Top Multicultural Brand Leaders from General Mills, State Farm and McDonald's will Keynote Hispanic PR & Social Marketing Conference, May 10-12

DALLAS, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Three of the nation's top multicultural marketing leaders from General Mills, State Farm and McDonald's have been confirmed to keynote the 2010 Hispanic PR & Social Marketing Conference taking place May 10-12 at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Dallas.

Conference keynote addresses will be presented by Rudy Rodriguez, Director of Multicultural Marketing for General Mills, Mike Fernandez, Vice President of Public Affairs for State Farm and Co-Chair of the Institute for Public Relations and Bill Whitman Jr., Vice President of Communications for McDonald's USA.

In the spirit of the conference's strong Hispanic social media focus, Rodriguez will keynote on "Building Digital Expertise To Win With Hispanics."  Fernandez will kick off the conference with a keynote titled "I Know You Want Me…But it Takes More Than An Accent to Get Me."  Whitman Jr.'s presentation will focus on why a multicultural approach is key to a winning strategy.

Co-presented by the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) and the Hispanic PR Blog in partnership with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the conference now features more than 24 professional development opportunities, keynote presentations and panels focused on best practices in Hispanic public relations and social marketing, including sessions on social networking, marketing to next-generation Latinos and achieving and maintaining corporate diversity.

Among the new sessions announced today are:

- "Meet the Blogueros." A "guy" version of the highly anticipated "Meet the Blogueras" panel, this session will feature several of the top male Latino social media voices from such sites as HispanicTips.com and TuTecnologia.com.

- "Verizon Case Study on My Fabulous Quinces."  Two of Verizon's senior corporate communications team members share the inside story on how they planned, executed and measured the success of this "fabulous" program.

- "Diversity Forum on How to Help Hispanic Media Cover Issue of Structural Racism."  Presented by the Kellogg Foundation, this forum will gather Hispanic marketing and media experts on a topic that directly impacts how Latino communities are informed.  

Twelve sessions focus on marketing to Hispanics through social media strategies, and five on marketing to new generation Latinos. Two sessions focused on how corporations and other organizations can be more effective in the field of diversity.

Other conference presenters representing corporations, government institutions, non-profit organizations and multicultural public relations agencies include:

• Russell Bennett, vice president of Latino Health Solutions for UnitedHealthcare
• Lorenzo Lopez, director of corporate communications, Wal-mart
• Jose Pinero, director of communications, TV, Video and Music Division of Microsoft
• Paul Rand, chair, Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and president/CEO, the Zocalo Group
• Olga Romero, manager of Hispanic and multicultural public relations, Southwest Airlines
• Harvey Spigler, Chief of Advertising and Public Affairs, US Army Recruiting battalion
• Saskia Sorrosa, senior director of marketing, National Basketball Association (NBA)

The most updated version of the conference schedule can be viewed at http://www.hispanicprconference.com/conference-agenda/schedule.

The conference is being sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the National Association of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), Sony Electronics, Southwest Airlines, McDonalds, Fleishman, the Axis Agency, Ketchum, VPE Public Relations, the Jeffrey Group, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, RL Public Relations, Telenoticias, PR Newswire, the Zocalo Group, Comerica Bank, Cision and the Dallas Conventions and Visitors Bureau.  The conference's lead media partner is Latino Leaders Magazine.  Other media partners include Black PR Wire, Latina Style Magazine and My Latino Voice.

For more information on the Hispanic PR & Social Marketing Conference, visit www.hispanicprconference.com or contact show director, Ray Bianchi, at [email protected]   or 305-600-4878. You also may subscribe to conference-related "Tweets"; the Twitter hash-tag for the conference is #HPRConf.

About the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA)

HPRA was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organization to establish a network of Hispanics employed in the public relations profession. HPRA has more than 250 members representing public relations, marketing and advertising professionals from agencies, government, non-profit and corporate companies. HPRA is dedicated to the advancement of Hispanic professionals and provides educational seminars and workshops throughout the year. The organization has awarded more than $220,000 in scholarships to Latino students pursuing a career in communications during the last 25 years. HPRA strives to be a resource for communications professionals and for those seeking insights into the Hispanic market.

About the Hispanic Public Relations Blog

Founded by multicultural public relations veterans Manny Ruiz, former CEO of Hispanic PR Wire, and Angela Sustaita-Ruiz, formerly of Hispanic Media Trainers, LLC, the Hispanic PR Blog is the Hispanic market industry's top source for news and views focused on Hispanic public relations and social media marketing. The blog and its accompanying daily newsletter, Hispanicize, feature columns, stories, white papers, job postings, calendar events and more.  Hispanic Media Trainers, LLC, is also the parent company of the Hispanic Public Relations & Social Marketing Conference.

NOTE TO EDITORS: High-resolution images are available at: http://www.hispanicprwire.com/home.php?l=in

SOURCE Hispanic Public Relations Association