Berklee students spend a jam-packed week at the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards in Miami.

By Javier Samayoa
Berklee.edu Correspondent
May 18, 2007

	Javier Samayoa

There’s always a first time for everything. One of this year’s firsts was the trip a group of Berklee students, including myself, made to Miami in April for the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards. Thirty students representing a variety of majors had the opportunity to meet and befriend many of the Latin music industry’s most successful performers, songwriters, producers, record label executives, and entrepreneurs.

The brainstorming for this project took place in the apartment of three roommates: Roberto Jimenez, Daniel Díaz, and myself, all music business students. Hailing from different Latin American countries—Costa Rica, Mexico, and Guatemala, respectively—we came up with the idea of taking a group of students down to Miami in order to experience everything Billboard Latin offered. We also wanted to organize a panel discussion and, with the assistance of the Office of Alumni Affairs, establish the first alumni chapter in Miami.

At first, we thought the group would be composed of 13 students, including ourselves. After many phone calls with Billboard and a brief visit to its office in New York, we put together a complete package that included discounted entry for the conference and awards show, reduced rates in the InterContinental Miami hotel, and approximate costs for everything else. We marketed and promoted the trip via the Latin American Music and Business Club, of which Daniel and I served as presidents.

By the time we closed the sign-ups, the group had grown to 30 students, three alumni, and four staff members. Roberto, Daniel, and I were pulling our hair out doing this extracurricular work along with our classes and part-time jobs. We had never felt such pressure.

On April 23, we assembled a panel exclusively for Berklee students, composed of Grammy-winning producer/engineer Sebastian Krys; Oswaldo Rossi, director of legal and business affairs, EMI; Cuban singer/songwriter Fulano; Berklee alumnus Pedro Guzman, A&R for Universal Latin; and Jose Godur, president of Union Records and also an alumnus. We all connected on a personal level in separate breakout groups and then attended the alumni reception, where we put our networking skills to work.

The rest of the week was filled with great events, panels, discussions, and showcases that helped enhance many of our skills, including networking and teamwork. For instance, at the Billboard Bash on Wednesday night, Daniel and I played manager and publicist, respectively, for a good friend of ours from Mexico, Manelick de la Parra ’05, who is about to release a CD of his original music. On the bash's red carpet, we did what we could to get him TV interviews and a brief photo shoot as an “upcoming artist.”

My roommates and I even took advantage of the trip to pay a visit to the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, whose members had just visited Berklee in late February for a panel discussion on the state of the Latin music industry.

In the end, it was all a success. And believe me when I tell you, few things are better than enjoying a week in sunny Miami while getting to know a lot of the people you intend to work with one day.

From left: Jose Godur, Javier Samayoa, Elsten Torres, Roberto Jimenez, Sebastian Krys, Daniel Díaz, Pedro Guzman, and Oswaldo Rossi

Javier Samayoa is a music business/management major at Berklee.