The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) announced the winners of the 5th RAFI Triennial Awards Blogging Contest.

The first place was awarded to JR Lopez Gonzales of South Cotabato with his post entitled “Drawing Mindanao’s Portrait of Change” in his blog, Politikalon. The blog features 10 RAFI Triennial Awardees who are from Mindanao. Gonzales is currently teaching at the Mindanao State University (MSU)-Iligan Institute of Technology and serves as editor-in-chief of MSU College of Law-Iligan’s school paper.

Winning second place was Warlie Diaz of Guimaras with his blog on “Participatory Research Organization of Communities and Education Towards Struggle for Self-reliance (PROCESS) Foundation”, in his blog site, Seventh Sanctum. PROCESS is one of the outstanding institution finalists in the 1st RAFI Triennial Awards”.

Vernon Go of Cebu bagged the third place with his blog on Glicerio “Nono” P. Lucrecia, an exemplary individual nominee in the 4th RAFI Triennial Awards, in his blog site, Vernon Go.

The first prize winner received Php 25,000; second prize, Php 20,000; and third prize P15,000. Each winner also received plaques.

For more details about 5th RAFI Triennial Awards Blogging Contest, click this link.

GTUG - GDG Startup Weekend Cebu BootCamp will be held at UP Cebu on May 5 from 8:00AM -5:00PM. Attendees should confirm their registration by visiting http://swgtugbootcampcebu.eventbrite.com/

OVER 40 startup enthusiasts showed up and enjoyed a wonderful experience in the pre-Startup Weekend Cebu workshop last Saturday at the Case Room of the Cebu Institute of Technology – University along N. Bacalso ave., this city.

The participants did mock pitches and presentations and formed mock teams as well during the pre-event workshop to prepare themselves for the Startup Weekend Cebu proper come May 11-13 at the University of the Philippines – Visayas Cebu College. In the mock pitches, Team StrongGame emerged as the winner.

“We did mock pitches, so participants could get used to the 60-second pitching format in the Startup Weekend Cebu (SWC),” lead SWC organizer Mark Abella of TechTalks.ph said. “We also formed mock teams and did mock presentations while the audience acted as judges.”

The participants also pulled apart the experience and shared what worked and what could have been done better. Each participant likewise spent a minute describing themselves and why they are excited about SWC.

“It was a great precursor for the Startup Weekend,” said pre-event attendee Jeremy Green. “It was fun and useful.”

Fellow participant John Alindogan said: “It was excellent. We should do this on a regular basis,” while Zip Cerio claimed: “We had some cool and crazy startup ideas in the pre-SWC workshop.”

Startup Weekend Cebu mentor Ruben Licera Jr., for his part, hailed the pre-event organizers for making the workshop possible, saying it was a good start for budding technopreneurs.

Startup Weekend is a 54-hour competition where developers, designers, marketers, technopreneurs, and venture capitalists come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startup businesses.

Startup Weekends are designed for entrepreneurs interested in receiving feedback for an idea, looking for co-founders, or who want to learn a new skill, especially in the field of mobile and internet applications.

The concept, which started in the US, is now a global movement, taking digital start-up businesses from ideas to investment readiness through intensive mentoring from industry experts and access to markets and investors across Asia.

Participants get acquainted with one another starting Friday night. They pitch startup concepts they are passionate about, and form teams around the most popular ideas. They refine their ideas and business plans and start building product prototypes with the help of the onsite mentors, and then present what they have accomplished in a four-minute pitch and demo by Sunday evening.

Startup Weekend Cebu (SWC) is expected to draw a maximum of 150 participants or a total of 21 teams who are all anticipating a high-energy, high-impact, and high-creativity three-day experience.

Parties interested in Startup Weekend Cebu can register viahttp://cebu.startupweekend.org until May 11 or while slots are available. To know more about Startup Weekend Cebu, visit www.cebu.startupweekend.org.

Aside from the Philippines, Startup Weekends this year will also be held in France, Singapore, Argentina, Canada, USA, Norway, UK, Denmark, Mexico, Italy, Palestine, Senegal, Taiwan, Hungary, Australia, Lithuania, Algeria, Ireland, Switzerland, Martinique, Tunisia, and Spain, China, India, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Belarus, Poland, Turkey, Uganda, Kosovo, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Germany, Peru, Moldova, Croatia, Cambodia, Egypt, Bolivia, and the Netherlands.

Startup Weekend Cebu is made possible through the concerted efforts of Abella and fellow organizers Dave Overton of Symph, Fleire Castro of Third Team Media, Mark Buenconsejo of CareSharing Inc., Ian Bert Tusil of NextSparks Studios Co., Paola Galan of SpellDial, Miguel Antonio Garcia, Bjorn Bernales of Bjorn iMedia, Tins Amper of TechTalks, Vicki Saguin of CIT-U, Pauline Wade of the University of the Philippines, Ryan Hermocilla, and Patrick Villaruz.

Expected to assist the participants as mentors are Christian Besler of Kickstart Ventures, Eugene Fabian and Alex Goh of Microsoft Singapore, Albert Padin of SpellDial, Ppip Cimafranca, Jay Fajardo of ProudCloud, Jonathan Lansangan of Dynamic Objx, finance professional Bryan Low, Chris C. Ducker of VBS, Eric Su of Twidl Inc., Paul Villacorta of Cebu Directories, Gwendolyn Regina Tan, and Ruben Licera Jr. of RLComm International.

Named judges for Startup Weekend Cebu are Kickstart president Minette Navarrete, Alvin Gendrano of Microsoft, Winston Damarillo of Morphlabs, Jean-Patirck Bisson of ClickingLabs.com, Harm Rietjens of CareSharing, Vinnie Lauria of Golden Gate Ventures, and Jay Aldeguer of The Islands Group.

Startup Weekend Cebu is held in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology – ICT Office and is sponsored by Globe Telecom, Microsoft BizSpark, Gist, UP Cebu, CeBuinIt, Third Team Media, Startupr, Symph, CareSharing, TechTalks, Clicking Labs, Ripe Concepts, Devcon, Nextcue, Cedf-it, MyCebu.ph, Cebu Directories, CIT-U, Pinoy Born, The Ching Palace, Cebu Bloggers Society Inc., Zero Three Two, Everything Cebu and PRWorks.