Latino Voice Survey Launched as Precursor to 2013 SXSW Conference and Festival

February 26, 2013

Contact: Ellen Miller; emiller (at) fenton.com, 212-584-5000
Francella Chinchilla; fchinchilla(at)rabengroup.com, 202-587-4944

AUSTIN, TX - This year’s 2013 South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (SXSW) will feature a panel of experts on Latinos and technology as well as the release of the results from the second annual Latino Voice survey. The Latino Voice survey is open for submissions now and gives Latinos nationwide a platform to express how technology has impacted them and their community. With 60,000 registrants to this 27th annual SXSW, the Latino Voice survey results are sure to receive the high visibility that the nation’s largest minority (numbering 50.5 million strong) deserves.

On Friday, March 8, 2013 from 5pm – 6pm SXSW registrants will attend “Latinos y Mobile: A Silver Bullet?,” a panel to explore solutions for bridging the digital divide that exists in Latino communities and to understand the effect that technology has had on this community. The panel brings together leading voices working towards civil rights, economic empowerment, technology access and many other critical issues facing Latinos from all walks of life. These panelists are: Brent Wilkes (@BrentWilkes), National Executive Director of the League of United Latin American Citizens; Estuardo Rodriguez (@EstuardoDC), Principal at The Raben Group; Kety Esquivel (@KetyE), Vice President at Fenton; and Lou Aronson (@LouAronson), CEO and Founder of Discourse Analytics Inc.

"I'm honored to be a part of the team that produced the Latino Voice survey and to be talking about these issues at SXSW again this year," said Kety Maria Esquivel, Vice President and lead of Fenton’s Western region digital practice. "There has been an undeniable, transformational change in the communications landscape. Despite the digital divide, with a total buying power that exceeds $1.2 billion, the 52 million Latinos in the U.S. today are leading the way in many of these changes. New platforms and tools have given us new ways to organize, share and communicate and have transformed our relationships with causes and brands. This survey gives our community the opportunity to begin to express that impact."

In addition to the Music Festival (with over 100 stages and 2,000 artists), SXSW also hosts an Interactive track which serves as a cultivating venue for new technologies and important previews of the pressing issues of tomorrow. As part of the Interactive track (which includes 1000 sessions and participants from 72 countries), our panelists will provide expert analysis and commentary on the diversity of the Latino community’s needs and levels of digital literacy, and the panel will use the insights from the Latino Voice survey to inform this conversation.

“As technology evolves the way brands and causes engage with their audiences is also changing,” said Lou Aronson, CEO and Founder of Discourse Analytics. “Mobile devices and social networks create challenges and opportunities in how to connect with people whose voices typically have gone unheard. No group is more impacted by mobile than the Latino population and no conference is better than SXSW Interactive to explore these issues. We are excited to be attending SXSW again this year and enriching the level of discussion with my colleagues on the panel.”

“In our view access to the wealth of information online is an essential civil right, because it is a prerequisite to educational and workplace success,” said LULAC National Executive Director Brent Wilkes. “Mobile devices have taken the revolutionary impact of the internet and made it at once more personal and portable. They have become a catalyst for change—the extent of which we have just begun to understand. Already mobile devices have helped Latinos to stay in touch with each other, translate Spanish to English, access social services in their community, register to vote and mobilize for action on priority issues. I'm happy to serve on this panel to discuss how mobile and wired internet access can act as a transformative agent to improve the quality of life for Latino families, just as lack of access and adoption is increasingly becoming a barrier to success.”

“The 2012 election proved beyond a doubt that the Latino community, as large and multigenerational, could be engaged, informed and mobilized through the use of the latest technology. Civic participation, voter registration and turnout, came in large part because of the ease by which the community was able to access the latest information at home, online, on their iPads, tablets, and handheld devices. National grassroots campaigns reached wider audiences than ever and the impact continues to reverberate on Capitol Hill and across the nation,” stated Estuardo V. Rodriguez, Principal at The Raben Group. “SXSW is the perfect convening to highlight these achievements and also share in the excitement around what is yet to come.”

The Latino Voice survey is currently open for submissions to the public, and it is a vital tool for understanding the relationship of Latinos to today’s technology. To join the conversation on this topic use #mobileLTN on Twitter.

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About LULAC
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 900 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.LULAC.org

About The Raben Group
Founded in 2001 by former Assistant Attorney General Robert Raben, The Raben Group has office in Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles, CA; and New York, NY. With a mission is to identify opportunities and solve problems for clients in the corporate, nonprofit, foundation and government sectors, The Raben Group provides clients with a tailored suite of services including policy development, direct lobbying, coalition building, grass-tops campaigns, political counsel and strategic communications.

About Discourse Analytics
Discourse Analytics offers next generation audience analytics and insight to help the world’s leading brands, media platforms, corporations, campaigns and advocacy causes better understand and activate their target audiences. The company segments your audience on an individualized basis by using key preference drivers to cluster the community based on psychographic profiles. The company was a finalist in the SXSW Accelerator competition in 2012.

About Fenton
We accelerate progress. Fenton opened its doors in 1982 with a unique mission: serve the public interest by creating powerful issue campaigns that make change. With Fenton’s clients the firm has contributed to some of the defining change movements of the past quarter century, from ending apartheid and curbing global warming to protecting people from harmful toxins.