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Day Two of Latino Legacy Weekend

Passion. Storytelling. Leadership. Those are a few of the adjectives that were brought up today when the panels, guests, and speakers talked about changing the game for latino professionals in America today. And they quickly caught everyone’s attention, not only to keep us engaged in the panels today but also to help Latino Legacy Weekend pull off its second act this weekend.

Just minutes ago, we finished our second and final full day here for Latino Legacy Weekend. And as I suggested above, the event was very well executed. Similar to yesterday, the panels were exciting, engaging, and full of great and highly accomplished speakers. Unlike yesterday, though, the panels today were more panel-like, where they were more interactive and also left a more time for Q&A after the presentations, which I personally enjoyed.

In the first panel about political activism, we had a highly accomplished list of legal and political heavyweights, who chimed in on things like passion, leadership and accountability. The topic of storytelling also came up, and a Chicago Super Lawyer, Christine Martini, discussed the importance of a compelling message and telling a good story, especially for someone who may want to take on a political leadership role. In another panel, the speakers talked about the role of Latinos in society today. A current BCG consultant mentioned that it’s not enough to lead by example today, and that we all have to go beyond our comfort zones. They also talked about mobility and sharing information.

I personally liked the panel on children and youth, where we had a highly diverse panel, including a health service professional and DMD, as well as a couple of professors, including one from Stanford who discussed a 15  year test about high school graduation rates. My favorite panel, though, might have been the one on media in a panel later in the day, namely because media is one of my biggest interests, given I maintain my website and contribute to a few others. In some ways, the media panel did a good job summing up the weekend, as they gave a lot of ideas about being vocal and sharing information, learning how to mobilize a campaign, reaching out to more people, and building connections with other leaders in the community. And they talked about all of this in the context of working together as a team, using the example of becoming a “chorus of voices.”

In the end, my experiences at the conference reinforced my belief that teamwork is absolutely critical.  That a team working together can accomplish more than the sum of its parts and that to achieve our highest potential it’s critical that we leverage everyone’s diverse skills and talents to achieve common objectives.  So I’m glad that everyone’s still fired up about the great weekend. I hope that we’ll all stay in touch after the event. And after chatting with a few of my new friends, it sounds like everyone plans to collaborate together on some of the world’s most important issues in the future.

Thanks for reading everyone. And stay tuned for LLW 2011.

3 Comments to Day Two of Latino Legacy Weekend

Pablo
June 2, 2010

Collaborations are already happening in the Latino political sphere. Email me if you’re interested.

Jeremy C Wilson
June 4, 2010

@Pablo Thanks for reading and for your note!

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