The state's largest minority group is pressing the Utah business community to embrace Utah's growing diversity.

The Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce held its annual convention Friday at the Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, focusing on improving relations within the state's overall business community.

"The idea is to try to educate people about how to work with the Hispanics and the Hispanic community," said Patricia Dark, executive director of the Utah Hispanic Chamber. "It's also about helping Hispanic businesspeople grow their business, do better and expand."

Latinos are a growing economic and business force in Utah, she said.

"If you're a businessperson and you want to grow your business, you can't ignore the Hispanic community," she said.

The Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is a network of Latino businesses, professional associations and corporations, according to the organization's Web site.

Dark said the Utah Hispanic Chamber has more than 340 member businesses that employ more than 1,000 individuals.

Juana Bordas, the conference's keynote speaker and the author of "Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age," said Latinos have had a long history of struggle and of contribution.

"We have the highest participation of any group in the labor market and we're the fastest growing entrepreneurial sector," she said.

Anglo business leaders should recognize that as a great opportunity to learn and grow in today's business culture, she added. In the last census, 3.5 million Americans identified themselves as "multicultural."

"Diversity is part of our landscape," Bordas said.

She would encourage Anglo businesses in Utah to be open-minded and expand their understanding of the Latino culture and embrace the vast potential that exists from a business standpoint.

"There isn't an Anglo person in Utah who hasn't benefited, from someone cooking them a burger at McDonald's to building their homes," Bordas said. "We need to move to the next level, where there is mutual respect and understanding."

She urged state and local governments to develop programs that encourage diversity within the business community and promote inclusiveness.

"If civic leaders in Utah really want to jump-start this process, they should bring business people together in an effort to get them to embrace this idea," she said. "Once the mayor, the city council and educators accept the idea of diversity, then it will take off in a positive way."

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