Amanda Spann is an innovation strategist and app entrepreneur with a background in brand development who has a professional focus on helping individuals and institutions, both domestically and abroad, design, launch and grow new products, incubation programs and entrepreneurship ecosystems. Her past work includes entrepreneurial ecosystem management at IBM & Wells Fargo, being a venture fellow at Rebel One as well as being a co-founder of the United States' first immigrant focused accelerator, Tiphub Africa. She splits her time between coaching aspiring entrepreneurs at The App Accelerator, a program to help non-technical entrepreneurs build their first mobile app and being the Head of Community for Tech Beach, the leading technology ecosystem for the Caribbean Diaspora. Over her career she has coached, consulted and created content for over 30,000 entrepreneurs around the world and has had the honor of being named one of Business Insider’s 30 Most Important Women in Tech Under 30. 

Sha Hurley, Googler & Certified Well-being/Energy Leadership Coach. By day, Sha leads executive briefings at Google Cloud Space and partners with the Cloud Sales Leadership teams to deliver workshops and retreats to help Googlers achieve well-being and highest potential.

By weekend and night, Sha guides and coaches heart centered visionaries in Corporate & Small Businesses to achieve clarity, inner strengths and well-being as a certified coach, yoga teacher and mentor (Learn more: shahurley.com) 

Kayla S Grant is a Sector Senior Associate in the Competitiveness and Innovation Division of the IDB where she promotes technological adoption and the strengthening of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association and the Project Management Institute. Kayla holds an MA in international trade policy from University of the West Indies (UWI), a BA in international business and economics from the University of Indianapolis, and a monitoring and evaluation certification from American University.

Carina Cockburn is an Economic Development professional and Change Leader with over 20 years’ experience in the public and private sector. Her core competencies include Strategic Planning, Change Management and Project Portfolio Management.

For over 10 years, Carina has served in a variety of positions at the Inter-American Development Bank and was appointed Country Representative for Trinidad & Tobago in April 2021. She has also worked extensively across the Caribbean region as a project manager and consultant, including assignments with the Lascelles Group and Prime Asset Management in Jamaica and the Sagicor group in Barbados. She has worked with the Canadian International Development Agency (now DFATD), the UK’s development agency DFID and also served as the Technical Advisor to the Minister of Finance in Jamaica.

She has presented in the AMCHAM Tech Island Hub Summit 2021 https://www.techislands.net/2021

She is currently now leading the IDB Country strategy with Trinidad and Tobago focused on digital transformation for sustainable and inclusive growth. https://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=EZSHARE-1362807394-18

About The Inter-American Development Bank

The Inter-American Development Bank’s mission is to improve lives. Founded in 1959, the IDB is one of the main sources of long-term financing for economic, social, and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also conducts cutting-edge research projects and provides policy advice, technical assistance, and training to public- and private-sector clients throughout the region.

Dr. Safeeya Mohammed, brings her dynamism to this seminar, as she pioneers a Wellness Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago. Motivated by the overwhelming burdens of ill health, escalating NCDs and unwellness in the Caribbean, Dr. Mohammed founded SISU Global Wellness in 2018. Serving as an Organizational Wellness Consultancy aligned to the United Nations SDG 3, whose primary focus is creating resilient behavioral strategies to prevent NCDs, Stress and Disengagement within the workforce.

From the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Mohammed has been the sought after Change Management Consultant for AQ|Resilience and Organizational Wellness and is currently leading the healthcare communications for Guardian Media Health Plus Platform in print, tv, radio and digital and on CNC3, every Tuesday morning for the designated Health Segment.

Currently pursuing Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard University, her focus is strategic, progressive interventions in the landscape of Lifestyle, Health, Wellbeing and capacity building. The pillars of Resilience and Behaviour Change were reinforced in her training at UNITAR(United Nations Institute for Training and Research) in 2017.

Dr. Mohammed previously worked as a senior physician(registrar) at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at San Fernando General, spearheaded many progressive initiatives while there (2006-2011) and was chosen as one of the 50 distinguished Alumni at UWI’s 50th Jubilee Celebration in 2011, the youngest female doctor among her graduating peers, conferred for her work in human capacity development and compassionate care in heightened trauma areas.

Leadership training was inculcated into her DNA, on being selected as an emerging foreign leader by the US Department of State premier professional exchange program - International Visitor Leadership Programme(IVLP) in 2009 and then further on becoming a certified John Maxwell Leadership Coach in 2016.

