University of Southeastern
Philippines
Bo. Obrero Campus, Davao City
TRAVEL REPORT
September 8-12, 2014
Seminar Overview
Field trip is one of
the most awaited moments of our lives. It’s such a wonderful, memorable, fun
yet a nice learning experience. We all have the chance to attend seminars and lectures on
current topics and issues on Information and Information and Communication
Technology as well as site visits and fieldtrips to different ICT enabled
companies. It is not just ICT enabled companies but some of the largest IT
companies such as Accenture, PLDT, IBM, Toshiba and Ideaspace. Not just that,
we also have the chance to visit other universities like Ateneo de Manila
University and University of the Philippines Diliman Campus. It is also a
pleasure for us to hear different talks from different speakers in every
company visit we had. It made me realize that all of us had different stories,
talents, skills, gifts and abilities for us to excel. It made me realize that
we are really awesome when it comes to technology innovation. PLDT Innolab, IBM
and Toshiba are the companies that showed their abilities in technology
innovation. Among the companies we visited, I really like IBM, they
manufactures and markets computer hardware and software, and offers
infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe
computers to nanotechnology. Mr. Alexis Pantola or Sir Pong thought us about
the new trend in the industry which is cloud computing. He tutors us about the
Bluemix which is one of the cloud computing in the Philippines. Because of our
trip I’ve experienced many first times. It’s my first time riding a plane, went
to Metro Manila, and had shopping at MOA and other Malls like Tutuban,
Divisoria and Trinoma. I had seen the
beauty of Tagaytay and the very nice view of BulkangTaal. And of course I had
extreme and wonderful rides in Enchanted Kingdom. I will never ever forget all of these
experiences. I will treasurer these for the rest of my life. This is such a
wonderful learning experience.
Day 1
September 8, first day of the trip,
first day of the company visits. I am quite excited and I cannot wait to hear
new stuffs and new learning’s. Learning is a never ending process; it is our
main purpose why we spent thousands just to go to a far place like Manila. Accenture
is the first company we visited; it is one of the world’s leading management
consulting, technology services and outsourcing companies. I can say that
Accenture is a good choice. We had a great speaker named Christian Sigenes;
he’s an analytic manager. The talk was good; we had a lot of questions since
his demo was a very familiar topic to us which is data visualization. One sad
thing for this visit is we cannot take pictures with their company logo but
still it’s a happy trip since we had a free snacks and freebies! Haha. After
Accenture, we had our lunch at the Kenny Rogers Katipunan, Quezon City. It’s
such a great lunch. After having our lunch, at 2pm we headed straight to IBM
Ayala Technohub, Quezon City for our second company visit of the day. Since the
office is not that big to accommodate all of us we had the trip by batch. Since
I belong to the first batch, we had the chance to take pictures before the
lecture proper. Mr. Alexis Pantola was our speaker and he’s the only person who
accommodated us since he’s the only person in their office at that time. I was
quite amazed because it is unusual for me. Sir Alexis tutors us how to use the
Bluemix created by IBM. It was an amazing experience. After our batch, we wait
for the second batch to finished their tour and while waiting we had our
videoke in our bus. After IBM, we had our shopping in Trinoma. And after
shopping, we checked in to our hotel which was Kabayan Hotel.
What I learned?
I learned the importance of priority, interest and
developing your skills. Mr. Christian and Alexis taught us to know our
interest, to discover our hidden talents and abilities, to develop our skills
and to use them in the right way and in the right time. I am able to realize
how important to be an Accenture member because of the benefits it offers to
its members. Accenture partners with its employees in building their
careers—investing their time and resources to help their employees grow
professionally.
What I liked?
I liked how they welcomed us in their company with big smiles
on their faces and enthusiasm on delivering their lectures to us. I liked the
place because it is well organized and clean also. I liked the speakers because
they know what they are talking about and was able to answer all the questions
thrown to them.
What I didn’t like?
I just don’t like the idea that we can’t take pictures
in Accenture with their company logo.
Day 2
September 9, second day of the trip.
