We, at Exlink Management and Marketing Services, see a bright Meetings, Incentive Travel, Convention, Exhibition and Events (MICE) in the country.


This is the reason why we wanted to bring readers information that will kept them abreast in the MICE industry.

Already international markets are looking at holding their meetings in our country, a reason that we have to be prepared.

When there are meetings there are conventions and exhibitions, two key components in making our economy dynamic and robust.

Having figured this out, we decided to have our own blog domain so that readers and followers of events, exhibition and convention can reach as faster.

Happy trip to all of us and may the Philippines MICE light shine brighter in the coming years.

In the Tourism Industry, the excitement cannot be contained as to who will be the new DOT Secretary. Alas, P-Noy announced that the new steward of the tourism industry is none other than Sec. Alberto Lim.

From the tourism congress newsletter, it was reported that he has a 38 years of experience engaged in business, government and civil society.

He won several local and international awards under his company Ten Knots Development for environmental conservation. He was also an executive director of the Makati Business Club, a very active business organization in the country.

Many are expecting that Sec. Alberto Lim will bring his private orientation in the government institution. This mindset will definitely benefit the tourism industry.

The inauguration today of P-Noy is all about a fresh start for a country tired of the nine years of inept service by the past government.


All of the Filipino people pro-Noynoy or anti-Noynoy pin their hopes that a positive change will radiate in our country. I, too, am hoping for such change.

From P-Noy’s speech there are signs of bringing governance sensitive to the common people’s needs. Saying is a very different matter from acting it to be a reality, I wish that hindrances from making this much awaited concept of government for the people, and by the people be removed and eliminated on P-Noy’s ascendancy as our leader.

However, much to the high expectations we are putting on P-Noy’s shoulder, I wanted everyone to be realistic that this country is made up of 90 million people, and we cannot just entrust it to one man. Leadership must emanate from above and below, from everywhere to anywhere.

We have a duty to be a leader ourselves in running this country towards our dream of a Developed Philippines.

P-Noy will just set an example of how to be a leader in making a positive change in the country. We will collectively lead this nation. We have the supreme leader that as long as he is acting in accordance with the legacy of his father and mother, we can never get wrong.

Good luck President Noynoy Aquino may God give you all the gifts you need to steer this nation to greatness.

It is hard to find eagles in our midst. If you found one do not ever let it go. If you are one, you need other eagles to sustain the heights that you have scaled or else the wind will knock you down.

This is the ordeal of being a leader, we always give to others but when it is our time to be filled we find it difficult to look for those that will fill us. As the saying goes, “you cannot give what you do not have”.

Luckily, there is an event happening this coming July 6, 2010 at Asian Institute of Managements. The event is “Reach Your Full Leadership Potential with Leadership Circles”. It is happening from 6pm to 9pm where you get share a seat with leaders like you and discuss leadership issues and how to go about it.

It is not a pedagogical exercise but a sort of sharing experiences coming from others is in a different industry. There will be creative fusion – this is a guarantee.

There are 7 reasons why you should be here:

1. Learn and share experiences from an intimate and interactive environment with members who have YOUR same interests!

2. You will gain fresh insights on leadership growth

3. You will be able to practice your mentoring and coaching skills

4. You will receive mentoring and coaching from other leaders as well

5. You can regularly reignite your excitement to lead

6. You can experience one-on-one executive coaching from the facilitator upon request (with a fee should it entail a longer discussion)

7. You need a circle of leaders that you can regularly connect with and get a third opinion on ideas

If you want to know details of this event, you may call tel # 643-3887.

Again, no man is an island and leadership is not an overnight endeavour but a continuing journey that can be enjoyable if you have other leaders to share your success, and learn from their success too

Last time around I talked about how critical is managing time gaps in an event. I was elated that after writing that article a great example took place during the National Marketing Conference where I attended.

Ms. Matec Villanueva, Chairman of Publicis Manila, one of the speakers, showed a lot of creativity in not getting caught in those time gaps. The situation is this, when it was her turn to speak, her powerpoint presentation encountered a technical problem. It is not projecting in the big screen. A lot of time was spent trying to trouble shoot the problem. Alas, the trouble shooting activity took a lot of time from her presentation before it was projected to the screen.

However, instead of losing the energy of the audience, Ms. Matec Villanueva told a lot of stories, crack jokes and, even, dance to the enjoyment of the crowd as it gets involved with the antics of Ms. Villanueva. When everything is already ok, the audience is more pumped up and involved to Ms. Villanueva. It is like the speaker became a personal friend and her presentation became a casual conversation between two people.

She expressed why she hates encountering technical problems during presentation that is she does not like dead air.

I guess dead air brings more intensity to the meaning of time gaps. It brings more the emotion of enervation or a state of stagnation to a much more serious and deeper consequence.

Yes, dead air! We do not like it during events, therefore, we must labor hard to avoid this for taking over our events which we painstakingly created to be possible.

You created a great concept and content for your event but placed in a situation where the next speaker is not yet ready, the stage is being fixed and, suddenly, dead silence emanates followed ebbing of the audience energy to the lowest level takes place.


