PH Consulate General in San Francisco Hosts Networking Event with Entrepreneurs, Media

Consul General to San Francisco Henry S. Bensurto, Jr. welcomes participants to the networking event StartUp MeetUp: Convergence of Entrepreneurship and Media (San Francisco PCG photo)

SAN FRANCISCO 15 August 2019 — Bringing media with various entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco hosted a networking event entitled “Convergence of Entrepreneurship and Media” at the Museo ng Lahing Pilipino of the Philippine Center on 09 August 2019.

Organized in collaboration with the Consulate General’s Philippine Trade and Investment Center, the event is part of “StartUp MeetUp” program which provides opportunities for startups in the Philippines to connect and build networks in the industry. 

A delegation from the Philippines called “ENGAGE”, consisting of representatives from a broad range of companies in the start-up and innovation sectors, attended the event along with Filipino-American start-up groups, students, and members of the Filipino community in the Bay Area.

Welcoming the delegates from the Philippines and guests from the San Francisco Bay Area, Consul General to San Francisco Henry S. Bensurto, Jr., said, “The world becomes more interconnected, there needs to be more avenues for convergence, especially in media and entrepreneurship.  He noted that no start-up today can attain global success without harnessing the power of media, both the traditional platforms and those using social media as an information tool. Conversely, media cannot sustain itself without the breakthroughs of entrepreneurs who constantly find innovative platforms to provide news and information to the public.”

He shared the various initiatives of the Consulate General that are geared towards assisting the growing Philippine start-up ecosystem.  In particular, the Consulate General has launched Spark 447, which serves as the economic component of the Spark*Connect*Empower (SCE) movement.  It also serves as a program for various activities such as the StartUp MeetUp; SparkChats, which is a roundtable discussion on critical and relevant trends in tech; and SparkBiz, which serves to highlight Filipino companies making their presence felt globally.

The SCE movement hopes to “spark” interest in the startup ecosystem in the Philippines among Filipino Americans, “connect” individuals and organizations in Silicon Valley to like-minded networks in the Philippines, and “empower” the community to help bridge the gap between the Philippines and Silicon Valley.

The SCE movement was initiated by the Consulate General in 2017 which aims to bring together various Filipino-American organizations and individuals towards sparking love of country among the second, third and fourth generation of Filipino-Americans, connecting them with each other through various networking platforms and ultimately empowering them to organize various activities and programs that contribute to nation building. END

Members of the ENGAGE delegation call on Consul General Bensurto (seated at the head of the table) (San Francisco PCG photo)

For more information, visit https://www.sanfranciscopcg.dfa.gov.ph, https://www.philippinessanfrancisco.org or https://www.facebook.com/PHinSF/.