Today, we went to another great company which was PLDT Innolab and Ideaspace
Foundation. I was excited since these two companies are two of the biggest IT
companies we had chance to visit. We arrived early and registered ourselves at
the front desk of the building. Cell phones and cameras
were not allowed inside PLDT for security purposes to protect them from their
rival companies. But it’s alright because we had our class picture courtesy of
PLDT Innolab. INNOLAB stands for Innovation Laboratory and Telecommunications,
Education Center of PLDT. We had our tour inside their company, and we were
able to see the evolution of PLDT from its birth up to the age of
transformation. The one who welcomed us in PLDT is Ma’am Annie she is so
accommodating and she shared to us the birth of PLDT, from where it started up
to the day that they become one of the largest Telecommunications Company
in the Philippines. Sir Gino and the three interns from different universities
tour us upstairs. They introduced us their residence solutions and enterprise
solutions. Home solutions are DSL and the Fiber- Triple Play which you can
communicate, get data; and you’ll be entertained since it has an IPTV. And for
the enterprise solutions they introduced to us different PLDT products such as
Sweet Spots for advertisement, Ecofax, SWUP stands for Shops Work Unplugged,
Cosmo call which is a cloudbased, SIP Trunk, PolyCom for video conferencing and
F.A.S.Track. Engineer Mel lectures us about Basics of Telecommunications. I was
quite bored at that time since he has a mellow voice. And I am really hungry at that time that’s
why I don’t want to listen to his talks anymore. After the PLDT Innolab visit,
we had our lunch at the bus since we’re running out of time for our next
company and it was quite far and the heavy traffic awaits us. Ideaspace is such
a wonderful and awesome company. It was one of my favorite. I never had notes
when Ms. Goldy was speaking since I was really focused on listening to her. She
encouraged all of us by sharing what they had and the experiences of people she
know and they helped. We had our picture taking and tour around the office and
one happier thing is we have a free t-shirts. The talked was cool. It was an
eye-opener for me.
What I learned?
Among the speakers, Ms. Goldy is my favorite because she
touched me and able to inspire me that if I want to become successful, I will
be! Just believe in yourself because if
you don’t believe in yourself no one will. She opened my eyes that there’s no
hard in accomplishing your goal. Don’t get left in the dark, start the light
and shine!
What I liked?
I really like theIdeaspace and also the speaker. I also
liked the products of PLDT Innolab since it was cool and awesome.
What I didn’t like?
I didn’t like the tour in the PLDT Innolab especially
the latter part—the lecture part since it was boring and I was sleepy.
Day 3
September 10, third day of the trip.
Today we had our Y4IT Conference for the whole day at the SMX Convention, Pasay
City. It wasn’t hassle for us since we don’t need to travel anymore. I was
quite excited since we will meet new faces, new students or even new friends
from different schools and universities here in the Philippines. It is also our
first time to attend a prestigious and the largest IT event of the year. We
choose to attend the first day of the conference since it is a three-day event.
As expected, there are a lot of IT professors and enthusiasts and most
especially students attended the said event. Before entering the convention, we
waited for how many minutes and fall into our line for us to enter the
building. When we enter the venue, we grab our Y4IT bags since we paid for it.
The room was so big and it was dark but still it was comfortable for us.
Actually, most of my classmates were just sleeping after the talks of many
speakers. We take pictures and during
the talks of some speakers we listen. After the morning session, we had our
lunch at the Taste Asia, Sm Moa. Then we go back to the venue. During the
afternoon session of the conference, we just take the exhibit outside the room
while some of my classmates are still listening to some speakers. We also join
Ate Iana for her interview about her paper presented. After that, we went back to the room and wait
till the event finished.
What I learned?
Here are some of my learning’s and realizations from
some of the speakers I choose to listen:
v Stop doing copy paste. Change it. Do things that are difficult.
v Real programmers don’t use things they develop things.
v Working hard is fun if you’re having fun.
v Anyone can form a solution.
v Dream high, play around and have fun!
v Take the risk and never be afraid to fail.
v The future belongs to those who dream.
v Individuals don’t build companies…. Teams do!
v Success is composed of good character, capability, commitment and
credibility.
What I liked?
