First International Presentation

What an exhilarating thrill to be part of an international presentation with my dear friend Janet. For the last two years she has been invited to speak to various countries about entrepreneurship. I gave 3 presentations about how I have used technology to grow my business. What an incredible experience to meet so many incredible people... I felt like I added an entire dimension to myself.

Santo Domingo is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. The city is located at 18°29′N, 69°55′W in the Caribbean Sea at the mouth of the Ozama River. It is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, and was the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World . In 1930, the city of Santo Domingo was almost completely demolished by a tropical hurricane called San Zenon. Dictator Rafael Trujillo, the incumbent at the time, reconstructed the city and named it Ciudad Trujillo after himself. After his assassination (with CIA involvement) in 1961, Ciudad Trujillo became Santo Domingo de Guzman as today's actual name. Santo Domingo de Guzman is within the boundaries of the Distrito Nacional and the Santo Domingo Province sorrounds it. In 2001 a law was approved making Santo Domingo de Guzmán(The City & D.N) less than 200 km² in size, making it the smallest administrative division in the country.

What a beautiful city full of vitality, spirit and so much history. I was amazed to learn that Santo Domingo was the oldest European City in the world. The church we visited was the 1st Catholic Cathedral in America. How cool to learn that Ponce De Leon, Hernando Cortes, and Christopher Columbus had all started their journey in Santo Domingo.

While we were touring Santo Domingo, our guide informed us that several locations in Santo Domingo were used while Scare Face with Al Pacino was being created. As we toured, we were welcomed with pouring rain. We made the best out of it and purchased goodies for family and friends.

During two presentations, I was surprised to hear from two of the attendees. They had actually visited my website.... I found it extremely rewarding in the response I received from the crowd after my presentations.

Here is a picture of the future president !... He is also the president of Fulbright. He received his masters at DUKE.

Janet did an outstanding job while talking to over 150 participants representing different parts of the Dominican Republic. She had the crowd eager to participate in her presentation.

Now we have picture of our Diplomate, Rex Moser, Agregado Cultural Embajada de Los Estados Unidos de American en Santo Domingo. What an interesting gentleman.... he's visited over 60 countries. His friend Peggy, a former director of the Smithsonian Museum was there on business. Between both of them, they visited over 100 countries. What an experience to visit local markets, restaurants and cigar shops. "Thanks" Rex for your hospitality!

It was such a thrill to meet so many interesting folks. One of our trips was to an incubator.... it was awesome to meet some entrepreneurs that had patten ed their business and were in the process of globalizing their business.

Our first presentation was to INFOTEP. There were over 150 people in attendance...tv and newspapers were covering the story. INFOTEP was celebrating their anniversary.

Here is Ana and Francesca before the presentation. They were the ladies behind the scene taking care of our two day itinerary.

Gracias Ana y Francesca.

When we first arrived to Santo Domingo, we visited El Conuco Restaurant. The atmosphere was beautiful, loved all the lively colors and decor. The food was awesome, entertainment splendid and here I am ready to dig into the bananas out side of the restaurant.

We arrived in Miami at 6am... while we waited we had the pleasure of meeting Emilio Estefan,....that's right... the husband of the beautiful and talented Gloria Estefan.

'Stay tuned as Addy's drives away in the Addy mobile with sparkle and bling'.