1,500 people leaders and managers convention in Cebu

Cebu welcomes all the HR managers from all over the country, as well as delegates and guests from abroad. Many distinguished speakers and lecturers are coming and the more than 20 chapters of the PMAP, or the People Management Association of the Philippines, are coming to Cebu to join. Governor Gwen F. Garcia and Mayor Mike L. Rama will welcome the more than 1,500 delegates to the three-day convention. This writer is one of the speakers.

The national president is Elizabeth Nasol of the Energy Development Corp. and the convention chairperson and vice president is Mike Godinez of the Aboitiz Group. The ever-durable and hardworking executive director is former San Miguel Corp. top HR honcho, Rene Gener. I was the 2014 national president of this premier organization of HR professionals. Today, I am a member of the board of judges that selected the Employer of the Year. I am not free to reveal our choice but it shall be announced on October 26 by our chairman, former DOLE secretary Nieves Roldan-Confesor. I am also a lecturer on the topic “The Safe Spaces Law and the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law: How To Address Affairs Among Employees -Love, Romances, Sex and Immorality”.

I am also launching two of my latest books: The Law on and Cases of Outsourcing or Legitimate Job Contracting, and The Law and Jurisprudence on Sexual Harassment.

This event will feature the DOLE secretary to give the keynote address and many leaders of industry and trade to share their stories of Rebirth (that's the theme of the three-day convention) after the global pandemic. There are many success stories about amazing financial turnaround and inspiring narratives of operations, market and sales recovery by marshaling the tremendous powers of well-trained, well-motivated employee forces.

The topics are well-distributed among the four diamonds of HR, namely: Talent acquisition, the new name for recruitment; total rewards, the new mantra for compensation and benefits; organizational justice, which is now the term for labor relations, employee relations and industrial relations; and of course, learning and development, the new tagline for training and organizational development. Popular and widely-recognized HR gurus from the whole country as well as from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East will be there. The participants' profiles cut across all generations from Baby Boomers to Gen X, Gen Y, Millenials, and Gen Z.

Vying for the coveted Employer of the Year Award are a Metro Manila-based utility firm owned by a Spanish-Filipino tycoon, a Japanese electronics company based in Batangas, two banks, one of which prides itself in being a passionate advocate for saving the environment through its policy of not lending money to any coal-powered company, and another with more than 100 years of operations and the only one that grants shares of stocks to its employees, and is very focused on embarking on new initiatives to use artificial intelligence to attain more and more customers' delight and amazement. As to which of them shall win, my lips are sealed. It will be known come October 26.

It is not easy to manage such a huge event attended by and participated in by 1,500 HR executives, managers, and many business owners and their professional HR staff. I am proud to be a part of the team that plans, organizes and implements this 60th Annual Conference. I hope you could come and experience this rare even of learning and enjoyment of friendship, business alliances, and professional cooperation and synergies.