WeTrade 2023 Business Fair on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Comes to Bogotá from July 27-28

WeTrade, an annual business fair focused on decreasing discrimination and increasing diversity in Latin America and the Caribbean, is returning from July 27-28 at the Ágora Convention Center in Bogotá to discuss issues pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Photo: Guests on stage last year at WeTrade 2022. (Credit: La Cámara de la Diversidad)

The business fair’s theme focuses on the concept of “The Power of Diversity” and will showcase talks from prominent business leaders including Sergio Londoño, from the Coca-Cola Company, Alejandro Santos from Grupo Prisa, Claudia Pupo from Promigas, and Felipe Cárdenas, who is president of event organizer Cámara de la Diversidad.

A trade fair will also be hosted during the event featuring products and services that can help organizations to create and maintain inclusive policies. A business conference between the the Cámara de la Diversidad in Colombia and its sister agency in Miami will also be held where 12 diverse entrepreneurs will be featured as well. 

Attendees at WeTrade 2022. (Credit: La Cámara de la Diversidad)

One of the big highlights of the event will be the launch of the Inclusive Tourism Diploma in Latin America as a way of consolidating related academic research across the region. 

“This is historic,” said Cárenas. “It is a strategic alliance with the Externado de Colombia University that will support the consolidation of formal academic work, certification of competencies in the tourism sector, and the administration of travel experiences free of discrimination.”

The biggest centerpiece of WeTrade, however, will reveal the ranking of Latin America’s most inclusive companies, which will include more than 200 companies across 15 countries in the region. The ranking, according to Cárdenas, hopes to show a better perspective of the region’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies firsthand. 

The Cámara de la Diversidad, which is organizing this year’s WeTrade, was established in 2022 as a successor to the Colombian LGBT Chamber of Commerce. The organization has increased its reach since its founding, growing to 282 affiliate companies by June 2023, and continues to advance its agenda through WeTrade, which began in 2014.

Cárdenas has had an active role in increasing better diversity practices in the region, not just for the LGBTQ members of society but also for the five million migrants living in the country today and millions of Colombians with disabilities. 

“Today we impact close to half a million diverse people, thanks to the fact that we have included a greater number of minority groups in the country,” he said.