Tijuana Innovadora 2012
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Tijuana Innovadora 2012 To Showcase Region's Creativity, Innovation
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Tijuana Innovadora 2012 Program
Tijuana is hosting a showcase of creativity and innovation for the world to see. It's called the Tijuana Innovadora 2012.
International leaders in high-tech, business and the creative arts will speak and lead discussions on a variety of themes focused on the future of innovation.
Flavio Olivieri, the director of Tijuana's Economic Development Corporation, told KPBS the event is meant to highlight all of the good things the San Diego-Tijuana region has.
The event will "bring together opinion leaders and thought leaders on the process of innovation, on the process of creativity, and how we can position better our region," he said.
"We're positioning ourselves worldwide as a region," he added.
Olivieri said the event will be similar to TED talks by bringing together thought leaders to make short presentations on how to make the world better.
The 10-day program will cover themes including creativity, industry and manufacturing, and people and human development. Speakers will include Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple; Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired; and Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Tom's Shoes.
Leslie Sebastian, the CEO of Cartha Labs, which does business on both sides of the border, said this event is very important for fostering business and cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico.
"Unfortunately, I think everybody's patently aware of how Tijuana and the region has been portrayed, and it's almost how unfairly we in the United States are portrayed as rude Americans who do drugs and have guns, and then Mexico is portrayed as the people who are shooting everyone and bringing the drugs across," she said. "That's not correct. So what happens is when you go to the region and spend just a couple hours really seeing what's going on there and the quality of services and quality of professionals, you're able to see how easy it is to do business there, how easy it is to enjoy what's available there, and how important it is as a region for us to come together."
She said Tijuana has "exploded into this region of opportunity" in the arts, creativity and business.