CCCI announces Cebu Business Month 2017 activities

THIS year’s Cebu Business Month (CBM), the flagship project of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), is set to address issues relevant to industry stakeholders in four key areas.

Celebrated June of each year, CBM 2017 aims to inspire, promote, and grow Cebu business by gathering various stakeholders to events related to tourism, information and communications technology-business process management (ICT-BPM), entrepreneurship, and creative industries.

“Each year, the Chamber ensures that CBM will move to greater heights by making it more meaningful and relevant to current needs and trends to help the business community in Cebu as well as neighboring islands sustain growth and development,” CCCI president Melanie Ng said in a press conference on Monday.

Launching on June 1 at the Ayala Center Cebu, CBM 2017 will banner the theme “STEP Up Cebu” which stands for “Stepping Up Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Productivity for the Upliftment of Cebu.”

CBM 2017 co-chair Nimrod Quiñones said the theme is in line with the chamber’s thrust to “bring business to the next level.”

Quiñones said that even before the grand launch of CBM 2017, CCCI will host a series of mini-conferences between the academe and industry to discuss how national educational reforms affect the workforce, and to explore how both sectors can work together to prepare senior high school students for labor.

CCCI’s flagship project will feature the Cebu Digital Innovation Summit from June 2 to 3, which ICT-BPM committee chair Christian Paro-an said will provide an opportunity for stakeholders across different sectors to network and collaborate for sustained growth and development of the industry.

ICT-BPM committee co-chair Mike Cubos said the two-day event will bring together local, national, and foreign experts to discuss opportunities and challenges, developments and trends, as well as its impact on the ICT-BPM industry, particularly on micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises.

This was seen as a follow up to the theme of last year’s CBM, which was “Digital Cebu,” since it was expected to become a knowledge-sharing platform on how digital innovation can help entrepreneurs succeed, how to prepare one’s company to adapt to new technologies, and how to adjust to disruptive innovations.

Cebu’s “hidden treasures” are also expected to get additional exposure during CBM, with the staging of “Luma’g Laag sa Sugbo” from June 10 to 12.

CBM 2017 tourism committee chair Edwin Ortiz said this tribute to AXN’s Amazing Race and the provincial government’s Suroy-Suroy Sugbo will showcase Cebu’s tourism, food, people, culture, and heritage through “technology and adventure.”

Edilberto Mendoza, tourism committee co-chair, said they will also organize a digital marketing competition for students taking up business administration in Cebu.