TECHNOLOGY ISSUE: REMOTE WORK TRENDS (WTC Valencia)
WTC Valencia is widely known in the region for organizing events at the Convention Center of the Hesperia WTC Hotel Valencia. We host various events and activities — ranging from #InnovAcción to WTC Day — throughout the year as part of the WTC Valencia Agenda. Available to our 200+ Business Club members, these events allow our members to network and foster a business-oriented environment.
After our successful WTC Women event in March (see photos on our Instagram), the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Venezuela. Shortly after, our city and economy went into lockdown. Our WTC’s initial concern was that our business, which is based on networking and events, would not be viable given the lockdown, but we still had obligations, commitments with sponsors, and a community to serve. To overcome this challenge, we began exploring the digital world of hosting virtual events, which we hadn’t used before aside from creating a website and posting on social media to connect with our community.
We created a virtual meeting through Zoom (TM) and invited our Business Club members to test the platform. It worked well and we received positive feedback from our members. However, we made a few technical adjustments such as enhancing our opening videos to ensure that the platform would run smoothly, it would be secure, and it would best present our sponsors during our first digital event.
Held in April, the official launch of our WTC Valencia Digital Agenda was well received by both members and sponsors. Some of the directors from other Latin American WTCs participated in our event as panelists, further growing our community throughout the region. With a growing audience without borders, extraordinary worldwide speakers, and fewer costs than physical events, we can affirm that our Digital Agenda will be part of our regular programming moving forward.
In parallel, our team has also coordinated with Jorge Acevedo, President of WTC Guanajuato and Nuevo Laredo, and Guillermo Acevedo, Executive Director at WTC Cali and Medellin, to explore joint efforts. With the support of Carlos Ronderos, WTCA Regional Director for Latin America, and his team, we have promoted and participated in virtual weekly meetings with the regional representatives of each country within the Latin American region to share experiences, ideas, and projects to collaborate on.
Photo caption: The collage shows the wide spectrum of WTC Valencia’s Digital Agenda event with topics including strategy, leadership, technology, finance, sustainability, and regional affairs. Some events were presented by international speakers (including Eduardo Gil Delgado, Alberto GarcĂa-Jurado, Melvin Peña and Daniel Coronel) as well as some WTCA members (WTC Guanajuato and Nuevo Laredo, and WTC Monterrey), with attendance from members of WTC Valencia´s community.
Photo credit: WTC Valencia