Most of the times, this is what happen. We do our Daily Run Sheet but forgot to give special attention to time gaps that always happen in between topics or during breaks. We forgot to consider that in this critical period an enervating inertia may take place. Inertia that makes us slips within our hands the attention of the audience. Even, sadly, sometimes, we are judged because of this area which is critical but overlooked.

So next time that you are creating your Daily Run Sheet, make sure that you give a special attention on time gaps that take place inside your event and give it creative ways with the objective of maintaining the audience energy created at the start of your event. For sure, handling the time gaps properly will help you sustain the energy until the end of your event.

The annual National Marketing Conference of the Philippine Marketing Association opens today’s with more than 500 delegates, and 30 exhibitors and sponsors joining this prestigious event.


The event which runs from June 24-25,2010 at Sofitel Philippine Plaza has this year’s theme : Marketing as Growth Accelerator: Marketing in Hyper Speed.

The event was opened by Dr. Cecilio Pedro, President of Lamoiyan Corporation. In his speech, he hammered to the delegates the need to speak positive things about the Philippines and the Filipinos. The delegates gave him a resounding applause as a signal that they agreed to what he said.

After his speech, RJ Esteban gave a scientific and incisive presentation about Laying Bare the Customer Mindset – Loyalty or Infidelity. He mentioned that some segments of the market have two conflicting personalities that marketers must know how to manage. He cited Batanes as a figurative example to what he is pointing at, and the OFW market as one of the specific examples.

The next speaker is Thomas Fernandez, a Singaporean who wrote the bestselling books “Secrets to Dominate Your Niche” and “Success Secrets Exposed”. He told about his success story how he dominated the pest control and management industry in Singapore and now the Asian market.

Before Lunch, the last session was about the Certified Practitioner of Marketing (CPM) where Dr. Rohan Somawansa expounds on the benefits of being a CPM.

Other speakers of the first day event are Mr. Ricardo de Vera on “The Different Shades of Green and How the Green Marketing Can Grow Your Market and Sales in Hyperspeed”, Mr. Jos Ortega,CEO of JWT on “Trapping the Elusive Generation Y Market to Expand and Grow” and Mr. Goran Aleks, GM of Sofitel on “Tourism as the Country’s Express Lane Towards Economic and Market Growth”.

Today’s headline banners the first Philippine Marketing Plan that is geared towards achieving P2.4 trillion worth of investments. It is a welcome news and I pray that this happen. However, before this happen I would just like to make a pragmatic observation. How can we achieve it if we do not have the infrastructure to welcome the investors? In particular, we have to have a first class and state-of-the-art airport to prove our seriousness to achieve this plan.


Just recently, I blogged about the plight of our airports, I called P-Noy to take a special look on the airport industry. Funny that day after my blog, our airport encountered the breakdown of our NAIA Radar that sent thousands of passengers stranded and flights re-routed to Clark.

I believe that we as a country can achieve the dreams we are all aspiring for – to be a developed nation, but this recent event reeks of incompetence and lack of proactiveness to have redundancy in the area of systems that critical in running an efficient and safe airport.

Again, in this particular industry we have suffered enough from the downgrade coming from US, to the ban implemented by Europe, to the decrepit and ailing NAIA 1 and 2, and now the conking out of the radar.

So amidst the much publicized Philippine Marketing Plan and the target earnings it promised to deliver I feel that it will be more words than action if we will not do something about our airports.

Our airports are the world’s entry to our country. It is the tourists and investors first moment of truth experience of the Philippines and yet our official and businessmen that declare their love for our country seem to be turning blind in confronting the airport maladies.

Just recently, Singapore experienced its first flood in the Orchard Road, and yet a day after this catastrophe, the officials and department assigned to monitor such disaster came out and apologize. To think that Singapore only experienced this incident only now, not often as we do, but their government officials and our government officials have disparate value system.

A change in the government leadership is a positive change; I pray that my ranting turns to praising in the end. I know Filipinos can do it and we can do it. The first step is a massive improvement with our airports that will make us proud and clap our hands symbolizing we have arrived in the center stage of the world.

Since the explosion of the vast frontier of the internet many have attempted to conquer this new space. Some called it the white space, a new battlefield that everybody is magnetized. It is a space that gave birth to millions of jobs and new millionaires.


I myself is still trying to grasp the enormity of this new space. I myself is trying to make sense of this unique animal that when tamed can give enormous wealth.

Good thing that there is an event slated tomorrow that will introduce us to some of the peculiarities of Google’s adwords – one of the most important moneymaking tool in the internet.

It is a two day affair that may happen again next year, and it’s a very long time if that is the case. So I invite you to attend this opportunity and grab every bite of what you can learn. Definitely, it will be a big help.

The event takes place in Crown Plaza Ortigas, you may walk-in or call tel# 643-3887. The investment rate is P10, 595 + vat.

Speakers are from Singapore, they are Simon Leung and Fabian Lim. They are both experts in internet marketing, so the time you spent hearing them is worth it.

See you there and let us exchange knowledge in this once in a lifetime event.