Alexandra (Alex) Villoch is East Region Publisher for McClatchy, a national news media company. She oversees operations at the Miami Herald Media Company – which includes the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald newspapers – as well as the Bradenton Herald in Florida; The (Macon) Telegraph and the (Columbus) Ledger-Enquirer in Georgia; the (Biloxi) SunHerald in Mississippi; the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky; and the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania.
Villoch previously served as President and Publisher of the Miami Herald Media Company since March 2014.
Villoch is a past-Chair of The Beacon Council; Chair Emeritus of the One Community, One Goal Initiative of The Beacon Council; and on the Executive Committee of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. She is also on the Executive Committee of the United Way of Miami Dade and is serving as Co-Chair of the Annual Campaign.
She holds a B.A. in Political Science and an MBA from the University of Miami, and resides with her husband in the city of Coral Gables.

Amy West is the creator of AmyWestTravel.com an upscale travel and lifestyle brand covering food, fashion, and family travel. Her travel and lifestyle contributions can also be found on 10Best.com, The Chat tv show, River City Live tv show, and Wander Jacksonville. Amy’s opinions on style, taste, travel and luxury experiences has been sought out by many brands including The Huffington Post and AdmireMoms just to mention a few. Named one of the “Top Luxury Travel Bloggers to Follow”, you never know what adventure she’ll dive into next. Amy resides in Jacksonville Beach along with her husband and two daughters.

Ana Tomicevic, originally from Croatia and raised in Venezuela, is a goal oriented leader with over 10 years of experience in the hospitality industry. She has been with Marriott International since 2002 in many different roles within the Sales & Marketing discipline. In 2014 she gave a huge step in her career and moved from Caracas, Venezuela to South Florida to become part of Marriott’s Regional Team for the Caribbean and Latin America Market. She went from managing the three Hotels in Venezuela, to being responsible for over 200 Hotels in the Region after the Starwood acquisition. She leads the Brand Marketing & Partnerships efforts in the Caribbean and Latin America on behalf of Marriott International.

Andres Polo is Vice President of Digital Marketing for Visa Inc., Latin America and the Caribbean Region.

In his current role, he is responsible for driving the evolution of global consumer digital, social media and mobile strategies. During his 15 years of experience working for Visa, he has held several positions, starting as Web Content Manager and Digital Marketing Business Leader of Digital Marketing, focusing his team’s efforts on delivering best in class digital, social, local and mobile marketing solutions.

Andres Polo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Florida International University. In 2006, Andres was awarded with the Visa Innovation Idea of the Year and holds a US patent for his work on the Digital Concierge Application.

Arno Trabesinger is the managing director of FC Barcelona in the Americas. In his role, Arno oversees the FC Barcelona brand in Canada, the U.S. and Latin America, working in these markets to support existing partners on mutually-beneficial initiatives, cultivating new partnerships with key relevant brands, engaging the tens-of-millions of Barca fans living here – and importantly, establishing the FC Barcelona Foundation to give back to children in need across the Americas to fulfill its “mes que un club” or “more than a club” values and commitment.

FC Barcelona officially opened its Americas office in New York City in September 2016. The club is currently working with major leagues, teams and brands to continue building FC Barcelona’s presence worldwide, including with existing global sponsors Nike, Gillette/Procter & Gamble, Gatorade/PepsiCo, Audi, among others.

Previously, Arno was the Founder and Managing Director of Weirather-Wenzel & Partner S.L. in Spain where he was responsible for strategic planning, budgeting and implementing of all company’s business projects, and managing a staff of 20. Arno was also in charge of continuous acquisition of new clients and projects, including 15 tier 1 clients such as Real Madrid CF, FC Barcelona, UEFA, Dorna, Red Bull, Audi, BMW.

Arno lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Benji has helped to craft the social media strategies of top brands such as One&Only, The Peninsula Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, and Intercontinental to create a measurable impact across various social channels. In addition to guiding top hospitality brands execute social media strategies, Benji has been a guest speaker at many hospitality industry events and Guest Blogger for Hotels Magazine.

