Entrepreneurs, owners, operators and managers of small to medium firms are set to benefit from the Accelerate Caribbean regional incubation support program designed by InfoDev (The World Bank Group) to strengthen innovation, entrepreneurship and job creation across CARICOM.

An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development Workshop and Business Incubator Management (BIM) Training will be held in St Lucia at the Royal by Rex Resorts from October 14-16.

The 3-day event forms part of a series of training sessions, designed to build an integrated ecosystem of support for early-stage entrepreneurs in the region. The objective of this project is to strengthen entrepreneurship and boost job creation across 14 CARICOM countries.

It is being coordinated by IMC Worldwide in partnership with Koltai & Co., the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries (BSCI). The Accelerate Caribbean program is a part of InfoDev’s Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC), funded by the Government of Canada.

Wednesday October 14 will see the staging of an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development Workshop at The Royal by Rex Resorts from 9:00 a.m.

This forum will bring together incubator managers, entrepreneurs, academics, government officials, the media, donors and investors. Commerce Minister Emma Hippolyte will address the opening ceremony.

Natalia Pipia, Team Leader of Accelerate Caribbean, commenting on the program said: “The Caribbean demonstrates a natural inclination towards innovation and entrepreneurship. People here work hard to build products, design new technology and offer services very attractive to even overseas markets, yet so many small businesses do not survive more than a few years. Accelerate Caribbean is offering training in incubation management to qualified professionals and business support companies in St Lucia and the Eastern Caribbean, to mitigate against this low business survival rate, which is critical to job creation and development in the region”

The highlight will be a panel discussion on “Building a Strong Interconnected Start-up Community in Saint Lucia.” Panelists will discuss a collaborative approach to building a sustainable ecosystem for entrepreneurship and innovation in Saint Lucia. Participants will discuss principles and good practices of business incubation, business incubator models, as well as components of a successful incubator.

Following this workshop, the Accelerate Caribbean team will deliver a Business Incubation Management (BIM) Training on October 15 & 16. Discussions on day two and three will heavily support the information shared on day one, while adding more points of empowerment to business professionals.

An incubator can help an egg to hatch, or keep a newborn baby alive; likewise they can help hatch new businesses and keep them alive until they are able to survive on their own.

Persons interested in attending the workshop and/or training sessions may visit www.acceleratecaribbean.com to register.

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