A well-known keynote speaker, Dr. Mohammed, most recently shared on "Optimizing Digital Wellbeing in a Pandemic" as the TTCSI designate at Dubai 2020 Talks shared,

one of the most defining moments of her medical career is being the assigned Physician to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai on her visit to Trinidad and Tobago in 2014,

reminding all of the power of ones voice.

“Anya Ayoung-Chee is a fashion designer, social entrepreneur, and strategist. In 2008, she competed at the Miss Universe pageant in Vietnam for her native Trinidad and Tobago. The following year she launched her first collection, Pilar, named after her younger brother. Several years later, Anya inspired millions when she won Season 9 of Project Runway. She then launched her eponymous womenswear line geared toward the resort wear market.

Anya's passion has been to leverage her platform to facilitate opportunities for Caribbean creatives, small business owners and at-risk women. By producing her clothing lines in T&T, she is able to work with and provide training for local seamstresses to sew for the fashion and carnival industries, thus increasing livelihood streams for these women. She channeled her love for Carnival into designing for the largest band in the Caribbean, Tribe, and was co-creative director of The Lost Tribe in its inaugural year. She simultaneously developed the brand, cANYAval, which comprised an e-commerce platform that sold ‘Monday Wear’, a Carnival events company and a production team that curated and supplied carnival costumes for LA, Toronto, Barbados and Jamaica. This experience segued into her newest venture, WYLD FLWR, a festival wear brand and mission driven fashion/technology community that is pioneering the NFT and digital fashion space for Caribbean creatives.

In recent years Anya opened and managed the co-working space HOME as well as HOME Café, Exhibit A boutique, and is co-founder and Director of the Together WI Foundation. In 2020, Anya partnered with Massy to form the social enterprise, Nudge Caribbean, designed to support the growth and development of MSMEs in the region.

Having created several businesses and brands over the last ten years, Anya is now focused on applying her many learnings to her current and upcoming ventures with an emphasis on finding innovative approaches to merging creativity, social consciousness and technology, with an emphasis on women’s economic empowerment.”

Social Links

Instagram: @anyaayoungchee | @wearewyldflwr | @anyaayoungcheeshop | @nudgecaribbean | @whoshefeelsheis | @togetherwi_ | @islndnft

Twitter: @anyaderogue | @wearewyldflwr | @nudgecaribbean | @whoshefeelsheis | @togetherwi_ | @islndnft

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anyaayoungchee

Websites: www.anyaayoungchee.com | www.wyldflwr.com | www.nudgecaribbean.com | www.togetherwi.org | www.islnd.io 

Dr. Barrow Maignan is a Fulbright Scholar, Social Entrepreneur, Arts Management Consultant and Visual Artist. Her passion and vocation are to realize real social transformation through arts-based socio-economic interventions within high-risk communities. She has worked across the Caribbean, in the US and Africa in cultural programming and as a consultant in the Creative Industries for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), CARICOM and Broward County Florida. She founded Caribbean InTransit in 2010, a non-profit with a volunteer team of more than 33 professionals operating across 13 countries spearheading the production of an open-access peer-reviewed journal, arts festivals, research projects and the This is ME program. The most recent initiative, The Meeting Place Communuty is a mobile application that enables a creative ecosystem created for and by creatives.

Dr. Barrow served as Coordinator for the Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Fund at a Development Bank. She led a team of four and was responsible for initiating and coordinating programming for the bank’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries including design of programming, managing grantee projects, engagement with a range of stakeholders and mobilizing additional resources for the fund.

Keron Rose is an Online Business Strategist & Coach who was worked with Caribbean Entrepreneurs and Businesses across the region.

He focuses on helping businesses build their digital presence and how to monetize their platforms and is the host of one of the top business podcasts in the Caribbean, Digipreneur FM.

Mr Rose has worked with companies across the Caribbean such as Flow, Digicel, Bmobile, Huawei, Sagicor, Scotiabank, Eastern Credit Union, FCB, Wipay and Loop Caribbean.

His goal is to constantly create educational content through his Blog and his Digipreneur FM podcast that pushes Caribbean Entrepreneurs to navigate the digital age and participate in the global economy.

Keron Rose has spoken at a wide range of events. Here are a few of the events he has spoken at:

- Flow Business Inknowvation

- Music TT RVRB

- Republic Banks Low Touch Economy

- Canto’s 38th AGM

- UTC: Urpreneur

- Jamaica Technology Alliance: Biztech Conference

- TT Chambers: Bridging The Digital Divide 

Sowmya Thottambeti is currently a software engineer at Nike’s European headquarters. Prior to this, she worked as a data engineer and software engineer at Nike, Cisco, and Intel, respectively. She had earned a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications, then shortly after, a master’s degree in Computer Science where she specialized in Systems Modeling and Data Analysis.

