Printed on March 05, 2004 in DM News, www.dmnews.com By: Mickey Alam Khan Senior Editor mickey@dmnews.com The Chicago Association of Direct Marketing launches its 11th special interest group with the creation of a caucus dedicated to Hispanic marketing. The Hispanic Marketing Special Interest Group will serve as an information and resource hub for marketers planning to target Spanish speakers in the United States. Its mandate includes awareness generation, education, research, networking, and business opportunities. This foray follows the New York-based Direct Marketing Association's success with its own DMA Hispanic Council, whose Directo Days conference is scheduled for April 19 - 20 in New York. The CADM Hispanic group's first chairman is Gustavo Gruber of Banta Direct Marketing Group. The vice chair is Michael Rodriguez of ePrize. Eduardo Alvarez of Leo Burnett runs membership, and Cristina Benitez of Lazos Latinos is a strategic adviser. Among other steering committee members, Les and Joyce Pinto of Les Pintos are in charge of events along with Banta Corp.'s Ricardo Orozco; Manny Rodriguez of Sears, Roebuck and Co. heads public relations; and Luis M. Salces of LMS Communications handles sponsorships. CADM formally introduces the Hispanic group April 21 at the 50th Annual Chicago DM Days & Expo on Chicago's Navy Pier. A session planned for 3 p.m. that day titled "The Hispanic TAR Model -- How to Target, Acquire and Retain Hispanic Consumers" inaugurates the group. Special interest groups were started two decades ago at CADM. The others are Chicago Broadcast Direct, Creative Exchange, CRM, Database, E-Commerce, Entrepreneur, Financial Network, Nonprofit, Production, and the Teleservices Network. Reprinted with permission. DM News (www.dmnews.com).