Network, Network, Network!

A few weeks ago, I got invited to attend the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration and Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival at the CBS building in San Francisco. I love to get invitations to these types of events, so I RSVP right away. I immediately started thinking of who I would want to come with me to network with the CBS media peers, those involved with Cine+Mas and all those other people attending. I decided to ask my friend Claudia to join me, since it just so happens that she works for the sales department for a local newspaper called El Mensajero (part of ImpreMedia.)
    
The event took place last night, and I was beyond excited to attend. I was going to have the opportunity to mingle with renowned Emmy winner newscasters & journalists. I was specially looking forward to meeting Roberta Gonzales, who is the weather anchor for CBS 5 Eyewitness News at 5, 6, 10, and 11 P.M. (on The CW 44/Cable 12). I was also going to have the opportunity to meet Ken Bastida ,co-anchor for CBS 5 Eyewitness News at 11pm and at 10pm on the CW 44/Cable 12. There were also other CBS personalities (Dennis O’Donnell & Allen Martin) as well as filmmakers and organizers from Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival. On the days prior to the event, I kept tweeting Roberta Gonzales about how much I was looking forward to the event.

From left to right: Allen Martin, Dennis O'Donell, Roberta Gonzales & Ken Bastida

 

The Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival is an event that runs yearly, and it showcases amazing films from different countries, like Mexico and countries in Latin America. This year’s film festival kicks off tomorrow and you can find the entire list of all the screenings by going on their website. The organizers also need donors, so if you’d like to contribute to this amazing, yearly event, please do so.

 

The event started at 5:30PM and my friend Claudia and I rushed to get there on time. However, the lovely and chaotic San Francisco traffic made us late by about 45 minutes. As we arrived, we noticed that all the attendees were already mingling and we knew that we had missed the intro done by Roberta Gonzales. As we made our way in, we noticed the delicious refreshments being served: spinach empanadas, ceviche, and fried plantains, as well as wine and beer. It was time for us to mingle!

I’m very incredibly shy, which would come as a surprise, being that I’m in the media biz, and I can work my magic through an interview with an artist like no one’s business. However, when it comes to a social environment; I am as awkward as awkward gets. Claudia and I made our way through the place, and we were able to mingle with many amazing people.

About an hour into the event, I spotted Roberta Gonzales and I knew that I had to approach her, conquer my shyness and let her know that I was the gal who had been tweeting her about this special night. When I approached her, she was so nice and she told me that during her intro speech, she had mentioned me. (I literally died of embarrassment since I had missed it.) I politely asked for a picture, which she immediately said ‘yes’ to. There is something great about meeting people from the media who are humble and down to earth and she was no exception. Later that night, I tweeted (??) her the picture we took, and she replied to my tweet (pardon the question marks, but am I really using tweet as a verb? A sign of the times…)

With Roberta Gonzales

As the event came to an end, I could not have been happier to have attended. I got to meet amazing individuals, and just the mere thought that I was inside TV studios made me feel so much at home. I know that I am in the right path, and little by little I am building a strong network and getting my name out there. Like I always say: “conquering the media world, one blog at a time.”