More than 500 IT professionals, tech enthusiasts, and students from Mindanao joined the DevCon Summit 2019 held recently at Capitol University, Cagayan de Oro.
DevCon 2019 is organized by Developers Connect Philippines in collaboration with the private sector, including PLDT and wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. It featured talks by tech community leaders and breakout sessions focusing on how developers could leverage current trends for skills development, career opportunities, and best practices.
Highlighting the theme “The Future of Jobs, Embracing Industry 4.0,” PLDT Innolab lead Dara Ever Juan put emphasis on community collaboration in improving the skills of IT students and professionals.
“Being active in the community has helped me become empowered. From that experience, I have learned more tips on how I could improve our programs and create solutions for the community,” she said.
PLDT Innolab is the innovation laboratory of the company’s b2b arm, PLDT Enterprise. It serves as an incubator to test and develop upcoming products and business solutions. It also focuses on business development with startups; strategic partnerships with the academe, government, and developer communities; and programs such as prototyping, innovation studio, and codevelopment with startups and universities.
“We’ve been active in supporting startup communities and meeting more students, leaders, and members who are interested to collaborate with PLDT. Today, we have innovation studios nationwide, and hopefully, we could have it also in Cagayan de Oro because the developer community here is very active,” she added.
Alyssa Primacio, a business administration student of Central Mindanao University and DevCon participant, said aspiring startups should look for the problem of the community first before creating solutions.
“Some farmers in Bukidnon have little to no access to vehicles to transport their products to their buyers. Because of this, I started a minimum viable product or MVP that would help them reach their market, by transporting their products directly to the buyers,” she said.
“With technology, we could develop a website or an app integrating this initiative to make the lives of our farmers easier,” she added.
PLDT Innolab is looking for startups, community partners, developers, and interns. Interested parties may email innolab@pldt.com.ph.