After a near three-year absence, TechBeach Retreat will return to Jamaica offering tech start-ups and other players in the region’s technology sector an opportunity to connect with partners and investors from across the world.

Co-founder of TechBeach Retreat Kirk-Anthony Hamilton told the Jamaica Observer in an e-mailed response that the renewal of the summit, which takes place December 8-10, 2022 at Iberostar Resort in Rose Hall, St James, maintains its focus on leveraging technology as an economic pillar of growth. As such, the conference continues on its mission of accelerating digital transformation in the Caribbean and driving investment and partnership in the region’s technology sector.

“This year we’re evolving and breaking up the event into forums focused on start-ups, fintech, content creation, government and corporates. In each forum we’ll offer a learning curriculum alongside the content we deliver on the big stage,” the co-founder stated.

The return of the conference to Jamaica follows the organisation’s first in-person staging in the United States at the Confidante Miami Beach in Florida last month. Whereas the Miami Beach edition of TechBeach Retreat was “founder-focused”, Hamilton said that the Jamaican event remains the organisation’s flagship and offers more diverse content focused on emerging global trends.

Participants can also expect a line-up of regional and global speakers offering industry insights in an “all-inclusive campus-style environment” that’s both relaxing and productive.

“We set out on a mission to add visibility to our ecosystem and arm our tech start-ups with playbooks for success. Now we’re seeing numerous companies take on the confidence to build their companies and products and establish their space,” Hamilton told the Business Observer.

“We are in the early stages of the emergence of real tech companies in the Caribbean while they raise noticeable rounds of financing, capture great customers and most importantly, build amazing products. For our part, we’ve introduced and helped guide their interactions with investors, partners, customers and well-positioned mentors in their industry,” he added.

While the format of the Jamaican summit has changed, it has not deviated from its core objectice, which is to connect players in the Caribbean technology industry in a single space with a global network of entrepreneurs, investors, experts, and partners.

As such, several start-ups in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Barbados and The Bahamas, which have benefited from TBR Labs — TechBeach Retreat’s accelerator programme with the IDB Lab and Toronto Metropolitan University-based The DMZ — will also be in attendance at the conference.

According to Hamilton, the programme has supported the growth of over 100 companies and founders across the region since its genesis in March 2021.

“These companies have raised over $50 million in funding,” he boasted.

“People in the region need access to global networks that can truly help them catalyse their visions. TechBeach is a major access point for people to find capital, networks, jobs, partnerships, education and mentorship. We’re a bridge connecting our regional ecosystem to a number of global tech communities,” Hamilton explained further.

Still, the TechBeach Retreat co-founder believes that other start-ups should aspire for similar success to that of companies like WiPay, Caribshopper, Edufocal and MdLink who have secured significant funding amounting to millions in US dollars.

In this regard he said the conference has also created a space where global technology companies such as Microsoft, Google and AWS to offer free resources to allow start-ups to build products.

“We’ve done well to leverage the strength of global technology brands and people, including our diaspora, to be drivers of our community, provide education and partnership. We’re seeing more and more companies in the region leverage these same relationships,” Hamilton said.

“We believe, within the next three to five years, we’re going to see a number of companies go public or expand into a number of new markets with technology as the driver,” he concluded.