HISPZ 2018

For the last 9 years in the month of April the most influential Latino professionals of the nation from the digital content creation, journalism, music, marketing, film and business get together to share new ideas and learn about the industry. This year’s Hispanicize convention took place from April 17th to April 19th at the JW Marriott Marquis in Miami. This year I was able to attend the event on Wednesday, April 18th. Before getting there I had already downloaded the app on my phone before I arrived so I would be able to highlight the conferences I wanted to attend.

I started the day with going to La Musica Lounge, where Venezuelan singer, Oscar De León, was being interviewed about his new production and new things he was working on. We also saw him dance to some salsa and sing a little bit to the audience as well. That day they were giving the award of Latinovator to Puertorican singer, Olga Tañon. Rodner Figueroa, report for Al Rojo Vivo, was the one in charged to hand the award to Olga, giving a amazing speech about her career in this industry. They showed a video, portraying different important moment in her career and at the end they both sat down to talk a little bit about everything. In the Q & A conference that lasted around an hour, Olga connected with the audience and you could see the great human being she is.

After that we went ahead and attended the Meet the Top U.S. Hispanic Media, where Andy Checo was the moderator and we counted with the presence of María Morales from People en Español, Gisela Salomon from Associated Press and from SBS and La Musica, my close friend, Vladimir Gomez.  During the conference the speakers talked about how important is to know what to do and say when you are pitching yourself or your product to a company, as well as understanding the changes the Media Industry has gone through throughout the years.

We then went to attend the special screening they had about the new series Luis Miguel that started on Telemundo on April 22nd. The series that tells about the story of Luis Miguel and how his career developed counts with Luis Miguel as one of the producers. Luis Miguel was actually involved in the creating  process of the series and there is a surprise for  all Luis Miguel fans on the series. The series counts with a great cast starting with Diego Boneta that plays Luis Miguel, Camila Sodi, Juanpa Zurita, Paulina Dávila and Vanessa Bauche among others.

After the conferences were done the Positive Impact Awards took place where Colombian singer, Fonseca performed. I wasn’t able to attend the Award Show, but this awards recognize those who contribute selflessly for the betterment of their community and this year’s winners were Julio Ricardo Varela, Wendy Carrillo and Kirk Michaelis.

The whole days was an amazing experience, I loved every part of it and there is no way for anyone to get bored. There is so much to do it is a great experience for anyone that wants to learn more about being successful in the industry. While the conferences take place there is also an exhibition hall where different businesses have a booth and you can network with others. The 3 day event finished on Thursday April 19th with the TECLA Awards celebrating the achievements of top Latinx and multicultural content creators, this year’s host was La Abuela, Jenny Lo. I really exhort everyone to try to attend the convention to learn more about the industry and network with fellow bloggers, reporters, business owners, etc.

 

Moment where Olga Tañon receives her award.