What? is there no one who will say “cute pala ni Ed in person??? )

Edwin C. Ebreo

Thank you Pia and all for the appreciation. Putting this event together is a great challenge since the e-group has no funds to start with.

This is volunteerism in action. Each member in the committee went the distance, taking time out from our individual schedule to meet and brainstorm, to scout for venue, source sponsors and advertisers, bargain with suppliers and service providers so we can make the reg fee affordable if not totally free. Our intention is to provide the entry level and junior HR practitioners an avenue to learn and network with fellow HR practitioners. In one of the meetings, we even considered holding the convention to a venue good only for 100 pax, thinking that we’ll be lucky to gather 100 people. But the group believed on a worthy cause, and pursued what we thought at the beginning as close to impossible. JM advanced the reservation fee for the venue. Members assisted in looking for sponsors, Sarah and her husband offered their office for meetings, President Ricky spearheaded the meetings and provided merienda whenever we meet in his office. Tatay Austri ensured that you are informed of the updates thru his email blasts. We also started a blog, http://hrph.wordpress.com , as another tool to keep you informed. Ed and his group conceptualized and managed the program, Raffy took care of the souvenir magazine, Mar and his group ensured registration is smooth and you are comfortable during the convention The various speakers took the time to research and put together materials that will be helpful. There are many more whose names I may have missed but they also passionately extended a helping hand for this endeavor.

Of Course ARIVA did a good job marketing and managing the event.

This convention is the brainchild, of Jhing Ureta. Since GK Lim will be on the country, she said why not hold a gathering for HR Philippines during that time, the rest is history.

Indeed, congratulations HR Philippines!

Sonnie E. Santos

We thought it could not be done — including yours truly .

What? Charge each participant 700 pesos (that’s less than US$20)? That amount would not cover food/venue cost! And no promotion, marketing, advertising budget? And given less than three months from concept to execution?

I felt it was next to impossible.

But Jing (Maria Conception Ureta) said, “Why not? What are you people worried about? Go ahead. Believe that help will come.”

And sure enough. The almost impossible happened. The response was so overwhelming that HR Phil President Ricky (Frederick C Gumaru) had to issue an announcement that registration was closed long before closing date — the committee had to refund
some money to unsuccessful registrants.

And Jing wrote to me, “There are sponsors who believe in our cause. We have enough money now to run the convention.”

And so, on 29 August 2007 at College of St Benilde Hotel, the miracle unfolded. The First HR PhilConvention. Run so smoothly that it would put the most experienced convention producer to shame.

What an honor and a privilege it was to be at the convention. My wife and I woke up at 6 am, and from that moment on until late in the evening (at 9 pm) when we returned to our hotel, it was one huge unforgetable right brain experience.

The convention started on time — something that most committee members never expected, what with the peculiarly Filipino habit of being fashionably late.

Thanks particularly to the untiring efforts of the young and talented logistics committee led by JM Matienzo and Julia (Kathleen Anne M. Palana), both from Ariva! Business Center, the convention went on smoothly without any major hiccups

Highlights:

1. Because of the big crowd and the limited space at CSB Hotel, lunch and tea break were served creatively at the participants’ tables, while the session was going on, with minimal distraction by CSB student-staff.

2. Lunch was fun with Philippine Daily Enquirer marketing personnel entertaining us with their wit and gifts.

3. Transition from planery session to breakout session and then back to planery session again moved smoothly thru creative planning of room setup — I would say that’s a stroke of genius.

4. Choice of topic and speakers for all sessions well balanced. Even the presentation by Atty. Joe-Santos Balagtas Bisquera on Philippine labour law — a topic overwhelmingly accepted in the HR convention circuit as an extremely dull subject –
drew laughter from the audience — simply because Joe is passionate about helping the downtrodden employee sector.

5. Support of the sponsors: overwhelming! Because they believed in the organizing
committee’s (and Jing’s) sincerely desire to help the entry-level HR department employees. Imagine, the grand prize of the raffle was a complete Fire
Fox PC computer, won by ticket holder 299.

6. The sincere desire of the volunteer organizing committee to help — and helped they did, putting in so much energy into their respective functions/jobs, not to mention taking out money from their own pockets for incidental expenses — knowing that Jing’s motive was to help the entry level HR department employees — the very foundation of HRPhilippines membership.

7. And the participants, oh, ever so forgiving for the minor hiccups that could have happened.

I could write on and on — but I’ll stop now because my wife and I want to go on a Manila city tour. No rain today.

Yes, Jing, thank you so much for believing that it could be done.

And Major Teoh, thank you for believing so much in Jing.

