Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

We have all been through the Covid-19 pandemic for more than a year and until now no one knows when it will end, the topic of the survival spirit of the pandemic fighters is relevant to be discussed and disseminated together. Faculty of Economics and Business UGM in commemoration of the 66th Dies Natalis together with the Central Management of the Alumni Family of the Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Gadjah Mada (KAFEGAMA) and also KAFEGAMA DIY held a Pandemic Insight Seminar with the theme "Survival Spirit of The Pandemic Fighters" on Saturday (11/09). It is hoped that from this seminar, participants can become even more enthusiastic about sharing, working together, and helping each other in this pandemic era.

The Pandemic Insight seminar was started by the moderator who will guide the entire event, M. Ryan Sanjaya, as a Lecturer in the Department of Economics, FEB UGM. Before entering the main event, Dr. Perry Warjiyo, Governor of Bank Indonesia and Chairman of PP KAFEGAMA, gave the keynote speech beforehand. In his speech, Dr. Perry Warjiyo invited participants to reflect on the many blessings from God that He bestowed during the pandemic period and remain optimistic that together they can contribute to the growing of Indonesia in a more harmonious way. He advised, "The key is to be grateful, make maximum efforts together, and build optimistic hopes."
Next, we enter the main event, which is a material panel about the experiences of the three great speakers on how they responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first speaker was Dr. Rimawan Pradiptyo M.Sc., as the Initiator of the SONJO Movement (Sambatan Jogja) who shared his experiences about the movement. In overcoming the pandemic, SONJO has the motto "1M Is Enough", namely MAU, which means willing to overcome the pandemic, willing to have integrity, willing to empathize, and willing to synergize. According to him, SONJO is needed to mobilize resources during the pandemic by utilizing the Whatsapp Group (WAG) platform.

Having the principles of integrity and transparency as the main capital to gain public trust, SONJO seeks to solve problems by generating demands in the form of complaints and supplies in the form of contributions at the same time. The movement initiated by SONJO is actually more focused on welcoming the post-pandemic, so it's not just for the short term. The programs run by SONJO are broadly divided into 2 sectors, health and the economy, including the SONJO Database Rewangan which is a Covid-19 patient referral system between hospitals and the SONJO Market Storefront (EPS).

The seminar session then continued to the second speaker, Hermawan Ardiyanto who represented the DIY KADIN Vaccine Acceleration Team. Hermawan in his material shared about the implementation and contribution of the DIY KADIN Gotong Royong Vaccine. With the background of business actor's dilemma who still want to produce but are constrained by the obligation of Covid-19 health procedures, KADIN initiated the Gotong Royong Vaccine program which is intended for industry and trade employees as many as 100,000 targets (with subsidized prices) as well as 20,000 targets for SMEs and cooperatives (free of charge).

The purpose of this program is to facilitate business actors in DIY so that they can reach the Covid-19 vaccination, both in terms of price affordability and access, in order to create safe conditions for producing or providing services. Until now, the total number of business actors who were successfully vaccinated through the DIY Gotong Royong Vaccine program was 45,201 people. Through this effort, it is hoped that the Indonesian economy will be helped to immediately move towards positive growth.

The third speaker at this seminar is a millennial who has a start-up background. As the CEO and Co-Founder of LingoTalk, Andre Benito tells about the actions of his startup business during the Covid-19 pandemic. LingoTalk itself is a technology-supported language learning educational platform (edtech), which was only established in 2020. Although established right in the middle of the pandemic, LingoTalk continues to play an active role in participating in various business acceleration programs held by the Indonesian government such as StartupStudioID by Kominfo and BEKUP by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy as well as international programs such as Alibaba Cloud and Block71 SE Asia Booster Accelerator Program.

Not just participating, Andre Benito also succeeded in bringing LingoTalk to achieve the top rank in the various business acceleration programs they participated in. Through participation in these business acceleration programs, the LingoTalk startup also contributes and plays a role in supporting the national economic recovery. In the long term, LingoTalk is committed to exist to empower and invest in people in order to bridge the skill gap and help develop the potential of human capital in Indonesia.

Reportage: Kirana Lalita Pristy/Sony Budiarso.