While so many advertisers, politicians and professional organizations try tactic after tactic to aggregate the acculturated Latino community, one Chicago native seems to have perfected the formula.
Over 10 years ago, when e-mail was in its infancy, Jaime Viteri was a young Latino computer engineer, eager to connect with others in his industry. “[In 1998], use of email wasn’t as abundant. I created a peer list to communicate with colleagues in my circle who were also using email,” Viteri says. “There was never an intention to start anything larger than a group of friends and colleagues.”
Today, however, Viteri’s coveted list consists of over 46,000 Latino professionals and entrepreneurs who are part of Viteri’s Chicago Latino Network (CLN). How did it evolve into the city’s largest conglomerate of Latino up and comers? Even Viteri is challenged to explain CLN’s success, but he’s certain of one secret behind the thriving network: content is king.
In addition to social events and other interesting industry-related information, Viteri’s early newsletters included career opportunities. Around the same time, Viteri points out, there was a lot of job and career movement for young Latino professionals. “People looked to my e-mails for opportunities, and the natural growth started,” Viteri recalls. He also pursued his personal desire to network and meet more people like himself, joining professional organizations for various industries. “What I noticed was that people were operating in vertical niches. While they were active within their own circles of other engineers, entrepreneurs or whatever their field was, there wasn’t much reaching out across networks.” He set up meetings with presidents of several organizations to understand what they could do and set common goals to increase collaboration. “The solution was as simple as not scheduling events on top of each other so people could attend more than one. And then, in 2000, we came together to hold our first combined networking event,” Viteri says. “That’s when it clicked in my head.”
The network soon grew to nearly 5,000 people. Inspired by this success, Viteri launched Schmoozefest, an annual event based on the shared commonality of being Latino professionals and entrepreneurs. Over 600 people attended the first Schmoozefest, selling it out—as has happened each year since—and attracting such prestigious speakers as then-Senator Barack Obama and the NCLR’s president Janet Murguía. This year’s Schmoozefest, held at Chicago’s House of Blues, featured a special performance by Lila Downs.
CLN’s overall mission, according to Viteri, is to provide a vehicle to communicate what’s going on in the Latino community, as well as to provide a platform for Latinos to “pat ourselves on the back. I want to provide content that is 100% pertinent to what the subscribers want,” Viteri says, “rather than content that relates to an organization’s mission, which may miss the mark of what readers are interested in.” In addition, the e-newsletter acts as a sort of Latino Crain’s, communicating Latino business successes. In keeping with these goals, Viteri launched the CLN’s Annual Awards Gala five years ago. Designed to honor established and emerging Latino leaders, the awards are unique in that nominees are crowd-sourced from within the network and finalists are selected through votes. It’s a peer-recognizing-peer event, making it a particularly special honor.
In just a decade, CLN has matured into a group to be reckoned with—and an attractive audience for advertisers eager to tap the market of “affluent, sophisticated and coveted consumers who differentiate themselves by maintaining their Latino heritage, while preferring English-language media.” And with wildly enhanced tracking capabilities unheard of when the e-newsletter emerged, Viteri now has a solid understanding of exactly who his subscribers are, what content they prefer, and how advertisers perform through the newsletter and website.
This year, Viteri took the step this year of leaving his day job to pursue CLN full time. “Leaving the comfort of a steady paycheck was scary,” he admits, “but now that the new business plan is in motion and we’re beginning to execute, we’re already seeing a positive response.” Under the new plan, CLN will continue to deliver the same content in a way that includes more sophisticated technology for advertisers to interact with the network.
“I’ve realized that our success comes from the strong sense of loyalty among subscribers, even though we haven’t had a traditional ‘membership’ structure,” Viteri says. “Subscribers believe that whatever CLN puts out is accurate and high-quality. That’s what sets us apart and what will drive the growth. People have met their spouses through CLN networking and events. We’re not your average professional organization. We’re going to remain fiercely committed to that.”
