Collaborate for Shared Success in Tourism - Coopetition in Belize
Angela Wu: Welcome to the final session for the Belize Tourism Futures series. This course, the third one, is called Building Resilient Branding and Community Collaboration, and today's topic is all about collaboration for shared success. My name is Angela from Belizing, and I will be your presenter for today's session. As you know, the Belize Tourism Futures series aims to transform the tourism industry by fostering innovation and sustainability.
This initiative was inspired by Lorenzo's dedication to Belize's economic growth and is supported by the Emergent Ventures grant from George Mason University's Mercatus Center in collaboration with Belizing.com and The Lodge at Chaa Creek. To cover some housekeeping notes, as you all know, There is a chat box available for comments or questions. We will address all questions at the end of the presentation during the Q& A session. If you'd like to use your camera or your mic during the Q& A session, you could send a request by hovering over the mic icon at the bottom of your screen on a laptop or desktop, or tap the mic icon at the top right corner on your mobile device. So without further ado, let's get started. I will go ahead and share my screen.
All right, great, great. So, it's sort of weird seeing my face here as the presenter because I'm usually the host and just give the intro and the outro and answer some questions, but I'm glad to be able to, close the series by being the final presenter and talking about collaboration, which is something very close to me because since joining Belizing.com, in 2017. All we've done since then is collaborate with stakeholders in the industry. So, I find that this topic is very fitting. Um, I was born and raised here in Belize, specifically Santa Elena.
So right where Lorenzo is at. I currently hold a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Galen University. And I'm currently also enrolled in, MIU doing a Master's in Educational Leadership and, Management and Emerging Technologies. I am passionate about fostering growth and collaboration within the industry.
And of course, my current position here is General Manager, of Belizing. com and Belize Tourism Futures. So for today's agenda, we will start by discussing the power of collaboration and its role in Belize's tourism industry.
Then we'll explore the concept of coopetition, what it means and why it's essential. I'll share some real examples, including some collaborative initiatives by Belizing and our industry partners. We'll also address some of the challenges of coopetition and how to overcome them. And then finally, we'll outline some practical steps, for how you can consider to collaborate in your own work. So, to get right into it. Collaboration is essential when it comes to, our tourism industry.
It is the foundation of success. By working together, we can amplify our impact and build a stronger relationship across the globe different stakeholders. For instance, Belizing has traveled all over Belize to promote seasonal festivals like the Mango Fest, the Lobster Fest, the Chocolate Fest, and any other fest that comes up. We attend these events, produce live streams, write about the event, and promote Belize itself as a vibrant destination for travelers. When we promote Belize we also highlight some of the stakeholders that, let's say, are at these events, or the stakeholders that we partner with when we travel throughout Belize. And so, those partners get exposure to an international audience and that in itself not only strengthens relationships but builds trust and fosters resilience within our tourism industry.
And as a ripple effect it creates opportunities for mutual success and, Community Upliftment. So, going into the topic of "Co-opetition", we want to understand what it is. So, coopetition is a strategy where businesses collaborate in areas that benefit everyone while still competing in other areas. It's more about finding shared goals and elevate that for the entire industry.
Going back or using Belizing as an example, we've worked with several tour operators to showcase unique experiences that they offer through different familiarization trips. And since 2017, we have been traveling throughout Belize with different cities. I think there's a lot of different stakeholders, different tour companies, different hotels, showcasing what they offer. I think a good example is the one that Lorenzo keeps repeating since February, the Cook Your Catch Tour. He had a really great experience and Like good competition.
He wrote about it. He promoted it. And so not only does his blog get new content, but the tour operator gets exposure from his platform as well. We also have different experiences like horseback riding with St. Leonard's. We also went caving with them.
We did river kayaking, mountain biking with the Belize Caving. Several different experiences that I cannot just list out for you because it's too much. I cannot spend the rest of the hour listing out all the partnerships that we've done but these are just some examples.
So by collaborating on these trips, we get to create content, that promotes multiple businesses and benefits everyone involved while highlighting Belize itself as, Gem, where people could just travel and experience everything that we've been showcasing. So, why does that matter? co opetition is important because it promotes innovation. We are able to share resources and ideas, and it allows us to create better experience for travelers.
