While the duo behind the Latin American Fashion Summit has been busy bringing the region’s talent to the worldwide fashion industry, their latest endeavor looks to welcome the worldwide fashion industry into the region.

Launching with the primary iteration in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from March 13 to fifteen, Raíces by LAFS goals to be a wedding between a networking event and a trade show — but minus the stuffy corporate element and the cavernous convention center vibe.

“We’ve noticed after 4 years doing summits that there’s a lot impact that’s created if you connect folks that are in the identical industry,” said Estefania Lacayo, cofounder of LAFS, digital networking platform Tribu and now Raíces by LAFS. “People invite them to their country to come back to a trunk show. You possibly can generate a lot that may also help them grow their businesses.”

LAFS, the unique summit that Lacayo launched with partner Samantha Tams in 2018 — which in its pandemic-postponed iteration in March counted Johanna Ortiz, Alexandre Birman, Lauren Santo Domingo and Pharrell Williams amongst its guest speakers — will remain a staple in Miami, happening in November every year as a “think tank” of sorts, bringing in C-level executives to uncover not only the most recent coming out of Latin America but in addition the most recent in business best practices. Raíces, alternatively, hopes to facilitate more casual interactions between those doing business in Latin America and people trying to achieve this.

“Latin America will likely be an especially different product. We’ll [bring together] emerging designers, entrepreneurs that perhaps really don’t need to hearken to a top executive talking in regards to the meta world because they may not be there yet. They’re more fascinated by [things like] what’s the proper technique to create a pitch to an editor, or what buyers want and hearing from the style director of two, three different retailers,” Lacayo said. “The product in Latin America will likely be very heavy on networking. Heavy on meeting with the buyers, meeting with the numerous, many brands and plenty of, many entrepreneurs in the style ecosystem. That’s really what they need.”

The conference will happen over two days, with panel discussions limited to the mornings and the majority of the afternoons designed for speed dating — meetings between handbag designers and buyers, meetings between jewelry artisans and shops that want their one-of-a-kind wares, meetings between those fascinated by fashion media and people in it sharing their insight.

“Many speed dating activations [will] be happening [simultaneously] and the thought behind that is that folks actually need to get to know not only the highest senior people doing this but additionally they want to satisfy other folks that they might generate business with, folks that are doing something like this in Argentina or Brazil in London which are Latins on this world,” Lacayo said.

And running counter to all that’s unlikeable in regards to the typical trade show, Raíces is all set to happen in a colonial home, bringing alongside the exhibition of brands and designs from the region, the fantastic thing about the Dominican Republic. As Tams said, the aim is for it to feel like more of an “out of office offsite sort of thing relatively than business as usual.”

“Though Miami is the capital of Latin America, the rationale why we created LAFS is because we also wanted to indicate all of you guys what Latin America has to supply, with its culture, with its heritage, with its artisans, with gastronomy,” Lacayo said.

As such, that’s what is going to occur at Raíces on the sidelines of recent business meetings.

“On this edition, we’re planning to actually get to your senses with gastronomy, with visual things, just like the streets are beautiful but definitely we have now historic elements — every thing that we’re going to plan it’s for you as guest to back and say, ‘wow, this was the perfect taste of Latin America,” Tams said.

Due to the multifaceted features, the host country is fully on board. The primary edition of the event will likely be presented by the Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic. With the aim of constructing this a roving event throughout the region, LAFS is already in talks with other nations to develop similar things.

Tourism aside, the collection of Latin American design is what visiting buyers have most to stay up for from a business standpoint. And that very keen curation is what landed LAFS in Amazon’s Luxury Stores earlier this summer, with an edit that showcases the most effective fashion coming out of Latin America. And Raíces intends to bring more where that got here from.

“Latin America has turn out to be an enormous focus for retailers. There’s a lot interest and there are such a lot of opportunities, from small boutiques to large department shops,” Lacayo said. “For [buyers] to come back to Latin America and see a lovely curation, a lovely showroom pop up, right after Paris [Fashion Week]…it’s a fantastic opportunity for them to get to see all of the brands in a one-stop shop.”

It’s prime for brands and retailers which have promised to stock their shelves with more product by Black and Latin-owned brands but that aren’t yet sure where to seek out them — or haven’t been committed enough to actually look.