Let's Wine: Stories Uncorked™

In the 10th episode of the FIEXPO 2026 series of Let’s Wine: Stories Uncorked™, Andrea Padilla sits down with Dennis Speet, Managing Director of the Amsterdam Convention Bureau, over a glass of Protos in San José, Costa Rica. After 25 years at ICCA, Dennis took on the challenge of rebuilding Amsterdam’s Convention Bureau from the ground up. Five years later, his team is positioning the city as a l...

In this episode of Let's Wine: Stories Uncorked™, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Luis Carlos Ochoa, President and Founder of Valoriza Group, over a glass of Luigi Bosca in Medellín, Colombia. After two decades at Citibank across New York, the Bahamas, Miami and Panama, Luis Carlos returned to Antioquia with one mission: bring global investment bankin...

In this episode of Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™, recorded at FIEXPO 2026 in San José, Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Kike Ramírez, international speaker, entrepreneur and author of the bestselling book Prohibido Rendirse (Never Give Up), over a glass of Protos. Kike shares how Prohibido Rendirse started as a social media phrase that went...

In this episode of Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™, recorded at FIEXPO 2026 in San José, Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Borja Castelar, author of Power Skills and former President of LinkedIn for Latin America, over a glass of Protos. A Spaniard who moved from Dublin to São Paulo overnight when Microsoft acquired LinkedIn and rerouted his en...

In the 7th episode of our FIEXPO 2026 series, recorded in San Jose, Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Martin Boyle, CEO of IAPCO and the first person ever to hold that title, over a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Martin's career was never a straight line. It started with a microbrewery restaurant in Canada, moved through corporate events in Scotl...

In the final episode of First In Line on Let's Wine: Stories Uncorked™, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, closes the mini series with Felicia Travaillot, CMO of StrategyCorps, over a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. This episode, titled Breaking the Silence, goes where most professional conversations never do: an open, honest conversation about perimenopause and why it is ti...

In the 6th episode of the FIEXPO 2026 series of Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™, recorded in San José, Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Juliana López, President of Grupo Heroica, over a cup of Costa Rican coffee. Juliana leads the operation of three convention centers across two countries: Cartagena de Indias, the Costa Rica Convention Center,...

In Episode 5 of our FIEXPO 2026 series recorded in San Jose,Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Annette Gregg, CEO of SITE (Society for Incentive Travel Excellence) and the first woman to hold that title in the association's 53 years ofhistory, over a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Annette brings 30 years in the business events industry tothis conv...

In this episode of the Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™ FIEXPO 2026 series, recorded in San José, Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Tammy Moore, VP of Learning & Professional Development at PCMA, one of the global business events industry's most respected associations, celebrating 70 years this year. Tammy spent 26 years as a planner, so...

In this episode of the Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™ FIEXPO 2026 series, recorded in San José, Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Dr. Senthil Gopinath, CEO of ICCA, the global association tracking over 13,000 international congresses every year — and celebrates his birthday with a glass of wine at the event. Senthil's career began in Sri L...

In this episode of the Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™ FIEXPO 2026 series, recorded in San José, Costa Rica over a glass of Protos, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Christoph Tessmar, Executive Director of the Barcelona Convention Bureau. Christoph arrived in Barcelona from Germany in January 1990 for what was supposed to be a one year assignment and never le...

In the opening episode of the Let's Wine: Stories Uncorked™ FIEXPO 2026 series, recorded in San José, Costa Rica, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Arnaldo Nardone, Director & Founder of FIEXPO Exhibition Group, over a glass of Malbec. Arnaldo has been shaping the meetings and events industry since 1998, when leads still arrived by mail in envelopes...

In Episode 2 of Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™, recorded live at the IPREX Annual Global Conference in Singapore, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Heidi Otway, President + Partner at SalterMitchell PR and incoming global president of IPREX, over Hatton wine from Bali. From a little girl who talked too much in elementary school, to covering the Oklahoma C...

