It’s Saturday, September 26th. It’s a long weekend. There’s a highly popular noontime TV program on the air. And a lingering typhoon is posing a threat nearby. Nonetheless, over 200 freelancers, digital marketers, developers, and entrepreneurs from all over Metro Cebu ignored these obstacles and converged at the Quest Hotel and Convention Center to participate in the Payoneer Forum in Cebu. This was the first big Payoneer event in the Philippines outside of Manila. The huge turnout demonstrated that there is a large group of online professionals in other parts of the Philippines who are in need of a reliable, safe, cost-effective, and convenient payment service provider. This forum was the perfect venue for Payoneer to connect with these professionals and to present solutions for their needs.
Contributing to the event’s big success were the speakers invited to share their experiences and expertise with the audience who were able to take away a wealth of information, regardless of their experience or skills. The guest speakers included:
1. Ruben Licera, Jr., award-winning blogger, social media advocate, and Managing Director of RLCOMM International. Ruben shared with the audience the “Secrets to a Successful and Sustainable Freelancing Life.”
3. Rinewalt Del Corro, freelance designer, developer and Co-Moderator of Cebu Upwork Freelancers. Rinewalt shared his experiences of skyrocketing his career “From Freelancer to Start-Up.”
4. Fleire Castro, Principal Consultant of Third Team Media, a Cebu-based start-up social media and digital agency, who described how to create “Brand Love Through Social Media.”
The highly receptive audience actively engaged in tweeting and posting about the event, with many participants sharing that they learned a lot from the panel of guest speakers. As holding company events in Cebu is fairly rare, it was wonderful for Payoneer to join this meetup which brought together so many freelancers and other professionals. In the event raffle, one lucky participant won a brand new iPad Mini 3. During the event, many participants eagerly lined up at the online kiosks to register for a Payoneer account. Many more are already asking when the next Cebu forum will be held!
Payoneer has certainly been gaining ground in the Philippines since it started organizing different events, initiatives, and partnerships with the active participation of various local and national groups and communities. More importantly, the Payoneer Forum has helped empower individuals, companies, and communities to be successful, proving that anybody can be a winner when we work hand in hand.
