Hub of the Caribbean's Tech Scene
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Mike Johns, President, Digital Mind State to speak at the Next Kingston BETA April 26th.
Apr 13th
Mike Johns is Jamaican. He is the Founder and President of Digital Mind State formerly known as UrbanWorld Wireless, the Los Angeles based company that bridged wireless technology and hip-hop culture will be the guest speaker via Skype Video at the next Kingston BETA, Thursday April 26th, 2012 6:30pm at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.
Who is Mike Johns?
Mike Johns is the driving force behind the Digital Mind State brand, responsible for planning, business development, marketing and the company expansion. A true liaison between urban youth culture and the mobile industry, Johns has been successful at building and maintaining profitable business relationship with some of the biggest company names in mobile industry including T-Mobile, Zed, Fun Mobility, Nokia, Microsoft, amongst others. Motivated byleveling the playing field of the “Digital Divide,” he’s been dubbed “ambassador” of the urban/hip-hop lifestyle segment as well he’s achieved numerous “first” in the mobile entertainment space.
UrbanWorld was a vision Johns had early in his career while working as Marketing Director for Larry Flynt’s Rap Page Magazine. In 2001, he turned his dream into reality, brokering the company’s mobile content provider deal with T-Mobile; partnerships with Infospace, Jamster, and AT&T (UrbanWorld’s voicetones have been featured in the top ten voicetone category on AT&T for three consecutive years). Capitol Records become the first record label to conduct mobile marketing with the “urban” audience, utilizing UrbanWorld’s mobile platform followed by such industry players as Def Jam, Vibe Magazine, Adidas and Fox Network. UrbanWorld Wireless has become a worldwide leader in the distribution of urban content, while earning praise from executives at ABC Radio, BBC Radio, XXL Magazine, and an endless list of partners, vendors and clients.
With more than ten years in the industry and an unrivaled understanding of the global wireless ecosystem, Johns is creating a unique, digital entertainment experience for the youth and young adult market with the international distribution of top urban brands in music, video & film across new media platforms including Xbox Live, Playstation, mobile and digital television.
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Who’ll be coming to the Tech Entrepreneurship Conference, Caribbean BETA?
Oct 20th
Do you remember Flash and Dreamweaver? The keynote speaker will be Marc Canter, the founder of Macromedia, the graphics and web development software company that, relatively recently, was acquired by Adobe. Although the purchase of Macromedia should have left Marc set for life, and able to sit on the beach all day drinking mai tais, he has a new passion: building digital cities. This 30 year software development guru and tech entrepreneur, is now the CEO of Digital City Mechanics.
Michelle Messina Silicon Valley comes to Jamaica
Also featured on the agenda will be Michelle Messina, Vice-President of International Business Development of the Silicon Valley-based Guidewire Group, which… provides startups, their supporters, and those who do business with them with the tools, data, networks and programs they need to discover, monitor, benchmark, compare, and promote early-stage companies…
These international guests will complement a powerful crop of young tech entrepreneurs from across the region who are making their mark at home and further afield. For the most part, they will be sharing their experience, for example, how they became successful, along with discussing the various funding options that are available.
What is Caribbean BETA ?
It’s the first of its kind, one day Tech Entrepreneurship conference that’s about driving startup businesses, jobs and innovation in Jamaica and across the Caribbean. It will be on Friday, November 25th 2011 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica. See Conference Agenda for details.
It’s about the business of spawning successful Caribbean Tech Startups.
It’s the event where the smartest Caribbean minds in technology around the world, come to show and tell what they’re doing to change the world, to learn from experts, be inspired and get connected to talent, funding and opportunities.
It brings together the industry pioneers and fresh faces, thought leaders and technology giants from Caribbean and around the world. The event will include inspiring keynotes and workshops, refreshing panels and a BETA PitchFest contest with focus on hot sectors like mobile/web apps, social networking, multimedia content and gaming.
The What and Why of the Kingston BETA event Explained
Sep 30th
We're on a Mission
I’ve made it no secret that I’ve been on a mission. From the 1999 with the publication of Jamaica’s first Internet Guide, iGuide Jamaica, to the launching of this blog because my inbox got too heavy with information and many questions from people like you who wanted to know and to share what you were doing. I put my first tech company on ice to go work for a US-based dot com then called HomeView as its Chief Content Officer. What an experience that was.
The mission expanded in 2007 where we joined early the global movement to drive tech entrepreneurship and startups by launching the Kingston BETA event for the growing tech community to meetup regularly, network, pitch their big ideas, get feedback, connections and expertise.But honestly Kingston BETA came from my own selfish need to meet more people like me who were in the tech industry, thought we were alone with our ideas and were going crazy working in silos craving validation, connection, information and help.
Four years, over 40 events, 2000 attendees, 70 Caribbean Startups later…the community is growing, the ideas are getting better, the startups launching are happening faster, more are being successful. At the same time, some people still don’t get it, so they’ve never supported the mission, event and community (corporate or individual), that’s ok too.
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Kingston BETA January 2011 Presentations
Feb 1st
Last week Thursday, Kingston BETA kicked off the first in its series of bimonthly events in Kingston, at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel with “SHOW ME THE MONEY” will be an interactive panel-led discussion on How Jamaican and Caribbean technology/internet entrepreneurs can develop profitable business models for their ideas and startups. Our 3 guest panelists were O’Neal Campbell- Discountsja.com ( Jamaica’s Groupon.com), Alex Morrissey Songwrita/Jamaicansmusic.com and Marc Gayle- Compversions.com.
Marc Gayle kicked off the discussions with his presentation called “Ideas are Cheap:
Ideas are Cheap by Marc Gayle, Kingston BETA
Additionally, we had Alex Morrisey the founder of Jamaicansmusic.com, who as of today has the biggest fan base of any Caribbean based brand, by beating Digicel, the leading telecommunications provider in the Caribbean. Here’s his presentation on how his website, his social games and online studio makes money.
A Facebook Interview with Marc Canter, Founder of Macromedia, Ceo of Broadband Mechanics.
Jun 17th
We made the announcement on May 19th on the event blog for Kingston Beta. The headline read Marc Canter, Founder of Macromedia, creator of FLASH Media Player will speak at the ConnectiMass technology event Kingston Beta in June. The Jamaican and Caribbean tech and business community has been a buzz ever since.
And yes he will be speaking their via Skype Video on Thursday June 24th, 2010 to the Jamaica’s Kingston Beta community at the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston.
Since we became Facebook friends, I took the opportunity to get a pre-event interview with him. So I sent him some questions and he answered them in a candid and direct way. Here’s the interview: Read the rest of this entry »
Bob Parsons, Ceo of GoDaddy.com-5 things I wish I learned in Business School. Plus … a smoking HOT blonde.
May 4th
This was too funny in its irreverence and too solid in its business advice from a very successful entrepreneur not to share with you.
Bob Parsons: How I built 3 Mega Million $$$ businesses from scratch! Plus a very hot Russian Chick.
May 4th
Guy Kawasaki is following Kingston Beta on Twitter ?
May 3rd
So while we where setting up our new FaceBook Fan Page and Twitter Page we decided to follow a number of successful tech entrepreneurs, business thinkers, angel and venture capitalists and of course Guy Kawasaki was one our list. Then half our later in starting up our Twitter account, Guy Kawasaki became our 8th follower.
..And Who is Guy Kawasaki ? Check this! Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. He’s the founder of Alltop.com.
