Last November 22, 2008, sophomore De La Salle University (DLSU) Computer Science students majoring in Software Technology became witnesses of just how “groovy” Java can be. This event, organized by Mike Mallete, President of the Philippine Groovy Users Group (PGUG) in cooperation with the La Salle Computer Society (LSCS), sought to introduce and promote Groovy as a dynamic language in developing applications.

Groovy on Grails is a Java-based, high-productivity framework for web-based applications. The event featured several topics focusing on Groovy and Grails. Speaker Mike Mallete discussed topics such as the evolution of programming languages, dynamic languages, and the relation of Java to Groovy in terms of their similarities in order to introduce Groovy. On the other hand, the speaker touched on frameworks and MVC patters in order to acquaint the audience with Grails. A demonstration on how to create a Grails application was also provided by the speaker. This greatly impressed the attendees as they were amazed at the possibilities of developing and application with the speed of thought through the use of Groovy.

Immediately after the Groovy demonstration, Orange and Bronze CEO Calen Legaspi talked about O&B's internship program. With the talk sparking interests in the students, forty-one of the attendees took the programming aptitude test right after the talk and submitted their application for internship. This was indeed a successful endeavor towards O&B's aim of gathering the best software engineers in the country.

Mike Mallete has worn quite a number of hats throughout his tenure in the IT industry including marketing, systems integration, systems migration, product development, technical training, and software development. He currently works as a senior developer for EB2 International, a software company in the field of aviation, in which he is the only Filipino member among the core group of developers for the company. He has recently founded “Noisyheads”, a startup geared towards online music trade space. He is using Groovy and Grails in this endeavor.