10 People that Enhanced my #SXSW Experience

During the 5 days of the #SXSW interactive conference I was able to connect with people in various ways.

• I met new people.
• I met people I had interacted with online and was able to shake their hand.
• I was able to know people who I had met before in person in a different environment and was able to understand them a bit more.

Overall these 10 individuals who I have chosen made my experience a more unique one. I interacted with many people during SXSW but these 10 stood out.

Sandra Ordonez @collaboracion was the person behind my idea of creating Veglatino.com. I have many things in common with her and she is a great communicator (including being latino and vegetarian). Sandra’s great personality has connected her with talented people out of my network which I had the privilege to meet thanks to her.  During the few days I shared time with Sandra I realized that she is very selfless and very focused on her objectives. Thanks to Sandra I was able to spend time with awesome people that have similar interests to mine. Sandra is one of the best writers I have seen online so feel free to read some her posts on Veglatino.com.

Joselin Mane @joselinmane is a natural connector. I met him last year at the Inbound Marketing Summit when he introduced himself via twitter.  He genuinely engages with people and is doing a lot of great things in the Boston areas like the Boston Tweet Up. I have to thank  Joselin since he introduced me to the largest amount of heavy influencers  in the shortest amount of time. Also Joselin fashion sense gives others hope towards bieng well dress at a technology conference. Take a look at Joselin’s Boston Tweetup efforts or feel free to follow him on twitter @joselinmane.

Special Thanks to my Twitter Friend & Photographer @JennieB

I met Manny Ruiz @papiblogger thanks to @louispagan and @franklogic. I was impressed by his vast experience in areas I am very interested in learning more. The interactions I had with @papiblogger helped me see how he is willing to share his insight to help me and others. He is a great connector and is working on great things which I want to support. Make sure you take a look at his Hispanicize Conference and if you are in LA or planning to visit sign up for it. .

Hector Ramos @hectorramos is a very talented IOS developer with the same commitment I have to making sure we get our point of view across. Something I see with Hector is that we might have a very different perspective but that helps me see things that are usually out of sight for me. I was able to get great feedback on some of my efforts from Hector and I appreciate the time he took in analyzing and supporting them. Hector is about to launch a new re-designed blog at his hectorramos.com and I can wait till I see more of his ideas published online.

Pablo Lopez @onedgepr is a the creative mind behind the Vaya Broqui Parranda App. For those of you who are not familiar with a parranda feel free to read my post on the Assaults & Longest Holiday Season. Pablo lived in Austin previously so he was very hospitable and showed me around the Gowalla offices and took me to another Start-up to meet some of his contacts. Take a look at Pablo’s Vaya Broqui apps and buy one or two.

Louis Pagan @louispagan is one of the founders of #latism. Last year I was going to meet Louis in New York but was not able to make it. I have been chatting with him on twitter for a good amount of time and he does share the same love of Coffee as I do although for some reason he is a big Bustelo fan. I will keep working on helping Louis find other coffee brands and really appreciate the time he took to connect me with other people attending SXSW. Make a Visit to his blog at louispagan.com and take a look at his thoughts.

Joe Kutchera @joekutchera is the Author of Latino Link: Building Brands Online with Hispanic Communities and Content (amazon affiliate link). I have interacted with him online. He has demonstrated to be a great connector and listener thanks to him I was able to meet Ana Grace from Best Buy and his session allowed me to connect with various individuals which I have already exchanged emails with and have been reading their published content. Feel free to grab a copy of his book Latino Link.

Kety Esquivel @ketye is a pioneer for Latinos and Latinas in the SXSW circuit. Thanks to Louis Pagan and Manny Ruiz I was able to have dinner and share experiences and thoughts with  Kety who is brilliant. At her panel I saw how selfless she is since she took the opportunity to put the spotlight on the other Latina Bloggers including my friend @fitarella. Kety is an example to follow and really showed me how she paid it forward with the interactions I had with her. I look forwards to keeping in contact with Kety.

Pablo Tirado is a very innate connector and with very genuine selling skills. His authenticity makes him a great communicator. He ended up being an excellent Austin Tour Guide during the Start Up Crawl. Pablo has a great app about to be launched which can help you with your travel expenses by capturing images of your receipts from your iphone. Visit his corporate website mlstudiopr.com and learn about more of his projects.

I met Rebecca Davis @makegood last year at @chirp she sat next to me and then later on we stayed in touch. Being able to talk with Rebecca she helped me understand that not having a clear picture of everything can be a great opportunity for many things. It makes you work harder on focusing on what you really want. I really enjoy Rebecca’s energy and her perspective on life. I look forward to meeting up with her once again in the near future.

What people have enhanced your experience at an event or any day of the week?