ICOPED’s 3rd day of Cooperative Month Celebration

10/27/2021

ICOPED’s last installment of its Cooperative Month Celebration* happened last October 26, 2021 with their online webinar entitled, “Kaya Nating Mag-Digital: Digital Platforms and Solutions for Cooperatives in the New Normal.” The webinar aims to provide alternative and available e-commerce platforms and transaction applications that cooperatives and enterprises can use in response to their digital transformation.

Resource speakers invited for the webinar were Ms. Evangeline Lopez, Head of the Payment Services Group from the National Association of Training Centers for Cooperatives (NATCCO), who discussed the KAYA Payment Platform; and Mr. Joshua Allen Santos, President of Traxion Technology Service Cooperative, who informed the participants about the DigiCOOP.

After which, ICOPED relaunched its eKOOP: An Online Marketing Hub for Cooperatives and Enterprises. Last October 2019, ICOPED explored the vast possibilities of assisting cooperatives and enterprises using an online platform. One of the most feasible platforms was through a marketing website aiming to utilize ICOPED’s website. This initiative was inspired by the emerging online hubs and consolidating venues online. Taking this opportunity, ICOPED launched its Cooperative Online Marketing Hub during its Cooperative Month Celebration in the same year. This project is under the lead of Dr. JP Roma D. Duque, ICOPED’s University Extension Specialist. Back then, the cooperatives and enterprises were considering and exploring online platforms or e-commerce as another venue of doing business. Cooperatives were faced with the challenge of transitioning to these platforms especially on building an online presence and the use of the premium features to boost customer engagement and sales required financial capital. In addition, managing businesses online requires a certain skill set that may be challenging, especially for micro-cooperatives and enterprises with limited resources.

Initially, this project aims to address the need for cooperative enterprises to further expand their presence and market reach by providing them with an online platform to showcase their products and services and facilitate linkages among cooperatives and their customers. The project works on developing a cooperative enterprise database that will be used for updating the marketing hub webpage within the ICOPED’s official website. The ICOPED services to the cooperatives for this online marketing hub are free.

ICOPED upgraded its official website to accommodate partner cooperatives in the said endeavor. The online marketing hub has evolved into e-Koop: An Online Marketing Hub for Cooperatives and Enterprises. Moreover, this upgrade allowed ICOPED to formalize the process of being a partner cooperative in our e-Koop.

At present, Likhang Kamay ng Kalambenyo Producers Cooperative and Mabato HVC Cooperative are the cooperative partners of ICOPED. The Institute initially upgraded its website to accommodate more prospective partners in its pipeline. ICOPED hopes that eKOOP can assist, engage, and encourage more cooperatives and enterprises to be more visible and take the online route as an alternative in doing their business.
The webinar was attended by over 150 cooperators, youth groups, students, and guests all over the country. AMQuilloy

*The Cooperative Month Celebration is held every October annually. This year, under the theme, “Rebuilding COOPs: Better Together, Stronger Together,” ICOPED, in partnership with the UPLB Economics Society, organized a 3-day event (October 19, 20, and 26, 2021) for cooperators, youth, students, and other cooperative and enterprise advocates. *The Cooperative Month Celebration is held every October annually. This year, under the theme, “Rebuilding COOPs: Better Together, Stronger Together,” ICOPED, in partnership with the UPLB Economics Society, organized a 3-day event (October 19, 20, and 26, 2021) for cooperators, youth, students, and other cooperative and enterprise advocates. The 2021 Cooperative Month Celebration coincides with ICOPED’s celebration of its 61st Anniversary.