Great news for our Cebu friends. The highly regarded personal finance event STEPS to FINANCIAL PEACE goes to Cebu this May 26 at the Parklane Hotel.

Here’s a special treat! BDO’s Chief Investment Officer and SVP Mr. Marvin Fausto will also be speaking at the event — what a rare treat!

For particulars, check out the poster below. Great value, great learning! See you in Cebu.

The 4^th Philippine Small Medium Enterprises and Franchise Expo (PHILSME EXPO 2012) to be staged at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) on May 11, 12 and 13 just got bigger and better.

This three-day expo, presented for the fourth time by premier events specialist Trade Advertising Exhibitions & Conventions International Inc. (TRADECON), gets a  major boost from its partnership with ESQUIRE Financing Inc. (EFI), the country’s leader in Growth Stage Financing. EFI is a company dedicated to furthering the venture of growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by offering specialized business solutions to SMEs. It decided to co-present the expo because it believes in the significance of bringing together the SME owners and various publics (investors, clients, consumers, distributors, and suppliers, among others) to interact and tap into one another’s potential contributions to the emerging small and medium enterprise market.

SMEs play a major role in the country’s economic development as they contribute to the creation of business opportunities, generation of employment, and linkages to existing industries both here and abroad.

As of 2009, small and medium enterprises comprise 99.6 percent of the almost 80,000 business enterprises operating in the Philippines, according to data by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Sixty-three percent of the labor force earns their living through SMEs. While most of the jobs generated by the sector can be found in the National Capital Region, SMEs also propel employment in rural areas especially in economic zones spread around the country.

Aside from product showcase and a venue to link market players, the 4th Philippine Small Medium Enterprises and Franchise Expo (PHILSME EXPO 2012) will also provide opportunities for idea exchange and product demos for budding businessmen, as well as a great deal of free services, workshops and seminars, classes and new product launches.

Various SME players from direct selling, agriculture, hotel and restaurant management, banking, marketing, insurance and service providers will be setting up their kiosks for the three-day exhibit.

At the press conference held recently, Chinkee Tan who is a wealth coach, motivational speaker and host of KBP Golden Dove awardee 92.3 FM RadyoSingko “CHINK POSITIVE” show expressed his support for the upcoming expo and is encouraging each one to awaken their entrepreneurial spirit and engage in business that they’re good at and interested in. ESQUIRE Financing Inc. President and CEO Rajan Uttamchandani also expressed optimism at the country’s business environment this year. Life & Personal Finance advocate, one of Moneysense’s 12 Most Influential Persons in Personal Finance and Phil. Daily Inquirer columnist Randell Tiongson will also be featured at this event.

If you are an aspiring businessman, an established business owner, a budding entrepreneur or an interested consumer, come and be part of the PHIL SME 2012. For more information, please call 395-5009, 395-5137, 343-3368, or email  events.tradecon@gmail.com for details.

I rarely re-post blogs of other people but I am making an exception for this one.

My dear friend and TV5 Reporter & host of the Golden Dove nominated Radio Program Oplan Asenso (92.3 FM)  wrote something that I feel should be read by others. Michelle Orosa – Ople was covering an event at the Insurance Commission regarding the failure of a pre-need company and the anguish of those affected. Her blog is not only insightful, it is moving. Many times, media practitioners and writers just write about events, report the news or voice their opinions but I salute Mich for her empathy and being bold in voicing out her convictions. It’s people like Mich that makes me hopeful of the future of media. Way to go Mich, I salute you for your ‘feelings’.

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The blessing of feeling by Michelle Orosa-Ople

This was a scenario The Bad News Reporter—myself, often dubbed as such—had covered one too many times before: an angry crowd, officials scrambling to explain a wrong, microphones abuzz and an annoying scarcity of monobloc chairs. It was the same story all over again with only a different set of characters, a different set of figures and a stronger deluge of raw emotions. Today was, after all, the first time everyone got together in the pseudo arena called the Insurance Commission. Everyone knew it would be a box-office, action-packed hit for the news.

With a waiting-to-give-a-go-signal eye on my cameraman I cased the battlefield. The numbers were good: several hundred angry people in a room where tension was so thick that one could feel it in the air.

And then it started.

As the officials wrapped up explaining the problem and their proposed solutions, a woman grabbed the mic and harped her grievances right then and there. Cameras rolling, people around her caught the spark, fanned the flames, and soon were cheering beside her. They were tired of the jargon and numbers. They wanted action. The organizers managed to restore order among the madding crowd, but once the open forum started, the room was again filled with anguished voices tinged at times with frustration. Raw anger. Tears.

I was initially caught up in the usual motions of noting the best video, the best soundbites. My angle. But then, without warning, I stopped.

Without warning, I started to feel.

I don’t remember if it was the point where a mother choked on her plea to get her money back, or the time when a grandmother sharpened her tone to get her pain understood across the room. I just suddenly remembered that, once, my own father had been in their shoes, with the same company—investing what he had on a future that he wanted for his children. I suddenly remembered the difficulty he encountered to make our dreams come true, and imagined him across the room with that kind of pain, had the future he saved for fallen on 2011 or 2012.

And then the tears slid from my eyes.

It took a while for me to process my emotions. I was trained to go out onto the battlefield with an armor so thick, I’d come back to headquarters with all the details, sans even a tinge of bias, drama, or anything remotely related to subjectivity. I wasn’t used to “feeling”, at least not on the job. I’d save that for family and friends, those close to my heart.

And it was then I realized that was the problem all along.

It was when I started to feel that I felt the real story: the pain in the truth that there are people hurting. That those accountable must, to the best of their abilities, find a way to make things as close to right as they can. That as much details must be made available as possible so that informed decisions would be made amid the raw emotions. And as I saw how pained even the officials themselves were, I saw just as clearly that with this rapport (albeit not obvious), a workable solution would in time arise.

It was when I started to feel that their stories moved me, and showed me the blessings I had once taken for granted. It was when I started to feel that I became one with my job at that moment, and my purpose for being in that place, at that time made sense.

I’d save that for family and friends, those close to my heart.

My job—my work—should be close to my heart. All too often, it hasn’t. At least not in the way it was Designed to be.

I look around my life and lives around me and realize the human race is all too prone to stoic routine—from the usual terms called “the daily grind”, the “rat race” to extreme incidences of nurses and interns laughing at the bedside of a dying man.

What a shame.

Because we were created to feel. To be immersed in where we are. To make a real difference in the lives of people around us by knowing them, relating with them, sharing with them. That goes for every single job, no matter how simple or mundane. No matter how seemingly boring and routine, if infused with passion, love, joy and respect then excellence will follow. The workplace isn’t simply a place where money is earned and tasks are accomplished, it is also a place where one learns more about his/herself, the people around them, and what value he/she can place in other people’s lives. Work is about service in its essence, and real service means we. Have. To. Feel.

Jesus, when He started healing the sick and ministering to growing crowds, never lost compassion for each and every person around Him. He could have just concentrated on healing, teaching, performing one miracle after another, but He didn’t. He was deliberately personal.

I pray that we all be deliberately personal in our work. That we never forget to feel, to love, to cherish people around us. To learn from them and allow their lives and stories to permeate our hearts and defenses. I pray compassion overflows in every person’s life each and every single day.

What a beautiful change that would be.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

~ Matthew 9:36 (ESV)

Thanks to Tetta for processing and literally de-briefing me today (hehe) and Pam for inspiring me to write this entry!  :*

*Follow Michelle Orosa-Ople at Twitter www.twitter.com/michelleorosa