The PR & Events Circuit

Media giant GMA Network is set to proudly represent the Philippines at the 2023 New York Festivals TV & Film (NYF) Awards with nine entries making it to the short-listed candidates – again earning the most number of nominees for the country. Spanning three decades of blazing the trail in producing compelling stories, GMA Public Affairs leads the Kapuso contingent with eight entries while GMA Entertainment cements its world-class programming with primetime masterpiece ‘Maria Clara at Ibarra.’  2022 NYF Gold World Medal awardee The Atom Araullo Specials is gunning for another win this year with two entries. “Mata sa Dilim (Eye in the Dark),” Atom Araullo’s documentary on the online sexual exploitation of children, was shortlisted under Documentary: Social Issues. “Ang Nawawala (The Missing),” which chronicled missing persons and their loved ones' heartbreaking search, is also nominated under the Documentary: Human Concerns category. Likewise earning double nominations is 2022 NYF...

BDO Private Bank together with partners, Zonta Club of Makati & Environs (ZCME) and Galerie Joaquin, celebrate International Women’s Month  with a special art exhibit featuring the talent of female artists entitled " Women Rise". EMPOWERING FILIPINA ARTISTS . “Women Rise” art exhibit was opened last March 9, 2023 in Plant Mall. The ribbon cutting ceremony was led by Her Excellency MaryKay Carlson, US Ambassador to the Philippines (6th from left, in green); Chairperson of Ways and Means Committee and Past President of ZCME Maritess Pineda (7th from left, in red); SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. President & Chairperson Elizabeth Sy (3rd from left, in brown); and BDO Private Bank President Albert Yeo (5th from left), together with artists and members of ZCME and Galerie Joaquin . “ BDO Private Bank has always been a patron of Philippine arts and culture ,"  said Albert Yeo, president of BDO Private Bank. " We have also always espoused the values of gender equa...

The country’s leading e-wallet GCash has collaborated with Connected Women, a socially-responsible platform that trains and offers flexible AI and digital job opportunities for Filipino women. The announcement of the partnership coincides with International Women's Day, which is being celebrated under the UN Women and United Nations' theme of "DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality. With its partnership with Connected Women, GCash aims to bring the entrepreneurial spirit of freelancing to its users, through a community of strong, empowered, and like-minded women. The Connected Women platform is now accessible through the Earn Money feature in the GCash app. Join the community and learn how to earn from home. From left: Ferdie Perez, GCash Head of Commercial Product; Bobby Jimenez, Connected Women CTO; Gina Romero, Connected Women Founder & Head of Special Projects; Jasmine Kho, GCash Head of Commercial New Products & Platforms; Lhen Pavia, GCash AV...

A homegrown cafe is pouring happiness and camaraderie over cups of coffee goodness to create a Coffee Brewtherhood. The shop’s bubbly FB page simply describes itself as, Just a humble coffee business with a humble passion to serve quality coffee beverages that fuel customers to “magpadayun” in spite of the challenges and struggles in achieving their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Magpadayun or magpadayon is a Hiligaynon term for continue. This unassuming shop located at the SM Food Hall, Northpoint of SM City Iloilo, is literally a must go place for worthwhile conversations over cups of coffee.  Coffee Brewtherhood takes pride in brewing local coffee beans they source from Davao and in Iloilo at La Granja Cereza Roja Farm in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, their best-selling coffee which they also share to the Manila market. The shop focuses on serving beverages only, unlike other cafes which serves pastry with coffee. SM City Iloilo supports homegrown brands, especially Micro, Small and M...

The Body Shop’s bestselling Vitamin C range is getting a glow up! Global Google searches for vitamin C, a superstar ingredient in glow-boosting skincare, have soared by 1000% since 2020, while searches for ‘how to get glowing skin’ have climbed by 400%. Skincare has taken centre stage in recent years. In fact, a whopping 73% of people have upgraded their skincare routine since the pandemic. If natural radiance feels like something of a wonder, let The Body Shop’s new and improved Vitamin C range do the heavy lifting. The brand has squeezed even more vitamin C into its bestselling formulas, now with concentrations of up to 10% and made with at least 90% ingredients of natural origin.  As one of nature’s richest sources of vitamin C, the Amazonian camu camu berry extract is the hero ingredient in some of the new and improved Vitamin C creations. Native to the tropical forests of South America, camu camu berries have long been considered a symbol of good health and strength. Naturally...

