Brick by Brick: What the e:Novators General Onboarding 2026 Attendees Built in a Day
MAKATI, PHILIPPINES — Where does one find the first brick? Is it from your friends’ invitations? Is it from the captivating publication materials that you see in your timeline? Or is it because of the free food and the LinkedIn connections that you gained after the networking session?
To some, those could be the reasons. And it’s okay and valid — because those are my reasons as well. We all come to tech events for different reasons. And on top of all that, I find an even deeper passion when I am surrounded by inspiring leaders and hardworking people. It’s like a magnet that, when I get close to it, I find myself pulled in a direction I didn’t know I needed to go. Today, that direction led me to Rockwell— and it turns out, that was my first brick.
On Sunday, May 31, 2026, the cloud community of AWS User Group e:Novators Philippines held its annual General Onboarding. With a theme of “Brick by Brick: Building the Blocks of Innovation”, the pioneering onboarding event ran from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM, hosted by official venue partner Common Grounds, 8 Rockwell, Rockwell Center, Makati City. This jam-packed event marked the beginning of each member’s journey within the organization.
Program Overview
True to its theme, the day was built brick by brick — each segment laying its foundation to ease new members into the community they were about to call home. The program opened with a motivational keynote from AWS User Group Philippines leader Isaeus Guiang and an e:Novators 101 session by Community Lead Marvin Barrios, giving attendees the context and inspiration they needed before the most defining part of the day: the office breakout sessions. In small groups, new members met their office leaders — and onboarding became belonging. The afternoon expanded that sense of belonging outward, with guest speakers from the technology industry sharing perspectives on AI integration, cloud career development, and real-world project building, all woven together with icebreakers, games, and a networking and snack session that kept the energy alive. The day closed with a formal Membership Oath and Certificate Giving — leaving every e:Novator with a blueprint of what they’re going to build next.
Building Blocks: Talks That Laid the Foundation
Community Lead Marvin Barrios opened the conversation with a simple but powerful reframe — a community is not just a group of people, it is a brick-by-brick process of bridging gaps. Through e:Novators 101, he walked new members through what the organization is built to close: the gap between knowledge and action, between students and industry, between ideas and execution. He also laid out the tangible ways the community shows up for its members — from website creation support and startup exposure to creating pathways for working students who are building their futures one brick at a time. Perhaps most memorably, he left the room with this: your community is your witness. It is the space that sees you lay each brick before the rest of the world sees the wall.
That foundation was reinforced by Dr. Lutzer Reyes, whose Technopreneurship talk reframed how new members should think about opportunity entirely. No structure is built alone — and your community is your biggest advantage in making sure it doesn’t have to be. Groups like AWSUG (AWS User Group) shorten your learning curve, connect you to mentors, and open doors to collaborations you could not have knocked on alone. Opportunities, he reminded the room, do not only come from skills. They come from connections.
Where the Bricks Come Together
The defining highlight of the day was never just the talks — it was also the 30-minute office breakout sessions that turned a room full of strangers into a community. Grouped by office, new members sat down with the pillars of the organization — the office leaders — for focused discussions that served as the true heart of the onboarding: the moment where names became faces, and faces became community.
Besides, the event brought in guest speakers who added their own bricks to the foundation. Gen AI Philippines explored how AI model integration is reshaping the way SaaS products are built, while CloudSensei laid out its social mission and the Dash2Career skills path — a reminder that empowering futures is itself a form of building. Tutorials Dojo brought one of the day’s most grounding messages: that you learn by shipping, not by waiting until you’re ready. Stealth closed the guest lineup with a call to build things that actually matter — because not every structure deserves to stand.
Among the partners who have stood alongside e:Novators Philippines in this mission is the PUP PYLON Technology Business Incubator (TBI) — a space built on the same belief that every great structure starts with a single idea worth nurturing. PYLON TBI, guided by its mission of “Your Startup Journey Begins Here,” has been a meaningful part of the community’s growing network, supporting student innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs in turning concepts into real-world solutions. And as e:Novators continues to lay its own bricks, the hope is to extend that same collaborative spirit further — connecting with more TBIs across the Philippines, so that no matter where a builder comes from, there is always a community ready to hand them their next brick.
That spirit carried into the latter half of the program, where the Start-up Initiatives segment gave the floor to members who are already laying bricks of their own. Led by Start-Up Development Office Director Dave Ailler Rivas, together with his Associate Directors Fahad Hadji Esmael, Lawrence Panes, and Mary Jean Navarro, the session spotlighted the organization’s commitment to turning ideas into execution — one of the very bridges Marvin had spoken about earlier in the day. Alongside this, the Ambassador Spotlights put faces to the people who have been quietly holding the structure together, showing new members that leadership here is not a title — it is a habit of showing up.
By the time the Membership Oath was administered and certificates were placed in each member’s hands, the theme had already proven itself. Brick by Brick was never just a tagline. It was the blueprint — and today, every person in that room became part of the build.
And none of this day would have been possible without the people who built it behind the scenes. To the entire e:Novators Philippines team — the officers, directors, and every member who showed up early, stayed late, and made sure every brick was in place before the doors opened — thank you. Events like this don’t run on themes and programs alone. They run on people who care enough to make them matter. You didn’t just organize a day. You built something that people will carry with them long after they leave the room.
What’s Next: The Wall Is Still Being Solidified
The General Onboarding was never meant to be the destination — it was the groundbreaking. Every session, every breakout conversation, every handshake during the networking hour was a brick laid in preparation for something larger. For the new members who took the oath, this is only the beginning of their e:Novators journey — and the organization has made it clear that there is plenty left to solidify.
Watch out for upcoming community initiatives, startup development programs, and events that will continue to bridge knowledge and action, students and industry, ideas and execution. If today was about finding your office, meeting your people, and understanding what this community stands for — what comes next is where you actually get to build.
The blueprint is set. The community is here. And the wall is still being solidified — one brick at a time.
Stay connected with AWS User Group e:Novators Philippines and be part of what gets built next.
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About the Author
Mary Jean D. Navarro is a third-year Computer Science student who somehow finds herself in every room that matters — and then volunteers to help set it up. She is the kind of person who believes that you go further with a crew, and that the New World is always worth sailing toward — together. She has a soft spot for microphones, meaningful conversations, and the kind of communities that make people feel like they were always supposed to be there.
She is part of Arterion PH, Tutorials Dojo, KadaKareer, and WorkFlow PH — spaces that have quietly shaped her into someone who knows that the best things you learn often come from the people you meet.
Within AWS User Group e:Novators Philippines, she serves as Database Associate Director — one of the people quietly making sure everything holds together. She also wrote this article, so yes, she has been here the whole time.
