Y4iT Day 2
It was the wee hours of Wednesday, September 28th when I took off from home with my friend, Marx. The streets were empty and quiet. We walked towards 7-eleven where we were then picked up by the jeepney. Inside were my classmates which are probably going to be inside the same bus as I was. Arianne collected our fares halfway the trip to Lucena Grand Terminal. I had noticed that almost literally everyone inside was fast asleep the whole trip. This must be probably because of the call time and maybe everyone didn’t get enough sleep due to the fact that they had to pack their bags.
The entire trip must have taken a short 20 minutes all the way from Tayabas because we were already at the Grand Terminal before it was even 4:00AM. There were our buses, parked diagonally. We were told to get on the bus that was assigned to us. In our case, it was bus number 2. We happily got on the bus and took pictures. It wasn’t until past 5AM that we got off the parking area due to a latecomer which we were informed was an unfortunate victim of the circumstances. The third-year student was said to have been left by the jeepney in Lucban just five minutes before they turned up. Before we took off, our assigned bus leader, Engr. Jeru Shalom Barlos, went on and took the first seat and initiated a prayer. Before I knew it, we were already moving.
Our first stop was McDonald’s at Tiaong. We were told to be back by fifteen minutes inside the bus or we will be left there. It wasn’t until long that everyone was back a little or more than 20 minutes inside their respective buses. Everyone had their own bathroom break or bought breakfast. Almost every bus was permeating with the smell of hash browns, French fries, burgers, and coffee. It was a really good smell to get stuck with because it would get everyone else hungry. But as for me, I was okay with the bread rolls I packed inside my bag. I shared a piece with my bus seatmate, Elaine and then dozed off until we were already at the Southern Luzon Expressway (SLEX).
By the time we were at the SLEX, I noticed that traffic was smooth. Well, that was until we actually got to Manila. The traffic movement was so slow that it compromised our schedules of being on time at the SMX Convention Center. It was already past 9:40AM when we got to SMX. The event had already started by 9:00AM sharp as indicated on the Y4iT website. We got off our buses and went inside. I have already been familiarized with the place due to the fact that I’ve been there for two times, of which both of them were due to the Manila International Book Fair. I never really knew what the upper floor looked like. We got on the escalator towards the upper floor. I took a turn into the men’s comfort rooms so I could empty my bladder before actually going inside the area where all the action was taking place.
We were given these yellow cards which had the event name, logo, stamp number, stubs for meals, and the congress kit. My stamp number was 1139. Upon getting these cards, we queued to go inside. The entire hall was gigantic. It was arranged with seating spanning of I don’t know how many rows. The entire hall was just filled with seats. Well, when we got inside, most of the seats were already occupied.
We never made it through the first talk. The first talk for us was given by Prof. Henry Duh from University of Tasmania. He discussed “Next Generation User Interface: Virtual and Augmented Reality”. He showed how much of the current technology of today can be used for the benefit of not only just games (i.e. Pokémon Go), but also for transportation, wherein a camera is strapped inside your vehicle and it will monitor the road and then put markings up your windshield as to whether to slow down or speed up and such.
The second talk was given by Mr. Fred Chua and is all about “An Overview of the 3D Printing Revolution”. Basically, saying that 3D printers are not that much of a new thing and whatever is new, is going to be really expensive. Furthermore, with a 3D printer at hand, printing things you design is going to be a breeze.
Mr. Johan Janssens (pronounced “Yo-han Yan-sens”) was the third person to take the stage with his talk “Captains of Spaceship Earth – An Exploration of Technology, Philippines, and… YOU(th)!”. He struck me as a person. Not because of how he talks but because of how he delivers his ideas. It was truly inspirational. One of the striking parts of his speech was to never use the “Bahala na si Batman” saying ever again. It literally made him cringe by just saying it. This was due to the Filipino mentality of letting everything run its own course without doing anything to swim against the flow. Critique-wise, his stage time was basically composed of inspirational videos ripped off of YouTube. Nothing new.
The last talk for the morning part was given by Mr. Kristian Melquiades. It was about “Using Data Science to Revolutionize Financial Services”. He talked about banking and electronics and how it can affect world economy. He also discussed about the five-six interest loan and how making a loan from their company will not result in any interests. It wasn’t really that interesting.
By 12:00PM, we were munching on our lunches. We got out of the SMX Convention Center and went to the mall area. I went third-wheeling with Louie and Elaine at BonChon Chicken where I had one of the spiciest fried chicken ever. I was sweating the entire time that I ate it. I am 100% sure that I will never be having that same chicken again. By the time we were done, my stomach started acting up. We got back to SMX and I swear that I just made a run for it towards the men’s toilets. Anyways, when I was done, I met up with these two and got back inside the hall and got better seats than what we had in the morning.
The first talk of the afternoon was one of the greatest I ever listened to. It was one of the most significant talks because it went on about cyber-security and data privacy. Dr. Atty. Ivy Patdu went on for twenty minutes about how posting literally everything that’s happening in your life on social media is a bad thing and how allowing all of these social-networking sites to have power over us by providing them with our most basic information. Right to privacy, as she said it, is of utmost importance as it can save you when the time comes.
The next talk was given by Ms. Jacqueline van den Ende and it was about “Leading through Technology”. It was mostly about how she got to where she is currently now. Everyone doesn’t need to work hard. Some people just have to work smart. Or at least that’s how I thought she put it. She doesn’t have an IT or an Engineering degree but she definitely wowed me with how she delivered her talk as she is very fixated on how to help people. She also showed everyone how the VR is helping her real-estate business. The significance of the VR to her is to show people a certain room like the person was standing there experiencing the details just before selling it. She ended her talk with giving away a VR headset to one of the audience.
The next talk, and probably the last about the technical was given by Mr. Keith Jones, a friend and colleague of Mr. Johan Janssens, talked about “How to Prepare for the 4th Industrial Revolution”. It was all about how to prepare for when everything in the world, including industries, homes, and more, are being controlled by electronics and robotics.
Lastly, there was the final Tech Talk by Mr. Jayvee Fernandez from Manila Bulletin. He talked about how technology has helped in the field of journalism, especially in keeping archive of everything that went on in history. Certainly, personal biases are always supposed to be set aside when it comes to journalism. I never knew until his talk that Philippines was a country engaged in baseball back in the 50s as one of the screens he showed to everyone was of a newsprint that had tally of the scores of the New York Yankees. To further his discussion, he went on about how social media is helping spread awareness of the happenings of the country.
The event proper ended with a raffle draw and a performing band. One of my classmates, Marvin Aril, won an external hard disk drive. It was really great. He went onstage to claim his prize, but also ran away after in glee, even if one of the two hosts wanted to take a picture, as it was almost mandatory for them. It was really funny because one exclaimed, “Ay. Ayaw ni kuya magpa-picture. Sige.” Last thing that was drawn was an iPad air. None of us from the university got it, sadly. We eventually got out of the venue just as the Pinoy pop band Let Gravity was about to play their set.
The next few hours were composed of personal exploring-the-mall time, which to me, meant more third-wheeling time. The three of us eventually ate dinner at Burger King and when everything else was done, including buying various “pasalubong”. We retreated to the spot where we were dropped off at the SMX. Everyone was already there. We took one final picture and then got on the bus and got to our homes with a lot more knowledge about our fields.
