EDC and Lopez Group IT professionals celebrate Year 5 of the summitThe Information Technology Group (ITG) of Energy Development Corporation (EDC) recently held its 5th IT Summit at the Chardonnay by Astoria in Pasig.

Themed “Pervasive Technology: Anytime, Anywhere, Any Place on Any Device,” this annual event gathers Lopez Group IT professionals and partners in order to gain insights, learn about future trends and discover how these technologies can be honed.

In his welcome remarks, EDC chief information officer Ferdi Poblete recounted three reasons for the IT Summit: to learn from past experiences, celebrate ITG and EDC accomplishments and, lastly, explore other opportunities to drive EDC’s success. Poblete ended his talk by stressing that business outcomes are more important than the technology.

EDC president and COO Richard Tantoco, the keynote speaker, underscored that the Philippines is presently shifting to coal and carbon while some countries are rejecting it. Due to fast changes as far as technology is concerned, EDC’s operations would be greatly affected. The key is to embrace and utilize technology to the company’s advantage so it can stay ahead of the competition.

Jonathan Krause, Gartner Executive Programs executive partner, spoke about the technology outlook while ABS-CBN chief digital officer Donald Lim zoomed in on Technology in Focus. Kevin Ackhurst, the managing director of Google for Work, discussed Google in the workplace.

The panel discussion was facilitated by IBM Research and Development executive Jay Sabido and EDC ITG Account Solutions manager Alelie Tagle. The conversation was taken through the eyes of Brett Nulf of IBM, Simerjit Singh of Cisco and Laurence Cua of Uber.

In the IT Expo, on the other hand, ITG’s partners displayed gadgets and oriented guests on their latest offerings. Participating companies included SKYcable, ABS-CBNmobile, Apple, Cisco, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Trends & Technologies Inc. and SAS.

EDC information security manager Jason Salvador closed the summit with a quote from Jack Welch: “Change before you have to.” For businesses to survive in this fast-changing industry, they have to constantly look for upcoming trends in technology and seize the opportunity even before other companies join the fray. This becomes integral to company survival.  (Story/Photos by: Gerbs de Castro)