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I currently hold the position of Head of Latin America Digital Center in 3M developing digital, eMarketing and eCommerce strategies.

With over 15 years experience in management and digital marketing consulting and negociation, I created the Latin America eHub team in 3M and served as Continental eMarketing Manager in Grupo Mabe and Digital manager in TV Azteca.

Carmen Edelson is a full-time luxury travel influencer who specializes in writing about luxury and family travel. Her website, CarmensLuxuryTraavel.com was launched in 2013 and is a fast-growing Florida based blog that has a loyal community of readers who return each week to share her travel content with fellow travelers around the world. Her main goal is to provide her dedicated readers with quality travel content, which will entertain, inspire, and guide them towards a life of luxury travel.

With an extensive media background covering Mexico & Latin America, Debbie Rubinstein has over 20 years of experience working with local, regional and global clients.

Additional to her Media Agency expertise, she has also worked for Grupo Bimbo handling the Americas Media Review Process in 2015.

Previous to her role as Global Lead for Grupo Bimbo, Debbie worked for Havas Media were she successfully managed the Monterrey office, third largest one for the group in Mexico. During her time there, she led the team to win 5 new accounts and 4 prizes (3 Effies / 1 FOMLA)
Also, partnering with top digital vendors, they developed the first Digital Summit directed to the Northeast region of the country. The event, had over 220 attendees (Clients, Prospects & Vendors).

From 2007 till 2009, Debbie moved to NYC to be the lead relationship between MEC and the Colgate Latam team based there.
Her main goal was to develop strategic guidelines with a unified criteria for the whole region and periodic data to clients.

She has also worked for FCB, Y&R and Grey and even partnered with 3 other people to open her own advertising agency.

She earned a bachelor of communication in Mexico city and was lucky enough to participate in a Marketing and communication course in CEDEP, France.

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Diahann Albarrán Smith, a consumer marketing professional with more than 20 years’ experience. Diahann has local, regional and international marketing experience. She began her career at the Orlando Sentinel where she helped launch the Spanish-language El Sentinel and committed to working with the Central Florida Hispanic community where she is an active volunteer. Florida Dairy Farmers recruited Diahann to grow its Hispanic marketing outreach in Florida. She also worked with sister organization the U.S Dairy Export Council, to help market U.S. dairy in the Caribbean. In her current position as Director of Marketing and Partnership Development for Florida Dairy Farmers, she develops and executes marketing plans to promote Florida dairy farmers and the health benefits of dairy. She recently completed an executive MBA at Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business.

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Edgardo Carias is a marketing professional with over 17 years of experience in the alcohol beverage industry. He has worked at all levels of the industry from local promotions to national brand management. He has extensive experience working with multicultural consumers as well as total market. Mr. Carias has also led the sports marketing efforts for Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, el Jimador Tequila and several other nationally distributed brands. He is experienced in sports partnerships from a local level to national league agreements, having worked with soccer, hockey, baseball and basketball teams and leagues.

Co-Founder and CEO at Futbol Sites, top digital sports media group in Latin America, with one of the largest audience in its category, reaching more than 25 million unique users every month. Federico began his career in Buenos Aires, Argentina and led the opening of new markets for Futbol Sites, such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and US. Since 2014 he oversees the global strategy of the company from their offices in Miami, Florida.Federico Grinberg

As Digital Director, Felipe is responsible for MediaBrands’ Miami digital product, from Strategy, plan development and the execution of integrated digital programs and campaigns across multiple digital platforms, to deliver measurable results.
Feilpe generates new solutions for the attainment of IPG Mediabrands clients’ digital marketing objectives while developing processes for using digital media analytics to refine strategy and maximize the ROI of marketing communications.
Felipe has extensive experience in the Credit Card industry, working for MasterCard for the last 5 years, developing successful media strategies for the LATAM region . Additionally, he has worked with brands such as Microsoft, LATAM Airlines, Coca-Cola (Caribbean), Sony Pictures (theatrical), Sears and Verizon, among others, in the LATAM and North American markets.
Prior to joining IPG Mediabrands in 2010, he worked at Havas Media Contacts, where he built their paid search department for the Chilean market, and advised in digital media as well.

An Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, Fernando Fiore co-hosts and contributes to the network’s expanding portfolio of elite, world-class soccer events, including the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Fiore, who had previously spent his distinguished career working exclusively on Spanish-language television, made his English-language debut with FOX Sports in 2016 during Copa America Centenario. His illustrious career spans more than 26 years, during which he has won two Emmy Awards.

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Gary Milner is currently driving digital marketing strategy at Lenovo, with a key focus on optimizing and improving the execution of digital media buying globally. He is an experienced all-around digital executive with over seven years of digital experience, including set-up of the Lenovo ecommerce marketing capabilities, and, more recently, digital brand marketing activities. Activities have spanned from branding to ecommerce: digital media buy platforms (RTB for video and social)), SEO, SEM, affiliate marketing, TV buying digitally (Google TV ads), display advertising, and measurement systems on both the media and site sides. Milner is an experienced conference speaker and panelist, spanning iMedia, OMMA, CMO, and keynoted programmatic conferences last year as far flung as India, Australia and China.

∙ Longer-term experience for Milner ranges from corporate business intelligence, dealer management, U.K. direct-marketing management, international product concept feasibility analysis, brand management for ThinkPad in Europe, global launch marketing for ThinkPad, and global digital marketing for Lenovo. During his free time he loves concerts, plays, and watches soccer and golf, and enjoys reading as well as a good movie

Responsible for the strategy development and implementation of all major business functions in North America including: brand marketing, online advertising, social media outreach, advertiser sales and account management, and product localization.

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Jorge Rocha es egresado de Marketing de la UNIVA y cuenta con dos especialidades; una en Music Business de MI (Hollywood) y otra en Marketing Digital de USD (San Diego) aparte de contar con la certificacion de la Mobile Marketing Association. Ha crecido en la industria de la musica, misma que lo arrojo en el mundo de las agencias de publicidad a manera de un happy accident. Los ultimos 8 anos ha colaborado en los 2 grupos Franceses de agencias de publicidad mas grandes del mundo; donde ha tenido la oportunidad de aportar a marcas como NIKE, BMW, P&G, Coca-Cola, LEGO, Mead Johnson y Brown-Forman tanto a nivel Mexico como Latino-America, desarrollando gestion, estrategia, y producto en materia de marketing digital y mobile solutions.
Como proyectos personales ha colaborado como blogger y luego de haber lanzado un LP de musica electronica en 2013 a travez de los principales canales de distribucion digital, Jorge actualmente esta creando en su 2do LP el cual trabaja bajo el esquema de ZERO Macs; y maquilando “a la antiguita” con una serie de hardware (Sintetizadores, Grooveboxes y Samplers) conectados via el protocolo MIDI.

Lourdes is responsible for the programmatic strategy in the Latin American and US Hispanics markets. She is based in Adsmovil offices in Miami.

She is working directly with advertisers, agencies and trading desks to create the best audience tactics and optimize their mobile programmatic campaigns; as well as facilitate the use of technical platforms.

Through the development of technological offerings and market penetration strategies, Lourdes has increased performance and maximized the results of advertisers in the region.

She has more than 9 years of experience in the digital advertising industry.

Lourdes is from Spain and resident in Miami since 2008. She has a degree in Advertising and PR by Jaume I University. Her passion for traveling and learning led her to study in other countries such as England, Italy and the United States to complete her post-graduate studies.

“The use of technology and data in order to reach the right user is the essence of TODAY’s advertising, not the future”

Since 2014, Luis Perillo is VP, Sales & Marketing, Caribbean and Latin America – Hilton. With over 25 years in hospitality, he is responsible for driving the sales and marketing strategy at managed hotels in the region. Perillo joined Hilton in 1995 as Director of Sales and Marketing, and since then has served in regional sales and marketing leadership positions, as well as operations roles including Resident Manager, Hilton São Paulo Morumbi; General Manager at a former Hilton in Venezuela; and most recently General Manager, Hilton Bogota. Perillo holds a BS in Hospitality Management from Florida International University and is fluent in Spanish, English, Portuguese and Italian.

