This story first appeared on the July 12, 2014 issue of The Manila Standard Today
FOR someone whose idea of extreme involves chicharon, heaps of bacon and hash brown for breakfast, I’m quite proud of myself for being able to accomplish some rather intense stuff to cross out from my bucket list—scuba diving, feeding a school of fish 30 feet underwater, and going face to face with whale sharks—and I don’t even know how to swim!
Three trips usually complete my year, being part of an inaugural flight to appreciate new cultures, revisiting Boracay to appreciate beauty, and joining Epson Fusion to appreciate life.
Epson’s annual media event, Fusion takes select media partners to an initially undisclosed destination as part of a thanksgiving gathering and to showcase its upcoming product lineup.
Now on its fifth year, Fusion has become one of the most anticipated events for tech writers—giving newbies a chance to meet the veterans and for the regulars to reconnect and strengthen the friendships they’ve developed (who knew a name-game could be so effective).
Daring with a bit of danger
As soon as the month of May kicks in, the waiting game for Evan Cariaga’s (Extant PR) call or email invitation begins. I first got the call three years ago, and that year we travelled to Batangas for a diving expedition.
Fusion 2 was about highlighting Epson’s waterproof inks so we dived 30 feet underwater, (swallowing a few liters of saltwater in the process as my guide mistook my signal to go up as “Okay!”); fed the fish and had our group picture taken as we each held a letter that formed the word E-P-S-O-N—at the bottom of the sea.
That trip established the theme of Fusion for the years to come, giving us geeks the chance to let loose and challenge our fears.
I guess they liked my company, as I got invited to the next two Fusion events. Unfortunately, there was a conflict with my schedule, so I missed out on their kayaking (Fusion 3) and surfing (Fusion 4) escapades.
Since I already missed two in a row, I didn’t expect to get another invite, but thankfully my new editor Isah V. Red decided to send me as his representative.
Fusion V was held at Sumilon Island, Cebu from May 21 to 23, and the main “dares” for this trip were canyoning (or canyoneering) and swimming with the whale sharks in Oslob.
Check out this video slideshow of Epson Fusion V:
photo credits to Karlo Samson and Ian Irving Bacungan 😀
Although I had been looking forward to trying out canyoning, (which involves walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, rapelling, and swimming,) the downward trek to the Tumalog Falls, Wednesday afternoon, somehow gave me a sign that this wasn’t the trip to do it just yet.
From the parking area, it’s a 15-minute hike down a very steep road to reach Tumalog Falls. It’s a concrete road but only motorcycles can pass through. Since I wanted to check if I had the stamina, I decided to walk to and from the waterfalls.
Bad idea.
I almost slipped several times and just wanted sit and slide down the rest of the way; going back up was even worse—I was gasping for air and after five minutes my hands went numb so I gave up on recording the ordeal on video.
The view, however, was so worth it. Our jaw’s dropped at the sight of the majestic and natural beauty of the Tumalog Falls. The fine strands of cold fresh water rush down like rain from mini-umbrellas and the waist deep pool provided the perfect place for wading and to enjoy the spectacular view.
We left Thursday morning for the Matutinao River canyon trek that took four hours to complete, and after seeing the exhausted look on the faces of those who joined, I think I made the right decision to just wait it out at the Kawasan Falls rather than take the risk.
Riding the raft and getting a “full body massage” straight from the waterfalls was enough and besides I still had the whale sharks waiting for me—I just didn’t realize it was going to be a face to mouth encounter.
As we reached the viewing area in Oslob, Friday, I was really excited about seeing the whale sharks underwater. So even though I didn’t know how to swim and it was my very first time to use a life vest—I hurriedly jumped out of the boat.
I saw it as soon as I went under—its wide mouth just a few feet in front of me. They said the “butandings” of Oslob were much smaller than those found in Donsol, Sorsogon but it was still the size of a small car.
It was so close I almost wanted to reach out (and risk the P2500 penalty) when it suddenly began to swim toward me. I wanted to scream but the boatmen reminded us not to lose the snorkeling gear, so I raised my legs and clung on to the katig (outrigger) for dear life. Thankfully, it changed direction and I immediately climbed back up the boat content with my whale shark encounter.
Here’s a more exciting video made by Camera Geek TV
Still the leader
To balance our extreme adventures, Epson pampered us with luxurious accommodations at the exclusive Bluewater Resort as we celebrated their achievements as the no.1 brand in projectors, inkjet printers, and dot matrix printers.
“Every year, we are inspired to plan Fusion activities that promote friendship and exciting challenges. With the help and support of our partners in business and the media, Epson continues to enjoy the overwhelming support of Filipino customers, making many of our champion products the “People’s Choice” in their respective categories,” said Epson Philippines President/Country Manager Toshimitsu Tanaka.
Globally, Epson is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its 3LCD projector technology, as well as its unmatched achievement of 13 consecutive years as the world’s no. 1 projector brand, with a 31.84-percent market share.
“We are very glad to receive the good news of Epson’s leadership position in the projector category for the Philippine market,” Tanaka stated. “We attribute this achievement not only to the technical superiority of our products and the unending support from our partners but also to Epson’s design philosophy of taking feedback from our customers and using this to build products that exceed their expectations.”
SC-F2000 T-shirt printer
Epson also continues to hold the top spot in in the inkjet printer category with a value share of 35.50 percent, prompted by the exceptional performance of Epson’s flagship L-series printers. The L-series posted an astounding 104.2-percent growth from the preceding year in value in 2013.
“Since we launched the Epson L-series in 2011, we have posted significant growth every year. The overwhelming response from Filipino customers is a definite sign that our focus on developing these innovative printers is key to expanding our inkjet line-up. We are glad to be at the forefront of providing a printer that has created a unique category on its own.”
In the dot matrix printer category Epson further asserts its dominance with a market share of 97 percent. This is an increase from the previous year’s 90.3 percent market share among all dot matrix manufacturers in the Philippines.
2014 lineup
Equally as exciting as our activities, Epson unveiled 14 new products from four different categories including: visual instruments/projectors, inkjet printers, commercial and industrial and, business systems.
First in the new innovative product lineup is the world’s first 3LCD, touch-enabled, interactive projectors—the Epson EB-500 Series. These projectors boast of impressive specifications as an ultra-short throw of 80’47centimeter, multi-PC connection, 2x HDMI, Wi-Fi, iProjection, High Brightness and Finger Touch interaction.
Under Epson’s Inkjet Printers category is the expanded lineup of the successful Epson L-Series Ink Tank System Printers such as; Epson L120, the affordable document printer with super high-ink capacity; Epson L555, an ink tank multifunction printer with fax, auto document feeder and wireless printing capability; and the Epson L13000, a reliable high-quality super high-ink capacity A3 printer with borderless printing.
For the commercial and industrial printers, there’s the Epson SureColor F7170, a dye-sublimation transfer printer for final fabric production; Epson UltraChrome DS Ink, an all-new dye sublimation ink and the Epson dye sublimation papers, the all-new dye sublimation media both developed by the brand.
As for the business system printers, Epson’s new generation point-of-sale system is designed for running businesses on the Cloud. This line comprises of the New Epson TM-I/TM-DT Intelligent Printer Series.
Tanaka assured that the same principles of offering substantial customer savings, as well as high quality, reliability and peace of mind for end-users continue to be their priority with the introduction of the new line-up.
