Global Connections

Gilberto Caldart, Mastercard Carmen Gonzalez-Sanfeliu, IntelSat Jose Antonio Rios – Celistics Odilon Almeida of Western Union

With electricity used for more and more purposes, even for the “Internet of Things,” it’s increasingly important to pursue energy efficiency to stem pollution and reduce the need for new power plants. But achieving energy efficiency is no easy task, panelists said Nov. 21 at WorldCity’s second annual Latin America Energy Forum. “The issues of energy are going to end…

Former China resident Erik Bethel was jogging near his home in the Miami area recently, when he overheard some tourists speaking Mandarin. He stopped to chat. “Foreigner, “ a Chinese visitor asked Bethel, “how much is that house?” “$2 million,” Bethel said, pictured in the foreground above. Answered the Chinese visitor, “Is that it?” Bethel, a…

  Forget about hiring a Millennial intern and spending $10,000 for them to post on Facebook and Twitter. As digital marketing becomes more sophisticated, companies need to integrate social media into their broader business goals and approach it more strategically. That means figuring out who to target as customers, which social-media best reaches them and…

To help low-income children in Latin America, Discovery Networks is partnering with cable and satellite operators to provide schools with pay-TV connections. In some cases, that effort means donating solar panel systems too, because the schools lack electricity to run the TVs all day. And in most cases, it also means training the teachers on…

Here’s the kind of challenge that billion-dollar bosses face: You’re selling cellphones for $1 per day in developing nations where there are no credit reports on the low-income customers you serve. How do you know who’s most likely to pay, so that you can tap one of the world’s largest markets? Marcelo Claure, founder and…

Years ago, a movie that debuted in the United States could take six months to a year to reach Latin American theaters.  Today, films often premiere in key U.S. and Latin American cities the same week. That’s just one example of the quickening pace of change in the media landscape in Latin America, panelists said…

Latin Americans trust business far more than they trust government. For news, they increasingly trust search engines like Google and their own selection from that search – more so than they trust traditional media. Those were two insights from the Latin American portion of the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer study presented March 25 at WorldCity’s Global…

The best way to handle a crisis in your business is to prepare for it in advance. It’s easier than you think. If you’re in the creative field, you know what the threats are, such as patent infringement. Or if you are in logistics, you know that bad weather, a workers’ strike or street protests…