Lynda Fernandez is senior vice president of public relations and international at the 46,000-member MIAMI Association of Realtors (MIAMI), which includes more than 45,000 members in their Residential Association and 1,700 members in their Realtors® Commercial Alliance. She has more than 15 years of experience in public relations and international business development. MIAMI, the largest local Realtor association in the nation, is celebrating 97 years of service to the industry, the public and the community.

Lynda handles international business development, global media relations and research for MIAMI. Activity for MIAMI’s International Council includes more than 160 worldwide partner associations; participation in global conferences, expos, and events; and the award-winning Miami International Real Estate Congress and Expo.

She received the 2005 Public Relations Award from the former Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches and the 2011 Market Influence Award from the MIAMI Association of Realtors. She is a Certified Association Executive (CAE), Realtor Association Certified Executive (RCE) and a Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS).

Prior to MIAMI, Fernandez worked in public relations for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida, and a Master of Accounting from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Manuel Delgado is a Public Relations professional at trivago, an inbound hotel search
engine with 80 million monthly users. He is responsible in doing Spanish Communication in the U.S. by creating and distributing editorial content to the Hispanic Media and DMOs. Previously, Manuel worked as a communications and marketing manager in the pharmaceutical sector for seven years. When he isn´t glued to the computer focusing in creative writing, he enjoys doing what does the best: traveling.

Effectively manage the challenges of a global and pan regional account with an extensive experience in centralized strategy, media planning, and buying operations across multiple markets, a thorough knowledge of traditional and online media. Accomplished strong results generating value and creative success for leading international blue chip client brands across Latin American markets.

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Mariana Vázquez del Mercado has + 12 years of experience in communications mainly focused on the Digital Area integrating it with the traditional channels in the creation of successful brands.

She started working at GERBER Mexico and later became part of the Nestlé Group within the Infant Nutrition Business in which she developed the first Digital Marketing Strategy including Web, RR.SS, Mobile App and CRM programs allowing the business to have direct communication and open conversations with Moms and Healthcare Professionals. Mariana also implemented several digital projects being part of the Global and LATAM teams (Swiss & Chile) in the Nestlé Group.

With over 20 years of direct experience in the hospitality industry, Dr. Mike Hampton was appointed Dean of the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University in January 2011. He has served as a professional speaker, trainer and educator. He founded HSA International, a global training and education management organization specializing in the hospitality industry in 1986 – a company that has been acknowledged as one of the leading resources for performance improvement globally. Through his experience and educational pursuits he has become recognized as an expert in human resources development, strategic planning and sales development.
Dr. Hampton holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in business management from Florida State University; a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in hospitality management, and an Educational Doctorate (Ed.D.) degree in adult education and human resources development from Florida International University. He has also received the special designation of Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE) as granted by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA).
Dr. Hampton has been active in industry associations, including the American Resort Development Association (ARDA); the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD); the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART), where he has served as president and a member of the association’s Board of Directors; the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA); the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA); and, the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). He has also been involved in the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and the American Statistical Association (ASA).
His speaking engagements have included presentations on current hospitality marketing and management issues for a wide range of prestigious hospitality organizations, including the Singapore Tourist Board, the Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Tourism, the National Restaurant Association, Preferred Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Leading Hotels of the World, Chung-Ang University (Korea), and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). He has conducted training workshops for a multitude of hotels, management companies and brands worldwide.
He lives in Plantation, located in the West Fort Lauderdale area of South Florida, with his wife and two children. He has a passion for coffee, enjoys the mountains, and is a major fan of cycling.

