Nexus ’16 Debut: Nearshore Wave Crashes into San Francisco

Nexus 2016 kicks off tomorrow in San Francisco, and after many months of planning, we’re tremendously excited to be able to bring so many people together who have a passion for the nearshore.
As part of our preparatory drum roll leading up to the Opening Night program tomorrow evening, we want to preview the top 11 highlights of Nexus that show why this conference matters so much to the Latin American and Caribbean IT/ BPO markets.
1. Presidential Tone
Let’s face it — Costa Rica has a story to tell. It has become the envy of virtual all nearshore markets over the last decade, and at Nexus we will hear directly from one of the key architects of this emergence, former President Laura Chinchilla, on how the country has sustained such an amazing run.
2. Award Winners
The Nexus Illuminate Awards will debut this year with six winners, including honors for leading executive, company, entrepreneur, and investment professional of the year. In addition, one special nearshore destination will be recognized for a “City of the Year” award, setting an important standard for the attributes of a truly mature nearshore hub. Finally, our “Voyager” award recognizes a Latin American-born professional who has flourished in the IT market of the United States. We look forward to announcing all the — well-deserved — winners!
3. Silicon Rush
How well does Silicon Valley really grasp the nearshore model? One of the things we’re looking out for is the kinds of questions we get from our local IT attendees who are struggling to manage escalating costs, discover skilled UI/UX talents, probe for same-time-zone alignment with their delivery teams, and a host of other challenges.
4. Caribbean Mojo
The Caribbean may be a long way from Pacific Time, but we’re thrilled to see folks coming in from Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados, Guyana, Belize, Grenada, and Dominica. Virtually all of these countries have a strong case for taking a bigger slice of niche BPO services. One of the hottest opportunities exists around medical and health-related patient support.
5. State of Nearshore
Five months of research and data gathering by our Research Director Sean Goforth has resulted in some surprising trends within the Nearshore market — and we can’t wait to hear more about it!
6. California/Mexico Corridor
How much is California’s IT community beating a path to IT hubs in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Baja California? We expect to learn a lot from our special panel lead by the irrepressibly entertaining Toby Redshaw, former CIO at American Express.
7. Authors as Speakers
Speaking of Toby, we really enjoyed his convincing argument, published last week on Nearshore Americas, about the desire for context-awareness inside sourcing relationships. Another author who we are excited to see back at Nexus is Chris Snyder, who wrote what is still one of the funniest pieces to date on why CIOs’ need ninjas on their dev teams.
8. About Those Startups
Some of the most enthusiastic attendees coming to Nexus are founders of San Francisco- and Silicon Valley-based startups. Many of them are asking the same questions CTOs and product leaders asked a generation ago: What does nearshore have for talent anyway?
9. A Serious Exhibition
We sold out of booth space at Nexus about a month ago — and we’re really proud to see a roster of really diverse sponsors represented — from leading-edge contact center providers to global IT consultancies to the enduring champions of the nearshore IT market. About 30% of our exhibitors are new to us this year. Welcome!
10. Wall-to-Wall Coverage
Our editors, analyst, two-man camera crew, and photographer are all geared up to document as much of the Nexus experience as humanly possible. We will strive to get the reporting our promptly for those following from near and far.
11. Food, Drink and Festivities
With over 20 countries represented — and hosting an event in a magical city like San Francisco — we called on our caterers to raise their game and get some of the best wines of California and the tastiest treats from the West Coast foodie community!
Finally, want to finally pay tribute to a group of sponsors who have continued to back Nearshore Nexus, since its humble beginnings in 2010. That group includes Tata Consultancy Services Latin America, Softtek, Mexico IT, and Belatrix.