I'm a Mentor.

SO I WAS AWAY!

I'm so sorry. I've been busy so here's an excuse me post.

I've been around product design and development for quite sometime now, with a little experience designing for Woodinspirations Crafts since I was in college and then a whole plethora of other manufacturing enterprises in my three years with the Department of Trade & Industry Tarlac.  That's a spread of about 7 years developing designs for both food and non-food clients.

It was just last year, however, that I've seen a program as comprehensive and enriching as DTI & GoNegosyo's Mentor Me Program. In a nutshell, it's all about some 20 entrepreneurs to be taught business by local experts identified by DTI, accredited by GoNegosyo's Philippine Center for  Entrepreneurship (PCE).

I wanted to sign up for the program as a mentee, as they called the entrepreneurs, but apparently DTI had other plans.  They forwarded my resume to PCE and...

I got accredited.

Holy smokes.

And so started my being a product development mentor to MSMEs for the Kapatid Mentor Me Program.

As of this writing, I've mentored for two provinces already, Tarlac and Bataan.

The course content's been given by PCE, inclusive of the following topics:
1. Are You in the Right Business? Assessing Congruence of market needs, one's passion, skills and competitive offering.
2. What is a Product? Elements of a Product Idea. Different Kinds of Products
3. Needs & Wants, Concepts & Designs of Products
4. Problem- Solution method
5. Innovation mindset

I've added with this the section that I call "Responsible Product Development" which is a little talk encouraging MSMEs to go green, and how going green will affect their businesses and of course, their lives.

My Mentor Me Module 4 is like a brief condensation of several of my usual topics on branding, marketing, product development with a little extra, too.  Here are some photos:

Kapatid Mentor Me Program's Launching at Tarlac Events Place. Photo (c) DTI Tarlac

We're the mentors of Tarlac! Proud to be the youngest of the lot. Photo (c) DTI Tarlac

Alien? Jk. In class facilitating a recitation portion of the lecture. Correct answers get free lychee jellies. Photo (c) DTI Tarlac 

Showing Ms. Ofel product trends for 2018. Photo (c) DTI Tarlac.

Class picture! Photo (c) DTI Tarlac

Hope I get to teach more people!  Thanks to Go Negosyo's Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Department of Trade and Industry.

I get to take pics when no one's looking :)

A Trip to San Antonio Zambales

February 7-8, was my third time teaching in Zambales.  The scenic route was of course, a welcome sight to behold, riding the bus before daybreak and seeing the West Philippine Sea covering a good amount of the horizon.

Nostalgia. I remember family vacations in La Union when I see any huge body of water right outside the vehicle window.

My client this time was the local government unit of San Antonio.  A quaint coastal town. The kind you'd want to live in, with business during weekdays and bike trips to the beach on Saturdays.

Stayed in a place called Nora's Beach Resort. I had very little time with my gracious hosts, but the hospitality is of course, Filipino first class. 

Walking around the vicinity of Nora's Beach Resort, you'll see brick walls and huts made of wood, nipa and bamboo. A splendid beach paradise, indeed.

This is the view just outside Nora's Beach Resort.  Sun, sea, sand and some mountains too.

In the distance, Capones Island. According to Paul, the LGU coordinator, the island is where they shot Marimar's dwelling from the latest Marimar incarnation of GMA 7, starring Marian Rivera.

Took a walk at the beach at around 5 am and watched the sun rise too. Pundaquit Beach sort of looks like a budding Boracay of  Central Luzon.

Apparently, with Anawangin Cove, Capones Island, Pundaquit Beach and a plethora of tourist destinations there's a scarcity of souvenirs (the few souvenirs sold according to some people were made of shells, but they don't make good souvenirs cause shell hunting for profit is never good for the environment).

Found these at the beach too, but I had to throw them back in the water. Shells and corals don't belong anywhere else!

But beyond the sights of sea and sand, the agenda was to teach the 4H Club, youth from the second-class municipality, how to manufacture key chains, refrigerator magnets and other little trinkets.

Funny I was teaching kids in a Senior Citizen's Center.

Ms. Vanj of DTI Zambales giving her welcome to our workshop participants.

Mr. Cantil, the municipal administrator pep talking the participants for the project's sustainability.

It's a two day activity, practically split into three sections namely raw material preparation, processing, and finally finished off with a pricing and costing lecture.

Nice seeing everyone busy.

Pre-processing parts that will eventually become souvenirs. 

A manong making bamboo amplifiers.

We processed the parts by the batch.

Finished them all simultaneously too.

The participants were awesome.  I firmly believe that in any workshop I teach, a bit of local flavor is needed, as it's this sense of independence is what will actually put character into the product they've been wanting to develop. Teach the basics, and let them do what they want. And indeed, they were very much enthusiastic about adding some personal flair into their creations.

Their innovations: use of macrame, graphics, and shapes like surfboards.

Detail of knotting made by one participant.

One participant decided to color the edges black.

Another participant used abaca twine to decorate his bamboo amplifier.

A participant decided to put legs on his amplifiers to prevent it from rolling sideways.

I've heard from them that they've attended some trainings on making bamboo items like lamps, but their module didn't include finishing. Luckily, I teach finishing with the processing modules.

A participant even decided to make earrings (shown lying flat on the shelf), among ref magnets and tags.

A participant etched the silhouette of the Capones Island onto his pen holder.

I would say the town of San Antonio is blessed for having a very supportive local government unit. The youth, through the 4H Club is also quite active.  With a booming tourism industry and plans properly executed, a bright future lies ahead of them.

Mandatory selfie with participants. 😜

That Time I Went to Zambales to Teach Souvenir Making

I got invited to teach some peeps in Zambales, how to make souvenir items out of bamboo back in 2015.

The workshop participants are indigenous peoples from all over their province.  They've got traditional folk crafts like bamboo pipes, bird calls, whistles, flutes, bows and arrows, but they also wanted to produce souvenir items like key chains, refrigerator magnets and the like.

Traditional bamboo crafts from Zambales. Image taken from https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/pinay-solo-backpacker/jungle-survival-pamulaklakin-forest-trail-075027297.html

Yours truly cooperated with Ms. Jaravata of DTI Zambales. It was a two day seminar on bamboo processing, with really awesome results.

I'm sharing some pics here:

Earrings by Ms. Jaravata.

Some bangles in the foreground.

Pen holders styled like mugs.

Refrigerator magnets!

More pen holders.

Assorted cuts and some letter openers at the upper left hand side of the photo.

They even exhibited some works in Likha ng Central Luzon 2015, which I failed to take pictures of. Sad :(

I'll be going back to Zambales soon, and hopefully more fresh stuff to post too!