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Montserrat was born in Mexico City and hold a B.A. Degree from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Business Administration, with a Marketing Specialization. With 15 years of experience in marketing and strategic alliances, she have had also several positions like strategic planning, business intelligence, advertising, public relations, promotions, sponsorships, digital marketing for local and international markets. She joined the company 2010.
As Senior Marketing Manager, Montserrat is responsible of the upgrades between vacation property products, leading marketing campaigns and customer experience. Mother of two baby girls, she speaks Spanish, English, German and some French. She likes to travel and spend time with her family.

With 16 years of experience in the Airline Industry, Pablo is a knowledgeable and energetic Business Executive with a superb performance record. He drives revenue by designing and implementing innovative sales and marketing strategies for international markets. His expertise is consistently proven through his ability to manage large, diverse teams in changing business conditions all while ensuring growth. Entrusted with key positions throughout LATAM Airlines Group’s development, he has consistently delivered results with undeniable success in the growth of the Company throughout South America and worldwide.

Patricio Rubalcaba holds the position of Vice President of Merchant Development LAC- Retail, Travel & Digital Verticals for Mastercard since October of 2015. In this role, he is responsible for the overall strategy and business development for this practice. Previously he has held global and regional roles at Mastercard, developing Strategic Partnerships in the merchant space.

Before joining Mastercard, Rubalcaba was the Head of the International Destination Business area for American Express. Rubalcaba also held a position at LATAM Airlines, where he was in charge of the Leisure segment for North America. His earlier responsibilities include working for the Mexican government, and at Deloitte & Touche, where he held a management consulting role.
Rubalcaba has a Business Bachelor’s degree from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and holds an MBA from the University of Miami. He is a member of the Panel of Experts for the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s “Tourism Barometer”. He is fluent in English and Spanish, and currently lives in Miami, were he is an avid golfer.

Paulo has worked in the industry for 19 years, he leads Trading for Mindshare Latin America since 2014, he started in the agency in 2011 as VP of Client Services Latin America and leading the Miami Panregional office.

His career includes 4 years working as Managing Director of ZenithOptimedia Colombia and Central America, offices he launched in 2007. Between 2000 and 2007 he worked in initiative, his last role there was Client Services Director. Paulo’s trajectory began in 1998 working for SSA Bates. Paulo has an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and he has a BA in Marketing.

Paulo is focused to numbers and performance, his Trading role is aimed at ensuring Marketing’s Budget allocation, Negotiations with partners, Digital and Media mix are coherent with Marketing Plan and optimized to maximize ROI.

His experience includes working with clients such as Unilever, Nestle, Ford, KC, Boehringer, Clorox, GlaxoSmithKline, KIA, Hewlett Packard, Diageo and other multinational companies well known for their Marketing and financial orientation.

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Rafael De Azua is an experienced marketing and strategy leader with Global CPG and Consulting experience. He currently leads Media and Digital in the Latin America Region for Coty’s Luxury, Consumer Beauty, and Professional Divisions. He is based in Miami and reports to Alison Keith, Global VP of Media in London.
Previously, Rafael held various Brand Management positions over 6 years in Procter & Gamble (P&G). He managed the Gucci, Lacoste, James Bond, Christina Aguilera, and Gabriela Sabatini brands in 23 Latin American countries and the Travel Retail Channel in North and South America. He also led all media for P&G Prestige Fragrance Portfolio in Latin America, including Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Hugo Boss and Lacoste. In his prior roles in P&G, Rafael launched Oral-B toothpaste (Crest in the US) in Latin America, Europe, India and Australia; where he developed holistic marketing campaigns for the Pro Health, 3D White, and Complete brand lines. Prior to joining P&G, Rafael was a strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington DC. He also served as a Naval Officer and deployed twice to the Arabian Gulf. He holds MBAs from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and Queens University in Ontario, Canada; and received his bachelors from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Rafael is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

He is part of Grupo Bimbo since October 2011.
In 1991 he joined the Universidad de México, and in 2002 he got his Master in Marketing and Advertising from Universidad Anahuac. Last year he studied a Master in Internet Business at ISDI Institute and Harvard University.

