Photo Source: SoftCon Website
“Business decisions are done keeping people at the center and the heart of everything.”, Sanjiv Gupta, the president and country head of IBM Global Delivery Centers of the Philippines, highlighted the visionary role of people and technology during the SOFTCON 2022 event of Amazon Web Services (AWS) from October 24 to 26, 2022 at Marriott Grand Ballroom, Pasay, Metro Manila.
Dubbed as the biggest conference and gathering of software developers and IT professionals in the Philippines with over 30 featured speakers, attendees were given the option to join either hybrid in-person or virtual and features the recent trends and best practices in Information Technology. The Application Development team (AppDev) of SM Malls Online participated virtually with an aim to broaden their vantage point and benchmark the latest standards from other industries.
“Compared to 2021, this is a better conference. Topics are good, repeated but still works wonders, and speakers are straight to the point”, shared by Edmundo M. Santos III, one of SM Malls Online’s solution architects. He suggested that the team should have more seminars with physical interactions, connect more people or network, and provide guidance on how to face the challenges and opportunities in changing the process.
Lino Pacifico Cervantes, a DevOps Manager, provided insights that despite being able to attend before, the organizers still lived up to his expectations as they gave out interesting and eye-opening topics. “The SOFTCON allowed me to re-learn and generate ideas on how else we can improve in SM Malls Online”, he added. According to him, the speakers were able to answer the questions on important topics like CircleCI iOS pipeline challenges and security, knowledge that the DevOps team can apply in their day-to-day work. Other topics such as Metaverse and Machine Learning were also part of the roster, stressing the journey in embracing the virtual environment, how it can change the system interaction of our customers, and the preparedness required in taking this huge leap.
Associate Software Engineer, John Michael T. Magadia, shared that the SOFTCON experience emphasized the importance of always seeking help and guidance from others, “We will grow as we interact with other people, we can always learn from one another as it widens our perception as a developer,” he said.
Technology does not revolve alone on what tools or solutions should fit the standard in resolving problems of time, space, efforts, and situations. Project management, problem solving, real-life experience, and effective practices are some essential areas discussed by the mentors in incorporating the success of corporate missions and visions.
The idea of staying ahead of technology’s ever-changing tides and being up to speed on the current solutions are the attendee’s main priorities. For AppDev, key takeaway is on how they can apply the learnings in making sure that the goals and target vision for SM Malls Online are met.
The SOFTCON event is a reminder that IT innovation and development is here to stay and the App Dev team of SM Malls Online is determined to rise to the challenge in continuously learning and keep up with these technology trends.
By: Andrea Larraine L. Salimbao