EVERY first week of May, the waiting game begins for that one particular e-mail, phone call or Facebook message to complete my birth month.
This year the message came a bit early and more surprisingly from a different PR (we missed you Evan and Chiqui!). But the message was as exciting as ever: Epson Fusion 9 was happening.
Cue Flo Rida’s “Good Feeling:” Oh oh, sometimes I get a good feeling/Yeah, I get a feeling that I never never never never had before, no no/I get a good feeling, yeah.”
There are brands who send “Thank You” notes, some send gifts and tokens, others hold parties and raffle off a lot of prizes, but nothing comes close to Epson Fusion.
Epson’s annual media event, Fusion takes select members of the media to an initially undisclosed destination as part of a thanksgiving gathering, and to showcase its upcoming product lineup.
Now on its ninth year, Fusion has become one of the most anticipated events for us tech writers. For newbies, it gives them a chance to meet the veterans of the industry, and for the regulars to reconnect and strengthen the friendships they’ve developed (who knew a name-game could be so effective).
For me, however, Fusion is all about once-in-a-lifetime experiences, as I would have never experienced scuba diving, swimming with whale sharks, jumping off waterfalls, mountain trekking or boarded a luxury yacht just to watch the sunset if not for Epson.
DESTINATION BALESIN: THE WORLD IN AN ISLAND
EPSON has this habit of taking us to some of the most insane dream destinations in the country: Huma Island, Apulit Island in Palawan, Siargao and Sumilon Island, just to name a few. This year they took us to one of the most private islands in the country—Balesin.
A destination of unmatched natural beauty off the eastern coast of Luzon, the Balesin Island Club, Alphaland Corp.’s flagship project, is a 500-hectare tropical island paradise with 7.3 kilometers of pristine white-sand beaches.
Balesin is in the Pacific Ocean just 60 nautical miles east of Manila, approximately a 25-minute plane ride from Manila. Exploring Balesin is like taking a tour of seven countries with its seven themed villages: Balesin (Philippines), Bali (Indonesia), Phuket (Thailand), Mykonos (Greece), Saint Tropez (France), Costa del Sol (Spain) and Toscana (Italy). In each village, everything from the architecture, interior design, landscaping and food is authentically recreated.
In addition, there’s the 14-suite Balesin Royal Villa, situated on a bluff with a view of Lamon Bay and, in the distance, the Sierra Madre mountain range on the mainland. And for just P300K plus (exclusive of breakfast), you can spend the night in this meticulously designed mansion that brings together the best of Asian royal heritage.
It is a members-only, private leisure getaway and since I don’t think everyone can afford the P2.5-million membership fee, not everyone can visit this island paradise (although I think they now offer it to corporate clients).
PRECISION, CONSISTENCY, PERFORMANCE—IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS
THE first Fusion day has always been devoted to the presentations right after dinner, and it had to be the most extravagant dinner place I’ve been to because they held it at the Balesin Royal Villa—the same venue for Billy and Colleen’s wedding, and the most expensive place in the island.
The choice of venue best exemplifies Epson’s campaign for the business segment: “It’s in the details.” Just as how the developers of Balesin meticulously planned and detailed each of the island villages, from its structures to even water system, Epson’s campaign highlights the company’s approach to innovation, backed by a long history of artisanship and attention to details.
From connecting people and time, tracing its roots to the renowned watchmaker Seiko; to connecting people and information in the 1970s, transforming data into a useful format in the 1980s, Epson is now connecting people, things and information with its diverse portfolio of products.
With Epson’s passion for precision and its vertically integrated business model, it continues to innovate to deliver new technologies that bring a big difference in the way their customers’ businesses work. “Epson’s obsession with details runs through everything we do. We believe that by taking care of the little details, we ensure to bring forth products developed solely from homegrown core technologies and devices,” said Eduardo Bonoan, director of Marketing, Epson Philippines.
At the dinner event, Bonoan explained that today’s customers expect more from businesses.
With technology today enabling personalized, valuable and real-time experiences, companies need to adopt new technologies to exceed customer expectations and thrive in the ever-changing digital economy.
Epson’s vision, he added, is to create a new connected age of people, things and information with efficient, compact and precision technologies.
Epson Philippines continues to gain market traction and achieve leadership position in key segments, driven by the company’s focus on the B2B segment, and developing its core technologies in four key pillars of innovation—inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics—to drive growth for its business customers.
The company’s growth momentum the past years has continued to be very positive, continuously posting double-digit growth year-on-year. This is mainly driven by the printers category on back of a strong market acceptance of Epson’s ink tank printers.
Epson Philippines recorded a positive 20-percent average growth in the past five years. According to the IDC Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker report, Epson’s market share of inkjet printers in Philippines was at 55 percent in 2017, giving Epson the dominant market share in this category. For the projector category, Epson’s market share was reported at 58 percent in the Philippines in 2017, according to Futuresource Consulting.
In line with its commitment to bringing groundbreaking technologies for enterprise and business segments, Epson highlighted its newest products dedicated to delivering the precision and performance that companies need to achieve business transformation, enable automation and provide an immersive experience.
The new products showcased include inkjet printers, projectors, point-of-sale printers, signage printers, digital textile printers, as well as smart glasses. Through these products, Epson will strengthen its efforts to bring these technologies to different parts of the Philippines, in order to address the demands of business customers in varied segments. The company will continue to push to bring about innovations anchored on its core areas of innovation such as robotics, inkjet printing, projection and smart glasses.
“What customers get from our products and solutions come from the details we put into them.
