Miami is the United States' undisputed Hispanic headquarters. You can't find more Latin flavor without actually setting foot in the other America. So it makes perfect sense that the five-day Hispanicize conference would make landfall in our fair city.
This Latinpalooza, a SXSW-style event of sorts, consists of everything from nonprofit marketing and Facebook workshops for journalists to red-carpet movie screenings and live concerts. Basically, it's the annual hub for all things film, music, marketing, interactive, and, duh, Hispanic.
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The massive conference, kicking off at Miami Beach's Eden Roc, covers a wide range of topics, genres, and career paths -- and big names, to boot. Attendees and session leaders will include Carlos Ponce, Rita Moreno, Charo, Soledad O'Brien, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Vivica A. Fox.
"Hispanicize 2013 is the only event that brings brands, media, marketers, celebrities, filmmakers, innovators, and bloggers together in a unique creative environment focused on ideas and best practices. The event is a launch pad for creative endeavors, new products, technologies, marketing campaigns, films, books, and more targeting Latinos," says Manny Ruiz, the creative director and founder of Hispanicize.
New this year is a full Latin music showcase, featuring artists such as Puerto Rican pop-rock duo Domino Saints and ten other indie artists, DJs, and bands that include Hola Hi, Solz5, Sonsoles, Locos por Juana, DJ EL Dusty, La Santa Cecilia, Sons of Mariel (Diego Val), Sito Rocks, Wise the Gold Pen, and Santaye.
"Another major change is the 2013 program will now incorporate sessions which will address the professional development needs of Hispanic journalists, a key audience of the event," Ruiz says.
There'll be a whopping 150 sessions in total. Wanna know more about tax incentives and film commissions? Blogging about automobiles? Latino shopping behavior? There's even a Gringo Latinos class, covering how Hispanic culture and flavors are transforming American lifestyles.
There'll also be a McDonald's blogger/journalist yacht party, a red-carpet screening of Lou Diamond Phillips' Filly Brown, a class by Detective Gomez on creating a successful reality TV show, and so on.
"With the growth of digital and social media all of these industries are converging, colliding, and collaborating in new and exciting ways that are transforming all of them. The digital link is one of the biggest concepts attributed to the event, and the other things that hold all this great content and speakers together is the fact that all of these industries are content-creators and all are culturally connected by being for or about the U.S. Hispanic experience," Ruiz adds.
Hispanicize in all of its interactive glory runs from Tuesday, April 9, through Saturday, April 13, and you can score tickets online. General admission is $695. Discounts for journalists and some other groups are available.
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