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In six weeks L’ATTITUDE will host its fifth annual event in San Diego, September 22 – 25, with another world-class lineup including CEOs, entertainers and some of the biggest names in business, media, sports and politics. This year’s event will bring back the Match-Up sessions for Latino start-ups and the 50 Most Powerful Latinas Luncheon, and will add an evening concert with music superstars Juanes and Farukko, a healthcare conference and a basketball classic featuring the best Latino basketball players from around the world. Hamilton: An American Musical creator Lin Manuel Miranda and former U.S. President Barack Obama will also participate. The event, held simultaneously with the NAHREP national convention, is quickly becoming a phenomenon and a can’t-miss event for corporations, entrepreneurs and business leaders. However, when Sol Trujillo and I first envisioned L’ATTITUDE, we wanted it to be more than a cool place to see celebrities and great speakers, it had to have a purpose. Our partners Emilio Estefan and Oscar Munoz have supported this vision.
Creating a Positive Narrative for America’s New Mainstream Economy
If you know business, you know that branding matters and the Latino brand has been maligned for far too long. Some of us complain about the lack of Latino representation in echelons of power in American business and politics, but if you watch the media, you would assume that Latinos are a community rife with problems, and a drain on the U.S. economy—and who wants to work with a community full of problems? However, many of us know that the actual data shows that the opposite is true. Latinos are not a drain on our economy, in fact, we are the drivers of economic growth—and L’ATTITUDE will release no less than a half dozen economic reports proving it. Bringing the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies like Nike, Target, Nielsen, Anywhere and Radian and partnering with media giants Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal, Comcast, CNBC and NBC News provides us with the opportunity to amplify these messages and reach a large audience. Correcting the narrative about Latinos in America is step one towards achieving economic parity and a higher quality of life for our community.
Building a Marketplace where Business Deals Happen
This year Match-Up will invite over forty Latino-founded start-ups to pitch their companies to an audience of banks, investors and entrepreneurs. Millions of dollars of investment capital will be committed at and around the event. Match-Up was spawned when Sol and I recognized the embarrassingly low amount of venture capital that Latino-led start-ups attract each year and decided that L’ATTITUDE should be the platform to correct that. In addition to Match-Up, L’ATTITUDE will host an interactive expo hall and a series of roundtables with film producers, fund managers and other business sector leaders that will address a number of economic issues. As L’ATTITUDE builds a reputation as the place where business deals get done, the event will grow exponentially, and we are starting to see that now. Creating more business opportunities in tech, finance and media—and building generational wealth—is at the core of L’ATTITUDE.
When I talk to people who attended SXSW in the early days, they say they remember when the event was still small enough where you could walk right up to Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey. In a few years when L’ATTITUDE has 100,000 attendees, people will be saying the same thing. Big-time success is a factor of two things: What you know and who you know. If you’re a Latino with big plans and big ideas, L’ATTITUDE is the place to be.
Registration for L’ATTTITUDE can completed here. For NAHREP members please register here.
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