Since October 2011 he occupied the position of Director of Marketing Communications as responsible for the Digital Strategy for Grupo Bimbo, develop the strategy and implementation of Institutional Communication through local brands in different countries. To establish guidelines for the right brand use in different regions, negotiation and investment evaluation of regional strategic media.

He is responsible for IMC strategy, institutional communication of local brands at international levels, global management of advertising, media, digital and design agencies, as well as global brand and image health.
Also, worked for media agencies, where he has overseen brand health and brand reputation.
Ricardo will be speaking about the strategies that have allowed Grupo Bimbo to transform its local brands into well-known and cherished global brands, and how they are facing the “bimbo” situation in the United States.

In 2014, FC Bayern Munich appointed Rudolf Vidal Managing Director of the United States, driving and overseeing the legendary German soccer team’s operations in North America. The team became the very first European soccer club to open an office in the U.S. dedicated to raising awareness of FC Bayern, growing the fan base and forming mutually beneficial partnerships. In 2016, Vidal became President of the Americas as the club expands operations to Central and South America.

Prior to joining FC Bayern, Vidal served as Vice President of Business Development and Monetization for Deutsche Telekom AG.

Previously, he managed sports marketing initiatives for PUMA, where he oversaw the company’s 2006 World Cup campaign.

Earlier in his career, Vidal practiced economic law and founded a consulting firm providing services to sports-specific clients.

Sean Flynn brings more than 25 years of experience in professional sports to the Miami FC. Having previously served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Event Booking with the Miami Marlins and Vice President of Marketing with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Flynn led award-winning advertising and promotional efforts that have been replicated throughout the industry. He returns to soccer, a sport where he started his career as the Director of Marketing and Sales for the United Soccer League. Flynn will implement the Club’s long-term vision of inspiring the community’s soccer passion through excellence on the field and in the community. Focusing on building a fan base, enhancing the game-day experience and operations, growing corporate partnerships and maximizing civic engagement.

Born to Cuban parents and raised in Miami, Stephanie currently works at Crispin Porter + Bogusky as an Associate Media Director on the Aspen Dental business. Although starting and currently expanding her career in Miami, she spent some time in NYC working at Universal McCann and Carat on DTC and OTC brands within Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson as well as Pernod Ricard distilled spirits brands. Her 15+ year career includes experience in buying and planning across various media both nationally and within local markets. Her love of travel and exploring different cultures along with her vision to weave strategic thinking in media inspired her to pursue and complete her Master’s in Sociology/Anthropology as well.

Steve Bent is a director of research & analytics at Golin. He has 14 years of marketing experience working with high-profile consumer brand clients like Walmart, McDonald’s, Nestle and Unilever to develop data-driven media targeting plans and program evaluation approaches that identify the true value of communications efforts.
Steve’s broad experience with PR program management, event planning, strategic planning, media outreach and exposure to digital/social activation give him a unique view on the strategy side of the business that native research and analytics practitioners don’t have. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s of business administration degree in marketing.

Tab Bamford is the Managing Director of Development at La Vida Baseball. He has more than a decade of experience in content and social media, having served in various roles including content management for outlets including Bleacher Report, the Big Ten Network and Choose Chicago and social media management for a national financial institution. Bamford is the author of 100 Things Blackhawks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die and is the managing editor of an award-winning Chicago Blackhawks website. He graduated from Taylor University is also the Business Development Manager for TeamWorks Media in Chicago.

Vicente has an unrivaled record of 20+ years forming and implementing partnerships in the soccer community and helping companies connect with a multicultural audience. Prior to joining AC&M group, he launched Kelme in the US market and led the Hispanic marketing initiative for Sports Endeavors (SOCCER.COM) for six years. Now as VP of Business Development at AC&M Group, he ensures clients fully maximize their sponsorship and media presence. Vicente is originally from Alicante, Spain but currently, resides in Chapel Hill, NC.