BDO  Unibank Inc. (BDO)  continues to offer financial support to eco-friendly companies and renewable energy projects to create opportunities, uplift the lives of Filipinos and help drive national development while transitioning to a low carbon, environmentally responsible, and socially inclusive economy.   BDO financed the first renewable energy biomass power plant of the Isabela Biomass Energy Corporation (IBEC), a Filipino-owned corporation which uses rice mill waste to generate and supply electricity in the community through alternative sources of energy. The abundance of rice husk in Isabela allows IBEC to utilize renewable energy and produce clean fuel as a sustainable source of power for the country.  The company also provides livelihood to the locals by giving value to agricultural residues which include rice husks, coconut and corn waste, utilized as fuel sources to maintain the power plant’s operations. BDO also funded IBEC’s succeeding expansion proj...

PLDT Home prevails at the 58th Anvil Awards as the most-awarded company this year, taking home the highly prestigious Platinum and Grand Anvil citations for their impactful advocacies and campaigns. “We at PLDT Home are grateful for and humbled by the recognition of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines’ highest awards of Platinum and Grand Anvils bestowed on our purpose-driven campaigns. Some of our winning initiatives, like Madiskarte Moms PH and #UsapTayo, may have been conceived and launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their positive impact on the lives of Filipinos continues,”  said Cheryl P. Loyola, PLDT Home Assistant Vice President and Head of Public Relations and Influencer Management. “With our customer-focused digital innovations and campaigns, PLDT Home has been enabling families to create opportunities, work productively, expand knowledge, pursue passions, and build meaningful relationships,” Loyola added. The big winner of the most prestigious Grand An...

Just fresh from its initial rollout in Japan, Australia, and Italy, GCash Overseas is now expanding into the United States allowing the first 1,000 Filipinos there to use the e-wallet even without a Philippine SIM Card. Filipinos in the US can soon sign up for GCash by using their American mobile numbers and start supporting their families back home by sending money for free (GCash to GCash), paying bills, and buying them prepaid load credits. “Now that we have activated GCash outside of the Philippines, we are now working towards making it available in more countries. This time, we are adding the US to our list to be able to service over 4 million of our kababayans residing there,” said Martha Sazon, president and CEO of GCash. “With strong support from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), we are able to make significant headway in scaling our services, aligned with our vision of ‘Finance for All’.” Earlier this month, GCash received the green light from the BSP to start the initial...

" One of the common pitfalls for investors is they don't have a good exit strategy ," says BDO Securities Chief Operating Officer, Bernhard Tsai during the TradeTalks Tutorial Series entitled "Trending Patterns" on the basics of technical analysis and understanding market trends. " When things go right, we tend to be too greedy and don't know when to get out"  he continues. " Knowing how to identify patterns to buy is as good as knowing when to exit."   Hosted by BDO Securities, the said tutorial focused on market prices that form patterns that create trends, and people almost always tend to react the same way when they see the patterns that had similarly formed in the past. Veteran market pundits say this is very much in play, stressing that there is science behind the controlled chaos that is - the stock market . FOR an investment instrument as volatile as stocks, is it still possible to predict how stock prices will move at a given ti...

SM Supermalls, the country's largest chain of malls, in partnership with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) conducted nationwide simultaneous fire drill on March 13, 2023. Participated in by tenants, employees, agency personnel, costumers, the fire drill in more than 80 SM Supermalls is one of the highlights of the celebration of Fire Prevention Month 2023 by both BFP and the SM Group. With the theme "Sa Pag-lwas ng Sunog Hindi Ka Nag-lisa" and #thinkfiresafetynow the fire drill in highly dense occupancy such as SM supermalls is one of the ways in which SM shows its commitment to the creation of risk-resilient societies and advocacy of promoting disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the country. SM City North Edsa was the venue for the main fire drill. A scenario of a strong earthquake hitting Metro Manila causing considerable damage to buildings, occurrence of fire, search and rescue of victims was simulated. The personnel of the BFP demonstrated their capabilities by rope r...