Hi everyone! So we created these three digital pieces you can grab and use wherever you are online to show you are a part of the Jamaican/Caribbean Startup Movement. If you think of any new ones, go ahead grab our logo and create it and send to us at ingrid@connectimass.com. We’ll post them on our Facebook Page and see what people like. In the mean time. Steal these and spread the Word.

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photo: bt.au.com

Join The BETA Talent Database for connections to Opportunities.
It’s a database of the best and brightest in the Caribbean and Caribbean Diaspora who are seeking connections to opportunities.
Are you a developer, designer, animator, project manager, etc? Are you looking for a job, projects, partnerships, funding? Then add yourself to our database, our mother organisation ConnectiMass gets asked regularly to recommend and connect individuals.

Click here

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Teams that Pitched their Tech Ideas at Kingston BETA April 2013 Edition

If the kind of Kingston BETA we had on Thursday April 25th is any indication of the kind of 2013 we’re going to have, then the word awesome will not even be enough. We had a guest speaker talking about a hot button topic – Mr Livingstone Morrison- Deputy Governor, Bank of Jamaica who spoke about Mobile Money and the Opportunities for Entrepreneurs and the Q & A section was hot with information and no holds barred revelations and suggestions.

We had a 4 person panel of entrepreneurs and developers – Lloyd Laing- Founder JL Mobile
Gordon SWaby – Founder, Edufocal.com, Khary SHarpe – Founder, Bakari Digital, Wayne Jones Jr – Founder, Hybrid Tech talking about STARTUP CITY: Kingston- How to make the city a hub for tech entrepreneurship & development. This was engaging and challenging to to the business and government officials who were in attendance.

We had 3 teams pitch their tech ideas and a full house 130 attendees. All at the headquarters of our gold sponsor JAMPRO-Jamaica’s Trade and Investment Agency. Our other Gold Sponsor was Jamaica Gleaner/DIGJamaica and our Silver Sponsor was My Virtual Offices.

We had 3 teams pitching with 2 registered teams as no shows.

THE TEAMS

#1: Team FarmScore:

Farmscore is credit score service to banks for our local farmers leveraging open data. Its called FarmScore. Basically, the web application will pull open data through the Open Data API under the following categories:
1. Economic data (market size, government spending)
2. Farming data (prices, agricultural output)
3. Population data (employment data, distribution of population)
More data sources will be added as required and will form the inputs for our model which determines a credit score or Farmer Risk Profile which the banks can use in assessing the inherent risk in lending to a particular farmer. In addition, other outputs of the proposed application are:
Farmer self evaluation
Location based risk profile
Product based risk profile

#2 Team Student Resident Web ( SRW)

Student Resident Web-It is a online business that advertise and manage housing accommodation specifically for students who are attending tertiary institution across Jamaica. It will cater to both Home owners and students by offering package deals and subscription period respectively. the website is currently been develop by a developer and we are looking to do a soft launch this summer by doing a manual run of the business without the website.

#3. BlastJA

BlastJA is a deal site for Jamaicans.

Link to Site here

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Left- Livingstone Morrison, Deputy Governor, Bank of Jamaica speaks to audience about Mobile Money. The Q & A section was HOT!

130 attendees – It was standing room only

3 teams pitched. – They were Team FarmScore. Team BlastJa and TeamSRW

4 entrepreneurs on a panel – Lloyd Laing- Founder JL Mobile,Gordon SWaby – Founder, Edufocal.com,

Khary SHarpe – Founder, Bakari Digital, Wayne Jones Jr – Founder, Hybrid Tech

I Guest speaker -Mr Livingstone Morrison- Deputy Governor, Bank of Jamaica who spoke on Mobile Money

2 Gold sponsors – JAMPRO, Gleaner Online/DiG Jamaica

1 Silver Sponsor – My Virtual Offices

1 wine bar sponsored by Lascelles Wines & Spirits n Novelty party rental

From the tweets generated – 15,981 accounts reached and over 60,000 impressions registered.

2 live blogs covered the event- One by Kingston BETA and the other by Gleaner Online

210 official photos – by Official photographer Joel Finnegan. See on our Facebook Page.

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Thanks for Georgia Popplewell, Kingston BETA got featured in the May/June issue of Caribbean BEAT – The Inflight magazine of Caribbean Airlines.

“Years before she launched Kingston Beta, Jamaican tech entrepreneur Ingrid Riley started hearing about techies holding these things called “meetups” in places like New York City and Silicon Valley. “When I went abroad,” Riley says. “I attended one or two, and realised it was basically a regular meeting for people in the industry, whether they’re designers, developers, entrepreneurs, or investors. It’s about being in the same space and getting to know each other,” she adds, “connecting people who have ideas with people who have already done things and people who have money. It’s about developing a community of like-minded people who believe they can be successful in a digital space.”

So in 2007, on the urging of Riley and her company ConnectiMass, a handful of Jamaican techies congregated in the parking lot of Suzie’s Bakery and Coffee Bar in Kingston’s Southdale Plaza, and began laying the foundation for a similar community in the Caribbean region. Kingston Beta was born.” More

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