Even Spanish pigeons need their own national conference

BY MANNY RUIZ
Co-Publisher
Hispanic PR Blog

My cousin Pablo called me the other day seeking advice on how to organize a national Spanish pigeon conference in Miami.

“A pigeon conference in Spanish?,” I asked him confused.

“No, I’m talking about a conference for collectors of Spanish pigeons.”

“But don’t you already have a national conference for pigeon collectors?”

“Yes, there’s two or three them in the U.S. but they’re too general.  There’s isn’t one specifically focused on the different types of Spanish pigeons and I know there would be a market for one because there’s a lot of Spanish pigeon breeders like me.”

My cousin went on to explain the unique attributes of these elegant birds, how smart they are and why they make very cool pets (you put them out to fly and they come back to you hours later every time).  The more we spoke, the more hooked I was on these birds.  Almost made me want to spring for a pet Spanish pigeon myself.

The reason I tell you this feathery story has nothing to do with seductive pigeons really and all to do with some friends who may be wondering why the Hispanic PR industry is organizing itself so strongly for the historic Hispanic PR & Social Marketing Conference in Dallas, May 10-12.  Is the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) organizing this conference and launching HPRA chapters nationally this year to specifically compete with the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) and/or the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)?

To our many good friends from AHAA and PRSA we can unequivocally answer: No.   None of this is about competing with you or anyone else.

The fact is that HPRA’s expansion is part of a long overdue plan to go national.  (Let’s not forget that HPRA is more than 20 years old).  HPRA’s expansion plans and the conference also coincide at an especially opportune time for the industry because multiple forces are at work this year to take Hispanic PR to a whole other level, one of the chief of which is the growing role of Hispanic social marketing and the lead role of PR in it.

The other reason these moves are not competitive with AHAA or PRSA is because there really is no competition.  When you carefully examine what each of the  national trade organizations are about you realize that they offer marketers completely different sets of unique value propositions (UVP).  Case in point is HPRA’s Hispanic PR conference.  In the specific example of the Hispanic PR conference the UVP is simply to provide corporate, government and non profit marketers with the most comprehensive  professional development training ever assembled on Hispanic PR and social marketing.  This razor-focused UVP is the reason why the conference spans two and a half days with 20+ sessions and over 60+ presenters/speakers.  If you go to AHAA or PRSA national conferences you will find stellar marketing PD session programming as well but it’s different because the organizations, their agendas and their UVPs for members are different.  They’re all different.  Just like Spanish pigeons.

P.S. If you haven’t already done so, please take two minutes of your time to complete the Hispanic PR Census.  The Hispanic PR Census seeks to count every marketing professional – Latino or not – who spends at least 30 percent or more of their time in work related to Hispanic PR and/or social marketing.  The national survey is generously sponsored by RL Public Relations.