We learn from you and you learn from us. Second, it builds stronger networks and makes the tourism industry a little more resilient. So, for example, there are organizations for hotels and tour operators like the Belize Hotel Association, the Tour Guide Association, the Belize Tourism Industry Association, and even the BTB.
They are excellent examples of coopetition in action because they work together on advocacy efforts such as lobbying, let's say, for road repairs or better infrastructure. They also host several trade shows where they collectively market Belize as a top destination. Another good example would be different conservation efforts like Reef Week, where stakeholders unite to protect the natural heritage.
They get to promote Belize but also market to those who are eco conscious. So those would just be some examples, showcasing competition and why it matters to us. If you look at the pictures that I have here, it showcases us traveling to different festivals, partnering with different organizations. I see here we went to the Chocolate Festival, we went to, the Caye Caulker Lobster Festival.
We partnered with the BTIA for BTECs that they had a couple years back, where we shuttled several travel agents across Belize for them to learn about our products so they could sell it better. We partnered with the Belize Audubon Society for BTECs. We've attended the Mango Fest and smaller festivals like the Marimba Festival here in San Ignacio at the House of Culture. We've had cultural experiences with Palmetto Grove.
We went birding with Caves Branch, we went snorkeling with, with Mario Tours, we've been more cultural experiences with Nocheil, Sak Tunich and the list goes on and on. We've also, started to work on different projects that involves, Collaborating with different entities in Belize. And so the coopetition and collaboration continues to grow. But why does it matter? It promotes innovation by sharing resources. It builds stronger networks and industry resilience. It creates value for communities through collective impact.
And an example would be these joint sessions we're having with Lorenzo. It could also be an example of us traveling and collaborating with different stakeholders. To use Belizing as a case study, I want to highlight some of the ways we've, been doing coopetition and, of course I want to highlight the webinars that we've done. Of course this one with Lorenzo for the Belize Tourism Futures Series. We've been doing that since February, prior to that, we've done webinars with the Belize Hotel Association, where we touched on different topics in the digital marketing space.
We also did some hospitality webinars with Hospitality Training Belize a couple years back during COVID. Sort of prepare the hospitality workforce for the reopening of the airport. Some other collaboration efforts we've done would be through different projects like the Belizing Tourism Innovation Lab, where we did digital transformation for 26 tourism MSMEs. Throughout Belize focused on workforce development, you could see all the companies that we've partnered with. Like I said, it's 26 of them along with different entities within government and private sector.
We've done something similar with other projects such as Belizing Digital adaptation project where we provided hands on technical skills and so the collaboration for us never seems to end but of course we don't live in a in a perfect world there has to be challenges with co opetition. If we were able to collaborate seamlessly with everyone that would be the ideal situation but we don't live in a perfect world so there are some setbacks when it comes to this. And the first one would be balancing trust and competition because at the end of the day, you have to sustain your business and you can't just collaborate and not see some returns or benefits towards your company. A next challenge would be unequal contribution to benefits. There are some disparities in resources or effort that can create tension or create some issues when you collaborate.
There is also the challenge of communication breakdowns where misaligned goals or unclear roles could lead to inefficiencies. Sometimes long term sustainability is not feasible. Um, so we have to keep up with the momentum and that requires ongoing effort and commitment. We also have to look at short term versus long term thinking, because when you've Focus solely on immediate rewards that can limit opportunities for sustainable growth. And so some ways to overcome those challenges would be to, let's say, start small. So if, let's say, you can't, commit to, traveling outside of Belize, for a trade show to promote your business.
You can start small and see who you can collaborate with within the industry at the moment. Something else you could do is prioritize transparency. Of course, you want to make sure that both companies know what the goal of that collaboration is for. You can evaluate regularly to see which collaborations make sense for your business. And then also prioritize clear and consistent communication among partners because you want to be on the same page.
