Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Beyond Borders

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Asia – LAC
    • Innovation and Technology
    • Investment Attraction
    • Public-Private Alliances
    • Regional Cooperation
    • Regional Integration
    • Trade & Investment Agreements
    • Trade Facilitation
    • Trade Promotion
  • Authors
  • Spanish

From physical to virtual: digitizing the business experience

September 18, 2018 by Fabrizio Opertti Leave a Comment


Over 3 million firms from 150 countries have visited ConnectAmericas.com. Some 200,000 of them from 50 different industries have signed up for the platform, where they can access sector-specific communities, business opportunities, training, and financial information.

ConnectAmericas.com receives support from Google, DHL, SeaLand, Facebook and MasterCard. It was created by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2014 to help local SMEs to go international, building on the success of events like LAC Flavors (foods, beverages, and flavors from Latin America and the Caribbean) and Outsource2LAC (services and outsourcing), among others.

This merging of the physical and online worlds has allowed the IDB to generate more than $2.3 trillion in business deals in both goods and services.

From a business meeting to a success story

Aurelio del Solar and Sebastián Arrieta are the perfect examples of this. The two are partners in the Peruvian company Brilliant Foods. “It would have taken us over a year to visit 26 clients around the world. When we were selected for LAC Flavors Peru, we were able to hold those same 26 meetings in 16 hours of work over the course of two days. Through the event, we closed a deal with a buyer from Russia who wanted to source Andean grains,” said Arrieta, the company’s CEO.

BusinessAurelio del Solar and Sebastián Arrieta

About 49% of the registered ConnectAmericas.com users are women. In 2016, with support from Google, the platform launched the ConnectAmericas for Women initiative, a business services site for businesswomen and women entrepreneurs from LAC.

Through it, Tanya Muñoz from the family-owned Mexican company Cocina Mestiza started selling her salsas and dressings to Grupo Britt, a large firm from Costa Rica with outlets in major airports all over Latin America and the Caribbean. The entire process took place through purchasing announcements posted on ConnectAmericas.com. “I learned a lot through the platform, took part in online courses, and eventually got it touch with the Britt Group through it. The process was quick and easy, and we finalized everything within three weeks,” she says.

BusinessTanya Muñoz of Cocina Mestiza

Ana Morán exports foods and beverages from Montevideo, Uruguay. She found out about ConnectAmericas.com at LAC Flavors and was excited about the platform’s potential. She created an online profile and applied to a business opportunity that had been posted. “It was incredible for us to feel that the products our SMEs made were on international display. ConnectAmericas is helping us grow our company,” says Ana, in reference to International Business Alliances.

Chilean food company Mickelsen Agroindustria makes gourmet products like jams, sauces, and preserves. This family firm is run by Patricia Concha, who has taken part in different LAC Flavors events. “Starting to export wasn’t easy, it took us a long time, but by getting certifications we managed to reach difficult markets like New York. We’ve met a lot of people at these events and made some great contacts. Through them, we’ve ended up selling our products to several buyers in the region and further afield,” she says proudly.

LAC Flavors 2018

Santiago de Chile is getting ready to host the 10th LAC Flavors on September 24 and 25, 2018. The event will be attended by an unprecedented number of buyers and suppliers, particularly from the Southern Cone countries.

Over 20 export promotion agencies from LAC will also be present at the event, along with 450 supplier companies from Chile and other countries in the region who will be setting up business meetings with 116 local and international buyers. We are expecting that over 2,500 one-on-one meetings will be held in just two days and that the networking at the event will continue afterward on ConnectAmericas.com.


Filed Under: Trade Promotion Tagged With: ConnectAmericas, International trade, SMEs

Fabrizio Opertti

Fabrizio Opertti is Manager of the Integration and Trade Sector at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where he supervises an operational team in charge of a large portfolio of international trade and foreign direct investment promotion loan and technical cooperation projects in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Fabrizio is currently leading an IDB Group-wide team in the design and implementation of the ConnectAmericas business platform. He also directs the IDB’s initiatives in the services globalization sector, having led the preparation of services’ export promotion strategies in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. Fabrizio also leads the organization of the IDB’s pan-regional trade events, including I and II CEO Summit of the Americas (Colombia 2012, Panama 2015) Outsource2LAC (Uruguay 2011, Colombia 2012, Argentina 2013, Guatemala 2014 and Mexico 2015), the Asia LAC Fora (Korea 2007, 2011 and 2015; China 2010, 2012 and 2014; Japan 2013), among others. Fabrizio holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins’ School of Business, a Master in Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Bachelor of Arts in International Political Economy from American University.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Integration Trade

On this blog, the IDB Integration and Trade Sector shares reflections on the role of trade, investment, cooperation, and regional integration for development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Subscribe and join the conversation.

Related posts

  • The success that ten years of LAC Flavors has brought
  • From the Andes to the World: How a Peruvian Company Conquered Global Value Chains
  • Selling to supermarkets and international distributors
  • How to Become an Entrepreneur without Neglecting Your Professional Life
  • Innovations transforming the food and beverage industry

Categories

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

Blog posts written by Bank employees:

Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


For blogs written by external parties:

For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

Aviso Legal

Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

facebook
twitter
youtube
This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
To learn more about cookies, click here
X
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT