Get Ready for "Bountiful Blooms": The 1st Philippine International Flower Festival

If you are fond of flowers, flower arrangements, science and the art, you're about to get a happy pill this coming September as the 1st Philippine International Flower Festival entitled "BOUNTIFUL BLOOMS" happens at the SPACE at One Ayala in Makati City.

Convenor Jerry Sibal says "This is the first International Flower Festival. On September 19-22, our homeland will be the place to hold PHILIFF where floral designers, landscaping, trade show, exhibit for ikebana, the art of Bonsai, and Orchids. This will also be the venue for a Fashion Show together with international artists. Last year, I told them about the Flower Festival, and we now have people from the government and the private sector to help me make it happen. This Bloombee here is simple, but we are making a full bloomed one in September, so you better be back soon. In Atok Benguet, we have a huge cut flower industry and putting them into the 40 Billion dollar global export market will surely boost the industry. Aside from these, we are also trying to promote local farm tourism, and grow flowers like Tulips, those from New York locally through hydroponics. We have 350 flower farms all over the country. We also need to educate through forums, you'll be surprised how fast this would grow."

There will also be Floral Art Installations, the whole second Floor of One Ayala will be having over 80 booths, 4 huge displays in the center and the floral fashion show installation.

Table pieces will also be showcased as part of the design for entertaining and this will be historical. This is Sibal's way of giving back, to the industry and country. He will also be displaying a few well loved PH bred Waling Waling at the exhibit, dedicated to the orchid lovers and collectors.

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They need Bloombee sponsors to help them support more farmers, their CSR efforts will include the Bloombee Park which will host the fashion show, international participants, so you can experience what they do outside the country. Workshops and seminars will be posted soon. Make sure you follow the Philippine International Flower Festival social channels and official website to know more about how you can participate. There's no competition, the community will benefit from it.

Head on to philiff.com for tickets and updates about the event. If you want to participate or become a sponsor, they have it at the official website. This is supported by Ayala, and from the looks of it... it's blooming!

Gogoro Philippines Launch New Experience Store in Makati

It's a nice morning to celebrate new things as Gogoro Philippines just launched their new Gogoro Experience Store at the Greenbelt 3 in Makati City. The event was held at Ayala Museum with executives coming from the Ayala Corporation, Globe, GCash, 917 Ventures, Gogoro Taiwan, Gogoro Philippines, the Taiwanese Embassy in Manila and various stakeholders were in attendance to take a first glimpse of what will be launched and supposed to be sold next month. This is quite nice that they thought of making sure you experience riding, looking at the actual Electronic Vehicle first before they release it to the market.

Bernie Llamzon the President and CEO of GOGOGRO Philippines "It's a testament to urban mobility. Why are we opening the experience center? It's all about connection, and who stands to benefit from it, YOU. It's a bridge, we are opening our doors today so you can touch, feel and understand Gogoro. We are cultivating a community and it is an invitation for you to become part of the story. Your engagement and feedback will be part of our commercial launch next month. Welcome to the future of mobility, welcome to the new Gogoro Experience Center."

This is one of Ayala's projects in order to move to electric vehicles. Cesar Consing the CEO and President of the Ayala Corporation says "We do it across our companies, and this initiative of going green is something we take seriously. Gogoro is just an extension of that, we are going to lead the charge to EV's. That's what we are doing here, and this partnership of Gogoro and Globe, brought this EV brand in the Philippines. It's green, ecosystem and partnership that we are offering. We hope you like what you'll see."

Horace Luke the founder and CEO of Gogoro says "I've dreamed of this in 2011, we are now extending to outside Taiwan. Thank you to Ernest Cu of Globe who believes in me, and we know the world is going to two wheel and three wheel vehicles now. Thank you to the Gogoro Philippines team and the Taiwan team who worked tirelessly these past few years to bring this product to the PH. The electricity is sustainable, and recyclable parts are being used to make the footprint lower. We look forward to see what we built enable this vision in this country."

Ernest Cu the CEO of Globe says "When I saw this in Taiwan years ago, it was super nice. I didn't like bikes back then, EV was also too far from the Philippines. We timed our entry to the country, like GCash, no one was solving the problem and we only scaled it 6 years ago. The smartphone penetration was not as good, and when the pandemic hit we began working on it even more to become financially inclusive. Majority of Filipinos don't have plugs, the one minute swap is like prepaid... And we are the prepaid kings in the country. Now it is all paid electronically through GCash. It's different, and seamless now as it goes through the backbone of Globe and it's partners. Let us see the new Gogoro Experience Center, we want this to be perfect and hope you become our first customer."

You may also ask for a test drive as arrangements can be made, they also will explain to you the battery swapping mechanics so you could conveniently do it via their Gogoro Network power stations. The Smartscooters we saw on display was the Gogoro SuperSport, Gogoro VIVA and the Gogoro S1. Though they will make sure that the Gogoro 2 Premium and the Gogoro Delight will also be available in the Philippines.

You may visit the new Gogoro Experience Store at the 2nd level of Greenbelt 3, turn right when you enter through the bridge from Landmark (location of former Globe store).

Ayala, Globe, 917Ventures Launch Gogoro in the PH

Transport services are not enough these days and much of it use gas/diesel power and energy, but today, our friends from Globe, 917Ventures, and Ayala Corporation is launching Gogoro in the Philippines. 

For those who don't know, Gogoro is a Taiwan based battery swapping refueling corp that is used in scooters, mopeds and motorcycles. They also have a line of smart EV's with the recent one being Gogoro 2 Plus poised to be launch this quarter for a more environmentally apt mobility solution.

Bernie Llamzon of 917Ventures say "We are pushing for the future of mobility in this country. Reasons being one is traffic, gas prices, pollution. We will invest in Gogoro to answer climate challenges in the country."

Gogoro Founder and CEO Horace Luke says "I'm so excited to be in the Philippines. We met Ernest in 2015, when we were in Taiwan, he told me to bring this to the PH because this is what Globe does. We find a lot of synergy in. Our platform is sustainable solutions. In the PH alone, there are 11 million scooters/bikes but unfortunately, are gas powered. How do we make it accessible? The infrastructure isn't that good either, so this is why we have Swap and Go, in 6 seconds you can pop out a battery unlike gas stations. We have successfully done this in Taiwan. A station like this can service a lot of vehicles, we are also planning to make this a backup for traffic signs, for a smart city. The first of this station, will be launched outside today! We need to make this irresistible, with good product design, digitization and safety. We have smart features available to consumers, even biometric locks, nearly zero theft since 2015. It can go zero to fifty kph in 3.7 seconds. In Taiwan, we only had 1 percent electric vehicles, but now we went to 18 percent. We have 90 percent market share, and we bring the latest Gogoro vehicles here to change the mobility landscape in the Philippines."

Vince Yamat of 917Ventures adds "We are launching the Globe employee pilot program in Q4 this year. In our own company, we will have 70 people to try it out. They will test it out in 2 months which will start this may, to hopefully not worry about the way we move around in the country."

This is just the start of something better, to hopefully have a more sustainable power source and environmentally friendly utilization in medium to long term 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers in the future.