You want to make sure that, what you are doing is aligned well with each of your goals. And so all of these you could do in order to foster good collaboration and overcome some of the challenges with co opetition. And so some steps to foster collaboration would be to identify shared goals. Going back to proper communication. So you can focus on common objectives like promoting Belize or improving infrastructure or just generally speaking, tap into each other's audience and see how you could leverage that. You could start with building trust, smaller collaborations, and use transparent communication to strengthen partnerships.
You could leverage different strengths, so you could assign roles based on each partner's expertise and maximize the contributions. And then also celebrate success, of course. Acknowledge and share the impact of the collaborative efforts, so you could maintain motivation within that partnership.
And so, some key takeaways for coopetition or from this presentation is that collaboration and coopetition are essential for the growth and sustainability of Belize's tourism industry. By working together, whether through events, Promotions conservation initiatives or industry advocacy, we can strengthen the foundation of Belize as a top travel destination. At Belizing, we've been privileged to partner with so many stakeholders within the industry to showcase Belize in itself. And I want to encourage everyone to be open to collaboration because I know a lot of people have the mentality of, let's say, the crab in a bucket where I want to be ahead of the other, stakeholders in the industry, but we won't get far if that's the case and in order for us to move forward and to continue to build industry, collaboration is key.
And so, that would be my takeaways for the presentation. I know it's not much or the presentation has been quite short, but I hope that you guys are able to see the greater impact of competition and working together as an industry. We won't necessarily survive on our own, but together we can definitely make movements and improve the industry itself. With that said, I will open the session for the Q& A. You can let us know if you have any questions about collaborating, questions about coopetition. I'm sure Lorenzo and myself has more to share, but of course we have to be mindful of the time allotted for today.
Lorenzo Gonzalez: Thank you, Angela. Yes, that was very informative. If the audience has any questions regarding this topic, please type it into the chat. Anything you would want clarified or anything you want, Angela to just talk a little bit about more. Just, yeah, just type it in the chat and we can ask her. In the meantime, to begin, my question for Angela is, What did you find the most surprising thing about co opetition? Collaborating with competitors.
What has been the most surprising thing about this topic, your research and your experience? Angela Wu: Well, for coopetition, it would surprise you how many businesses currently are doing that, but don't realize it. And, while some are doing efforts that relate to coopetition, others tend to be closed off and not collaborate. So there is like those in the far side that do coopetition and then others that don't collaborate at all, but those that do have initiatives that do relate to coopetition, they've been doing it for so long and sometimes people don't realize it. For example, you shared an article where you wrote about it in 2015? 2013? And I think it's pretty interesting because you have to find good stakeholders that you can actually collaborate with and it's beneficial for both parties. Because oftentimes when we collaborate, people might think, oh, it would benefit you. But what about me? Of course, it would benefit everyone if you have set goals and communicate properly with other industry stakeholders.
Lorenzo Gonzalez: The article that I wrote a while back was when I was introduced to Coopetition. And I was like, wow, like, I need to share this with everyone so that it's more widespread. I strongly believe in a term writing is thinking, and by this I mean that you might be doing something, but until you put it on paper, until you examine it, then it's actually when you can leverage it, when you can take advantage of it, because then you understand what you're doing and you know like, oh, actually, this is what I'm doing and now I know I can even improve on it, because you're aware. Anyway, the article I wrote about the San Pedro Business Association and how they created an association to be able to collectively put on events and they knew that once they have events then the tourists will come and then the tourists will go to all the different establishments so that's the way how you collaborate for later compete.
But without any collaboration, then no one would benefit. When I wrote the article in 2015. This was before there were a bunch of festivals all across Belize. Now it's a lot more common, but back then it wasn't something that everyone did. So I don't know if anyone took my advice about doing these festivals to draw people into the area, but I'm really happy that things have changed a little bit. Angela Wu: Yeah, they probably read your article and said, okay, let's see what we could do to promote the destination, because since then, there has been festivals popping up left, right, and center.
