A Philippine delegation, led by the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), flew all the way to Canada to participate in the recent Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre last July.
The Philippines was one of the 156 countries represented at WPC which gathered over 16,000 participants from around the globe.
The WPC is an annual gathering of Microsoft’s global partners to share and learn about the latest in technology, business strategies, products, and opportunities.
This year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a preview of the exciting lineup of product releases that will signal the beginning of the "post-PC era." This includes Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and Office 365. With the release of these products, Balmer said that "there’s never been a better time to be a Microsoft partner."
While in Toronto, the Philippine delegation also met with the IT Association of Canada (ITAC) to explore possible collaborations between the two organizations, as well as with the officers of the Philippine Consulate headed by Consul-Generals Junever Mahilum-West and Jing Paez.
At least 18 Philippine-based companies joined WPC, several of which are PSIA members, including BlastAsia Inc., Braindigit, dB Wizards, Mannasoft Technology Corporation, Pointwest Technologies, and Microsoft Philippines which sponsored the Philippine booth at WPC.
This trade mission to Canada is one of the key international marketing activities that the PSIA has committed to joining this year, to promote the Philippine IT capabilities and software services to the global market. The three others were the Software Development Expo (SODEC) in Tokyo, Japan, CeBIT in Sydney, Australia, and CommunicAsia in Singapore earlier this year.