Canva Philippines Negosyantrends Expo 2023 empowers businesses, teams of all sizes with design tools, activities

The Negosyantrends Expo 2023 features a panel discussion on business innovation, branding, and nurturing communities. Photo shows from left to right: Andre Chanco (Co-owner and Head of Product of Yardstick Coffee), Reese Fernandez-Ruiz (Founder of Rags2Riches), Cara Paguio (Co-founder of Guppy Beachwear), Nice Domanog (Community Manager for Canva For Pinoy Freelancers and Creatives), Maisie Littaua (Canva Philippines Head of Marketing and Growth), and Yani Hornilla-Donato (Canva Philippines Country Manager).

Canva Philippines held Negosyantrends Expo 2023, its biggest face-to-face event for entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners, last August 5 at the Music Hall of SM Mall of Asia. The event featured one-on-one consultations with brand and design experts, interactive stations, and design activities to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

Headlined by Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, president and co-founder of Rags2Riches, Andre Chanco, head of product and co-founder of Yardstick Coffee, and Cara Paguio, senior creative for photography at Canva and owner of the local beachwear brand Guppy PH, the expo featured insightful discussions on starting and managing a business, building a brand, implementing innovations, and nurturing communities among others. 

“Negosyantrends marks an exciting time for Canva Philippines. It is our first face-to-face event since the pandemic and a testament to our stronger commitment to Pinoy negosyantes. It’s very inspiring to witness how Canva has empowered businesses, and we look forward to where this new chapter takes us,” Maisie Littaua, Canva Philippines Head of Marketing and Growth said.

The expo featured interactive stations such as the Design Playground for an immersive Canva experience; the Brand Classroom, where event attendees got a 15-minute consultation with a brand expert; the Sari-Sari Street, where select businesses showcased and sold their products. The attendees also enjoyed games and brought home printed items designed on Canva.

The event is in partnership with SM Mall of Asia, Rappler, CNN Philippines, WhenInManila.com, Spot.ph, ABS-CBN News, PhilStar Global, adobo Magazine, BusinessWorld, and Angkas.

Sari-Sari Street’s entrepreneurs enthusiastically showcased their products from beauty, home and living, and arts and crafts, among others.

Unleash your creativity, collaborate, and create on-brand content for your business

When COVID-19 hit, Filipino businesses turned to social media to reach their customers. With Canva’s design solutions, businesses of all sizes were able to build their brands, create engaging content, and publish them all within the platform.

“During the lockdown, Canva helped us a lot in developing our branding, designing our product labels and packaging, ads and social media content, and on overall business visibility. Canva is our go-to tool for designing our new products, collections, and content. Now that Canva has upgraded features, that would help the users more,” shared Soyscape PH owners Christopher Banaag and Mark Calica.

Andre Chanco, head of product and co-founder of Yardstick Coffee, shared how their team leveraged the power of social media to connect with their customers. “The number one thing we did for two years was to be the loudest online. Being able to engage digitally with existing customers saved Yardstick during Covid.”

Canva also offers customizable templates you can update with your brand colors, fonts, and logos. Choose from Canva’s media library of over 100 million visual and audio assets. Canva Pro users can also access features like Magic Resize, Background Remover, Folders, and Brand Kits.

Expo attendees line up for a 15-minute consultation with design experts from Canva Philippines.

For businesses with a group of two or more, Canva for Teams enables you to collaborate together, streamline your workflow, keep projects organized, and stay on-brand with Brand Kit, Shared Folders, and Brand Controls.

Canva's Visual Suite also offers end-to-end design solutions for business owners. Canva Docs lets your team create visually engaging documents, from business proposals to reports and even checklists. Whiteboards allow teams to collaborate, brainstorm, and plan on an infinite canvas. Canva Presentations let you create presentations that will surely captivate your audience.

Canva's online video editor allows you to create professional and engaging videos, complete with animation and speed controls. For those who need a website without coding experience, Canva Websites makes it easy to design a responsive one-page website, perfect for landing pages and event invitations.

Leira Dumalay, owner of Baked Goodies by Leira, highlighted how Canva makes designing easier for business owners like her. “I love how Canva is accessible to everyone. They have pre-made designs that businesses can use to make their projects. I also love that Canva listens to their users to improve their services.”

Empowering Entrepreneurs Through Design

In 2020, Canva Philippines launched Canva for Negosyo, which provides entrepreneurs with free branding and graphic design resources, marketing toolkits, photo collections, and video tutorials. 

The participants of the Negosyantrends Expo 2023 were treated to an immersive platform experience to try out their ideas and start designing.

The Canva for Negosyantes community on Facebook has since reached over 60,000 members and continues to be a platform for many business owners to share ideas, collaborate on designs, and provide insights to each other.

As Pinoy entrepreneurs take their businesses online, we want to be right there with them," Littaua said. "When it comes to design and branding, Canva for Negosyo is the Filipino business owner's partner in creativity and productivity for their digital presence."

For more updates on Canva Philippines' efforts for entrepreneurs, follow @CanvaPhilippines on Facebook or join Canva for Negosyantes.