Approximately 300 attendee’s gathered at the Tech Beach conference from December 5th-7th at Iberostar Hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where they participated in three days of tech talks in a comfortable and laid-back setting.

The event has as its mission the linking of Caribbean entrepreneurs and businesses with the leading names in the global tech and digital space, so that they can share, learn and plan for the future.

The presenters and panelists, all known leaders in their space, led discussions on FinTech, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation and the impact on the region, while examining how Caribbean companies and entrepreneurs can participate in the current evolution — not just be impacted by it.

It also served as a place where attendees could network and build long-term business connections in a “non-hierarchical setting”, according to co-founder of Tech Beach, Kirk Hamilton.

For Hamilton, this year’s event was a success.

“Tech Beach 2019 has come to a close. It’s been truly amazing; the last three days people have found a lot of value in what we have managed to create along with our team. People have really appreciated the groundedness of the conference, the content, and the type of information they have been getting. Now that Tech Beach has been around for a couple of years, we are getting a lot more hands-on in terms of what the conversation is about.”

He continued,“We are always striving to make progress and to evolve and keep giving more. What we are aiming to do is div ein deeper — moving beyond simply delivering great content and information from speakers on stage, into creating a more hands-on environment where people are really learning and able to take away from the experience in a more meaningful manner. The first couple of years our focus was on just trying to excite and energise the market around the conversation of digital transformation. We’ve done that and done it very well. Now, we’re looking at up-levelling.”

As a result, outside of the typical presentations the conference added a workshop element with two tracks for start-ups and corporates.

“This year we had two tracks, start-ups and corporates. The start-ups primarily came through programmes with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) and Caribbean Export Development Agency. We had people from Martinique, St Lucia, Haiti, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados and Jamaica,” he explained. This also included a hybrid accelerator programme — not taught by just consultants, but true expert practitioners in their fields.

The corporate workshops were focused primarily on blue chip companies and large corporates. Workshops were run by companies such as Google, Microsoft, AVAYA and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), with the aim to upscale those who are driving innovation within their organisations. Topics covered included Digital transformation, creative design skills for innovation and cybersecurity.

For Co-Founder /Co-Director Kyle Maloney, the highlight of this year’s event has been the increased participation of other Caribbean countries on their own, even without sponsorship, because they do see the value in the product being offered at the event.

He explained, “2019, we are seeing a nice evolution of the brand as we step into our own and begin to claim a space that really hasn’t been claimed within the Caribbean yet, which is around an overall ecosystem development across the region. This year more than any other year, we are seeing more interaction from a lot of the islands across the Caribbean. We have a strong contingent from Martinique…we have from Guyana, St Lucia, Barbados, Bahamas; [It’s good] seeing that interaction, and engagement coming through from these islands.

“These are people that are picking up on their own to come and participate in Tech Beach. We have had some participation in the past, but they’ve been sponsored. It’s easier to tell someone yes when someone else is paying for you. But when these companies are getting up and saying I want to be a part of this thing — I’m seeing the value, I’m seeing how it’s going to improve my access, it’s going to touch on my bottom line and give me things I don’t normally get within my own local ecosystem. I think that’s really big,” He explained.

Though the event went well, Maloney is cognisant of the fact that they still have room to grow.

“I’m sure that we might have missed in some instances…and I’m always open to identify ways that we can always make things better. I have so many ideas about what we are going to do coming into the future. We have a lot planned for 2020 on the overall ecosystem development that goes way beyond the event, and the event series, that we will then roll out across more islands across the region. We are definitely looking at going a lot deeper with companies and people across the various segments, start-ups and corporates, and helping them transition that digital divide.”

Sponsors of the event included, for the first time, Google as title sponsor and the IDB Lab. Other sponsors included Jampro, PwC, Microsoft, Iberostar, the Government of Canada, and DBJ.