LEADING telecoms and digital services provider PLDT, through its micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) business arm PLDT Smart SME Nation, is staging its third run of the largest technology and entrepreneurship summit for the country’s MSME sector.
Dubbed TechIsland 3.0, the annual conference aims to bring in more than 1,500 entrepreneurs from all over the country to listen in on leading industry speakers tackling topics on technopreneurship and innovations for businesses.
Usually organized in summer destinations outside Metro Manila, this year, however, PLDT Smart SME Nation will mount the conference at the Sofitel Plaza Hotel in Manila to bring the event closer to more SMEs interested to attend.
“TechIsland 3.0 will be our biggest conference yet. We’ve upped the ante from previous years, because we’ve already seen how our SMEs today have become savvier and are now quite conscious of going digital,” said PLDT VP and Head of SME Nation Mitch Locsin. “Our aim now is to give them new and fresh takes on how to get better mileage out of these new technologies. We’re bringing in industry experts from the region for them to learn from on best practices and opportunities that they could apply here in the Philippines.”
Coming off from the successes from the previous Tech Island conferences held in Subic and Nasugbu, Batangas, PLDT Smart SME Nation plans to broaden its reach to include more interested participants and units that also have a stake in the success of a business.
“This year will be bigger for us and for the SMEs, because we’re now involving more personalities of a business like in marketing, operations, sales, and even finance. Going digital for SMEs doesn’t only mean developing your IT alone but there are now a lot of digital solutions out there that cater to other aspects of businesses that they must take advantage of,” he said. Solutions that PLDT Smart SME Nation have highlighted for SMEs to help them go digital include its FibrBiz offerings that give faster Internet connectivity for businesses through fiber; a digital payment platform called PayMaya that gives SMEs more payment options for their customers; and a digital retail space that makes setting up and selling products online convenient with TackThis!.
“Technology is quite fast-paced and we see more and more innovations coming out. It’s now just a matter of how fast our SMEs can explore and use these innovations to their advantage,” she said. “PLDT, together with the MVP Group, has been an advocate of nation-building. For PLDT Smart SME Nation, we will continuously strive to back and support the SME sector, and nurture that digital ecosystem for them to compete and hopefully grow in the global scene.”