“I risk, I reward.”
This was among the inspirational quotes and personal experiences of Orly Ballesteros that struck the staff and regional R&D consortia partners of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), as he tackled corporate event management on April 20-21, 2017 at the Bali Village Hotel and Resort in Tagaytay City. The two-day event was spearheaded by the Applied Communication Division (ACD) of PCAARRD.
Orly Ballesteros is a business events organizer and a Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE) professional.
Ballesteros was the resource speaker in the knowledge session, themed, “Making a Difference through Celebrations: A Knowledge Session on Corporate Event Management.” The training aimed to equip PCAARRD staff members and its partners with the basic concepts of corporate event management to guarantee the effective planning and implementation of the regional Farms and Industry Encounters through the Science and Technology Agenda (FIESTA) that will start in July.
FIESTA is a strategy to promote regional science and technology-based products to its target users and markets nationwide. It involves various activities such as S&T exhibition/fair, techno and business forum, technology matching, media conference, and ancillary activities to increase the demand and awareness of regional products.
Ballesteros shared the basic concepts of the project and program management, as well as the strategies and techniques needed for the success of FIESTA.
“Challenge enhances creativity; Make something different, create and provide new and fresh things,” Ballesteros said as he challenged the participants.
Ballesteros also discussed the Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Strengths (TOWS) analysis. Compared with the traditional SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, TOWS is a modified version of SWOT, which focuses on threats and opportunities first to efficiently develop strategic priorities. This topic was highlighted during the training and was done to assess external and internal factors that might interfere in the success of a business.
Accordingly, Ballesteros emphasized that it is important to know the future aspects outside the event as they are always inevitable and are often uncontrollable, so the internal components have to adjust and keep up to unravel the problem and sustain the progress of an event.
One of the participants of the training, Jelive Octobre of the Southern Mindanao Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development Consortium (SMAARRDEC), highly valued the training.
“Event management is not easy. It is a process and framework but I think we are now more confident in implementing FIESTA,” Octobre said.
PCAARRD’s event management training has been implemented since 2011. Yearly, the Council holds the training to enhance the staff’s skills to handle events professionally. This is the fifth of the event management training series conducted by ACD-PCAARRD.