WHAT IS HAPPENING IN WAWA? – Newsletter 3

The past few months of this year have brought a lot of activity, learning, and inspiration to this organization. Day by day, we move towards a broader and more inclusive future while we continue to face challenges with constructive ideas.

Produ celebrated the best of the audiovisual industry in a dynamic and innovative event: its prestigious annual awards. Between these recognitions, our personal favorites were the Pillars of Industry. A very special award where the founders of WAWA Association Cecilia Gómez de la Torre and Liliam Hernández, and our associate and Woman of the Year 2019, Analida López, from Albavisión, were recognized. Other personalities recognized with this award were Rita Herring, from ViacomCBS; Eric Jürgensen, from América TV in Peru; Carolina Lightcap, from Discovery; Juana Uribe, from Caracol TV; and Carlos Castro, from Televisa.

This year, the Worldwide Woman Association Award was a virtual event hosted by the comedian Marisol Correa. This meeting brought together more than 115 executives from the audiovisual industry. It was a very tight competition between the most outstanding women of the year, and for us, they are all winners and deserve to be recognized for their achievements, their trajectory, and their exemplary careers.

Cinthya Hudson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN en Español and Hispanic strategy for CNN/U.S, was chosen as the woman of the year between her fellow colleagues Silvana D’Angelo, from Glowstar Media; Patricia Daujotas, from Channel 10-Uruguay; Patricia Jasin, from TV Azteca; Carmen Larios, from Lifetime Latin America; and Fidela Navarro from Dopamine.

Emilia Nuccio was recognized as well with the Honorable Mention from the Board of Directors. Vanessa Velásquez, a board member, said that also Susan L. Bender, Fefi Toll, Migdalia Inocencio, and Soledad Leiva also deserved appreciation for inspiring many women over time.

Carolina Cordero was appointed General Manager of the Wawa Association.  She started as part of the production committee of this organization and then was a co-producer with María Muci and María Elena Useche in our first documentary series “Extraordinary Women”. She has more than 20 years of experience in the television and film industry and now she is more than committed to this new role that reflects the successful growth of WAWA.

For Carolina Cordero, the main objectives in this position are to generate new business and networking opportunities for our associates around the world. We wish her all the best and much success!

The first WAWA Business Forum was carried through with great success, bringing together more than 300 people who were able to live a unique experience within the industry for three days.

The event consisted of many different activities. Like pitch sessions with important companies such as Latina TV, WIT Entertainment, Lifetime, Hemisphere, DirecTV, Ser TV, TVC Deportes, and Justicia TV; talks with organizations such as the International Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences, Mondo TV Iberoamérica, Mediaclub Elles, Egeda, Ibermedia, Universal Cinergia, and High Hill Entertainment, and meetings with important personalities and professionals such as Blanca Soto, Tereza González, and Aylin Mujica.

The work sessions were intense and productive, and counted on the presence of media and attendees interested in business development and the growth of the industry. This participation was shown at the closing of the event when Roxana Rotundo, chairwoman of the Board of Directors of WAWA, claimed that at least 80% of the pitches presented were 100% internationally saleable proposals. This is something huge and all participants should feel very proud of it because it is a very high statistic for our business.

Moreover, María Elena Useche said she was very pleased with this event because it succeeded at being a voice for those who find it difficult to reach big platforms. “As we work towards the growth of others, we will also grow as an institution”, she stated.

WAWA Business Forum also had the support of LA Virtual Screenings, an event organized by Prensario International in partnership with NATPE. This event will take place from May 11th to May 20th.

For more details, you can access the event journal.

And speaking about WAWA Business Forum, on March 16th we announced an alliance between our organization and Ibermedia. The main objective of this alliance is to promote the production and development of ideas for the project discussions and opportunities.

By doing this, WAWA Association will become a facilitator so that all our associates can access the advantages and support that Ibermedia has to offer. In this regard, Cecilia Gómez de la Torre, member of the WAWA Board of Directors, highlighted that, “In WAWA we have everything to generate attractive and interesting projects. What better way to do that, than to promote these projects and present them jointly for Ibermedia program funds?”

For her part, Elena Vilardell, Technical and Executive Secretary of Ibermedia, pointed out that the support of this organization will be focused mainly on three aspects: education projects; project development, which involves all the stages from storyline to pre-production; and co-production.

The rules of the Ibermedia program are available on its website.