Bicol Web3 Meet Up: BUIDLr Dinner puts Bicolano tech startups and companies in the spotlight
Organizers gave a glimpse of how Web3 can be integrated into their projects
The second day of the Bicol Web3 Meet Up has concluded and yet the organizers want to do more of the meetups in other locations too.
“Feeling ko Web3 roadshow ang tigi-gibo ta, garo after kaining Naga and Legazpi, dakol pa kitang dudumanan!”
(English translation: “It’s more like a Web3 roadshow, because we feel like even after visiting Naga and Legazpi, there will be more location where we will go!”).
The BUILDr Dinner in Albay is part of the two-day Bicol Web3 Meetup where BlockchainSpace and Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) Manila — the headline organizers from Metro Manila, together with the local blockchain technology startups and companies SparkPoint Technologies, Ownly, SparkLearn EdTech and MetaGaming Guild, hailing from the same region of the venues, mounts community meet ups discussions for blockchain technology and Web3.
A more intimate jam between projects
The setup for the BUILDr Dinner is more simplified and intimate, unlike the one that happened in The Avenue Plaza Hotel in Naga City where there’s a long program of activities, set of panelists and a substantial number of attendees coming from the different regions of the country. BUIDLr Dinner is more direct, like a dinner talk. One by one, the invited representatives of various tech startups and companies made their intros and briefly explained the project or company they are working with and after that, the dinner talks began. It’s like a big family dinner, talking about work and company updates.
Drei Bongalos, SparkPoint’s head of marketing started the event by welcoming everyone and invited the representatives of the organizing committee to give their welcome messages.
BlockchainSpace
Jeanifer Bilango, BlockchainSpace’s Corporate Strategy and Growth Lead gave a short talk about her company’s mission in the Web3 world and their efforts on mounting or joining community meet ups like the Bicol Web3 Meet Up. She stated the services that BlockchainSpace could offer to help the tech startups aiming to enter Web3 or integrate blockchain in their products and services, especially in Game Financing (GameFi) and its related aspects.
➡️ Explore BlockchainSpace’s services
Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) Manila
An overview of ICP’s services was introduced by ICP Manila Representative, Nelson Lumbres. He talked about how businesses can leverage Dfinity Internet Computer Protocol’s features live web serving though smart contracts, the cost-efficient operations businesses can take advantage when they build on the blockchain, and many more of which can help startups scale up faster.
➡️ About Internet Computer Protocol
After the organizer’s introduction, the guests and representatives were called one-by-one by the host to interview them and have them introduce the companies they are representing.
BicolIT.org
The first one to be called is the representative from BicolT.org, the premier organization of IT specialists, technicians, and other like-minded individuals in Bicol Region, have introduced the organization’s mission to transform the region into “a globally competitive Information Technology hub through Education and Technopreneurship.” The organization was introduced and represented by Felix Zuñiga.
Afterwards, local startups managed by university students, Quarta and Doormie have been interviewed and introduced their school campus and student-centered products and services.
Quarta
Quarta, a Financial Technology (FinTech) startup also joined the dinner and was represented by the CEO and co-founder herself, Clarence Nieva, who’s also a student and campus leader from Bicol University. Quarta’s team is composed mostly of students that leverage technology, aiming to bring banking and financial literacy to the countryside or rural areas in the country. In her interview, Clarence mentioned that their app will reach its minimum viable product (MVP) phase next year. Additionally, Clarence also mentioned that the project will also introduce and propose to student organizations a better way of issuing digital receipts through Quarta’s platform, streamlining the processes in the organizations, and saving resources like inks and paper, the most common materials being utilized in the campus. During the off-mic discussions, there were suggestions to integrate blockchain in Quarta’s system of record keeping, a true, tried, and tested solution-application of Blockchain Technology.
Doormie
Another student-led startup introduced their project, Doormie. Present at the dinner were the Managing Directors, Noel Chris Hernandez, and John Benneth Cabaltera, and the Technology Director, John Patrick Prieto. Their project aims to aid client-students who are in search of dormitories, boarding houses, and other kinds of accommodations. Their platform will let students know pertinent details about these accommodations like the location, amenities, pricing, and other info that may be useful for the student to make the best choice for their temporary housing near their universities and campuses. An audience reacted and described the platform as the “Airbnb for students.” Like Quarta, the project will reach the MVP phase in 2023.
➡️ Know more about Doormie Project
Nueca Technologies
Represented by Magno Edilberto Conag III, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder, has also joined the BUIDLr Dinner. Nueca Technologes, a true, home-grown Bicolano company, of which the company name was derived from the original Spanish name of Naga City “Nueva Caceres”, thus the name “Nueca.” The company’s portfolio of products and services stretches from an e-store app, food, and grocery delivery services to a COVID-19 utility app for contact tracing and logging.
During the introduction, Magno told the story of how their company braved and overcame the negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic to their business operations. It was around 2018 when one of their service app “Community Mart”, failed to capture a market in Naga City, meaning, there were only few that uses the app and because of that, the app was put on a hiatus. The pandemic came, the entire country was put into a lockdown, and communities couldn’t perform the usual everyday routines like grocery shopping. Magno found this opportunity for Community Mart to re-enter the market and used the pandemic to their app’s advantage and started gaining traction and steadily gained popularity. It was the perfect app for the community to continue buying their grocery items through the Community Mart app. It became the digital palengke (local supermarket or grocery store in Tagalog) on many communities, including key cities in Metro Manila like City of Pasig. Magno’s segment was truly an eye-opening moment during the BUIDLr Dinner, as it tells the story of managing a startup, that it’s a no-joke job and there’s no overnight success.
