3 ‘indiepreneurs’ you should meet at OCEAN 18

MANILA, Philippines — Aiming to raise the bar in the creative economy, education, food, global Filipino engagement, and healthcare and tourism sectors in the country, Open Collaboration with East Asian Networks (OCEAN 18) will hold its summit this November 9 and 10 in Mactan, Cebu. 

With this year’s theme “Elevating Homegrown Innovation,” OCEAN 18 is bringing together independent entrepreneurs (indiepreneurs) or sector industry champions and policy makers, to create multi-sectoral strategies in six key areas that impact national growth and innovation.

Philstar.com recently interviewed three indiepreneurs, namely, Maria Salvador’s founder and CEO Marinelle Salvador; Development Innovation Insider’s co-founder Gladys Llanes; and Zapateria’s managing director Unyx Sta. Ana, who will be joining the summit in Cebu. 

Empowering Mayon volcano eruption victims

A lifestyle brand that offers bags, shoes, accessories and soon, clothing, Maria Salvador is founded by Marinelle, who have dreamt of becoming a designer since her childhood days. 
Marinelle said her products are made of local components from the Bicol province, while their bags are made by Mayon volcano evacuees. 

“Our bags are made of bakwan, raffia that’s from Bicol province. Ang nag-wave ng bags namin are Mayon volcano evacuees, so at the same time, nakakatulong kami sa bago nilang livelihood kasi nga hindi sila puwedeng mag-crops sa bundok. I want to source out materials from every region na ‘yon ang forte nila,” she said.   

The young indiepreneur explained that she will join the OCEAN 18 summit to know her brand more and make a connection.

“It’s for me to know how to market my brand, so it helps me to start from what I want, who is me, who is the brand, and more,” she said. 

She wants to introduce her brand to the world and carry the Philippine flag overseas through her designs.   

“I want to introduce MS to the world. ‘Yun ang isa sa things na gusto kong matutunan. Isa ang OCEAN sa nagbigay sa akin on how to start. Working with rattan, bakwan products gusto ko siya ma-appreciate ng young market than old ones so ayun ‘yung isa sa mga challenges na gusto ko i-push through.”

Keeping Philippines’ shoemaking industry alive

Another business that will be joining the summit is Zapateria, a co-creation hub that intends to foster innovation and creativity in the shoe industry.

“We aim to nurture and create new generation of creative talents. So that would mean we hope to see more designers, artisans and brands who will create more designer shoes,” Unyx said. 

The managing director shared that she would like to meet individuals in the summit to collaborate with in future projects.

“I feel like when you’re on the creative side, we could meet a lot of people and come up something different when it comes to shoes,” she said.  

As someone coming from the technology sector, Unyx admitted it is not easy to jump-ship into the shoe industry, but fate made it for her as she had to take over the business following an accident that hit her father, the founder of the company who has been creating shoes for the longest time.

“I think the challenge is this is the new world for me because even if I’m from a shoemaker family, I need to know and get to know the people in the community, and I’m lucky enough that they are very helpful.

Another challenge is how to make it sustainable because a lot of what we’re doing is building the community and of course, we’re carrying this mission and fostering the shoemaking heritage,” she said.  

Creating content for the bottom of the pyramid

Meanwhile, Development Innovation Insider is a content creator and solution provider for customers, entrepreneurs and partners who belong at the bottom of the pyramid. 

“We help them innovate and connect with different sectors. We create contents for them, so they scale up their businesses and ventures,” Gladys said.

Since the summit is expected to draw hundreds of indiepreneurs, Gladys said she is interested in OCEAN 18 because of the collaboration she might be able to forge. 

“For us in the media side, we do documentaries and short videos for social entrepreneurs and also for development sector. As well as get some learning from different sectors, because I’m from communications and media and I’m doing this as a business, so I want to know more about the business side of things,” she said. 

Since she is a media and communications practitioner who got successful in business, she assured that anybody could start a business. 

“Number one challenge for me is I’m new to the business world. Here in the Philippines, we thought the line of study, for example, I’m from the media and communications and nobody said that I could start a business after that. We were taught to be a worker for the industry. For me, that’s the challenge, especially in the business side of things, how can it be sustainable, how can I incubate clients,” she said. 

Started in 2015, OCEAN 18 is patterned after the Swiss non-profit foundation World Economic Forum.

For more information on OCEAN 18, visit http://oceansummit.ph/.