Infinitely Smart

Infinity, Smart Communications premium postpaid brand, recently hosted a formal dinner at the Rizal Ballroom of the Shangri-La Makati in honor of its loyal subscribers. The event was dubbed “The First Infinity Awards Night” and was essentially about rewarding its high usage subscribers for their continuing patronage of Infinity. Hosting the affair were PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, Smart Communications Inc. chief wireless advisor Orlando B. Vea, Infinity business group head Julie Carceller, Infinity sales and after sales senior manager Cecile M. Gregorio and Infinity marketing, events and internal support manager Bobby M. Aquino.

Five Infinity award categories and winners were then announced by your columnist, who happens to be the Infinity Brand Ambassador, and co-host Ruffa Gutierrez. The top three winners went home with a handsome trophy and an all-expense-paid, two-night stay at Lagen Resort, El Nido, Palawan, which included a luxury sunset cruise aboard the largest trimaran yacht in the country, the M/S Vianelle. Capping off the evening was a dazzling performance by Lea Salonga and Martin Nievera. Congratulations to the big winners and to Smart Infinity for continuing to give us the very best of what life can offer.

19 Years of Excellence

A large gathering of prime movers took place as Palafox Associates celebrated its 19th Founding Anniversary. Led by Architect-Urban Planner Feliciano Palafox, Jr. and Wilma Palafox along with architects Chona Ponce, Jay Ruiz and environmental planner Karmi Palafox, hundreds of notable guests and prominent personalities from the media, government, and Palafox clients and partners attended the much awarded firm’s extraordinary celebration. Palafox Associates, an architectural, urban planning and design consultancy firm, made it to the Year 2001 World’s top 300 architectural firms in an international survey made by World Architecture, a London-based business magazine for global architects. Palafox Associates is the only Filipino architectural and design firm included in the list and was ranked 193 out of the world’s top 300 firms. Palafox Associates has worked with internationally known firms in the field of planning and architecture, landscape architecture, and engineering: Skidmore Owings & Merril (SOM), RTKL, Helmuth Obata Kassabaum Inc (HOK), Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), and The Jerde Partnership among others. Moreover, the firm has also worked with topnotch golf course architects like Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones, Jr, Tom Weiskopf, and Greg Norman as well as other consultants from Asia, The Middle East, North America, and Europe. The firm was founded in July 1989 by Urban Planner and Architect Felino “Jun” A. Palafox, Jr. Starting with a staff of three, it has grown to 124 architects, planners, designers and staffers. Congratulations!