Argon Software
Argon Software, another home-grown company in Albay, was one of the attendees and represented by Joyce Hanna Regondola and Froilan Salgado. The company offers affordable but quality software services for various businesses. Their services range from web development to some blockchain-related integrations like NFT development deployments.
➡️ More from Argon Software
Department of Information and Communications Technology
The representatives of the government also graced the dinner night. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the executive department that deals with the “… planning, development and promotion of the country’s information and communications technology agenda were present and were represented by John Cordez — Information Systems Analyst and Odine Areola — Training Specialist II at DICT Region 5. In the interview, John and Odine, on behalf of the government organization, have expressed their full support to the thriving tech and Web3 community and its endeavors to further and intensify the digitalization efforts made in Albay. The two also mentioned their organization’s programs that support DICT’s mandates and the shared mission of the private and public sectors on developing and establishing ICT infrastructures that should further improve Filipinos lives through ICT.
Divine Word College of Legazpi
A representative of the academe was also present at the BUIDLr Dinner. JP Remar Serrano from the Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) department of Divine Word College of Legazpi (DWCL) were there. During the interview, he expressed his interest in exploring Blockchain Technology and the possibility of including it as a ‘field of study’ in ICT courses and programs in schools, especially at the tertiary level. This move would pave the way to more blockchain developers in the country, thus further supporting the booming growth of Web3 in the future, according to JP. The idea was applauded by the attendees and even got a nod from the representatives of DICT.
In between interviews, the Albay-grown tech-startups also did short introductions. SparkPoint Technologies represented by the Chief Operations Officer, Maria Kristine Joy Ibañez; Ownly NFT project, represented by Kina Añasco the Chief of Marketing, Bernard Historillo, the Chief Technology Officer, and Marketing Specialist, Kyle Jay Naron; SparkLearn EdTech CEO Melissa Mesias, Chief Technology Officer Harvey Javier, Senior Marketing Specialist Joy Kristi Balde, were present and have shared an overview of their products and services.
Convergence of ideas for business growth, through ICT and Blockchain Technology
Boosting businesses using ICT has been the main theme of the discussions during the BUIDLr dinner, but Blockchain Technology was the elephant in the room that night. Among the companies and startups that participated has ICT as one of their projects’ pillars, for scaling up, convenience, and efficiency on basically every aspect of their project, but only a few have dealt with the more specific by-product of ICT, Blockchain.
One of the key reasons why Blockchain-based companies like SparkPoint Technologies and among others have organized these community meet ups: for everyone to realize the advantages of the disruptive tech and reap its endless benefits.
Way back 2018, SparkPoint is one of the first few startups in the Philippines that took advantage of Blockchain Technology at its earliest form and application. SparkPoint Wallet, a non-custodial software wallet that can store BTC was one of the company’s earliest products that utilizes the technology, and since then, SparkPoint has produced a sprawling portfolio and ecosystem of products and services that leverages Blockchain Technology in the Fintech world, and one of it is their flagship product, the SparkSwap Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platform.
This 2022, SparkPoint have moved to offer its expertise about the field to the mass and established a new service that could realize the company’s mission to be part of the digital revolution through blockchain. The company launched SparkTech Development Services, the software services arm that will facilitate the client onboarding and integration of Blockchain Technology to clients’ businesses and projects.
Many ideas were produced during the dinner-discussion on how they will use blockchain on their businesses, and SparkPoint have expressed its will to help these businesses grow through SparkTech expertise.
It wasn't only SparkPoint that offered to go all-in on opening their doors for businesses, there were also ICP — offering the backbone for interoperability between blockchain networks, which could boost the businesses’ building efforts on Web3, BlockchainSpace — as experts on the field of GameFi, assisting gaming guilds maximize their potentials, SparkLearn EdTech — as an upskilling platform for developers to transitions from Web2 to Web3 through various upskilling programs like Blockchain Developer Bootcamp. And Ownly — providing opportunities for artists and creatives gamers through their NFT platform.
Stronger network of startups and companies
At the end of the BUIDLr Dinner, one major thing has been surely achieved, ‘stronger network’. The event has provided a venue for discussion of endless possibilities among projects in Albay. This also paved new network of startups and companies that will surely develop professional contacts for growth, benchmarking, outsourcing, and of course opportunities for partnership and collaboration. Strong connections like this helps fast-track the growth of ICT and mass adoption of Blockchain Technology, leading to a better and more inclusive digital future for everyone.
Learn more about SparkPoint and SparkSwap from the following links:
🏠 SparkPoint Website: https://sparkpoint.io/
⚡️ SparkSwap Website: https://sparkswap.finance/
🪙 Get SRK: https://srk.sh/trade
⛽️ Get SFUEL: https://srk.sh/tradesfuel
📢 Telegram Announcements (SparkPoint): https://t.me/sparkpoint
📢 Telegram Announcements (SparkSwap): https://t.me/SparkDeFiOfficial
🏘 SparkPoint Community on Telegram: https://t.me/SparkPointOfficial
🏘 SparkSwap Community on Telegram: https://t.me/SparkDefi
👋🏽 SparkPoint Twitter: https://twitter.com/sparkpointio
👋🏽 SparkPoint Facebook: https://facebook.com/sparkpointio
👋🏽 SparkPoint Instagram: https://instagram.com/sparkpointio
👋🏽 SparkSwap Twitter: https://twitter.com/SparkDeFi
👋🏽 SparkSwap Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SparkDeFi
👋🏽 SparkSwap Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparkdefi/
🏢 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sparkpointio
👨🏽💻 GitHub: https://github.com/sparkpointio
ℹ️ SRK on CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sparkpoint/
ℹ️ SFUEL on CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sparkpoint-fuel/
