Last July 25, 2025, WordPress Campus Connect finally made its mark in Southeast Asia by holding its first-ever event in the region in the City of Golden Friendship, Cagayan de Oro (CDO) City, Philippines.
Pictured: The WordPress CDO and Iloilo teams, speakers, and the PHINMA-COC students who attended the event.
The event was held at PHINMA-Cagayan de Oro College. Over 100 students and school staff warmly welcomed the Philippines WordPress chapters that organized the event.
The WordPress CDO chapter, with help from its sister organizations in WordPress Iloilo and WordPress Iligan, conceptualized this initiative as a bridge between traditional, controlled classroom learning and real-world practices and insights practiced by full-time WordPress practitioners. The event is also in line with the group’s commitment to upholding WordPress’s original mission of being a platform for “everyone”.
Most of the day’s presentations were centered around possible career paths that the student attendees might consider exploring after graduation.
After the opening address by Mr. RJ Cainglet, SBO Adviser of College of Information Technology, Mr. John Tañedo, a 15-year web designer and brand strategist, started the presentations with a talk that was simply entitled “Careers in WordPress”. His talk was straight-laced in its assessment of the current realities facing job seekers in the real world, particularly in freelancing and working as a part of a small-business operation.
While Mr. Tañedo was effusive in WordPress’s capabilities of giving just about anyone a leg up in starting careers in the digital space, he emphasized the need for students to be aware of the responsibilities that are actually needed for their careers, particularly if they are aiming to be either developers, designers, or marketers.
Mr. Kim Isaiah Valencia, a full-time WordPress developer and a core member of WordPress Iloilo, continued the afternoon by holding a quick workshop on WordPress installation, themes, plugins, and hosting.
Mr. Valencia and Mr. Hao guiding the student participants in installing WordPress on their laptops.
In a room packed with students starting on their WordPress journeys, Mr. Valencia took the time to track each row’s progress on installing WordPress on the devices they have with them.
Mr. Kyne Hao, a UI/UX designer and advocate, continued the pace with his talk on Design Thinking. He argued for the need for human-centered design, as design itself is observable in everyday things like appliances and furniture, as opposed to being just applied digitally.
Mr. Hao laid out how students can practice simple design thinking frameworks by focusing on the tenets of Empathizing, Defining, Ideating, Prototyping, and Testing. Even in settings where a QA Tester is present, he emphasized the need for getting into the mind of the “target user”.
The final talk of the afternoon was on Career Growth, Challenges, and Insights. Mr. Glenn Palacio, a creative with a remarkable 13-year career in Photography, tempered the anxieties of everyone in the room who might be thinking of how new technologies like Generative AI might affect their careers in the near future.
Mr. Palacio laid out that even with the disruption and ethical challenges brought about by Gen-AI, the need for one’s creativity, adaptability, and critical thinking should always be at the forefront. He proceeded to illustrate real-world examples of businesses using AI to enhance their processes and business services.
Ms. Harcy Joy Dela Cruz, WordPress CDO lead organizer, gifting a WordCamp-branded swag to a lucky student.
Despite the afternoon heat, the event was lively all throughout, with the students’ enthusiasm rubbing off even on the presenters and organizers.
With the event ending on a high note, the likelihood is very high that other WordPress Campus Connects will spread to other neighboring cities in the region.
From L-R: Mr. Ian Malhin, PHINMA-CDO Engagement Associate of the Employer Engagement office; Mr. Kim Isaiah Valencia; Mr. Kyne Hao; Mr. John Tañedo; Mr. Glenn Palacio; and Mr. Riel Jun Estologa Cainglet, SBO Adviser.
For those who want to be a part of our next events in the Philippines, you can follow us at either of the pages below if you’re near these cities:
The WordPress Campus Connect in CDO would not have been possible without the support of the following sponsors:
Special thanks to Pooja Derashri and Anand Upadhyay, two incredibly passionate individuals who have been instrumental in bringing WordPress Campus Connect to life.
Pooja, your mentorship kept us grounded, and Anand, thank you for continuously pushing and inspiring us to take this initiative forward. Your support means a lot to our growing community in the Philippines.