If you follow me on social media, you know I was at the Hispanicize conference in Miami in early April. You'd also know that Miami was a blast! I'm still recovering, actually. Let me tell you a little bit about how I came to be involved with the conference and the many fun things I did while in Miami.
I was first invited to the conference by a business colleague last year. From what I was told, it was the premiere event for Latino professionals in media. I didnât know what to expect, but when I showed up, I was very impressed. I had been to many conferences in the past, heck, I had even helped put together a conference myself, but the level of production quality and sessions were unlike any I had ever seen. I was so impressed, in fact, that I knew I wanted to be part of the conference in some way. So I introduced myself to Manny Ruiz, the mastermind behind the conference and I told him that I would like to be part of the conference this year.
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After I left the conference in Miami, I started getting lots of calls from agencies and brands that wanted to work with me (a great reason for content creators to attend Hispanicize). One of those calls was from Dime Media, who is headed by Mannyâs wife, Angela. Throughout the year, I did a few campaigns with them for different clients.
What I liked about working with "Dime" was not only their level of professionalism, but the fact that their campaigns aligned very nicely with the things my channel is all about. More on that later.
A few months passed and then I got a surprise call from Manny. I say surprise because not only did he remember who I was, but was inviting me to be part of the conference as an Advisory Board member. He told me, âEddie, I seriously donât know why my wife and all the girls at Dime love you, but if youâre OK with them, youâre OK with me.â As I later learned, this Manny's way of delivering a compliment. LOL!
Manny told me that as an Advisory Board member, I would be lending my expertise, helping with key decisions, and helping set the overall tone for the conference along with the rest of the Board.
Seeing how many bloggers were starting to venture into video the previous year, one of my first suggestions was to have a session on how they could take their videos to the next level, which was met with a resounding âHeck yeah!" from Manny. A few weeks later, Manny told me that Dime and Hispanicize would be merging and they would be dedicating an entire day to social media influencers at (which came to be known as the Dime Summit) at Hispanicize. This was great because it meant that I got to work with Piera Jolly at Dime Media again. After a few calls, Piera and I came up with what became the outline for âHow To Make Videos Like A Bossâ, which I taught to a packed room of over 50 social media influencers and creators on the first day of Hispanicize.
Teaching the course was such a rewarding experience. I shared my tips and tricks for making videos and had a great time meeting content creators from all over the United States and Latin America (which is another great reason for content creators to attend).Â
 Prior to the conference, the ladies at Dime told me about an opportunity to partner with Toyota and meet with Pat Pineda, a Group Vice President at Toyota for which they thought I would be a perfect fit. Â
 I was invited to Toyota Corollaâs 50th Anniversary party in Key Biscayne.  We had some great food, ate a cake that was shaped like a Corolla, and I even won an iPad Mini! The highlight of the day though, was getting to interview the highest ranking Latina at Toyota, Pat Pineda.Â
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I love partnering with brands that spread positivity and empower our Latino community. Thanks Hispanicize and Dime Media for making the introduction and setting up this partnership. If you want to see posts from the event on social media, search for the hashtags #Corolla50 and #VayamosJuntos!Â
