The Second Mindanao I-Café Associations Summit

The Second Mindanao Internet Café Associations Summit (2nd MICAS) will be held on February 18 and 19, 2010 at The Event Centre, SM City-Davao in Davao City. Just like the first regional summit held last 2007, the Internet Café Association of Davao (ICAD) Inc. is spearheading the organization of the event. This time, I-Cafe Pilipinas, the national advocacy body of the Internet café industry in the country, is a co-organizer of the summit that has "Bringing The Benefits of Information and Communications Technology To The People Of Mindanao Through Internet Cafés" as its main theme. The 2nd MICAS is aimed at gathering together the different Internet café associations in the region, individual i-café owners, concerned government agencies and private stakeholders in the industry.

The two-day event has the support of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), our national government's highest governing body of the industry where the Internet café business belong. The keynote address will be delivered by Asst. Secretary Francisco S. Perez II of the Telecommunications Office (TELOF) who is also a CICT Commissioner taking charge of its Infrastructure Group. The government agency will be presenting some its programs in the summit especially those that provide online services to the people like the eSkwela and Community e-Centers.

From the private ICT sector, Intel Philippines will be presenting the latest in the computer chip technology while Microsoft Philippines will be rolling-out their I-Café Program that offers their software at affordable prices exclusively for i-café owners. Two (2) telecommunication companies, Bayantel and Globe, will be informing the summit participants about their latest products and services. iGlobe Technology, a Manila-based marketing company dealing on bandwidth management products will exhibit and present them onstage while Datavault, an Australian software filtering system, will also make a presentation. Metro Preneur Corporation (MPC) and Teleglobal are Davao-based companies who will exhibit their ink technology products and satellite Internet service respectively.

Some non-government organizations (NGOs) working on their initiatives in helping the growth of the ICT sector are also participating in the 2nd MICAS. USAID's Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Project, Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (DICCEP) and ICT-Davao Inc. shared financial resources that will directly take care of some expenses in the summit. ICT Davao Inc. will make a presentation about its current projects while I-Café Pilipinas will also present its vision and mission in working towards a better internet café industry in the scheduled program of activities in the summit.