Call for speakers: DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit 2012

We are now gearing up for the 3rd DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit 2012. This will be an intensive 1-day educational event on e-commerce strategies scheduled to take place on February 24, 2012 at The Peninsula Manila, corner of Ayala Avenue and Makati Avenue, Makati City from 9 am to 5 pm. 

Register today to confirm your seat(s)!

If you have a great e-commerce experience or 2012 insight that you believe can be imparted as competitive knowledge in this conference, I will very much appreciate if you can contact me with your suggested topic that includes the following:

• Topic title 
• Description 
• Case study (studies) / lessons learned to be imparted 

If your topic gets chosen, I will contact you right away. In addition, sponsorship opportunities are available and I can send you more details if you are interested.

Conference Program 

Attendees to this event can expect a highly-interactive session with e-commerce players and industry practitioners. Topics being considered in the agenda includes (subject to change):

• State of E-Commerce in the Philippines
• Extending your presence to the mobile device (Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone)
• Taking advantage of the 2nd Internet (new e-commerce opportunities with IPV6)
• Where are the Customers? (how come we have low sales despite creating a useful website and social media presence?)
• Using Local Payment Platforms (moving merchants away from international players)
• Getting your Start-Up Running and Attractive to Investors
• E-Commerce Business, Search, and Social Models for 2012

Free conference pass to DigitalFilipino Club members:

• Corporate members (3 representatives) 
• SME members (2 representative) 
• Individual members (can attend but slot is not transferable)
• Additional club member and sponsor delegates are entitled to 15% discount. 

Register today to confirm your seat(s)!

December 8: Free Webinar: The Making of a Serial Entrepreneur / Technopreneur

We are kicking-off the DigitalFilipino Start Up 100 Project - Digital Entrepreneur Program with our first free webinar happening on December 8, 2011 from 8 pm to 9:30 pm.

Our topic is "The Making of a Serial Entrepreneur" with honorary club member and mentor Lawrence Hughes of InfoWeapons.

Agenda as follows:

1. Lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur in tech start-ups - Mycroft Labs and Mika L.P.
2. Lessons learned in working for companies under Incentive Stock Options.
3. Lessons learned as employee and junior investor under CipherTrust
4. Lessons learned in current business - InfoWeapons.
5. What characterizes an entrepreneur?
6. Advice to college students and yuppies wanting to become technopreneurs.
7. How can I prepare to become an entrepreneur / technopreneur?
8. What to watch out for in running a start up?
9. The magic of Private Stock.
10. Suggested resources

Please fill-up this form to join the webinar.

Kindly expect Heidi Kleiber to send you an e-mail to confirm your registration to this free webinar.

November 28: Cebu: SEO Tools & Techniques 101 Hands-on Workshop

All DigitalFilipino.com Club members are invited to attend the forthcoming SEO Tools & Techniques 101 workshop this November 28, 2011 from 1:30 pm to 5 pm at SM Cebu 3, lower ground floor at Unit A007 SM City Cebu, North Reclamation Area, Cebu City.

This training, to be delivered on its 9th time, have been conducted in areas such as Manila, Bacolod, Cebu, Cagayan De Oro, Davao, Iloilo, and Boracay.

DigitalFilipino.com Club members can send participants for free on this training noting the following conditions:

• Corporate members - 3 participants
• SME members - 2 participants
• Individual members can attend (not transferable)
• Non-participants can pay the fee of P700 pesos. (Kindly note that food is not inclusive in this training.)

Participants should fill-up the registration form below and await slot confirmation.

The agenda shall be as follows:

• Creation of a Search Engine Marketing Plan
  Discussion and Demonstration
  Introduction of search engine marketing and optimization. Topics include:
  
  • Identify niche positioning for products and services that you will sell, target customers, buying frequency and motivation
  • Keywords discovery, attractiveness analysis and navigation (some tools on keyword research and analysis)
  • Competition analysis
  • Improving your website page titles, description, menus, body text, other assets and good content (on-page optimization)
• Practical SEO tools & techniques (hands-on)
  - link building
  - article submission
  - social bookmarking & tagging
  - directory submission
  - links through blog post
  - social media marketing
  - blog marketing

Register today. For inquiries, just contact Janette Toral.

DigitalFilipino Start-up 100 Project

As I shared in our Facebook group and in this article, I have been studying the idea of coming up with a project to help start-ups (companies less than 5 years old) and rolling this out within the DigitalFilipino Club.

Here are some of the ideas about it and would like to ask our SME and Corporate members participation in this project on two aspects: (your inputs will also be appreciated)

1. Be a mentor (aiming for 100)
This is where you can share your knowledge through either a webinar, recorded learning session, face-to-face workshop, and consultation session. You can pick a topic(s) you like - preferably one where you see it most valuable for start-ups.

2. Be an investor (aiming for 100)
I aim for the program to help 100 start-ups (beginning and market expansion stage). SME or Corporate members supporting this project needs to invest in at least 1 start-up for the one year period (before end of 2012) in order to continue receiving notice of applications and start-up presentations (webinar / face-to-face).

Club members interested can contact me, give topics you are interested in handling, for our mentoring sessions.

For investors, please indicate as well an estimated amount you will be willing to invest (cash and value in exchange) for start-ups. For example, 250k in cash and 250k through services (for a total of 500k) for one start-up. This will help give me an indication on the pool we have for this project too.


Digital Entrepreneurship Program (free learning online) 

The DigitalFilipino Club site will also be updated today announcing this project, encouraging people to sign-up in our free learning sessions online. The list of mentors (those of you who will reply) shall also be listed.

The learning session topics are given by mentors. Some are also inspired from the books High Tech Start Up, Business Model Generation, and Art of the Start. Will add more resources as mentors suggest them.


Start-Up Application Process
Those who are ready to apply for start-up support / funding will also be able to fill-up a form online.

1. Upon receipt of application, the first round of online presentation will be done with me so I can review what they have to offer and prepare them further for the group (those of you who will join this project).

2. Start-up presents online to the group (those of you who will join this project).

3. Investor(s) (those of you who will join this project) interested with the company shall be set-up and introduced for face-to-face meeting and presentation.

4. Proceed with negotiations from there.

I was at first struggling with the idea of processing application on a per-batch basis accepting only 6 out of a bulk number. Decided, for now, not to adopt such an idea in order to help more digital entrepreneurs out there.

Note that Mentors / Investors participation in this project is for SME and Corporate members only of the DigitalFilipino Club.

Start-Ups seeking access to online learning and funding need not be club members. However, club members seeking funding help will get access to our club materials, learning sessions, consultation sessions, and other members-only privileges.