The Sport of Kings

It’s the time of the year again for the annual Fila Polo Cup!

The event, recently held at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City, was for the benefit of Operation Compassion and iFoster, a campaign that aids in the foster care of children who are waiting for their permanent home.

This year’s theme Heritage x Vintage was in celebration of Italy, the country where Fila originated. In line with the theme, guests came in Italian-inspired summer outfits — dresses for ladies and pastel-colored polos for men.

Fila chairman Butch Albert kicked off the event with a Low Goal match, which was won by the Red Team.

For her part, CEO Cris Albert introduced the different rules and materials used for the game. She was with the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and guest speakers David Reynolds and Adrian Garcia. After her presentation, Cris initiated a toast to celebrate the annual event.

The East Terrace of the Manila Polo Club was dotted with white tents bedecked with fresh flowers and accents of wine bottles designed by Robert Blancaflor.

The event was emceed by Fila ambassadors Tim Yap and Tessa Prieto-Valdes. The national anthem was performed by Alba Berenguer-Testa.

Cris also did the traditional ball toss, which signalled the start  of the High Goal game between the Blue Team, composed of Argentine players Benjamin Urquiza and Ignacio Ithurburu with brothers Gus and Cole Aguirre; and the White Team, composed of Argentine players Dirk Gould and Juan Jauretche with Manot Montilla and Tommy Bitong. It was an intense match won by the Blue Team.

Bottles and bottles of wine and champagne, courtesy of Ralph’s Wines and Spirits, flowed endlessly to the delight of guests. The event ended with a fireworks display as guests listened to live music and enjoyed the food and bubbly.

New skincare favorites

Well-loved beauty brand Kiehl’s recently launched its new products — the Midnight Recovery Botanical Cleansing Oil and the Pure Vitality Skin Renewing Cream — at the hip 20/20 bar in Makati City.

Also introduced at the event were Kiehl’s Philippines’ new ambassadors BJ Pascual, Saab Magalona and Nico Bolzico, who urged everyone to take their beauty and skincare game up a notch.

Saab, a blogger, band vocalist and café owner, represents the modern millennial go-getter; Nico, an entrepreneur and athlete whose entertaining social media posts have gained quite a following, embodies a well-rounded active lifestyle; while BJ, a commercial and fashion photographer, lives up to healthy skin habits even under the strain of constant flying and changing weather.

Guests got to sample the new products in interactive booths stationed within the venue.

The event, hosted by Raymond Gutierrez, also saw performances by the members of Spit Manila, the country’s premier “improv” group.

Let the digital transformation begin

The Filipino spirit reigned supreme as Dell Technologies officially announced the Philippine leaders of Dell EMC Philippines.

Dell EMC vice president for South Asia and Korea Paul Henaghan recently flew to Manila to personally introduce Dell EMC Philippines’ new country manager Ronnie Latinazo and new Channels general manager Chris Papa. The appointment came at the heels of the completion of Dell’s acquisition of EMC Corp. in 2016.

Dell EMC celebrated its presence in the Philippine market recently at the newly opened Maybank Performing Arts Theater in Taguig City with a barrio fiesta theme event. The venue was complete with banderitas, sari-sari stores, nipa huts, Filipino novelty snacks, main course favorites and desserts.

Henaghan said, “I would like to thank the Filipinos for their warm welcome. I really enjoyed the display of Filipino hospitality during my visit here. The Philippines and the South Asia region continue to be at the core of digital transformation, and that is why Dell EMC is committed to boost the country’s digital economy by helping its customers transform their businesses.”

During the event, the company also introduced its new devices like the Dell Precision 3520, Dell Precision 5520 and Dell Latitude 3379 laptops; and the all-in-one desktop Dell OptiPlex AIO. All devices are now available in the Philippines.

Dell EMC is a member of Dell Technologies, an end-to-end enterprise solution provider that can offer the essential facilities for organizations to build their digital future, transform IT, and protect their most important asset and information. It provides a wide range of rack and tower servers, data centers, and cloud and network infrastructure.