Victor Lopez has 14 years of experience in Digital Marketing. In that time, he has worked in almost every facet of digital marketing. His experience ranges from web development, to copywrighting, SEM, performance marketing, and more. Currently he is the Head of Digital for Havas in Miami where he leads the mobile, programmatic, search, and social media teams.

Walter La Mendola is Vice President Ad Sales and Brand Solutions for Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) – Americas, responsible for the daily management of the company’s pan-regional advertising sales business.

In this position, La Mendola has been instrumental in developing advertising sales strategies and servicing the pan-regional ad sales clients for the company’s multiple brands, primarily MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Paramount Channel and VH1. Since joining the VIMN Americas sales team in 2007, La Mendola has held positions of increasing responsibility, most recently being named Vice President in 2016.

La Mendola initially joined the company in 2000 as a translator and writer for mtvla.com, later becoming Senior Digital Producer, responsible for overseeing editorial content for the MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1 websites, broadband and mobile division. Prior to joining VIMN, La Mendola was a News Producer and Writer for the Latin American Television News division of Reuters.

Based at the VIMN America’s headquarters in Miami, La Mendola is a native of Argentina and holds a Bachelor’s in Communications from Florida International University.

Wendy Kallergis works closely with various tourism and hospitality partners to continue to grow Miami as a top-tier worldwide travel destination. The GMBHA is a membership-based organization comprised of 180 hoteliers and 300 allied members across Miami-Dade County.

The association’s goal is to unify the travel, tourism and hospitality industry with business and government leaders locally, nationally, and internationally in order to enhance the visitor experience through education, advocacy and networking.

Kallergis and her team work closely with the hospitality schools’ internship and training programs to provide jobs locally for graduates. The GMBHA Sustainable Hospitality Council is spearheading best practices in sustainability to include implementing the Florida Green Lodging Program Certification. The GMBHA’s partnership with the National Immigration Forum’s New American Workforce has received national recognition by helping hospitality employees become new American citizens. Kallergis was recognized as a White House Champion of Change October 22nd, 2014 for promoting citizenship in the workplace awarded National Immigration

Forum’s New American Workforce Ambassador Award in May 2015. Kallergis was born and raised in Maine and grew up with a love for food and cooking as part of a restaurant family. After earning a B.A. in French Language from George Washington University,
she immediately set out to France. There she attended the University of Paris earning a degree in French history, language and art followed by the prestigious Cordon Bleu L’Ecole de Cuisine earning a Diplome French Cuisine. She subsequently concluded her studies at the Modern Gourmet Cooking School in Annecy, France with a Diplome Professional Chef and Diplome Professional Teacher.

Upon returning to the United States, Kallergis continued her career in the culinary arts as a Chef Garde Manger in Restaurant Nora in Washington D.C. then as Executive Chef of Finesse Fine Foods, an off-premise Catering & Prepared Foods Boutique, also in Washington D.C. that catered many events at the Smithsonian and pre-inaugural dinner for Ronald Reagan.

Yamilet Bermudez is an accomplished, results–driven marketing professional responsible for developing and executing progressive 360° marketing strategies for an array of Fortune 500 companies.
As the Media Operations Director at IPG Mediabrands Miami she manages and maintains all regional client relationships, and ensures the group delivers and performs at the highest level possible. She currently oversees pan-regional accounts like MasterCard, Sony Pictures, Alcatel, BMW, LATAM Airlines, Turkish Airlines, TOUS, among others.
Throughout her career, which spans 18 years, Yamilet has delivered strategic solutions that have included: integrated marketing, sales, strategic planning and support, traditional and digital media, market and consumer research, project management, affiliate programs, and the tracking and analysis associated with each.
Prior to her role at Mediabrands Miami, she worked at Digital Latin America (a U.S. subsidiary of Grupo Carso, America Mobil) as VP of Affiliated Services and was responsible for the growth of Clarovideo (OTT Platform). Yamilet began her career in strategic marketing and advertisement at Sony Electronics overseeing and developing their digital platform. She graduated from the University of Miami with an MBA degree in Marketing and International Business.