Por: Ana Portnoy Brimmer
Publicado en migoiq.com
You could hear them clinking glasses, their drinks sloshing back and forth, laughing over their witticisms and end-of-the-day anecdotes. Business cards sliced through the air as they exchanged them vigorously among each other, making sure no one was left without one. And ideas. How they exchanged ideas with an eagerness for collaboration, cooperation and partnerships.
The lights were dim in La Penúltima, a hipster-ish bar right on Ponce de León Avenue in Santurce, San Juan.
The walls were painted in fading shades of gray, and the patio outside was roofed over with small, shimmering light bulbs. Instrumental jazz simmered in the corners and crevices of the joint, and home-made seltzer water (one of the bar’s interesting features) fizzled inside cups and cocktails across the counter.
“This is a space to exchange ideas, and to talk about the particular experiences that women entrepreneurs encounter. Estamos en son de alianza(1), we’re connecting more and engaging in service exchange,” Laura Arroyo Lugo, a lawyer from San Juan, explained as she searched inside her purse for one of her business cards. She had recently established a firm called Ambiente Legal, which focuses on helping local businesses become sustainable.
On the evening of Wednesday, January 25, Laura was one of the many women who attended a networking event hosted by an organization called Puerto Rico Women in Startups.