There's Taco Fest that recently happened in Orange Walk. of course, we have the usual, Mango Fest, Chocolate Fest. Lobster Fest in San Pedro, that's a really good example of competition because they have the Lobster Fest crawl in San Pedro, so they literally have a schedule for the entire week or more than a week where day one you have to go to this restaurant, day two go to this place, day three go to that place, and when you go there you get your passport, so your Lobster Fest passport and they stamp it and I guess at the end you get a prize or something like that when you get all the stamps. But it's not just to promote one specific restaurant that has the best lobster you get to literally crowd different restaurants and places and guests get to find out about it so it's like an additional adventure for guests.
So if we could do something very similar to this throughout I'm pretty sure travelers would love that . Lorenzo Gonzalez: Yeah that's the perfect example because for that to work, you need to collaborate. You need to actually plan out that event. You're like, okay, what can we do to make sure the benefits are spread out? And then they said, okay, so each different restaurant has to be a little bit different. You know, we're all selling lobster, but it has to be a little bit different. One person is going to just do like barbecue lobster, but the other person is going to do maybe a sandwich and the other person's going to do a lobster burger. The other one's going to do a lobster, I don't know, poutine.
I don't know if you've heard about poutine, but it's a really popular thing in Canada. So I'm sure the Canadians would love it if they did poutine here. But yeah, you highlight the point where you have to collaborate, work together with others sometimes to achieve your strategic outcomes. Angela Wu: Yeah.
Another example would be when there was the Birding Fest happening. I remember we did maybe a month or two strictly going birding, and then we wrote about our birding experiences, um, just to, to promote our hype up birding festival. So we went birding with several different tour operators. And of course, we went birding, we went hiking, of course, accommodated with the birding. And we wrote about the event, but that still has some sort of competitive advantage because not every tour company does birding the same way. For example, we get to highlight the guide that took us birding.
We learn about their experience, their passion, what they do, how long they've been doing this, the story itself, because we've published videos and it's up on our YouTube channel, it's not just, here are the birds that we saw when we went birding with this company. We get to learn about the guide, what they do, the business, why it's unique, we get to learn about the location that we're birding, and so there is. A competitive advantage even though there are similar experiences offered by several different tour companies. So while there are many tour companies that offer similar tours, there are unique instances that we can still highlight and so that just goes back to coopetition. Um, but I'm interested in knowing has anyone experienced that or has been doing that, but is just realizing that it's actually a thing you could utilize in your strategy.
The questions have been, quite minimal for this session. I was hoping for some more questions. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Well luckily I have a few more questions for you, angela. So you mentioned during the session something that all Belizeans know when you say it out loud, and it's the crab in the bucket mentality, right? And I was wondering if you have any advice for businesses as to how to overcome that mentality where you think that only you should succeed and that's the best way to compete, instead of collaborating. Angela Wu: Your business isn't the only one that exists in Belize, and your business isn't the only one that, is part of the tourism industry.
We are an industry for a reason. And so, if you want to work by yourself and keep to yourself, you can do that. But truthfully speaking, you won't make it too far in the race, because there are trends coming up every single day, travelers are thinking different year by year, and so you need to keep up with that, and work together as an industry to get far. This bucket in a crab mentality where I want to go there first and I want to be on the top is not sustainable. We have to think about long term instead of short term goals, because if we don't build the industry together, there isn't an industry. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Yes, I love that you mentioned the whole industry aspect.
So what does that mean? It means that it's a collection of items, of things that are in place for something to work. if only one individual existed, like let's say one business existed in, in Melchor, for example. Belizeans wouldn't go to buy their shoes, socks, and even go eat and drink and all that stuff. But the reason why they go is because there's a collection of things available. And the same thing happens when a tourist is considering a destination.
They want to go to a place where they have multiple activities and multiple places to go. They don't want to eat at the one restaurant all the time, even though they might do that, they want the option of being able to say, if they get tired of the meals at the one restaurant, they want to be able to say, Oh, I can go to these other 5, 10 restaurants. And I think a perfect example is, Ambergris Caye, so San Pedro, and Caye Caulker, and San Ignacio, where there is, like, this collection of restaurants downtown. And that attracts a lot of tourists and you as a restaurant owner, might be like, oh, I wish those other restaurants didn't exist around me so that I could make all the money. You end up making no money because what brought people to the location is the collection of restaurants.