I like the venue it was so big and comfortable. I also
like some of the speakers, they motivates and encourages me. They open my eyes
and helped me realized things.
What I didn’t like?
I don’t like our spot since we are in the back we can’t
concentrate. Also we can’t hear some of the speakers due to loud noise from our
seatmates. I also don’t like the emcees, I found them boring.
Day 4
September 9, fourth day of the trip. This day is one of
the most awaited days of the trip. I was so excited and I even pray to God that
if possible there would be no rain. I’m pretty sure I am not just the one who
was excited but also all of my classmates since we will have our pleasure trip
and one company to visit. We went on a company to visit Toshiba in Canlubang,
Laguna, one of the largest Storage Company in the world. Surprisingly, we
met some of our schoolmates from USEP who already worked in the company. The
employees are very courteous that whenever we passed by they always greet us
with a smile. Ms. Christine was the one who welcomed us and gave us an
orientation about their company. It is on our company visit that I knew that
the name “Toshiba” was derived from “Tokyo Shibaura” that’s why it’s now called
Toshiba.
On our plant tour, the company is really strict when it
comes to rules because before our visit they gave us ahead their plant tour
rules that we must follow accordingly. They even provide us caps, shirts and
shoecover that we must use inside the plant premises. When we had our plant, we
were grouped by two so that we could have our tour in different ways in order
to accommodate us all. It is very clean inside the plant and peaceful inside
the plant that’s why I like it because it is a healthy environment. We were able to see what machines do to
process the production of the devices. All processes were done by machines and
the employees are the ones who supervise it.
After our plant tour, we returned to the orientation room and our
tour guides gave us some messages. Toshiba is the only company we visited today
because we will have our Tagaytay trip after. We had our lunch in Max’s
Restaurant and from there we can already see the view of Taal Volcano and of
course, we had our picture taking with the Taal Volcano as our background.
After lunch, is our trip to Tagaytay’s People’s Park in the Sky, but we have to
walk to reach the top for us to see the beautiful view that only our nature
could offer. We did not missed the chance to take some pictures as our
souvenirs that we went to this place and able to see the beauty of nature. We
only have 30 minutes in Tagaytay because we will be heading to Enchanted
Kingdom. We are very excited because most of us would be the first time
experience. We headed straight to the extreme rides because weonly have 2 hours
for our EK experience since we arrived at 5pm and EK closes at 7pm. Our first
ride was the Extreme Tower or we called it drop zero, without any doubt I tried
that ride because I really want to experience it. I am so excited for the ride
and I was not disappointed because it is awesome. We are excited and when will
it stop and drop us without us knowing and so as we are being dropped, I can
feel that my soul parted from my body and I can’t really explain the feeling.
The drop is only 3 seconds but it was the best 3 seconds of my life so far. Our
2ndride is Anchors Away, at first I thought it was
boring and not that extreme but as it was starting to swing higher, I feel that
my stomach goes up. Whooh! We were all shouting and I can see the funny faces
of other students on the other side of the ship and how they reacted for the
ride. 3rd ride
is the Space Shuttle and for me looking at it makes me want to back out but at
the back of my mind, why should I? It would be an awesome experience for me and
I would not do it alone. This ride gave me the nervous feeling I never had for
the first two rides. As the ride is starting to go up, we were all nervous I
even shout. That was the best riding experience whooh! 4th ride
was Jungle Log jam and it was like a roller coaster ride but the difference is it
is in the water. That was not so extreme for me since I already ride the space
shuttle; I just enjoyed how I get wet with my friends. 5th ride was
Rio Grande, since we are already wet from the previous ride; we’d just continue
the wet feeling with this ride. This ride is like riding on a boat. 6th
ride was the Disc Oh Magic, this ride was really awesome it keeps spinning for
3 minutes. I really enjoyed this ride. It was so cool. The last ride was the
Flying Fiesta, this ride make me feel relaxed though it makes me feel dizzy. We
would also like to ride the carousel but unfortunately we are running out of
time sin it was already 6:30 pm and we should fix ourselves and get dry since
we are wet. Unfortunately, my friend lost her phone when we are at the EK’s
comfort room. So, when we get back to the bus, she almost cried and I
accompanied her to go the EK’s information desk. We asked if there would be
chances of someone surrendering her phone. But sad to hear, it was impossible
to get her phone back. After our EK experience, we went to Tutuban for our
dinner and for us to shop also.
