Creating an impact with sustainable, tech-driven solutions

Technology has taken center stage as the world enters the fourth industrial revolu- tion (FIRe) and gears up for the digital economy.

Before promoting and delivering opportunities for growth, FIRe will first challenge our minds and drastically change the way we live. And as it disrupts every industry around the globe, key decision-makers, industry leaders and every stakeholder must be proactive and start making informed decisions on how they would utilize technologies to keep up with the fastchanging economy and leverage their businesses.

Meanwhile, forward-thinking companies in the country have already incorporated innovative ideas and technologies into their daily operations to ramp up their businesses and improve their services to the Filipinos.

Impact Hub Manila, an incubation hub that is part of the largest incubation network in the world, stands behind cost-driven and purpose-driven entrepreneurs whose venture ideas have an impact in the lives of Filipinos at a large scale.

“The world is changing, and we believe that we have to be at the forefront of changing things. Our network is the largest network of impact entrepreneurs in the world, and the entrepreneurs that we support are all cost-driven and purpose-driven. What separates us from incubators in the world is that we have a very strong focus in expertise and development. So most of those solutions that come out of our network and our community are very focused on sustainable solutions,” said Impact Hub Manila co-founder and CEO Ces Rondario during the media launch of Impact Hackathon.

The group of Rondario will host Impact Hackathon, which is set to be the world’s biggest hackathon — on Oct. 30 and 31 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, along with more hackathon coding-teams from over 15 locations in the country, simultaneously participating in a 24-hour on-the-spot coding marathon. The participants will create specific problem statements proposed by Impact Hub’s multi-stakeholder partners.

The event is an official Guinness World Records attempt to be the World’s Largest Multi-City Hackathon, gathering more than 10,000 hackathon participants, 2,000 teams and 800 mentors.

A hackathon is an event that gathers programmers, software developers, graphic and interface designers, interface designers, project managers and innovators to create technology-based solution anchored on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, targeting global issues such as climate change, education, agriculture, smart cities and health.

“There are so many problems in the Philippines and the ASEAN region, and where there are problems, there’s an opportunity for entrepreneurship to rise. It opens the door for people to think, do better, and be better. This is a time for better thinking and solutionfinding, and the region and the Philippines can lead in this. This is our chance to define our future and the world in 2050. This is our time,” Rondario said.