G&G Annual Partner's Conference

Creating a Win-win Partnership

Last April 18, 2011 Gifts and Graces held its annual partner's conference at the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Partner's Conference is a whole day event that is a venue for G&G to dialogue with its partners, give updates, and share new learnings, all towards the objective of creating a win-win partnership. The Partner's Conference is a key component of G&G's capability building program.

Participants enjoy the Airplane game icebreaker

This year, the Partner's Conference was about creating and capturing value along the value chain. To kick off the conference, Executive Director Greg Perez shared G&G's updated mission, vision, strategic direction, and values. Greg announced that G&G would partner with organizations with expertise in capability building, just like its recent partnership with the UP College of Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering; pursue its application for certification with the World Fair Trade Organization, and enter the retail market. 

As part of its commitment to advocate fair trade and fair trade practices, G&G invited Ronald Lagazo, Country Manager of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) Philippines to make a presentation about fair trade in the Philippines. Ronald shared the principles of fair trade and the value of being fair trade certified.

Another guest speaker was Ms. Ma. Rocelyn Bernabe of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) who presented PBSP's Business Advisory Program (BAP) that G&G partners can avail of. This is in line with G&G's strategy to link its partners with capability building experts to help them improve their enterprise management skills.

 

On the learning part of the program, Darlyn Ty made a presentation on the value chain based on GTZ's value chain framework. Darlyn is the successful entrepreneur behind the Belle de Jour planners and is a long-time G&G volunteer. We at G&G believe it is important to understand the value chain to better appreciate the cooperation necessary along the chain. 

To supplement and reinforce Darlyn's presentation, AYAD Strategic and Performance Improvement Adviser Michael Golsworthy led the group in a pre-game warm-up, then the group played a value chain game designed by AIM student Anurag Goel. Anurag helped out with the partners conference as part of his walkabout project in AIM. Greg, Mike, Dar, and Anurag facilitated the game. 

The partners present had a lot of fun negotiating along the value chain. At the end of the game the participants said they better understood the concept of the value chain and they appreciated the importance of cooperating along the chain.

After the value chain game, the last part of the conference was a mini case conference where participants were asked to come up with common problems related to different parts of the value chain. Different teams were then assigned to come up with solutions for the identified problems and these were discussed with the group. The solutions the group came up with were creative and innovative and showed that even with limited resources we can find solutions to our pressing problems. 

All in all the partners conference was a success. It created a venue for greater understanding and cooperation between G&G and its partners. 

Thanks to those who attended from Alay Kapwa Tindahan, DAWN, FCED Foundation, Kaakbay, Kaibhan, Kapitbahayan Candles, Pangarap Foundation, Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, The Learning Center. Welcome to new G&G partners Caritas, Heidi's Crafts, I4SEE for Pamana Pag-asa, Nuvali, QC livelihood under the office of Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, and Virlanie Foundation. Many thanks again to our volunteers Dar, Mike, Anurag, without whom the partner conference would not be the success that it was.