How This Women Of Color Org Is Reimagining Tech To Create A Global Virtual Office

   Filipina focused community pivots amidst pandemic with membership program and virtual conference

Preview of virtual office in Gatherly as explained by founder Gina Rosales.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - September 9, 2020 - Pinayista (pih-nai-ees-tuh), a nonprofit and community of self-identified “Pinays” (Filipina Americans), has launched the first global virtual office in partnership with Gatherly, a new event platform. The creation of this virtual office redefines the world of co-working and social interaction in the tech space. Pinayista disrupts the platform, originally designed for virtual events, utilizing it to continue their efforts in community building. Despite the challenges in 2020, the organization continues to innovate and thrive as they expand with a global membership program, and the 3rd annual Pinayista Summit, October 9-11.

“The Gatherly team is thrilled to be partnering with Make it Mariko & Pinayista to bring their women-of-color community together via our interactive online experience.” shares Sohan Choudhury, Co-Founder of Gatherly. “The Pinayista team has taken the Gatherly virtual platform and reimagined how it can be utilized not just for experiential events, but also on a daily basis to build community globally. With many co-working spaces still closed, we’re excited to see Pinayista creating the first global virtual office on Gatherly, and hope to see more corporate groups consider this new option for virtual office spaces.”

A Global Conference for the Filipinx Diaspora

Gina Mariko Rosales, Pinayista founder and former Google X Head of Marketing Events, customized the Gatherly platform, constructing a 24/7 open office for Pinays from all over the world to resume social camaraderie in a shared virtual workspace. In conjunction with this platform launch, the organization has introduced Pinayista memberships, a program open to all self-identified Pinays who would like to get further involved with the community. Members are granted access to the office space and can explore the Pinayista world built within the platform; whether it is co-working, networking, group dining, happy hour, events, or a desire for support from fellow members, Rosales’ concept has allowed Pinayista to evolve as a global connector to reach new spaces and faces in a way that has never been done before.

When the organization relaunched in May of 2020, they tripled their social media following, and doubled their email subscriber list within a matter of weeks. Their membership program has already acquired over 50 members since launching last week.

“Pinayista was born out of a need, and grew from a dream. It was born from the NEED to build a community of Pinay entrepreneurs, so we could support each other in our hustles and businesses - something that didn’t exist at the time that I started my business 5 years ago,” shares Gina Rosales, Founder of Pinayista and Make it Mariko. “Pinayista is now growing from our collective DREAM to create a radically inclusive, global sisterhood of pinays founded in #Pinayism. A sisterhood where we support each other on our journeys to create thriving hustles that allow us to be the ultimate creators and designers of our own lives.” 

Photo taken at the 2019 summit where close to 200 women from across the country attended. Located in San Francisco’s Filipino Cultural Heritage district, SOMA Pilipinas.

Amidst the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pinayista quickly embraced the virtual world after rebranding their organization (formerly known as Entrepinays, as featured in Forbes), to be a more inclusive space. The summit is open to all self-identifying Pinays who want to learn how to bring their ideas to life, as well as bring their expertise to help others in the community. This year’s summit is a virtual gathering over the course of three days, filled with speakers, panels, lightning talks, interactive workshops, music, spontaneous dancing, and meaningful connections. The virtual event will take place entirely on the event platform Hopin.

Pinayista Summit 2020 speakers:

• Geena Rocero, Founder of Gender Proud and the first openly transgender Asian-Pacific Islander model to pose for Playboy magazine

• Therese Fernandez, CEO of Rags2Riches

• Ruby Veridiano, writer and sustainable fashion journalist

• Gayle Romasanta, author and publisher Bridge and Delta Publishing

• Nadia de Ala and Allison Carpio, co-founders of Let’s Get Hella Rich

• Sarah Meier-Heredia, Former CEO and Creative Director of She Talks Asia
  

Pinayista Panel Discussions:

• “Pinayism” Panel with Dr. Allyson Tintiango-Cubales to discuss the organization's roots in Pinayism and the historical work that Pinays have done to create a foundation of radical sisterhood work.

• Panel discussing the damaging effects of Cancel Culture, and how to more effectively call each other IN, instead of OUT.

• Panel discussing this year’s Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) theme for Filipino American History Month in October - “The History of Filipino American Activism”, connecting activism in the U.S to what is happening in the Philippines right now.

Filipinas on the Rise

Photo by Melissa de Mata

• Filipinos are the 3rd largest growing Asian group in the United States with over 4 million people. California has the largest population of Filipinos with over 1 million. San Francisco has the second largest Filipino population with 305,000, right behind Los Angeles.

• The Filipino diaspora in the United States was composed of more than 4.3 million individuals who were either born in the Philippines or reported Filipino ancestry or race, according to tabulations from the U.S. Census Bureau 2018 ACS.

• Asian American households spend 21% more than the average U.S. household.

• Asian American women are fast to adopt new technologies, particularly apps that are popular with Millennials, such as Snapchat for social, Venmo for digital wallet and Waze for navigation.-

• In 2018, women are estimated to control $40 trillion in consumer spending across the world.

*NBC Asian America (2019); Forbes, (2019); Nielsen, (May 2017); Pew Research Center (2017); Mercury News (2019); Pew Research Center (2019), Migration Policy Institute (July 2020)

For more information on Pinayista and to purchase tickets to the 2020 Summit visit: https://www.pinayista.org.

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About Pinayista: Pinayista is a nonprofit community collective of pinays with a mission to build sisterhood in the hustle. Our sisterhood will be one of regenerative power -- creative, spiritual, social, economic, and political -- where we create possibilities where they rarely existed and build strong communities that promote abundance, love, hope, and joy.

About Gatherly: Current video conferencing platforms are designed for lectures and meetings; Gatherly is designed for events. Their platform allows you to host online events where participants can seamlessly flow between one-on-ones, smaller huddles, and bigger groups.