In Episode 1 of Let's Wine Stories Uncorked™, recorded live at the IPREX Annual Global Conference 2026 in Singapore, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, sits down with Anu Gupta, Director at APRW and Council Member of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce of Indonesia (SingCham), over a glass of Indonesian white wine from Bali. Anu shares the story behind three decades of b...

Episode 2 of our "First in Line" series with Felicia Travaillot is here, and this one hits close to home. Felicia gets real about the times other women didn't show up: the lack of support, the competition, and the scarcity mindset that shows up in male-dominated industries. But more importantly, she shares what she chose to do because of it, and how she became the mentor she never ha...

In Episode 10 of the Fintech Americas series, we sit down with Driss Temsamani, Head of Digital for Latin America, Canada, and the United States at Citigroup — recorded live at Fintech Americas Miami. Author of The Agentic Bank and one of the most recognized voices in financial digital transformation, Driss has been attending Fintech Americas since the very first edition. In this conversation he w...

In Episode 9 of the Let's Wine: Stories Uncorked™ series at Fintech Americas, Andrea Padilla, CEO & Founder of Square Root Marketing, uncorks a tempranillo with Pablo Pereyra Portugal, Chief Revenue Officer at 2innovate — a Uruguayan-born company now operating across 12 countries and processing over 20 billion transactions per year for 40 million people across Latin America. Pablo breaks down...

In this episode of our Fintech Americas series, we sit down with Julián Colombo, CEO of N5 Now — a software company built specifically for the banking industry, recorded live at Fintech Americas Miami. Julián shares the story behind the name N5, breaks down what it really means to build banking software in the AI era — "building castles with bricks that change size every day" — and gives us his ho...

In Episode 7 of the Fintech Americas series, we uncork the conversation with Francisco Gómez, Director of Play Digital Consulting — part of the LEGO Group — recorded live at Fintech Americas Miami. Frank breaks down composable banking the LEGO way, shares his honest take on the AI hype cycle, and makes the case for why the next generation of customers won't adapt to the bank, it's the other way ar...

In Episode 6 of the Fintech Americas series, we sit down with Marcelo Fondacaro, CCO of Veritran — recorded live at Fintech Americas Miami. Veritran is a global tech company devoted to simplifying banking experiences. With more than 20 years of experience and a presence in 16 countries, Veritran is proud to be a key strategic partner for leading clients across Latin America, North America, and Eur...

In Episode 5 of the Fintech Americas series, we sit downwith Vickmar Martínez, Technology Manager at Mercantil Seguros — recorded live at Fintech Americas Miami, where her team received two awards on the same day. Hear Vickmar share the story behind Merse, their multichannel AI-powered virtual assistant that reduced customer service demand by 40%, and the commercialization platform launched in Pan...

We're launching a very special three-episode series with our guest Felicia Travaillot — "Felixandra, The Great" — CMO, industry leader, mom, and a role model for women building their path in the corporate world. In this first episode, Andrea Padilla and Felicia uncork the story of how Feli went from a fresh-out-of-college marketing associate to a seat in the C-Suite of a fintech — with no mentors,...

In Episode 5 of the Plastics News Executive Forum series, wesit down with Bill Wood, Economics Editor at Plastics News — recorded live at the Plastics News Executive Forum in Florida. Bill has spent decades tracking economic trends and connecting them to the plastics industry. In this conversation he makes the case that plastic should never be called waste — it's raw material ready to be reclaimed...

In Episode 4 of the Fintech Americas series, we uncork a Tempranillo with Mauricio Fernández, Sales Director at ACI Worldwide — recorded live at Fintech Americas Miami. Hear Mauricio break down how COVID accelerated digital payment adoption across Latin America, why payments are mission-critical infrastructure the economy cannot afford to lose, and what Brazil's Pix teaches the rest of the world a...

Four companies. One vision. One brand. Movantis brought together TransNetwork, Inswitch, Spectrum, and Appriza Pay to build what the industry has been missing: a single infrastructure layer for cross-border payments, stablecoins, FX, and embedded finance — launched at Fintech Americas Miami with the energy of a startup and the weight of decades behind it. We uncork Episode 3 of our Fintech America...