Innovation +SocialGood: Speakers at the 2015 Manila Social Good Summit

MANILA, Philippines – How can technology and innovation help us fix these complex problems in the next 15 years: extreme poverty, inequality and injustice, and climate change?

What kind of leaders will help us deal effectively with these issues?

With its theme, “Innovation +SocialGood: #2030NOW #TheLeaderIWant,” the Manila Social Good Summit 2015 will explore the disruptive power of technology and the critical role leaders play in fostering innovative ideas that could help address the complex challenges of our day.  

Co-hosted by Rappler and the United Nations Development Program, Innovation +SocialGood will be held on September 26, a day after 193 world leaders are scheduled to commit to the new Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Linked to the global community through the hashtag #2030NOW, this conversation also happens at a critical juncture in Philippine history: months before the first Philippine presidential elections where social media is expected to play a critical role.

These are the key activities during Innovation +SocialGood:

• PH +SocialGood Expo – Will showcase key innovations in disaster information management, communications technology, governance, as well as out-of-the-box initiatives in community development, issues advocacy and social enterprise that address the concerns of those who are at the bottom of the pyramid. 

• RapplerTalks +SocialGood – An invitation-only session where select partners will serve as “conversation leaders” to trigger conversations around key issues and topics. It will highlight innovations in disaster management, social enterprise, governance and social development. (Registration starts at 9 am; session from 10 am to 12 noon.)

• Innovation +SocialGood Plenary – The main event explores leadership, technology and society. It will highlight leaders who are expected to draw the nation’s blueprint and lead Filipinos towards reaching our goals by 2030; initiate innovative solutions to social challenges; and provide the environment for technology and innovation to flourish in this country. (registration starts at 12 noon; session is from 1:00 to 5:30 pm)

• Move Awards Night – Celebrates outstanding Filipinos who create change – not just for themselves, but also for others. They are making a difference in their communities, bringing new ideas to the table, and displaying excellence in their field. (6:00 to 7:30 pm)

You can secure your tickets to the Plenary Session below. Interested in the morning session? Email us via: socialgood@rappler.com

 

 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Hon. Maria Lourdes Sereno

Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the Philippines

Maria Lourdes Sereno is the first female Chief Justice in Philippine history. Appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in August 2010, she replaced Renato Corona in August 2012 after the latter was convicted in an impeachment trial and was subsequently removed from office. Set to mandatorily retire in 2030, she may yet be one of the longest-serving justices of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice has taught in the University of the Philippines College of Law, the Philippine Judicial Academy, as well as several international academies. Prior to being Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, she was Executive Director of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, a think-tank for policy reforms in governance and the economy.

OTHER SPEAKERS (in alphabetical order)

His Excellency Ola Almgren
Resident Coordinator, United Nations in the Philippines

Ola Almgren is the resident coordinator for the United Nations (UN) in the Philippines. He has been with the UN for 25 years, working on humanitarian affairs, development, peace and security, and disaster relief. He was director of the New York Office of the UN’s Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an organization that worked on the removal of chemical weapons in Syria. He was also the Mission Chief of Staff of the UN Stabilization mission in the Republic of Congo, where they worked on the security, restoration of government stability, the return of displaced families to their homes, and the relaunch of community economies after years of political turmoil. Ola Almgren was recently in Leyte where he visited various projects for the families and communities affected by Typhoon Yolanda.

Hon. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV
Senator

Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV is the youngest senator in the country. He chairs the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship, as well as the Committee on Youth. The senator is a multi-awarded youth leader and social entrepreneur who co-founded the Hapinoy Program, a microfinance and micro-enterprise support meant to lift poor Filipinos out of poverty. He became the youngest person in Philippine history to head a government agency after he was appointed chairman of the National Youth Commission at age 25. Aquino was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines in the category of Social Enterprise and Community Development, and was chosen one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World in 2012. 

Mario Domingo
Founder and Managing Partner, lloopp Natural Intelligence Solutions

Mario is a co-founder and managing partner at Natural Intelligence Solutions, PTE Ltd lloopp. He stands side by side with customers in finding new and effective ways to solve conventional problems using Deep Machine Learning, Big Data and closed-loop self-optimization technologies. A cognitive technology geek and Project Management guru, he previously served as Head of IT Transformation Strategy at Globe Telecom and subsequently as Head of Customer Operations for a Singapore-based Company. 

Bong Esguerra
Head for Corporate Social Responsibility, Globe Telecom

Fernando Esguerra Jr or “Bong” is the head of Globe’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Globe’s CSR projects focus on building the information and communications technology capacities of public high schools, local governments, environmental organizations, and social enterprises. They also have volunteer programs and electronic waste recycling initiatives. Esguerra was also a disaster preparedness panelist in 2013’s Social Good Summit. 

 

Darwin Flores
VP/ Head for Community Partnerships Department Public Affairs Group, Smart Communications Inc.

For the last 12 years, Darwin has been leading Smart’s community engagement initiatives for the base of the pyramid communities in the Philippines. He heads the department responsible for developing ICT-oriented, socially relevant programs in the areas of education, health, disaster preparedness and response, environment and livelihood. Before joining Smart Communications Inc (Smart), Darwin was, for 10 years, at the helm of fair trade and environmental conservation programs in Southeast Asia and the Pacific for Oxford-based Oxfam UK-Ireland and Washington DC-based Conservation International. Previous to this, he was a political researcher in aid of national legislation for the Philippine Senate.

