It’s Christmas time at SM!

Christmas is almost here! Not even the pandemic can take away the beloved tradition of Filipino families to celebrate this joyous season at SM. Let the wonderful, magical and truly merry Christmas at SM drive away the blues! Sama sama tayo sa Pasko sa SM!

All throughout November and December, come and be dazzled by these exciting Holiday surprises that await you at SM:

1. Christmas Launches. On November 6, SM Supermalls treats everyone to a virtual, magical feast! Twelve different SM malls will light up their magnificent Christmas displays — from SM Mall of Asia and SM Megamall to SM Seaside City Cebu and SM CDO Downtown Premier! SM truly brings the magic of Christmas online through fireworks, orchestra, and whimsical characters! All the SM malls nationwide follow suit with their own magical Christmas light up on November 7 and 8. Mallgoers will be delighted with a special lighting ceremony for hope and inspiration amid the pandemic, as well as singing flash mobs, cute Christmas characters, and surprise gifts.

2. Christmas Chorale. What’s Christmas without some music? Feel the merriments of the season by watching Holiday choir performances at select SM malls this December. Meet up with your family and friends at SM and enjoy some Holiday tunes! It will surely be an awesome experience! No need to worry because strict safety protocols are in place at SM malls, so you can just focus on the magic of the celebration.

3. Christmas Markets. It’s the season of giving! Help MSMEs bounce back from the negative impact of the pandemic by buying your Holiday essentials and gifts at SM’s nationwide Christmas Markets from November 9 to January 3. As part of the Kasama Ng SM campaign and DTI’s Buy Local, Support Local, the Christmas Markets will feature unique local products and goods so shoppers can buy from small businesses and help them bounce forward and recover.

4. Selfie with Santa. Don't fret - SM has made sure you won't miss your annual selfie with Santa this year! You can pose with a virtual Santa Claus safely and via augmented reality at SM. Wanna give it a try? Simply scan the AR markers located in select areas in SM malls and have a photo with virtual Santa. Don’t forget to share your Holiday snaps online to your family and friends!

5. SM Bears of Joy. Starting November 4 until Christmas Day, SM Supermalls is giving back through its annual Bears of Joy campaign. This time around, shoppers can collect special medical frontliner Bears of Joy. Throughout the Christmas season, you can buy a pair of bears for P200.00 – one bear for you to keep and the other for charity.

6. TikTok Fam Contest. Have fun with your family and spread some Christmas joy by joining the TikTok Fam Contest. Simply showcase your dance moves to your favorite Christmas song in your favorite SM mall and you can get a chance to win exciting prizes!
   
   For more information, visit www.smsupermalls.com or follow @smsupermalls on all social media platforms.

Casa de Memoria’s Cuarto Auction Showcases Special Art Pieces as Christmas Gifts

As the Holidays draw near, Casa de Memoria will be holding Cuarto, its fourth major auction for the year, allowing you to explore unique art pieces that you can wrap up as gifts to spread some of the season's merriments among your loved ones.

To be held on November 28, 2020 (Saturday) at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, Cuarto will feature 180 specially curated European-Filipino antiquities and objets d’art that will not only spark some joy this Christmas, but can also add a touch of prestige and affluence to any home.

Among the must-see pieces are antiques that can be given to the special gentleman in your life, such as the silver cigar box formerly owned by prominent Spanish statesman Don José Antonio Girón de Velasco, the Napoleon III style radiogram with 1950s radio and "Philips" mono record player. On the other hand, ladies will surely appreciate the gilded and parcel-gilt lots that radiate opulence, including the polychromed dinner set, the ivory triptych depicting England’s “Glorious Revolution of 1688,” and the Vermeil Tea and Coffee Set by Joyerías Aldao.

For a touch of chinoiserie, Cuarto will feature European art pieces with Asian influences, such as the 18th century Burmese Alabaster Buddha Head in Shan Style and the thin solid 18 karat gold relief of Buddha circa 13th century Bayon period of the Khmer Empire. Fine art lovers can also look forward to delicate and glass and crystal pieces like the Émile Gallé clear art glass, with intricate, hand-painted ribbons, flowers and dragonflies in enamel, a mid-to-late 19th century Peking glass plate in a rare amethyst color, and reverse glass paintings of Saints Francis of Assisi and Sebastian.

Cuarto will also offer essential pieces and furniture that can spruce up any living space, like Milanese ebonized side chairs and various Bargueños from Spain with touch of Italian and Flemish styles, as well as paintings and lithography by revered Filipino and European artists, namely Fernando Zóbel de Ayala y Montojo, Romeo Tabuena, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali, among many others.

