2015 Sustainable Development Through Entrepreneurship Conference, Grenada 26-28 October

ANNUAL CARICOM SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONFERENCE REPORT 1

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The Annual Caricom Sustainable Development Through Entrepreneurship Conference took place in Grand Anse, Grenada, Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Livelihoods and its Approved Implementing Partner; Dynamic Youths of Grenada Business Hub partnered, to commemorate Caribbean Entrepreneurship Week 2015, October 26th-28th at the Grenada Youth Centre.

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attendance were Entrepreneurs, partners, Ministers and Global Peace Ambassadors from participating countries; Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Kenya, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, USA and of course the host nation Grenada.

MAIN OBJECTIVE: Taking Development to the Community SUB-OBJECTIVES: 1. To transfer knowledge, explore relevant ideas and develop action plans for deepening and strengthening working relationships and partnerships.

2. To examine regional partners’ current best practices (entrepreneurship actions) and adapt and adopt to improve our programmes.

3. To recognize, celebrate and promote entrepreneurs in commemoration of Caribbean Entrepreneurship Week 2015 4. To examine what more can be done for young and mature entrepreneurs in the region and discuss actions for the future.

5. To engage in business mentoring & Think Tank sessions through CoESL’s Wall of Fame methodology 6. To continue to ensure that the work of partners invited to attend the conference is placed within the context of Sustainable Development’s agenda and continue to evaluate the impact each partner’s mandate is having on regional development in a sustainable way.

7. To promote and discuss the work of Action/2015 within the sustainable development agenda.

8. To produce and/or update the physical directory containing contact and mission details of each organization attending the conference, for distribution and placement on each partner’s website.

9. To continue to work in a strategic, holistic way to advance regionalism as one strategic sustainable development goal.

10. To produce a paper for publication based on results generated from the field research. 1 1

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The theme for this year’s event was, Actions for Developing Entrepreneurial, Resilient People and Sustainable Communities. Basically to find out what we are doing that works and what we should be doing most of? Dr. Marcia Brandon always states that she has no intensions of this conference to take place in a fancy hotel conference room. Her intension is taking it out into the rural communities where the real people are, hence the reason for choosing such a location.

In discussions, we were examining what can be done for young and mature entrepreneurs in the region and discuss actions for the future as mentioned in the objectives. What we saw was a common problem within the region and the world. We all suffer from the similar fate and concluded that we want to change the world. But if we want to change the world, we must have verbal engineering, create a new language that changes policy and say things differently as said by Ambassador Clyde Rivers, “tired words mean nothing”

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Dwayne Gutzmer from the Institute of Law & Economics, Jamaica; outlined in his presentation, ways to engage with government in more fiscal policy dialogue i.e. we must understand how to dialogue with government. As he rightfully said, “We put governments in power, we have the right to question what they do.” “Citizens must have a say on what is done to our monies. We must facilitate what we want from them”.

Dr. Charles Kinuthia, Franchise Expert from Kenya, owning forty-eight franchises in eight states in the US, gave us a lot of food for thought. He said in his introductory speech on day two of the event, that to achieve something in life, you must define your personal goals. Write down your vision, with this fifty percent (50%) of your work is done, he further states. Dr. Kinuthia also gave the participants seven essential steps in starting your business and having a successful business which I will outline below.

1) Define the market   

Do a thorough study See if it is a depleting market Adding value to area

2) Market Analysis, get feedback about your business     

Give items free, let people test your product Capitol Research Price Timing, the right to go into such

3) Assist Internal Capabilities   

What is competence?

What are you good at?

S.W.A.T Analysis

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4) Prioritize    

Ability to solve problems Decide if you are going there You have a privilege to do business with me Are the gaps in the market place to fill

5) Develop market entry option 

Local, regional or international

6) Execute the plan  

Do what you set out to do Put time line

7) Exit strategy   

Plan what you are going to do when you become very successful Put systems in place Document your failures

Dr. Melida Harris-Barrow and Dr. Una-May Gordon were my first mentors. They were mentoring marketing strategies. They gave tips to bear in mind when you walk into a room of investors, enter the room with confidence. It should be like this, I have a product I think you and I can benefit from. They told us not to be afraid of partnership, the importance of synergizing and networking. One memorable statement that was made from that group was to be shameless about marketing yourself. “You are who you are,� they said.

Dr. Una-May Gordon To left and Dr. Melida Harris-Barrow to right

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A number of memorable quotes and information spoken throughout the three days

Don’t surround yourself with energy vampires – Dr. Marcia Brandon Give somebody a fish or teach them how to fish – Mr. Kelvin Sergeant What we give to people is what you expect for yourself – Dr. Clyde Rivers Create space for people to recognize God as the supreme – Senator Winston Garraway Development is about people – Dr. Marcia Brandon Make brilliant concepts a reality – Ms. Bevenisha Moodie Europeans created their elusion on black people, only if you believe you are inferior – Dr. Melida Harris-Barrow I cannot be a wondering generality to depend on specifics – Dr. Charles Kinuthia Be the change you want to see – Dr. Charles Kinuthia Greed and mis-education is why things are not working – Dr. Clyde Rivers Find out from each other what you can do for each other – Dr. Melida Harris-Barrow We must work together to empower the youth – Dr. Ashley John No matter who you are and what situation you are placed with in life, you have the power to determine where you want to be – Mrs. Hannah Olmberg

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Entrepreneurs Awards – Presented by The Ministry of Youth, Sports & Religious Affairs 1.

Best Product – Agriculture: 2.

Best Product – climate change; 3.

Best Product – Technology & Information; 4.

Best Product – Cultural Industries & Services 5.

Most Informative Exhibit 6.

Most Innovative Product/Service 7.

Environmental Awareness 8.

Best Quality Product/Service 9.

Best Agripreneur – Male 10. Best Agripreneur – Female 11. Most Committed 12. Best Potential

COESL Partnership Awards werepresented to; 1, Dr. Charles Kinuthia 2. Dr. Melida Harris-Barrow 3. Global Leaders Coalition 4. Ambassador Clyde Rivers

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40+ entrepreneurs/students/guests Hon. Minister Emmalin Pierre – Ministry of Youths, 24. Lorna Samuel – Republic Bank Marketing Manager Sports and Religious Affairs Grenada Sen. Hon. Minister Winston Garraway - Minister of 25. Sandra A James – G-PAf – Grenada State in the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Religious 26. Kriss Davies – Prosperity Concepts Inc. Affairs 27. Everton Hanson – CEO – Caribbean Climate Mrs. Lisa Lewis - Chair Person. CEO/Founder DYGBH Innovation Centre – Jamaica Dr. Marcia Brandon – Managing Director COESL 28. Dwayne Gutzmer – Jamaica Entrepreneur Mr. Kelvin Sergeant - ILO 29. Ashley John – Constructive Solutions – Managing Ambassador Dr. Clyde Rivers, iChange Nations – Director – St. Vincent & The Grenadines Burundi/USA 30. Samesha Corea - – St. Vincent & The Grenadines Ambassador Dr. Melida H. Barrow – Global Peace Entrepreneur Ambassador & Social Entrepreneur – Panama/USA 31. Nickson Barry - Grenada Dr. Charles Kinuthia – Franchise Expert USA/Kenya 32. Bevenisha Moodie – Jamaica Waszuru Mack - – Antigua & Barbuda Entrepreneur 33. Akarda Ventour – YABT Grenada Waszara Mack – Antigua & Barbuda Entrepreneur 34. Una May Gordon – Founder - Institute of Sustainable Kai Davis – Antigua & Barbuda Entrepreneur Livelihood Leadership & Exchange (ISLEx), Belize Yacouba Toussaint – Grenada Entrepreneur 35. Crystal Samos - Belize Entrepreneur Lyndonna Francis - Grenada Entrepreneur 36. Urdine Alphonse – St. Lucia Entrepreneur Willan Mark - Grenada Entrepreneur 37. Renee Skeete – Barbados Kierna DeCoteau - Grenada Entrepreneur 38. Randy Belgrave – Barbados Marcus Christopher Jr. - Grenada Entrepreneur 39. Patricia Johnson - St. Lucia Entrepreneur Ezra Brathwaite- Grenada Entrepreneur 40. Kathleen Bute – St. Vincent & The Grenadines Rashida Sylvester - Grenada Entrepreneur 41. Hugh Johnson -Jamaica Shanil Sylvester - Grenada Entrepreneur 42. Hannah Olmberg – Suriname Entrepreneur Alva Renaud - Government Youth Enterprise 43. Fayola Agaja – Barbados Entrepreneur Initiative Rep. - Grenada Brian Lee Chandler - Barbados Entrepreneur Media Personnel Shawna Rollins – Barbados Entrepreneur 44. Grenada Broadcasting Network - (GBN) Euris Rollins - Barbados Entrepreneur 45. Meaningful Television - (MTV) 46. Government Information Services – (GIS) 9

COESL’s Regional Sustainable Development Implementing partners include:

Studio Kreativity Inc.

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Post Conference

- Invitation to EXPOCOMER 2016 b Dr. Melida Harris-Barrow – Social Entrepreneur and Global Peace Ambassador

- Invitation to L A C FLAVOURS

- All Entrepreneurs attending the Conference were awarded Global Peace Ambassadors Status by Dr. Clyde Rivers and Dr. Melida Harris-Barrow.

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- Rashida and Shanil Sylvester Grenadian Young Entrepreneurs host “EARTH� Local Market which had 25 booths held on December 19th 2015 at the Grenada Youth Centre

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This year our conference focused on the sustainable development goals and the actions all of us will need to take to make our nations sustainable. Our focus is on livelihoods and people development. Our conference carries a number of events and activities, including an opening ceremony, opening of Caribbean Entrepreneurship Week, soft launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a series of Business Mentoring sessions on day one, Panel Discussions, Round Table Dialogue and Pitching.

We also hosted a regional trade show and as in former years, the trade show will cover four broad sectors. These are Climate Change, Technology & Information; Services & Knowledge, Cultural Industries and Agriculture.

Participants of the Trade Show are normally assessed and entrepreneurs are awarded at a Closing Dinner & Awards Ceremony on the last evening of the conference.

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Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Livelihoods & Dynamic Youths of Grenada Business Hub is truly thankful and grateful for the opportunity to partner with you our Conference Partners this year and extend best wishes to you. Without your partnership this event would have never been the success it was. Looking forward to future partnerships.

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Report Compiled By Princess Waszara Mack Of Nyahbinghi Farms and Gaash Mabruck Designs- Antiguan Entrepreneur Report Edited By Mrs. Lisa Lewis – CEO/Founder of Dynamic Youths of Grenada Business Hub

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