Women from all over Cebu joined us for our Connected Women Launch and #SheMeansBusiness training workshop. Next stop Zamboanga!

Connected Women’s programme objective is to increase the economic participation of women in the Philippines through entrepreneurship and the adoption of technology for business success.

As the second city to launch Connected Women and #SheMeansBusiness, we were not disappointed! We loved Cebu’s chill vibe and hospitality. We also really enjoyed your Lechon House, lamit kaayo!

The CW Cebu City Launch And #SheMeansBusiness Training Workshop

More than 80 women joined us at the 17^th floor of Cityscape Hotel for the launch. We enjoyed a light snack together and dove in with an introduction by Gina Romero, Connected Women’s CEO and Co-Founder.

Did you know that the Philippines is the social media capital of the world? Filipinos use and check social media more than any other nation! PH Policy Programs Manager, Chris Kuzhuppilly share this fact and many more with the ladies. The statistics alone reveal why Filipinas should be using social media for their businesses!

Noteworthy Training

If there’s one thing we noticed with the Cebu ladies, it’s that they really like to take notes!

Professor Aries Patawaran, Facebook’s Lead Trainer in the Philippines, delivered the training content. He tackled three main topics:

Online Marketing

• The difference between marketing vs branding vs advertising
• Why a relevant business needs online marketing
• Key questions to ask yourself before you dive into online marketing
• What the main difference is between organic and paid marketing

Facebook Pages and Admin Tools

• Creating/Refreshing a Facebook Business Page
• How to use the Page Admin tools
• How to monitor Page Insights (analytics)
• How to add a ‘Call To Action’ button
• The basics of creating a Post

Content Rules

• The importance of determining your audience
• Basic rules of text
• Basics for great visuals
• How to use video and other creative tools
• How Instagram and Facebook vary

We love how he teaches on these various aspects. They’re all equally important and benefit Facebook Page newbies and experienced users alike.

We’ve yet to meet anyone who’s come to the workshop and NOT learned anything new!

Then Connected Women’s Gina Romero comes in and brings her own flavour to the training and she shares how she grew up, how unconventional her journey has been and how, in hindsight, entrepreneurship has been a part of her life since her early teens.

#SheMeansBusiness Selfie Prize Winners

Throughout the day the ladies were encouraged to take selfies and practice their hashtags. These photos also served as entries to win some of our tech prizes!

For the selfies, we encouraged the women to create a tagline (catchphrase or slogan) that could be used for the Cebu Connected Women chapter.

The room was alight with energy and the competition was strong! The prizes consisted of a 32GB USB, a powerbank, and a portable speaker along with an inspiring boxlight.

The selvies/wefies were also really fun and we enjoyed seeing new, creative submissions.

The top three tables won prizes as well, they were: elegant business card holders, a clever keychain that transformed into a bag holder or a phone stand, and a zippered pouch.

And everyone present got a foldable white Connected Women fan to beat the Philippine heat!

First Prize – Selfie

Second Prize – Selfie

Third Prize – Selfie

First Prize – Wefie

Second Prize – Wefie

Third Prize – Wefie

Partners & Supporters

This event wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our partners. We’d like to give a huge shoutout to Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness team, DTI Cebu Provincial Office and our community partner TechTalks.Ph for making the Cebu launch a success!

Cityscape Hotel

Being on the top floor of Cityscape was breathtaking as you could see Cebu for miles around, from the rolling hills on one side to the ocean far off on the other.

It was really something special to see a majority of the women come into the workshop knowing almost no one and leaving with several new friends and connections.

We’re also eager to see if the women will follow through on their desire for a reunion Christmas party!

We’re headed to Zamboanga City next, share the news with your friends!

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Helping businesses connect with the people they care about is part of that mission and, to that end, the Facebook #SheMeansBusiness initiative is committed to helping female small business owners and entrepreneurs.

DTI Cebu Provincial Office. DTI is responsible for realizing the country’s goal of globally competitive and innovative industry and services sector that contribute to inclusive growth and employment generation.

TechTalks.ph is a non-profit, independent community of business, technology, and startup enthusiasts.

Here’s the full post-event report.