Explore the auction pieces and register for the auction at www.casadememoria.com. For better appreciation, art aficionados may also attend the intimate auction preview from November 3 to November 27 from 10 o’clock in the morning to 4 o’clock in the afternoon at Palacio de Memoria at 95 Roxas Blvd., Tambo, Parañaque. Strict safety protocols are in place at the venue.
At the auction on November 28, registered members will have access to a console. If you won't be able to join, absentee bids can be placed before the auction. Interested parties may also opt for telephone bidding.

For more details, call (02) 8253-3994 or e-mail hello@casadememoria.com. For more information, visit https://www.casadememoria.com/ or follow @thecasadememoria on Facebook and @casadememoria on Instagram.

Canva Launches New Collaboration Features to Help Teams Work Better

As remote working quickly becomes the norm, people are finding new ways to collaborate online and get things done, resulting in a tremendous growth spurt for Canva, where today, over 40 million people bring their visual creations to life each month. Today, Canva launches a number of new collaboration features to help every team work better, together.

Among the new features, users can try out are Canva’s new Online Whiteboards, new Notifications Center, and new Talking Presentations. Users can also easily join and manage teams through Suggested Teams and distributed teams can now stay on brand with Canva’s Brand Kits.

Maisie Littaua, Head of Growth at Canva Philippines said, “Canva is combining the simple and intuitive design experience that many Pinoys know and love, with the communication and teamwork functions they need to get work done — all within the same platform.”
“We find design works best as a team effort, and if there are any new features we can ship that will make it easier for people to design together, we’re going to build them. Kaya ngayon with Canva we made sure na mas effortless na ang collaboration with your teammates. Mas mapapadali na rin gawin at ipakita ang kanya-kanyang mga ideas dahil real-time ang collaboration sa aming platform,” Littaua added.

Design and Collaborate in Real-Time

Real-time collaboration is now available for everyone in Canva — bringing collaborative designing to everything from social media posts to videos — so you can co-create, brainstorm and see each other's contributions as they happen. Try out Canva’s new Online Whiteboards, featuring a collection of Brainstorm templates to help bring the magic of in-person ideation online, or our Mind Maps, to help organize complex ideas.

Canva avatars show which team members are in the same document. Collaborators can see which elements are selected by who, thanks to color-coding, and names on-display within designs.

Comments and replies show-up right away, and are optimized for web and mobile. Mobile comments are accessed through the app menu, and appear as threads, making it easy to respond to, and action requests on small screens.

For those with distributed teams, Canva’s Brand Kit also lets teams select and define colors that match their brand, so everyone can make the best design choices. Due to overwhelming demand, this Enterprise-level only feature will be rolled out to all Pro plans in November.

Streamline and Manage Teams More Efficiently

Communications can become more complex as the team grows. The new Notifications Center helps teams stay informed by making it easy to review and respond to team members and move design projects faster than ever before.

Once enabled, team members have the ability to receive alerts when tagged in comments, granted permissions to designs, folders and teams, or when approval or access requests are received. All requests can be easily seen and responded to in one place, leaving less time searching through emails, and more time being creative. This feature is being rolled out to Enterprise customers in November and will be available to everyone on Canva over the next few months.

Canva also helps you bring all your assets into shared folders, whether that’s your logos, graphics, fonts, and now videos too. Canva’s Suggested Teams makes it easy for colleagues to find and request access to the teams they work with, by simply using their work email address. Once given access, they can use the pre-approved brand assets and designs in their Team storage, and start collaborating immediately.

Add a Personal Touch with Talking Presentations

Talking Presentations are perfect for teams located in different time zones, where finding times for group sessions can be a challenge. With distance learning now the norm, teachers can embed video explanations in their presentations for students, so they can be watched from anywhere. Canva’s new Talking Presentations gives an alternative to live, or fully pre-recorded formats, letting presenters integrate short videos of themselves as playable elements within slides.

Whether you’re a small business owner teaming-up with others to create social media graphics, a large enterprise who wants to keep your assets on-brand across global offices, or a teacher who wants to share your lessons in a more collaborative way, now is the time to join millions of others around the world who are using Canva for their design needs.

Purchase 1 Canva Pro account now (priced at Php649/month) and get 4 for free from 2 November, until 31 January 2021 to unlock Canva Pro’s full library of over 80 million images, 4.5 million videos, and 25,000 audio tracks — plus time-saving tools like Background Remover, Content Planner, and Magic Resize — for your whole team.

For more information, visit https://www.canva.com/

ABOUT CANVA

Launched in 2013, Canva is an intuitive online design and publishing platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. Featuring a simple drag-and-drop user interface and a vast library of templates ranging from presentations, social media posts, posters, invitations to resumes, a huge collection of stock photography, illustrations and fonts, anyone can take an idea and create something beautiful. Canva is available on web, iOS and Android.