Image from Western Visayas Innovative Startup Fest 2024 FB page
ILOILO CITY – The city government here is hopeful that more students will be encouraged to embrace science and technology courses as an offshoot of the STEM Fair, one of the events lined up for the first Western Visayas Startup Festival set on Sept. 24-27, 2024.
Velma Jane Lao, head of the Iloilo City Local Economic and Investment Promotions (LEDIP) office, said the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fair of the Innovate Iloilo, one of the organizers for the festival, will have lectures and other activities to heighten the appreciation of students about the track.
“Hopefully, it will be the decision point in taking up courses, and they become more aware of the opportunities that are available for science and technology,” she said.
The STEM fair will gather universities and colleges from Iloilo, targeting 500 to 800 students.
Meanwhile, Lao said the festival, as a whole, would like startups to acknowledge that they are being assisted and for them to strengthen their own startup business and enterprises.
The four-day event will include a forum on Healthcare Information Management Systems (HIMS), a workshop on pitch strategies for startups, a regional information and communications technology summit highlighting digital technology’s role in startups, and a regional Intellectual Property (IP) Convention focusing on creating an IP strategic plan for Western Visayas.
During the conference, other topics discussed included amendments to startup ordinances and incentives, seed grant funding, intellectual property protection, opportunities in the creative industry, and collaborative research and development. (PNA)