It is the options available. So yeah, something that I hope that people always think about the bigger picture around things. And that's, uh, one of the primary reasons why collaborating is important. Okay, let's see.
I have a few more questions. What are potential ways that someone can measure the success of collaborating? Um, With competitors or strategic partnerships, what are ways you can measure the success or failures? Angela Wu: The first thing you would do before, I guess, collaborating is determining whether the collaboration would make sense for a company and that would go in line with your company goals. Let's say one of my goals is to get more exposure and to promote my brand. If that's the case, then I would collaborate with a travel blogger, like Lorenzo. I want, the audience he's garnering through his blog site.
And so I could organize some trips for him or reach out to him and see how we can collaborate. From there you could see, okay, these are my goals, I will collaborate with X, Y, and Z persons and at the end, depending on your goals, you would evaluate whether or not the collaboration was worthwhile. So, for instance, if my brand is being out there on Lorenzo's site, and I'm seeing people reaching out to us to book tours or to organize, different activities for them, then okay, that's a return of investment. Um, if the goal for me was to get some exposure my name is out there on Lorenzo's blog because his blog gets a high amount of traffic. So definitely my brand, my name will be seen on his blog site.
So if I don't get some return of investments, like specifically sales, I could still get that brand exposure. And I think that's something a lot of people need to think of as more valuable because if anything fails you will always get that exposure and that in itself is a long term investment because you get to leverage the eyeballs that someone else has literally is getting on their site. And so, um, determining whether or not a collaboration has been fruitful, you have to go back to your goals. And from there, you get to establish or evaluate and say, okay, this made sense. This is what happened.
And then at the end of the day with the collaboration, maybe the last thing that you get, or the first thing, and the only thing that you get is exposure, but that in itself is good. So I just want to make note of that. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Thank you.
I have another question for you. It's pretty simple, but why is transparency important in collaboration? Angela Wu: I think transparency is super important because it somewhat relates to that crab in a bucket mentality. You would expect that people aren't transparent with you and have ulterior motives.
When at the end of the day, I just wanted to collaborate with you. And so, it's important to have clear communication to know what is expected, what each party will do, and, that way, we can get out of that crab in a bucket mentality and continue to collaborate. And of course, know what your partnership or that collaboration will bring for you. Um, if let's say I am to just, or we're traveling out to Caye Caulker and want to partner with you for a trip. I will outline, okay this is what I can offer you, and is this something that you could offer us? That way there is a mutual benefit for each party to know, okay, this is what I get from party A, and this is what I get from party B. So that's important because obviously we want to promote healthy and, good competition.
We don't want to, create inequality in a sense then. So in order to have good cooperation, you have to let each party know, okay, this is what I'm expecting, and this is what I will be offering. That way there are no misinterpretation and miscommunication that would essentially spoil the whole coopetition theme then. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Yes, I started the poll.
I don't know if I'm doing it appropriately because usually Angela does this, but right now I'm in the host seat. But I asked, and I would love if people can respond if possible. It's like, have you participated in any collaborations? If yes, please share the examples.
If no, what has stopped you? Angela Wu: We have already gotten a response from Ms. Carlene. She said we've collaborated with an inland jungle resort in the Cayo District where they offer their guests a day adventure to experience the Barrier Reef with snorkeling and fishing. Yeah, that's a common way to cooperate. Not necessarily highlighting similar experiences, but how you could complement what you already have.
So if, let's say Miss Carlene, she's with Blue Marlin, that's an island experience, you can collaborate with someone inland to have that jungle vibe and vice versa. So I think a lot of that has been happening lately. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Yes, that's another perfect example of collaborating. And if there isn't good communication about what you expect from each other, there might be some tension, but if you actually build a relationship with the person and establish like some ground rules or strategic outcomes. You're able to create partnerships that last decades. And you both benefit from this, especially since you already know that tourists love experiencing the jungle and beach.
