Towards a year of #ShapingIloilo
The Global Shapers Iloilo is a non-profit community of young people (most of whom are in their twenties) who want to drive dialogue, action and change to shape the future of Iloilo, Philippines. We were established in 2014 as one of the city-based hubs of the Global Shapers Community — an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
Given the fast growth of our city and province, we aim to help shape a better Iloilo that nurtures the youth’s holistic development — where the youth’s innovative / entrepreneurial potential can thrive. In other words, we are #ShapingIloilo for the youth.
Since July 2017 (the start of a “Shaper Year”), the Iloilo Hub has been embarking on this mission to drive conversation and develop platforms that can encourage Ilonggos to play an active role in shaping our city and province for the better.
Here’s what we have been up to:
JULY 2017
- Iloilo Hub was recognized as one of the survey affiliates of the influential Global Shapers Survey 2017 (http://www.shaperssurvey2017.org/) which has been cited by international media like Inc.com, Business Insider, and Forbes.
SEPTEMBER 2017
Our Curator, Noreen Bautista, represented our Hub in the Annual Curators’ Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, joining over 300 curators from all over the world including the other Philippine Curators. During the Meeting, best practices regarding hub management were shared, and bonds were formed, along with collaborations and linkages.
OCTOBER 2017
- Iloilo Shapers represented the Hub at the Shape Asia Pacific 2017 held last October 12–14 at Cebu City, Philippines. This was a gathering of Shapers in the Asia Pacific region but was also participated in by Shapers from Europe, North and Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
- This was also the month when we officially launched our #ShapingIloilo movement. We started with the topic of tourism, led by three shapers — Mikee Canaman, Joed Larano and Paolo Tirador — who are advocates in this field. This led to the launching of the #BucketIloilo campaign — an initiative aimed at promoting Iloilo by Ilonggos.
NOVEMBER 2017
- Iloilo Shapers collaborated with the Iloilo City Government to develop ILOILOvation — a movement to promote innovation in all sectors of Iloilo. The first initiative of ILOILOvation was KABALAKATech 2017 which had the goal of developing innovative solutions to Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) challenges in Iloilo City (KABALAKA is the community-based DRRM program of Iloilo City; It is also a Hiligaynon word for “care”). For this, the Global Shapers Iloilo partnered with the Tuklas Consortium (a coalition of international and local organizations such as Care International, Plan International, etc.) which also runs and funds promising DRRM ideas. Top teams were considered for the Tuklas Acceleration program. The Shapers who led this were Hera Barrameda, Rayjand Gellamucho and Noreen Bautista.
DECEMBER 2017
- 2017 ended on a high note when the Global Shapers Iloilo hub finally got its legal registration from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), thereby making us a duly registered non-profit association of the Republic of the Philippines.
JANUARY 2018
- BucketIloilo covered the 50th Dinagyang Celebration in Iloilo
- Global Shapers Iloilo also welcomed the first cohort of interns from the West Visayas State University College of Communications
FEBRUARY 2018
- Five (5) Iloilo Shapers represented the Iloilo Hub at the Inaugural Philippine Shaper Retreat hosted by Davao Hub. The Retreat resulted in the Philippine hubs outlining a nationwide roadmap for the rest of the year. The roadmap includes: (1) Doing a Nationwide Recruitment of New Shapers, (2) Running a Nationwide Youth Survey on the issues of Philippine youth, (3) Sharing best practices including governance processes, (4) Creating a Nationwide project based on the survey results.
- We also ran two #ShapingIloilo roundtables this month
One was on Volunteerism
This was led by our Shapers, Christopher Millora and Sheryl Cordero.
The other one was on defining the Tech Startup Scene
This wad led by the same Shapers who started the ILOILOvation initiative.
MARCH to JUNE 2018
We are now in the month of March, and we are down to the last four months of the “Shaper Year” until a new Curatorship assumes in July. Here is what is in store for us:
#ShapingIloilo — Startups and Innovation in Iloilo
Since the last roundtable, it has been agreed that there will be a Tech Startup huddle every third Wednesday night of the month. Shapers will help organize these huddles. We are also in the process of preparing our next phase for the collaboration with the government.
#ShapingIloilo — Tourism
Bucket Iloilo will continue and will move to its next phase of offering tours. We are excited to be working on cultural tours that highlight the community, including a very special one in April that is in line with one of the inter-hub projects of the Global Shapers Community (Hint: it involves the local fashion industry!)
#ShapingIloilo — Volunteerism
After the last roundtable on volunteerism, there is now a community of volunteer organizations that will be developed in order to exchange best practices in developing meaningful volunteer participation.
The volunteer platform ShapingIloilo.org will also be launched to open more volunteer opportunities for the youth.
We are also looking forward to strengthen our partnerships with the academe, business, civil society and government sectors in the next few months.
Stay tuned for more updates! :)