To other virtual group moderators, take this cue from Jing (HRD Gateway President 2007): don’t think of how much money you will make from a convention, or how much money you’d lose if you charge less than US$20 per delegate. Don’t worry
about whether people would attend — or whether there would be sponsors. Or whether there would be enough volunteers to help. Just remember this: most of your members are entry level HR department employees — they are not the ones normally sent
to those minimum-US$1,500-per-head conferences held at 5-star hotels — think of them. And then announce that a less-than-US$20-per-head conference would be held for them. No other motives. Then wait for the fireworks to happen — you will get overwhelming response from just your group alone (there’s no need to market to other
people; the news will spread like wildfire) — you will get big companies pounding at your door, saying they want to be sponsors — you will get an army of volunteers who want to help (get volunteers who are young, because they are creative, and full of life) — you will get great speakers who really, really want to share and not just want to promote themselves — and you will get the expertise of one conference producing
company, for free. Need advise?

Write to HR Phil President Ricky (Frederick C Gumaru), and to JM Matienzo and Julia
(Kathleen Anne M. Palana). And to Jing!

I’ll collect the pictures and the videos clips, and upload them on the Net — and soon you’ll see images of the Miracle that is the First HRPhilippines Conference.

May you be happy, healthy, and well always!

G. K. Lim

Hi GK,

Thank you for the kind words. It really is a miracle of sorts. It is a group effort from the organizing committee, the marketing partner, the sponsors, the participants, the venue, even Kelly and you. I will not attempt to list names as I will surely forget, especially those who helped in the background without any intent for recognition.

Pat on the back to everyone!

Frederick C. Gumaru

To all those who attended the JE session (and those who were not able to attend but are interested in the topic):

At the end of the session, a number of concerns were raised but since we did not have the time, we just skimmed their surfaces. I cannot now connect the faces to the concerns raised. However, I made a promise that I will help you address your particular concerns and try to recommend ways to address them. I have given you my yahoo address so you can e-mail them to me. Wilfredo Bobis <williebobis@yahoo.com

Regards,

Willie Bobis

Hi Willie,

I just got out of the hospital yesterday. I was diagnosed with pneumonia. I am now recovering.

Thank you very much for taking over the talk on Job Evaluation and Salary Structure Design at the very successful 1st HR Philippines Convention!

Please extend my warm regards to Ricky and others.

Again my sincerest thanks.

Raffy Perfecto

 

Hi there sir Ricky!! Yes Iam so lucky… not with the raffle but being an organizer. Having the chance to work with the core committee is really challenging but it’s all worth it, win partners, meet new possible clients, the old & the existing clients were so rewarding. I even found my long lost best friend from Megaworld, Ms. Chel Perez. Of course.. proud to be a “WF” (member lang ako ha founder sonnie?? & co-founder Rolando??) .. See u guys on the 12th

Genecris Clark

 

Hi April and all,

Some members of HRPhilippines are clamoring for a 2nd re-echo of the 1st convention and seminars. About 20 out of 100 who send their biodata to me said yes said but were not able to attend for various reason emailed me privately they want a chance for a repeat performance. I am again volunteering (God Willing)to serve hrphilippines. I personally think uploading the materials now would be unfair to those companies and individuals who paid brought 4 to 5 officemates and friends just to attend all the breakout sessions. However, we don’t intend to sell the materials and we decide on the next meating when we will upload it.

Most of the Volunteer Organizers are very busy now attending to their work, other activities including their families which they left behind for our almost 3 months of preparation to make the our first big project successful. We will be meeting to evaluate the good points and areas of improvement hopefully with two weeks after the convention.

We will later decide on whether to do a re-echo this year or next year. If we need to a re-echo (God willing), we need a lot of volunteers to email us now to be part of the next big project. We are emailing privately all the 280 members who earlier submitted their biodata form to us. The form is available at our site Admin 5
DATABASE INFORMATION OF HRPHILIPPINES MEMBERS

Personally, I will not give the presentation seminar to anybody because we must make sure that we will break even on the cost to run a re-echo of the convention and seminar.

If you attended the seminar all participants were given free cd of the 5 talk seminar in pps, except the talk of our guest speaker Mr. GK Lim and that Mr. Willie Bobis who replaced Mr. Raffy Perfecto who was sick. The job evaluation seminar talk of Mr. Perfecto is almost the same as that of Mr. Willie Bobis.

Mr. Willie Bobis told me that he promised to send his own presentation to all the participants who attended breakout session. He gave his email address during the session and I supposed some had already emailed him and got their ppt copy. Just make sure that when you ask for a copy that you attended his session.

With regards to the pps materials on the talked of Mr. G. K. Lim, I am hoping that he can send it to me as soon as he is rested and I will send it privately only to those who attended the August 29 convention as soon as I got the completed participants list from Arriva!

Austri G. Basinillo