Getting to know Industry 4.0

An industrial revolution—apparently the fourth of its kind—is in our midst, and it could be the key to unlocking our country’s full economic potential.

That, essentially, is the discussion that awaits participants of the second Open Collaboration with East Asia New Champions (Ocean) Summit on Nov. 24 to 25 in Panglao, Bohol, organized by the New Champions of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

“Right now here in the Philippines, technology plays a significant role in how we voice out our sentiments, how we elect our leaders, how we view the new consumers,” said PLDT chief strategy officer Winston Damarillo, one of Ocean’s chairs, at a recent press conference wherein he and his co-chairs Sen. Bam Aquino and broadcast journalist Karen Davila formally launched the event.

It was through WEF held in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, in January this year that Damarillo learned of “Industry 4.0,” or the growing role of digital technology in rapid industrialization.

The summit aims to impart insights from WEF 2016 to local businesses, from large corporations to microenterprises.

Some of Ocean’s topics include: The Disruption of Industries: The next decade in digital transformation; Powering Small Business: MSMEs in the digital economy; Innovation for All: Democratizing the Fourth Industrial Revolution; The Future of Talent: Cultivating a new generation of leadership; The New Oil: Harnessing the power of data; Sustainability at the Heart of Business: How to innovate responsibly; Collaborative Governance: Solving problems beyond private and public; and The Next Economic Power: Navigating the Asean collaboration.

Aside from Damarillo, Aquino and Davila, other speakers include: AirBnb’s former regional brand manager Pepe Torres; Meralco chief technology advisor Gavin Barfield; Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman; Kalibrr senior vice president Julius Paras; Uber Philippines general manager Laurence Cua; astrophysicist Reina Reyes; motion picture director, producer and screenwriter Pepe Diokno; Unilab Foundation executive director Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi; Teach for the Philippines CEO Clarissa Delgado; Brown University vice president for academic development and diversity Liza Cariaga-Lo; BDO first vice president Myla Untalan; Bambike president and CEO Bryan Mclelland; GE Philippines CEO Jocot de Dios; Seaoil CFO Mark Yu; and former Department of Budget and Management Undersecretary Richard Moya.

Started in 2014 in Cebu, Ocean was created as an extension of sorts of WEF on East Asia, which was then held here in the country.

“In that forum, one of the realizations that [Davila], Senator Aquino and I had was, we have a great opportunity with such thought leaders coming into the country, and it would be a waste if we wouldn’t be able to share such thought leadership to the rest of our communities. So the idea of Ocean in 2014 was to bring these experts, thought leaders in different industries to our communities,” Daramillo said.

For this year’s Ocean, Damarillo said they are doing something different: Sponsors of each talk, such as PLDT and Meralco, will create a white paper of the outcome of each discussion which will then be published online.

“One of the takeaways we had in 2014 was, it was as if the discussions ended with the event. So now, we’re going to make [the discussions] live, so people can easily extract them and comment on them, and we will keep track of them,” said Damarillo, “So we have a lot of sponsors, who are there not just so they can put their logos [on the publicity materials], but to really own the different topics.”

The event will also be livestreamed, he added, so that more people can listen to the discussions.

“If you’re able to bring innovative people—people who care about the country—together, and have them talk about what’s next; just putting them together in a room, there’s already value to that. I think it’s important for our country, which is moving up in the world, to be able to harness all these innovations and see how these can affect us positively,” said Aquino.

To register, visit https://ocean16.asia/.