Positive Buzz from Local Latinos

The Seattle Latino/a Networking Professionals, a group founded by Junior Torres, celebrated a meetup last night that was abuzz with positive stories and achievements:

• Violeta Alano and Teresa Jones from Univision local affiliate KUNS were there. Their team has put together an incredible Latino Business Awards program with American Family Insurance--stay tuned for more info on that.
• Oscar Flores talked to me about ESPN Deportes radio, and how the new-ish 24/7 sports en español will be moving to the FM dial this summer!
• I chatted with a guy named Roger who is originally from Mexico City and now lives here. In the last year he's been pretty busy building a business from scratch--a commercial cleaning business that is now across the country and employs 300 people! Kudos to Roger and his entrepreneurialism.
• Laura, a current student, talked with me about the National Society of Hispanic MBAs scholarship opportunities. (More on that later.)
• And many more professionals were there, meeting new people and sharing their stories.

The bar at the new Olive 8 Hotel hosted the event for this month's meetup, and concocted two special sangrias for the group which were fantastic. Unique for a hotel bar--unusually open and public-feeling, with lots of glass. Terrific-looking foods (which I passed on but others enjoyed).

RECENT LOCAL RESEARCH
The positive buzz echoed what we'd learned in an online survey of Latino professionals earlier this year, when participants were asked how they feel during the present economic crisis in relation to various aspects of their lives. As it turns out, shopping behaviors have taken a hit, but otherwise Hispanics are fairing well comparatively.

• In regards to work, 41% reported feeling better than average or great, 43% feel average, and 17% feel worse than average.
• In terms of their social life, 52% feel better than average or great, 40% reported feeling average, and only 8% feel worse than average.
• When it comes to shopping, responses showed that 22% of participants are feeling a positive effect, 37% are not feeling any change whatsoever, but the majority, 40%, are feeling negatively affected.
• When asked how the economic crisis is affecting their ability to send money home to their families, the majority (62%) have not felt a change, 11% feel better than average, and 27% are feeling negatively affected.

And speaking of local Hispanic media...

The latest NEWSFLASH is that Teresa Jones of KUNS sales fame is expanding into radio! She'll start her new radio show, Entre Nosotras Latinas, on Saturday, March 7. This just so happens to be International Women's Day (not a coincidence)!

Teresa is doing this program to educate, inform and inspire women.

The show will run on Ke Buena 1210AM 9-10am every Saturday, and Teresa's bringing in a former colleague from her Radio Sol days, Diana Elizabeth Fernandez, to spice things up!

Once it gets going, let us know what you think!

Univision Upfronts

Last Thursday evening I enjoyed the Univision Upfronts at Fisher Plaza, with our hosts the KUNS sales team: Rich Roberge, Violeta Alano, Teresa Jones and Harold Avelar. It was a lovely event and great people there, but I think it may have been overshadowed by last year's grand Launch Party.

Turns out, I was in Spain at the time, right after the network affiliate launched here in Seattle, and just before its weeknight newscast went local. Apparently I missed THE party--big crowd, dancing, a real party. This time it was much more subdued, say those who attended both. We heard from a band I think was called New Age Flamenco, a guitar-strumming duo that were really terrific (especially enjoyed Hotel California). What was a little surprising was the music between sets was....(drumroll)...Gypsy Kings! Yes, the band from France. A decades-old recording. ¿Cómo? We have sooo much wonderful talent (and/or Grammy winners and/or club favorites) on the Latin music scene; I wondered why none of those were selected.

But all in all the event was wonderful; I met some new folks, a nice mix, whom I will be contacting (some have already followed up with me -- ¡gracias!). Saw many familiar faces, too; people who have been around and continue to be an integral part of this community. Newscaster Jaime Mendez wasn't there (bad back), but it was great seeing the sales team out of their regular environment and they are some cool people. Everyone was introduced to the Fisher executives, and to the coming seasonal programming on 51 over-the-air (for me, stuck with Millenium-turned-Broadstripe Cable, KUNS airs on Channel 16). In the national portion of the video we saw, they tried to tell us that novelas weren't just soap operas, they were adventure! Love! Exotic places!

Guess I'll have to tune in to more than Jaime's newscast.