What I learned?
I learned that manufacturing products is not that easy.
It requires disciplined people to supervise and of course patience. In manufacturing products, the manufacturing
company should provide quality products to its consumers to gain trust and one
way of assuring the durability of their products is to have the best people to
supervise the processes of the products and to have high end materials such as
machines for the processing and also to the parts they will use for the
products.
What I liked?
In our plant tour visit in Toshiba, I actually like the
discipline of everybody to abide the rules of the company because discipline is
one of the values we need in order to meet our goals in life. I also like the
strictness of the company to its employees.
What I didn’t like?
I just don’t like the thought that they don’t stop
working except the New Year’s Day. I was quite sad for the employees since they
don’t have time for their family they just keep working.
Day 5
September 10, fifth day of the trip. We
checked out early at our hotel and departed early since we want to pass by Big
Brother’s House and take pictures with it. We also passed by Ninoy Aquino’s
house. After that, we headed straight to Ateneo de Manila University. I was amazed because the university was so
big and the facilities are great. We had the chance to see their gadgets and it
was so cool. We had a chance to use their computers and I was amazed because it
was so fast. And I was insecure because they can use facebook freely; it was
not blocked not like ours. After the talks, we had the chance to tour their
building and visit their souvenir shop. I was sad because I don’t have enough
money to buy souvenirs since it was so expensive. After ADMU, we headed
straight to University of the Philippines, Diliman Campus. We headed straight
to the UP’s famous statue—oblation (I don’t know if this is the right term)
then we take pictures and then had our lunch at UP’s canteen. We also buy
souvenirs at their shops and I was happy because I buy one UP Diliman shirt.
After lunch and buying souvenirs, we headed straight to the Computer Studies
Building and had our tour. I was amazed because of the laboratories they had.
It was seven laboratories and their laboratories were used for specific major
or subject. I was also amazed for the students who presented their thesis even
if they are unprepared. After UP, we had our visit at Resorts World Manila. I
was amazed because it’s a wonderful place to visit. We’d take pictures and
enjoy ourselves touring the place. After Resorts World Manila, we headed straight
to Ninoy Aquino’s International Airport and ready to go home. Bye Manila! Hello
again Davao! J
What I learned?
I learned that you should know what’s trendy nowadays
for this kind of industry. I realized that in doing your research you should
know you interest and the interest of other people. I noticed that Affective
Computing is quite booming nowadays. I also learned that you should focus on
just one thing. Stay focused what you want and what you need.
What I liked?
I really like the ADMU’s gadgets it was so cool. I also
like the idea of UP that their laboratories were categorized according to major
subjects.
What I didn’t like?
I enjoyed the tour so there’s nothing like I didn’t
like.
APPENDIX
What can I recommend for the improvement of the advance
seminar program of USEP?
I recommend that students should also choose Model A
because there are a lot of things to learn and experience when it comes to
technology in Manila since most of the largest IT Companies are located in
Luzon. I would also recommend that they should visit companies in which they
wish to visit when it comes to IT related issues. I suggest they should also
visit Ideaspace because of how they motivate us and opened our eyes to discover
and create new ideas. I would also recommend Maynilad as their travel agency
because of the service they could offer. They arranged our itineraries best to
suit our needs and the people in Maynilad were all nice and approachable. I
recommend not to eat at tramway buffet since the food was not good.
My advice to those who will take their advance seminar
program in the near future.
My advices to those who will take their advance seminar
program in the near future is when they will decide on what Model they will
choose especially if they will choose Model A which is in Luzon. They should also
prepare a large amount of money to avoid problems on the preparation of the
trip. They should also choose their set of officers which they know would be
responsible in handling the class and would facilitate and work on the
preparations for the trip and all of them should also cooperate for the success
of their trip. They should also bear in their mind that this is for their
learning and not just for fun.
Pictures:
Day 1
Day
2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento