STARTUP CITY: Kingston – How to make the city a hub for tech entrepreneurship and innovation…in fact Startup Cities wanted across the Caribbean.

Growing the Caribbean Startup Culture

As the words entrepreneurship and innovation move from being mere hype  to becoming deeper rooted into the psyche across the Caribbean especially over the last 18 months a number of things have been happening. We’re starting to see the beginnings of a culture emerge and in some places – the growth is fast.

We’re seeing increased conversations across all levels of society – high school and university curriculum are evolving to include entrepreneurship, more entrepreneurship clubs are forming in schools and for young professionals, more online micro groups of aspiring and current entrepreneurs, developers  designers have been forming and are busy with interaction; more tech meetups, code sprints, Pitch competitions and conferences are happening. I’d like to think that the Caribbean – the sleeping giant is awakening and I’m damn excited.

Without question there are some Caribbean nations that are ahead of others, in terms of entrepreneurial and developer talent development, success stories, policies, infrastructure and governmental and organisational support. Based on my own experience it’s looking like Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Barbados that are leading the way.

It’s in recognition of this, coupled with what I’ve seen in my own experiences in staging Kingston BETA for 6 years, Caribbean BETA for two years, with developing many competitions and code sprints in between – that we decided to put the matter of creating Startup Cities across the Caribbean front and centre of all that we do in 2013.

We kick off this at the first Kingston BETA event on Thursday APril 25th, 2013. And we’re happy to have as usual a great partner in JAMPRO– the Jamaican Trade and Investment Agency on board to host it at their headquarters. We will also  have as usual tech entrepreneurs pitching their ideas and will be judged by a panel of successful entrepreneurs who are also Kingston BETA alumni. Entry Contribution: JMD$500 |USD$5.

Do you want to pitch your idea or startup at this event whether you are in Kingston or from Kingston living the region or Diaspora. Send in your name, idea in a single paragraph with a link if relevant  in an email to ingrid@connectimass.com.

If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact Ingrid Riley ingrid@connectimass.com | 1 876 864 2440.

The Kingston BETA event series is brought to you by the award-winning media organisation ConnectiMass that offers content, community and events for aspiring and current Caribbean entrepreneurs in technology. ConnectiMass is a mission to drive tech entrepreneurship and innovation in the Caribbean. SiliconCaribe.com and SiliconCaribe.TV are also content brands of ConnectiMass.