CICR Excellence Congress: what the public program says and how to use it

What is public so far

According to public announcements, the Cámara de Industrias de Costa Rica (CICR) will hold its national business excellence congress on 18 November 2026 at the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica. The announced theme is about building a world-class future. Topics mentioned include leadership, innovation, sustainability, quality and artificial intelligence.

The reported program includes live presentations from three finalist projects of Compromiso con la Excelencia 2026 and the awards ceremony of the Premios a la Excelencia 2026. David Hutchins, a quality and continuous improvement practitioner, is named as a main speaker, along with other invited speakers. Dates, speakers and agenda can change, so confirm them with the organizer before planning.

We did not find announcements linking this congress specifically to Lean Six Sigma. It is a broader excellence event in which continuous improvement is one theme among several, so do not read it as a Lean Six Sigma conference.

The seven areas the Excellence Program evaluates

The Programa a la Excelencia, which the CICR has run since 1997, evaluates organizations across seven areas: culture, leadership and strategy; social responsibility; human talent; environment; innovation and technology; processes; and customers and markets. The CICR also offers free information sessions about the methodology and its benefits.

The list is useful even if your company never enters. Most small businesses review only sales and cash flow. Reading the seven areas side by side is a quick reminder that processes, people and customers are separate things that can each be weak while the others look fine.

Training options that exist locally

Public course listings from the CFIA show that its technical training center, CITEC, offered a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt course in August and September 2026. A listing only shows that a course was offered, not its content quality or results, so ask for the syllabus and recent participant feedback before paying.

For a team of five or ten people, a certification is rarely the first step. The earlier note on this blog about starting without a certification still applies: pick one repeated problem, count it, change one step and count again.

How a small team can borrow the structure

Synthetic example: a fictional three-person design studio goes through the seven areas in one hour. It scores each one from 1 to 5 on a sheet of paper, honestly and without comparing against anyone. It finds that processes and customers score lowest, because every project starts with a different intake conversation and follow-up depends on memory.

The studio then picks only one area, processes, and writes a one-page intake form. For a month it counts how many projects needed a second clarifying call. The same self-review can be repeated every quarter, and the scores become a simple record of where attention went.

If you follow the congress after it happens, look for the finalist project presentations. Concrete before-and-after numbers from real companies are more useful than slogans, but wait for the organizer or the companies to publish them rather than relying on summaries.