Over 120 women from one of the cleanest and greenest cities of the Philippines, Puerto Princesa, attended Connected Women and Facebook’s final #SheMeansBusiness event of 2018! 

Amidst the busy Holiday Season, aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners set aside time to attend the final Connected Women #SheMeansBusiness event of 2018 held in Puerto Princesa City. Last December 12, Citystate Asturias Hotel’s Ambassador Hall was filled with eager participants who were keen to start their own businesses and entrepreneurs who didn’t want to miss learning how they can leverage Facebook and Instagram to grow their businesses. The event was supported by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Luzon – Cluster 3.

Connected Women, in partnership with Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness, aims to develop skills for women entrepreneurs in the Philippines, using Facebook and Instagram marketing tools for business. The event attracted ladies from different parts of Palawan and some have travelled as far as Iloilo and Zamboanga City!

Final #SheMeansBusiness event of 2018

The launch of Connected Women and Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness in Puerto Princesa City marked the final #SheMeansBusiness event of the year and brought together almost all the team members of Connected Women, who are working remotely from various parts of the Philippines.

Connected Women CEO and Co-Founder Gina Romero officially opened the event and shared her inspiring story. She shared some of Connected Women’s goals which is to build strong communities and improve the economic participation of women through technology adoption and entrepreneurship. She also reflected on the lessons she learned along the way and how she is thankful for people who help Connected Women to be where it is today.

“At Connected Women, it’s all about helping each other. We cannot do things on our own,” Gina shared.

Online Marketing For Promoting and Growing Businesses

Technology has paved the way for startups and businesses to grow and flourish. Through the #SheMeansBusiness program, entrepreneurs are now able to increase their brand awareness and build better customer relationships with the help of technology tools like Facebook and Instagram for business.

In the workshop, Facebook Lead Trainer Prof Aries Patawaran delivered the #SheMeansBusiness modules on the basics of online marketing including best practices and tips for content, engagement, and maximizing business presence online.

Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Luzon Cluster 3 OIC/Head for Technical Operations Division Engr. Carmela P. Valencia concluded the program and encouraged participants to make use of Tech4ED Centers. Tech4ED is the DOST-ICT project that provides opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship by harnessing the power of ICT.

Engaging, Fun, and Friendly Breaks

At every Connected Women #SheMeansBusiness event, there’s really no such thing as breaks. In between the learning sessions, Connected Women COO and Co-Founder Ruth Yu-Owen held icebreakers to engage participants through breathing exercises, and gathering names of fellow attendees in less than 10 minutes!

Of course, there were “Best Selfies” and “Best We-fies” contests which brought out the creativity and eagerness of the participants to win prizes! Some of the Connected Women team members chose the winners based on the message/caption, photo composition, originality, and theme. Here are the winners:

Early Bird

Winner of Third Prize Selfie

Winner of Second Prize Selfie

Winner of First Prize Selfie

Winner of We-fie

Winner of We-fie (Boomerang)

A special prize was also awarded to Arianne Mae Rosita who came to the event with her best friend, Fhebe Tayona.

The  next #SheMeansBusiness workshop will be in Alabang, Metro Manila on June 21, 2019.

We hope to see you there or tell a friend!
connectedwomen.co/metromanila

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.