Our obsession with details enables us to turn big ideas into reality. It also gave us the opportunity to expand our portfolio of innovative products, dedicated to making lives simpler and easier,” concluded Toshimitsu Tanaka, managing director (Southeast Asia), Epson Singapore, and president and country manager, Epson Philippines.
The presentation that got most of my attention was the one about Digital Textile Printing. Last year I attended a few of Epson’s fashion events—yes, fashion shows from a printer company—because of the creations of John Herrera, which got international recognition.
This new process offers unrivaled creative freedom to fashion designers, as patterns do not need to be repetitive or constrained by limitations of conventional textile-printing technology. It also reduces time to introduce new designs and make modifications, and is even more sustainable and environmentally friendly as it uses between 40 percent to 75 percent less electrical power and water than conventional textile-printing process.
We tried to print our shirts, and we were able to do it in less than 10 minutes, and the prints were very detailed and color accurate—it was just as if you were printing on paper.
FUSION 9: THE PLAYOFFS
AFTER the presentations, it was time to get down to business—or should I say the games? We were sorted initially according to shirt size and drew lots for our colors. I again landed on the Yellow Team, which won the championships in Epson Fusion 7 Siargao, and if not for that darn Rubik’s puzzle in the end, I would have been on the winning team last year.
We knew it wasn’t going to be as physically challenging as the previous years, given the restrictions of the venue, but we were still excited as to how they were going to integrate the products they introduced in the Fusion games.
I was also feeling confident having Ed of Epson and Joey Abiog, Earl Maghirang and Mark Macanas on our team, and we had our girls, Mia “Scarlet Snow” Barrientos, Mica Bayot, Justin Basco, Thea Austria and Pauline Macaraeg, who were all in it to win it.
The epic island race began with “Here Comes the Sun” at Saint Tropez, where we had to go to the Nirvana Lounge to find and solve the riddle to get our clue and the next destination. The destinations appeared in jumbled letters which we had to solve first and tell our driver.
Zeus Clues took us to the village of Mykonos, where the Epson Moverio was the featured product. Each team had to find photos of the five Greek Gods, scan the QR code printed on the photos and use the Moverio Smart Glasses to reveal five different group poses. This was where we first got our lead, as we were able to quickly match all the poses to earn our next clue.
“Stuck On You” was an old fashioned Pinoy game where you had to use the kadang-kadang or coconut shell halves as some sort of stilt. The relay challenge at Balesin Beach had us walking on stilts from one table to another, pick up a label printed on the Epson ColorWorks C7510, come back and stick it on the right container. We had a bit of trouble with the last two, but were still able to maintain our lead over the vicious Green Team, which were hot on our heels.
The “Swim Suot” challenge was where our swimmers Ed, Joey, Justine and Thea stretched our lead a bit. At the Balesin Spa, four players had to wear the shirt with the Fusion 9 logo printed by Epson’s Direct to Garment Printer, and swim from one end to another and pass the shirt to complete the task.
We then rushed off to Phuket Villa for the “Just Dance” challenge where five members of our team had to copy the dance moves of some viral Thai dance video. We used the RFID card for the Epson RIPS Printer to get our instructions before we faced the challenge master Donna Ferro. We thought this was going to be easy, but Donna was a tough judge, and we had to do the challenge three times before she gave us the thumbs up.
Another tough challenge for us was the “Mixing Link.” We first had to find the right bar in Costa del Sol and taste the cocktail drink on the table highlighted by Epson’s LightScene Projector. I think most of us were nondrinkers, and we failed to recreate the drink in our first couple of tries. The Green Team caught up with us and, since a lot of them were drinkers, they easily figured out the right ingredients.
It was a good thing that Thea was a pizza expert, because “Print Me a Pizza” was a breeze for us. All she had to do was look at the photo, choose the ingredients and have the list printed using the TM-M30 Printer (which has the order-taking app). Preparing the pizza was easy as pie, and we were out of Toscana in no time.
We were headed to the Sports Complex for the final challenge: The Ballesin Relay. We had to do well in three sports—badmiton, volleyball and basketball.
Our nerves got the best of us as we struggled to complete the 10-count rally for badminton and, next, volleyball. We only had Mia and me for the final basketball challenge, and we either had to make five free throws or one three-point shot. The last basketball game I played, LeBron James was still a rookie, so my first couple of attempts were airball, but on the third try, the ball hit the board and swoosh! The challenge was complete, and all we had to do was reach the finish line. The Green Team was nowhere to be found, so we knew that we (barring any technicalities) were going to be the champions of the Fusion Playoffs.
Like I said, this was perhaps the most relaxed Fusion I’ve been to, and the challenges were not as physically demanding, unlike last year when I volunteered to do the trek and couldn’t feel my arms and legs not even midway through the challenge. I think I was running (make that crawling) on adrenaline, and it was only through prayers that I made it without collapsing.
But being in my tito years, I liked the challenges better, and the teams were more balanced. Here’s hoping that Fusion 10 wouldn’t be doubly punishing.
If there’s one lesson I learned from Fusion 9 in Balesin, it’s this: no matter how rich you are and how luxurious the place is, it’s the company of great friends that make a trip memorable—and an 11-hour brownout tolerable.
Thank you to my roommates Abe Cerojano and Jeman Villanueva, as well as Mark Macanas, who joined me in my pool-hopping challenge.
Thank you also, and congratulations to the entire Epson Team, its President Toshimitsu Tanaka (who always joins the challenges, as well), Ej Sulit and Camille Coronel, as well as Alvin Marayan and PRC! See you next year?
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