Go Negosyo, in partnership with the US Embassy, brought together the Grand Culminating Activity of the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Workshop (YEDW) series on Dec. 9, 10 and 11 at the Heritage Hotel in Manila. The grand culminating activity gathered the winners of YEDW’s existing business and business idea categories from all over the country.

Day 1 kicked off with the arrival of our special guest, Ambassador Philip Goldberg from the US Embassy who, along with Go Negosyo executive director Ramon Lopez and I, delivered an inspiring message to the youth delegates and even entertained a few questions.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on clustered mentoring sessions. The fellows were mentored by experts from their respective industries. Mentors to the YEDW fellows included, for Food: Juliet Herrera (Serenitea), GJ Jimenez (Banapple), RJ Ledesma (Mercato Centrale), Paco Magsaysay (Carmen’s Best) and Ifore Yu (Chicken Charlie). For Beauty/Health and Wellness: Sherill Quintana (Orayspa) and Anna Meloto-Wilk (Human Nature). For Tourism/Travel: Chal Lontoc (Jeron Travel) and Ivan Man Dy (Old Manila Walks). For Agriculture: Toto Barcelona (Harbest), Brian Belen (Ato Belen Farm), Reden Costales (Costales Nature Farms) and Desiree Duran (Duran Farms). For Fashion: Zarah Juan (Green Leaf Eco Bags) and Brian Tenorio (Tenorio). For Service: Tess Dimaculangan (Go Negosyo Angelpreneur/ Dimaculangan, Dimaculangan and Co. CPAs), Jerry Ilao (Ink-all-You-Can) and Amor Maclang (GeiserMaclang). For Education: Joy Abaquin (Go Negosyo Angelpreneur/ Multiple Intelligence International School).

Mentors (standing, from left) Willy Arcilla, Tess Dimaculangan, GJ Jimenez, Juliet Herrera, Sherill Quintana, Anna Meloto-Wilk, Desiree Duran, Mary Joy Abaquin and Zarah Juan; seated are Brian Belen, Ivan Man-Dy, Reden Costales, Chal Lontoc, Amor Maclang, Brian Tenorio and Jerry Ilao.

To end the day’s program, a forum about funding composed of panel members Patch Dulay of The Spark Project, Benel Lagua of Development Bank of the Philippines, Joe Maristela of Katalyst.ph and Navin Uttamchandani of Esquire Financing enlightened the fellows on funding opportunities they can tap.

The second day started with engineer Aisa Mijeno, the brains behind SALt (Sustainable Alternative Lighting), which was featured in the recently concluded APEC Summit. The floor was opened for questions after Mijeno’s talk about her SALt lamps.

The fire pitches of the non-winners, judged by Vix Madlangbayan, Jorge Wieneke and Willy Arcilla, was followed by another mentoring sessions on the different aspects of business by mentors Vix Madlangbayan, Butz Bartolome, Mylene Abiva, Willy Arcilla, Paulo Tibig, Jorge Wieneke, Mon Abrea, Armand Bengco, Danella Yaptinchay, Atty. Aileen Almora and Emelita Barbosa, CEBS.

Author Joey Concepcion with US Ambassador Philip Goldberg

The last day was filled with excitement as the winners of each leg and wildcard rounds presented their final business pitch.

In the end, Rachel De Villa of Cropital from the Manila leg and Helen Kaye Layco of Macho Mucho from the Mindanao leg each won a P100,000 cash prize to help expand their business and idea.