If you only offer one of those options, the natural evolution, the natural choice is to partner with someone that offers that, and then you both can benefit. So, I do have, one final question. Do you have an example of a collaboration that started small, but grew into something impactful within the Belize tourism industry? Angela Wu: Started small, um, let me see.
Lorenzo Gonzalez: And if I put you on the spot, I can always, support. Angela Wu: Okay, I think a good example has been the ones that I've been giving. Because, when we started, nobody knew about Belizing.
Nobody knew who we are, what Belizing is, like, currently is. And so, um, when we started, we literally had our entire team travel to the islands to get some tour operators to sign up. So we went shop by shop by shop, going there to say hi, we're so and so from Belizing, this is what Belizing is, um, would you like to collaborate with us, and blah blah blah. We got some trips, we took some content, we wrote about it. So those have been the smaller partnerships that we've had. And as we go along building our brand, continuing to collaborate with other stakeholders, some other stakeholders that have seen our content are, receptive to working with us.
And so that has built from us literally soliciting trips and telling them, okay, this is what we do. This is how we can promote your brand. This is how both of us or all of us could benefit.
And from there, we've just been traveling throughout Belize. And from those smaller collaborations, like the familiarization trips, We've managed to get participants for the different projects that we've hosted, like the Belizing Digital Adaptation Project, which Ms. Carlene was a part of, along with the Belizing Tourism Innovation Lab, where we partnered with 26 different companies throughout Belize. And so, I would say definitely the different trips that we've had from the beginning, from 2017 up until now. But it doesn't have to be, let's say, too fancy then, because we have to figure out what our strengths are.
We communicate what each of our goals and what we expect from each other. And then from there, we just continue to build a good working relationship. I think with you, Lorenzo, we've reached out one day, Asking about blogs and then since then we've been partnering on different initiatives.
Um, and so that it collaboration doesn't have to be something grand, but it could be something small. And then as you go along, you can learn and grow from there. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Yes. Perfect. And my follow up question to you is, do you have any.
Lessons you can share about your experience about, you know, what made something fail or what made something better? Like, what are some lessons that you can share from your experiences collaborating with others? Angela Wu: I think you have to be versatile and go with the flow because not everything will go as planned. I know everyone would like to have one set plan and go from step one to ten, but sometimes you might do step three, then one, then ten, but that's fine. So being flexible, being versatile, is very key for collaboration because, if something will go wrong, it will go wrong? being able to, be flexible with the people that you work with is essential because sometimes it will test your patience or things might not go in the way that you envisioned then. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Building on what you said, a relationship takes time to build. So, you know, you mentioned in the presentation, starting small.
And that's important because for trust to develop, you need time and experience and situations where you've interacted together. So that's, uh, I think something critical, like don't think that you're going to establish relationships with people overnight. It takes a while. So in a way, the faster, the quicker you start, the better it is because you will understand whether that is a good partner or not and whether it's, a win win situation or whether it doesn't work. Um, yeah, so start small, build that relationship and you can grow together from there.
Angela Wu: Yeah, and from the chat, Sandino made a good point. He said that the key is to leverage strengths without undermining each other. Um, so you can collaborate in areas where your strengths differ and then minimize any direct competition. That is really good advice. Lorenzo Gonzalez: I agree. That's perfect.
Angela Wu: We have Greg who said that he collaborated on a smaller level. Victoria House has collaborated with other resorts in the mainland by means of packages. So very similar to what Miss Carlene did with partnering with business inland. And then we have Carlos said that they are a jungle resort and have partnered with island resorts such as Blue Marlin. the inland island experience is very common. Lorenzo Gonzalez: And that highlights exactly what Sandino said, where you're leveraging strengths without undermining each other, where you collaborate in areas where your strengths differ, and you can minimize direct competition.
One person has a jungle lodge, the other person has a beach resort, that's their different strengths. So you can combine that and create a perfect package. Yeah, one last thing I can add as an example of collaborating and projects that are successful. Recently, this November, Placencia did the Placencia Restaurant Week and they were able to get a bunch of restaurants together and for one week they hosted an event where you could go to different restaurants and have different, catered meals, and that was one way to attract people to the area.
