Eulogio “Amang” RodriguezInstitute of Science and Technology

Nagtahan, Sampaloc Manila

NARRATIVEREPORT

(Y4IT 2010 )

Submitted by:CLECELYN A. MISOLES

BSCS-3E

Y4IT FEVER.!!!

The Largest gathering of IT professionals and students in the country today is the Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology or better known as “Y4IT” brought by the UP Information Technology Training center (UPITTC).

I must say that, the entire seminar I attended before, this was the biggest and yet the most expensive too. This is a “must join” and “must experience” event for computing students and professionals. Of course, it is also a line-up of speakers look like a listing from a Philippine Who’s Who in Computing and the biggest names in the IT industry.

This program is for our own goods. Y4IT aims for enriching IT comprehension and for maintaining interest and expertise in IT. Still, it is being religiously pursued year after year and now reached on its 8th year.

The said event was formally started on September 14, 2010. It last for 4 days consecutively. It was held in different part of the University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman Quezon City. Some venues are on the University Theater, UP Film Institute, Ang Bahay ng Alumni and on Aldaba Recital Hall. Every day, has a particular topics and the participants are free to choose where they want to attend.

In my case, I attended the day 4 of the seminar and that was on September 17, 2010, held at the University Theater. For me, I find day 4 as an interesting day to attend because of the topic “Game Development Summit for Students and Academe”.

The program started at exactly 9:00 o’clock in the morning with the opening ceremonies and the singing of the National Anthem, followed by the welcome remarks by Ms. Lyshiel Valencia. She graduated at the De La Salle University in BS Management, the GDP President and recently joined MoAnima, a motion capture service company, as Country Manager. Next is a Keynote address by Mr. David Tene. He is the author on Game Development Industry, Gefen Publishing House. He teaches the history of video games at Supinfogame, the first video games school. The philosophy of Supinfogame is to train professionals, who will be qualified, efficient and productive immediately after graduation, in order to ensure them fast integration in video industry. Mr. Allan Simosen is a Technical Director and Co-founder of Boomzap Entertainment. He tackles “The life of a Game Developer”. He strongly believes that life is not a zero-sum game. Dr. Jaime D.L. Caro, a Chief Academe Officer of Techfactors Inc. and Series Editor of the Techfactors courseware, a Assistant Vice President for Development of UP and the Director of the UPITTC. He discussed about the “Carreer Oppurtunities In game Development”. He pursued us to become a part of it, especially for those who are very interested.

Next is about the “Resurgence of Independent Games” headed by Ryan Sumo. He is a Chapter Head of IGDA Manila. “Comics and Digital Arts” is the next discussion by Mr. James Palabay. He graduated at UP with Communication Arts degree and finished a post-graduate course on Professional Publishing from Stanford University. He said that if we really love of what we’re doing, we will be able to develop and produce games like other country did.

Meanwhile, the next speaker was Ms. Ria Lu. She is a visual storyteller, with comics as the first medium of choice, prose as a second and games as third. She is also a creator of the story-creation card game. Then it was followed by a Panel Discussion about “Marketing Your Own Game Development Company”. The panel speakers are Mr. Gabby Dizon, a business Development Manager of Boomzap Entertainment graduated at the Ateneo de Manila University with a degree of BS managements Information System in 2010; Mr. Abet Ongkingco, Marketing Manager, a Suspended Animation Media and Mr. Graeme Warring, graduated at the University of Melbourne Australia in 1987, A CEO/President of Modelworks/Fun Guy Studios. After that, Mr. Ranulf Goss who is the Technical Director of SunGame Inc. talked about the “Virtual Works”. He teaches us how to specialize in a 3d Game Development, system programming and database management. Next is Mr. Neil Dagondon which is the President and Founder of Anino Games, Inc, the first and largest Game Development Company in the Philippines. He tackled about Games for Facebook. And last but not the least, Mr. Darwin Tardio, a head of design and development in Fun Guy Studios and talked about “Monetizing on Online and Social Gaming for Beginners”.

In addition to that, right after the speech of every guest speakers, they were assigned to answers every questions of the audience in an open forum. The said event also prepared some intermission numbers, lively games, an AM and PM snacks for the participants, raffle and gave us a Congress Kit. To end the program, Mr. Cesar Tolentino, which is the Executive Director of the GDAP, gave his synthesis in his closing remarks.

It was already dark when we left the UP Theater and it was a very tiring day for me but still I really enjoyed it. I really learned a lot from the speakers. That seminar will truly inspire us to pursue and develop our interest and skills to become competent leaders in Information Technology in the future. And for that, I want to congratulate UP specially the UPITTC for doing such a great job for gathering IT enthusiasts all over the country. Hope that this is not the last time I ever to attend this kind of event and I am looking forward to it next year. This y4it fever.!!!

Submitted by:CLECELYN A.MISOLES BSCS-3E