Electronic Retailing Association Inaugural Latino Awards of Excellence.

ERA, the trade association for companies who sell goods and services directly to the public, announced that it will hold its first-ever Latino Awards of Excellence on Tuesday, March 1 at the Ritz Carlton hotel in South Beach, Miami. Co-hosted by Venezuelan international film and TV star Rudy Rodriguez (bio enclosed), this event will be held in conjunction with ERA’s Mid-Winter Conference and Trade EXPO, scheduled for February 27-March 1, 2005, which gathers together over 650 international direct response professionals, including today’s leading marketers, creators, entrepreneurs, investors and inventors.

This star-studded event will recognize the top achievements of 2004 in Latin American and U.S. Hispanic electronic retailing, including in the areas of best show and spot production, best services from a product supplier and from a pan-regional media network, best website in support of DRTV and best individual contribution to the region or industry, among other categories.

Over 70 entries have been received for the eight award categories, double the number of entries expected by organizers. Rudy Rodriguez will be joined by Saadin Solah, CEO of TVentas, and former Latin Hispanic Council chairman in hosting the awards show. To date, 14 leading companies doing business in the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American marketplaces are sponsoring the event, showing unprecedented support for the ever-expanding Hispanic direct response industry.

Luis Salaverria, president of Grupo TV Offer-Central America and chairman of the Latin Hispanic Council, is ecstatic with the entries the program has received thus far. “We are seeing unprecedented unity and the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic segments of ERA’s membership should be very proud of this achievement,” said Salaverria.

A panel of 12 industry experts will judge the categories, and will include six judges for the Latin American entries and six others for the U.S. Hispanic entries, thus securing equal industry representation.

Stan Bruckheim, chairman of the Awards Event Task Force, notes that response to the event has been quite impressive. “The interest we have received for this first of its kind event is quite overwhelming. The Latin Hispanic Council has gotten behind it one hundred percent and we truly are building the foundation for a great annual event.”

The event will cap off a full day of Latin and U.S. focused activities, starting with a keynote address from former Congressman and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jim Jones. In addition, meeting registrants can also attend multiple educational sessions throughout the day on the future of direct response retailing and how to maximize global business opportunities. This meeting will also feature an Expo Hall full of approximately 50 exhibitors, who are on hand to unveil the industry’s latest innovations, products and services.

For more information at http://www.retailing.org