And restaurants were able to promote each other, but also other people are benefiting from such an event, and I don't know the results of the event this year, like, I don't know if it was really popular or not, but this takes time, again, so even if it wasn't, like, super successful this year, you know, down the road, it can be like, you know, the San Pedro Lobster Fest, where tourists come from the U S just for that event. So everything takes time and it's all about starting and experimenting with projects. And if it works, it works, you know, put in the time and effort on it. But if it doesn't, then you move on and try something different.
Angela Wu: I see Ms. Carlene mentioned our collaboration with the Belize Zoo. I swear I had that on my presentation and when I was going through the slides, I didn't see my slide.
So I was like, where did it go? But we'll proceed. But I'm glad that Ms. Carlene mentioned it because it was a collaboration between Belizing and Belize Digital Media with the Zoo. Um, we created the interactive map for the zoo so visitors can now have an interactive experience when they explore the best little zoo in the world.
And she said that they're interested in collaborating to see how, with the BTIA Dangriga, to see how Belizing can develop a digital map for Dangriga, highlighting, the culture capital of Belize. Um, and one thing that I really like, um, we have a comment here from Miss Becker. She said to contact her because they're looking for a jungle lodge to collaborate with. And that's one of the really good things about initiatives like this because you get to interact and establish. partnerships with each other. And I guess that's a good segue to mention that we have our in person session this Saturday at Guava Limb where we could actually meet and discuss.
And so that's something that's really beautiful from initiatives like this. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Yes. I would love for people to show up. I've heard back from some people that it's the high season, so they're busy working, so they can't make it. It's this Saturday.
I just posted the event link at the bottom. We have a few Angela Wu: spaces left. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Yeah, as long as you've participated in one of these events, if you've watched one of the videos on, you know, Signed up for the course, you are welcome to come, and along with just getting to interact with us cool people, and you being cool yourself, you'll get to enjoy a wood fired pizza and good vibes. Angela Wu: And we could continue the collaboration.
We've been, in fact, you've been seeing our faces since February, so it would be good to see some of you in person and to have a conversation and talk about how we can work together and continue to build the industry. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Exactly. And, again, networking is very essential.
A lot of people don't realize the value of it or minimize the value of it. But, it is very important. I know networking can be like a dirty word for some people, but basically networking is just getting to know people and establishing relationships. It doesn't have to be super formal or to the point where you go to each other's house for breakfast or lunch or dinner, but it's just like you see each other and you're like, Oh, I know this person. Yeah.
And trust develops. And someone like my dad, anywhere he goes like, 'cause he knows so many people, he never pay pays for parking. But yeah, I think that that's it. Like, if you, unless there's any more questions, we can, we can end the session here. It was really great. I really enjoyed having everyone come to these sessions and It's been a incredible eye opening experience for me, and I'm really glad that we were able to provide this to Belizean professionals, and I was able to see that people in Belize are eager to learn and enhance their products and services.
And that means Belize is in good hands, like, the growth of the economy, of the country is in good hands, because we have a lot of ambitious, smart, intelligent people that are, self starters and interested in growing and enhancing their products and services. And like Angela said, we commend everyone for participating in this sessions, whether you came to the live sessions or you're watching the recordings, at your own pace. Angela Wu: Yes. I guess it's time for you to do the closing, but thank you, for joining us this afternoon, for joining us since February.
I'd like to, of course, remind you about the in person event. We have a couple of slots left, so if you can attend, you can go ahead and RSVP with the link that Lorenzo shared in the chat. It would be on saturday at 1 p.
m. at the Guava Limb Cafe. And as mentioned earlier, this initiative is supported by the Emergent Ventures grant from George Mason University's Mercatus Center in collaboration with Belizing. com and The Lodge at Chaa Creek.
We appreciate everyone's participation and engagement, and if you have any other questions, you could send us an email, reach out to us, and then please feel free to, go ahead and proceed with completing the test for the end of this session, and hopefully we get to see some of you on Saturday. Lorenzo Gonzalez: Okay, take care. Bye.
2025-01-05 15:34
