. He is passionate about the open and standard based web , HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript . When he is not programming code, He is busy programming 3 kids and debugging his pizza and cookie making skills.

Mr. Jobe Rara with the participants 

He also told the crowd that the increasing number of Microsoft users from all parts of the world with 690 million users and still growing !

Mr. Arnie Locsin

Mr. Arnie Locsin introduce to the people the importance of CLOUD Computing – What is  the Cloud ? – An approach to computing that’s about internet scale  and connecting to a variety of devices and end points.

Mr. Randy B. Cabrero

Mr. Randy Cabrero is AVP Optimax Solution System Incorporated which manage groups of IT consultants on infrastructure, data base and Business productivity  .  He also talked on SMART homes and buildings. Energy saving techniques for companies and wide application.

Ms. Patricia Celis

Ms. Patricia B. Celis is the Business Development Manager of IPsystems, and has been in the internet security industry for 7 years. She discussed the Bitdefender anti-virus solution  and Deep Freeze reboot to restore software.

She also cited some Philippine schools and companies that have been partners with Bitdefender like Department of Health , Department of Justice, Technological Institute of the Philippines , Overseases Workers Welfare Administration , West Visayas State University , Asian Terminals Incorporated among others.

Bit Defender : http://www.bitdefender.com/

Mr. Paul Tan

Mr. Paul Tan is  system engineer, handling enterprise and commercial accounts with over 20 years in the ICT industry . He discussed the topic: Internet of Everything

Mr. Nikko Almazan

Mr. Nikko Almazan is a Academic Solution Specialist , He graduated from San Beda College -Alabang . He worked for Microsoft for about a year handling Education . He presented the CSR projects of Microsoft and GREEN technologies , Dreamspark Tools, Student Imagine Cup , Students Microsoft partnership program .

Mr. Paul Pajo

Mr. Paul Pajo is a Developer Evangelist of SMART Communication

Apptivism project

Apptivism-This isn’t traditional activism where you can see people carrying banners, posters and congregating in streets .   This isn’t online Hacktivism, of the sort demonstrated by Anonymous. This is something else, passive online activism. Activism on the Internet, through your phone, or TV, or tablet, accessed by a Facebook application or You Tube  .  This is making a social change , such as netizens being active in helping other people in need .

In the era of social media, politics is a different form. Our information is now coming to us unfiltered and uncensored by any agenda, from dozens of sources, and we are actively encouraged to interact, to like or dislike, to shape the news and what comes next.

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6425064541/efblike