On Thursday December 1, 2022 Kingston Creative hosted a graduation ceremony for the 10 participants of Cohort 2 of the Go Global Accelerator. In attendance were representatives for the 2 main donor agencies. Ms Sudaney Blair IDB Labs, Mr Giovanni Maddixx and Ms Pauline Nelson from the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ). Guests were greeted by Executive Director of Kingston Creative Andrea Dempster Chung, who shared a brief history behind the program. The Go Global Accelerator is one of several initiatives under the Kingston Creative CREATECH programme, led by program manager Karen Hutchinson it is a partnership with The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) and IDB Lab designed to provide opportunities for creative entrepreneurs. The program is geared towards locally based creatives who have had some measure of success but need assistance in creating structure to prepare for global markets.
The graduation’s Keynote Speaker was Harold Davis, Deputy Executive Director of the Jamaica Business Development Corporation. His areas of specialization include Entrepreneurship, Creative Industries, Innovation Management, Development Finance and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Entities (MSME) development strategies. He imparted 4 main principles to live by for successful entrepreneurship. Build a business that is resilient and founded on innovation. Doing this will help to create meaningful relationships that can help to catapult successful local operations to Go Global. Harold Davis is also a Musician, singer, songwriter and recording artiste with two studio albums released.
Raul Dunkley and Shawneil Bailey Gordon shared how grateful they were for the opportunity to refine their skills through training, build comradery with their peers and benefit from targeted and insightful business coaching by Entrepreneur Development Specialist, Kerrie Richards.
At the end of the ceremony, certificates were awarded to each participant. Present were:
Mahalia Gordon – MahGord’s
Shawneil Bailey Gordon – Zarabelle Management
Adrian Whyte – Night Vision Media
Kingston Creative
Monique McLeod
Marketing Manager
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Rhaul Coke – Dezign Magnet
Michael Thomas – Catatlyst Consulting
Gianna Fakhourie – The Original Arm Candy
Monique Blake – Merritone Music
Raul Dunkley – R D Multimedia
Amanda Wilson Mighty from Spathodia Gifts and Lesly Ann Wanliss from L A Wanliss Edits were unavoidably absent.
Kingston Creative’s Go Global Accelerator Programme was created specifically to equip local creative entrepreneurs to trade globally.This is our second year of the program and the growth that we have seen in a few short weeks has been magnificent.
The program is geared towards locally based creatives who have had some measure of success but need assistance in creating structure to prepare for global markets.
The 10 graduates were coached in refining their business and technology skills while sharpening their ability to tap into global markets via networking.
Upon being accepted into the program, all 10 creative entrepreneurs agreed to a commitment of 6 hours per week for training and 1 hour biweekly coaching sessions. Which took place in hybrid style between September 12 and October 14 2022. During this time, they attended training sessions on Strategic Planning, Sales, Marketing, Accounting, Governance and created their business pitch decks.
We are expecting great things from all our graduates and we look forward to the new cohort in 2023.
