A Short Trip, A Bigger Perspective – Manila, Philippines

I had a short trip to the Philippines last week. I wanted to cover this in this week’s Leaders’ Reflection.

Primarily, I planned this trip to attend the Fluxx Events as  I’m one of the awardees for the Technology Services Leader of the Year in the USA. I will talk more about this event in the later part of this newsletter. Let me share my experience visiting Manila, Philippines.

I travelled from Chennai to Manila via HongKong in Cathy Pacific Airlines. I had a long 5 hrs layover in Hongkong. However, since I travelled on the Week days – Tuesday, I’m able to spend the time wisely by opening the laptop and able to work. I had a nice seat and also spent time on the Kyra Longue located near to my gate, which offered complimentary food and beverages since I had a Priority Pass . I got the food and also able to sit and work for sometime. 5 hrs passed easily. And then a short 2 hrs flight to Manila.

The Philippines is a Visa Free country for Indians. This is great. We don’t want to work on applying for a visa. I just filled out the e-Travel form 3 days prior to my trip and it’s a simple form. You can easily fill it up in 3-5 minutes and then you will receive the QR code to show it to the Immigration in the Philippines.

For Indian Travellers you can stay up to 15 days for VISA Free and if you hold a Valid US Visa you can stay for 30 days without the VISA. Just fill the e-Travel form. As I landed in Terminal 3, I didn’t see much traffic at the Airport, so I was able to pass the Immigration in 5 minutes. They didn’t even ask for the QR code.

A few weeks before I travelled, we noticed that the Philippines announced the energy emergencies due to the geopolitical situation. I checked with my ChatGPT and it says nothing to worry about when I travel. Like it says, I didn’t find any difficulties commuting from one place to another place.

Before, I traveled. I did some research to understand the country since I’m visiting for the first time. People said, Philippines is westernized more. However, I’m more shocked after entering Manila. As people said, the country is really westernized. I didn’t see their local (Filipino) language anywhere in the places I visited. From the Airport to the Hotels, Roads, Malls. It’s only English across all the places I visited.

The event was hosted inside the OKADA Manila. When you enter the venue you don’t feel like you are in the Philippines. You feel more like you are in Vegas. I heard OKADA is one of the greatest hotels in the country. It has a casino inside. You can see more US chain restaurants from TGI – Friday’s to Texas Roadhouse. So, you feel like you are in the US inside the OKADA Manila. You see everything in English. No Filipinos.

I wanted to see if I needed to exchange the local currency for my trip. As ChatGPT advised to take minimal cash for emergencies. I didn’t see anyone have Philippine currency in the Chennai Airport. I tried in the HongKong Airport. Since I had some USD with me, I asked for an exchange rate in HongKong for 20 USD and they said it’s 910 Peso(Philippines Peso) and they will give only 900 Peso as they don’t have 10’s. Then I thought I could skip here and try in the Philippines Airport. I understand the power of the USD. To my surprise I got 1204 Peso for 20 USD. No exchange rate commission. They paid fully.

I stayed right opposite to the OKADA, which is like 5 minutes walk. I landed on Tuesday evening and I’m able to work from the hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday and attended the event on Thursday and Friday. I spent Saturday shopping at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay near my hotel.

While I was there, I also explored the Indian food in Manilla. We visited the Tandoor by Rich inside the Landmark and the food was delicious.

Fluxx Events

The Fluxx Conference 2026 is a global leadership & innovation summit held in Manila, bringing together business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators from multiple industries.

Fluxx Conference is designed as a high-end, cross-industry event focused on:

• Leadership & strategic growth
• Innovation (Healthcare, AI, Digital transformation, and Finance)
• Networking & partnerships
• Recognition through Awards

Over two impactful days, the conference brought together voices from across industries—business, technology, healthcare, and finance—to explore the future of leadership and innovation.

Key takeaways: • The pace of innovation (especially in AI & digital transformation) is accelerating faster than ever • Cross-industry collaboration is no longer optional—it’s essential • Leadership today is about adaptability, vision, and execution

Beyond the sessions, the opportunity to connect with founders, executives, and investors from around the world was truly valuable.

The Fluxx Awards also highlighted outstanding contributions across sectors, celebrating excellence and impact on a global stage.

Grateful for the insights, conversations, and connections. Looking forward to applying these learnings and continuing the journey of growth.

The event was very well organized and the people across the globe came for this event. I also learned about some new country which I previously don’t know about the name of the countries. People from the US, Europe, Australia, Middle East , Malaysia, Singapore, Norway, South Africa, and India. The Local Filipinos also came.There are some people couldn’t make it from the Middle East due to the Geo-Political tension on that Region. However still some people made it.

It’s a mix of Keynote session and Panel Discussion on both the days and awards celebration on both the days morning and evening. They categorized different domains for the awards. It’s a mix of global and regional awards. I’m also honored to be one of the awardees from the USA region on the Technology Services Leader of the Year.

I love the way they organize it from the Screening process to awards. The Interviews and the Questionnaires sections are detailed and relevant to my work. It’s not very easy to host such a great event and pull the people across the globe due to the geo-political tension. Kudos to the Fluxx Events team. They gave more spaces for the networking session as part of the agenda.

Leading the Digital Age : Balancing Innovation, Ethics and Humanity.

Education 5.0 : Empowering Mids of the Age of AI, Empathy and Innovation

The Future of Healthcare in Leadership : Building Systems that Heal People, not just Patients.

The Human Brand : How People, Purpose and Culture Drive Business Growth

These are the Panel topics they discussed.

I returned home filled with new expectations, highly connected to new learning and a different outlook of the world.