Dingdong Dantes
Commissioner, National Youth Commission

Jose Sixto “Dingdong” Dantes III is a TV personality who was appointed commissioner-at-large of the National Youth Commission in May 2014. He also serves as ambassador for Youth for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and is active in his foundation called Yes Pinoy Foundation. He has appeared in numerous TV shows (mostly in his home network GMA Network), movies, and advertisements since his teenage years. He now manages his own film studio named AgostoDos Pictures. He was married in December 2014 to his long-time screen partner and girlfriend Marian Rivera. The two are expecting their first child in November 2015.

Glenda Gloria
Managing Editor, Rappler

Glenda Gloria served as chief operating officer of ANC, the ABS-CBN News Channel from 2008 to January 2011. Under her management, ANC acted as the harbinger of new initiatives for the ABS-CBN news group. She played a key role in harnessing social media for the network’s 2010 election coverage. She’s written numerous books. With Marites Danguilan-Vitug she authored Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao, a groundbreaking book on the conflict in Mindanao that won the National Book Award. In 2011, she wrote The Enemy Within: An Inside Story on Military Corruption with Aries Rufo and Gemma Bagayaua-Mendoza. Glenda now manages the Rappler newsroom, merging traditional journalism with innovative crowd-sourcing social media techniques.

Ramya Gopalan
Innovation Specialist, UNDP

Ramya Gopalan leads UNDP’s innovation practice in the Asia Pacific, focusing on helping UNDP develop the next generation of its services based on approaches and methodologies mediated from different sectors. She manages a portfolio of around 40 innovation projects, leads the horizon scanning work and is responsible for building innovation capacity across the region. Ramya has helped set up a number of cutting-edge initiatives in the area of technology and innovation, and is a regular speaker at international conferences and events. She has also been contributing to exploring the nexus between public and private sector work, developing partnerships to adapt new technology and ideas for addressing development challenges and facilitating country exchanges and south-south cooperation. 

Kai Kaiser
Senior Economist, World Bank

Kai Kaiser, is a Senior Economist at the World Bank in Manila. He is primarily focused on public finance and public sector governance reform in the country. Before this, he was a Senior Economist in Washington, DC where he worked on global public finance, intergovernmental relations, natural resource led development, and applied political economy and institutional reform issues. He has also worked in Jakarta, Indonesia where he focused on fiscal decentralization and service delivery reforms. He is the author of several books and papers on governance, development and public finance such as Good Practice Framework: Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy Analysis and Rents to Riches: The Political Economy of Natural Resource-led Development.

Maria A. Ressa

CEO and Executive Editor, Rappler

Maria A. Ressa has been a journalist in Asia for nearly 30 years and is the author of From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism and Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia. She is one of the founders of independent production company, Probe Productions, before reporting for and heading CNN’s Southeast Asia operations for nearly two decades (bureau chief in Manila then Jakarta). For 6 years, she was ABS-CBN’s Senior Vice President for News & Current Affairs, handling news operations across multiple platforms. She is Rappler’s CEO and Executive Editor.

Hon. Leni Robredo
Camarines Sur Representative, 3rd district

Maria Leonor “Leni” Gerona-Robredo is a lawyer and a first-term representative of Camarines Sur’s 3rd district in the House of Representatives. She is the widow of the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, who died in a plane crash in 2012. She has led groups advocating for women empowerment, such as Lakas ng Kababaihan and the Naga City Council for Women. She has also worked with Saligan, an organization that aims for legal empowerment for the poor and dispossessed. She is seen as a champion of good governance and freedom of information, authoring bills such as the Freedom of Information Act of 2013, and the Full Disclosure Act of 2013.

 

Innovation +SocialGood Program Hosts

Manny Ayala
CEO, Hatchd Digital & Managing Director, Endeavor Philippines

Manny Ayala is one of the founders of Hatchd Inc, a technology incubator focused on building great Internet and mobile brands. He was previously managing director at IRG Ltd, a HK-based M&A boutique focused on the telecoms, media and tech industries. At IRG, Manny focused on a variety of projects on the Internet, mobile, television and online gaming sectors. Prior to that, Manny was the number two executive at Discovery Networks Asia, where he oversaw Strategic Planning, Programming, On-Air Branding and Program Sales. He was instrumental in turning Discovery Channel and Animal Planet into top-rated TV channels across the region. He is currently Chairman of the Board at Rappler.

Chay Hofileña
Investigative Journalism Desk, Rappler

Chay Hofileña spearheaded Move.PH, Rappler’s Citizen Journalism & Community Engagement arm. Before joining Rappler, she was a contributing writer of Newsbreak Magazine and was one of its founding editors. She has written extensively on media issues and authored the book, News for Sale: The Corruption and Commercialization of the Philippine Media (2004).” She co-wrote with Miriam Grace Go the top-selling book on the 2010 Philippine presidential elections, Ambition Destiny Victory: Stories from a Presidential Election (2011). She has been the recipient of awards from the Jaime V Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism. She is currently head of Rappler’s Investigative Reporting Desk.

Secure your tickets now!

Join us as we explore the disruptive power of technology and the critical role leaders play in fostering innovative ideas that could help address the complex challenges of our day.

Secure your tickets to the Innovation +SocialGood Plenary here. 

 

If you want to participate in the morning session, email us via: socialgood@rappler.com – Rappler.com