Changes in PWA milestone year begin with new auditor

This article was originally published March 26, 2007 in http://www.philippinewebawards.com/newsroom.asp
Changes in PWA milestone year begin with new auditor
Ronald James P. Panis
Monday, March 26, 2007

WITH the 10th Philippine Web Awards (PWA) slated later this year, organizer Media G8way Corporation (MGC) aims to breathe new life into the annual IT event through a series of changes. One of which is the inclusion of a new auditor, renowned consultancy firm Punongbayan & Araullo.

Punongbayan & Araullo has been tasked the official tabulator of the 10th PWA. As such, they will have sole access to the PWA finals judges scores, which will be kept in strictest confidence – even from organizers MGC. The firm will go through the scores and tally it to determine the winners, which will only be unveiled on the night of the event itself.

“We want (the 2007 PWA) to be a genuine milestone, a milestone that will breathe new life to this 10-year old idea and make it more relevant to today’s generation of Web designers, and Web site owners including your ordinary Net surfers,” explained MGC president and chief executive officer Ibarra C. Gutierrez. By partnering with Punongbayan & Araullo, which he noted as the biggest and one of the more aggressive accounting/business consultancy firms in the country today, Gutierrez feels the firm will highly contribute to the envisioned changes.

Punongbayan & Araullo meanwhile shared that they are bullish about this partnership, seeing it to boost their profile-raising efforts and open the firm to many doors in the IT industry, (The firm) has always supported the use of technology to improve/enhance the quality and delivery of its services. “Similarly, we support efforts that go towards the development of new technology, or the maximization of existing technology, for the continued growth of any industry,” said Rosanna R. Ricafort, manager for markets for Punongbayan & Araullo. She continued, “The PWA is a recognition of the achievements of Webmasters and hopefully, it will encourage them to continue doing good work and thinking of new, more creative ways of making the world a truly global village.”

MORE PARTNERSHIPS

Gutierrez noted that the PWA-partnership is just one of the many collaborations MGC is entering into with Punongbayan & Araullo. One of which, he shared, will be on the Executive Briefing series of Computerworld Philippines, one of MGCs publications. Ricafort remarked that they hope to be of assistance to the businesses within MGC’s market through the firms professional services. Gutierrez also added that MGC will be entering into more partnerships for this years PWA.