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A 2 Days Lecture Series That Will Inspire You On Starting Your Own Business.

The 2 days lecture series that is worth your while was held on the University Convention Center in Central Mindanao University on November 23, and November 25, 2022. This series will definitely change your mind set (in a good way!) on start-up business. Here is my summary of the said event:

Day 1 Lecture

The lecture series would not be possible if we did not have guest speakers who will share their expertise and knowledge (or perhaps their secrets) on how they made their way to success from starting a start-up business. Engineer Bronson Mabulay is one of the motivational speakers, a BS in Computer Engineering graduate and  is now employed at the University of Science and Technology of the Southern Philippines in Cagayan de Oro City. He imparts a lot of knowledge from the start-up ecosystem, including details about its various stages and various start-up organizations. He also went over the steps for achieving a larger framework once inside the business. On the later part he got into detailed on the types of Philippines Innovation and Initiatives giving emphasis on the possible grants and support for start-up business based on the innovative start up act.  The first few hours of lecture was already packed with insightful knowledge that will help us if we plan to start business in the future.

Our next speaker is a CEO and manager of his own company, Mr. Arnel Arreglado. He is one of the coolest and kind CEO I personally met. Mr. Arnel shares his personal experience how he was able to achieve what he had today and also explained how having a proper mind set will change everything in your life. I would say Engr. Bronson focus on much practical aspect on the business while Mr. Arnel gives us knowledge on much personal aspects in life.  I personally enjoyed their lecture and definitely learned a lot from them. Our first day was filled with knowledge and inspirations from our speakers and was ended with closing remark from sir Von.

DAY 2 Demo Day and Pitching Event

The second day of the event was undoubtedly the most dreaded for students because it was the day when they would pitch their product/services in front of the panelists and audience. But, before the pitching event, another speaker gives us a brief overview of the importance of trademark, copy right, and patent searches, as well as the consequences of failing to protect intellectual property. Following the discussion, the pitching began, which was prepared by students from various colleges, years, and sections who were all studying The Entrepreneurial Mind. There were 22 pitchers in total who will present their ideas and hopefully persuade the panelists of their viability as a start-up business.

So in our start-up business, we presented the CMU (Cycling Me and U) which is a bicycle renting service exclusively for students in Central Mindanao University. I personally love the idea in our start-up business but I can’t deny that there are also amazing and unique pitches from other group so the competition is tight. And since we happened to perform second to the last, I was able to keep a top 5 list of my personal favourite pitches throughout. These are (in no particular order) hatod, sugo, Shellf Plus, CMU, Electro Flask.

 All of the ideas were actually amazing and unique and I really enjoyed their pitches to the point that I didn’t notice the time. It was past 7 when the lecture series officially ended. It was one of the most enjoyable and insightful event where you could learn and be inspire. The knowledge and expertise they share could help big time especially for those who are planning on start-up business. At this point if we really wanted to we could already start our own business. With these knowledge added with hard work, perseverance and good attitude anything is possible.

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HOCOFIRE FLASK, THE NEW GENERATION OF SAFE AND CONVENIENT DRINKING TUMBLER

      When we examine the problems that CMU students face, we are confronted with a slew of issues such as internet access, financial budgeting, transportation, and many others. But because these issues receive so much attention, we wanted to focus on subtle issues that we often overlook but can have a significant impact on our lives. We interviewed students about their experiences with water, including their sources of water and their feelings about it.

      According to the findings, all of the random students we interviewed have the same opinions about their current drinking water. Some of them spend extra money to buy a gallon of mineral water to drink because they don't trust the safety of tap water. While others who cannot afford to buy have decided to drink from it despite knowing it is unsafe, especially when heavy rains cause flooding that can contaminate the water. However, the general consensus is that none of them are completely confident in the safety of drinking tap water. 

      To address this issue, we devised the idea of developing a tumbler that can filter out water as we drink it. We also included heating and cooling technology to make the customer's life easier and more convenient. The tumbler is known as the HOCOFIRE flask, which is an abbreviation for HOt, COld, Filter, and REmind. This one-of-a-kind technology provides not only one, but four incredible features that will precisely meet the needs of its user. The hot and cold vacuum that can keep the temperature of your drink stable for up to 24 hours. This feature is ideal for teachers and hikers who lack the time and resources to boil water. We also provide a reminder to the user to drink and stay hydrated, which is ideal for students or teachers who forget to drink due to their busy schedule. Finally, our main feature is the ability to filter water using carbon filter technology. This will allow for safer, tastier, and more fresh water, even if it is derived from tap water.

      We conducted research and discovered that this product is quite feasible if properly developed, and we also take into account the cost of the equipment and its actual market price. So far, the response has been mostly positive as we interview another group of students about their thoughts on our product and willingness to purchase. Based on this information, our team decided to pursue this idea in order to solve the problem of safe drinking water. We anticipate possible changes and shaping for our product as soon as we make our decision, and we welcome any suggestions and corrections from future investors and customers. As of now, we only wanted to take a step forward in making these incredible ideas into reality.

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Post Pandemic Struggles of Students at Central Mindanao University

Blog #1

Several months upon the official face-to-face classes started at Central Mindanao University, both students, parents and teachers are still facing new challenges and adjustments to finally get used to the lifestyle before the pandemic. We can't deny that it takes a toll on all of us, particularly on financial matters such as boarding houses, transportation, and our daily expenses to top it off. These issues were emphasized when we interviewed 8 students here in Central Mindanao University. Some of them expressed their frustrations on how transportation affects their studies, especially those who are residing outside the campus, whereas in order to reach here, they must travel and pay from 10 to 20 pesos in a single ride on a daily basis. Maybe those amount seem small for others, but for those who have limited allowances, and self-supporting students, it is too much.

Poor signal around campus was also significant issue for students. Personally, it was also my problem here especially that we have blended classes. Since university Wi-Fi is almost impossible to cater thousands of students therefore we mostly relies on internet data which is additional burden for us. Unfortunately, most area around campus have poor signal reception thus affect greatly to the performance of students.

For the most part, almost five students expressed their struggles financially, particularly on budgeting and saving money. This is actually a common problem for us students living independently for the first time (for some) away from the support of our parents. Which is why we give attention to this matter more among those issues mentioned earlier devising a possible solution that could help them handle financial role.

Our team came up with the idea of creating a money saving device that has a similar concept of a piggy bank. What makes this unique was that we utilizes technology that help monitoring, offer security and additional features that would give exciting experience while saving money. All kansya is the product name that we think has a potential for our target consumers which are students in CMU because it has a unique approach of allowing students to save money creatively. In general it can improve the self-discipline of the users in term of money saving.

Base on this hypothesis our team decided to pursue this idea and see from here what can be improve and where can this product lead us. We actually think of alternative solution for each issue that they mentioned just like a UniBUS, a university school bus that uses water as fuel thus helping student to spend less on their fare. We also consider building a ULTRATOWER that can reach to a large parameter filling the dead spot of signal in the campus. However among those solutions we came up with, we agreed to have the All Kansya project for the saving money matters. We believe we can make this work since we have enough knowledge to understand the process and mechanism unlike other that require expert knowledge to create.

We definitely learned something throughout our activity. I would like to emphasize the importance of finding a great team to work with. We realized that big tasks can feel like a small task if all of us do our part as team. We also realized that starting a business is no joke. It was a tiring and a long process but at the same time it was exciting and fulfilling to do.