As an aspiring tech entrepreneur and hobbyist mobile app developer, Sowmya is continuously on the look out for exciting projects and initiatives to take on during her free time. She prides herself in her unparalleled life experiences and is an advocate for doing things the unconventional way. Sowmya is an excellent example of someone that marches to the beat of her own drum — pioneering the future of innovation in The Bahamas whilst bridging the gap between technological possibilities and people.

Sowmya has a good amount of experience when it comes to teaching as well as speaking. She works with several non profits in The Bahamas and teaches various technical topics. These topics are geared to students as young as nine (9) to young adults. She is versatile and works well with a wide range of ages. Moreover, she has experience speaking at conferences such as the GDG Devfest, to give you an example. 

I am Lauren b., I am a brand consultant. I design creative and brand strategies for Founders, Business Owners and Brand Managers who want to stand out and scale through creative, out-of-the-box and disruptive communications.

I believe in the power of collaboration between Creators and Brands to influence culture and impact what people think, feel and do towards a cause and shared purpose.

I am an award-winning brand strategist with over 10 years of experience focusing on concepting creative campaigns, digital brand strategies, data-informed storytelling, behavioural science to achieve business objectives.

I also coach Artists and Creators to improve their personal brand and business model.

Experience in different segments, having worked on several fronts of work, working with Strategic Planning of organizations based on BSC, Performance Indicators, leading and managing projects, from the elaboration of actions, implementation, allocation of resources, companionship and review of results. In this process I had the opportunity to manage diverse teams, with great talent, multilevel and multidisciplinary.

In the most recent experiences I have acted as Product Manager and Product Owner, bringing customer needs close to the product and creating new applications.

I am Six Sigma / GreenBelt certified. I have already worked with business and product evaluation, through business diagnosis, preparation and application of internal and external research, as well as studies and tests of usability and applicability in the launch of products and services, along with UX, Marketing, Development, following from the unfolding, implementation and analysis of results, acting on the improvement cycle.

For more than five years I took permanent refresher courses for PGQP (Gaucho Quality and Productivity Program) and PNQS (National Award for Quality in Sanitation), acting as a leading evaluator and examiner.

I highlight my ability to work in teams and with people, communication, relationship, leadership, culture of change and innovation, ability to negotiate and interact with the client.

Grounded in 15+ years of planning, building and sustaining enterprise-level programs and methods in continuous Research & Software Development transformation through innovation and creativity.

I’m an executive with a proven track record of maximizing returns from limited resources. I’m experienced at leading cross-functional teams to optimize and increase customer lifetime value and their experience. With my breadth of experience, I can successfully engage with any function, at any level, to identify opportunities, design and implement solutions, and measure the results.

I'm all about building great user experiences and valuable businesses.

What are the stories around a team? What motivates? What are the possible futures? What can it be envisioned? These are some of the questions that through my professional experience I always tried to answer — most of the time, unconsciously.

Bottom line, it’s all about people. And this is the story around me.

Esther is a passionate leader and information security enthusiast, who is passionate about cybersecurity, cyber-safety and is currently the Manager of Enterprise IT Risk and Security at a top regional insurance firm in the Caribbean. She has over 20 years of combined experience in the Financial, Insurance and Telecommunications industries, where she led the implementation of IT Systems, Information Security and Business Continuity initiatives. Esther currently holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire, alongside the designation of Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) issued by ISACA. Three words to describe her: passionate, driven and committed.

Dr Kris Rampersad is an independent cultural and literary sustainable development educator, and multimedia producer/publisher, journalist, facilitator, Lecturer, Trainer & Consultant.

She has a BA First Class Honours and PhD degrees from the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago; Diploma in Mass Communications from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, India; Commonwealth Professional Fellowship from the Association of Commonwealth Universities, UK; Nuffield Foundation Fellowship to Wolfson College, Cambridge University, the Foreign Press Centre of Japan, UWI Post Graduate Scholarship, along with numerous skills development training in management, leadership, diversity management, ICTs and new media, journalism, communications, fundraising, networking, gender equity, advocacy among others.

A multimedia print/tvproducer/publisher, media manager, journalist, writer, researcher and educator of almost three decades, she has helped develop and implement effective culture and multi-media, communications and outreach strategies, policies, and devised and conducted creative interactive courses, seminars and education programmes that encourage critical interrogation of development agendas to stimulate people-centred, gender and culture-sensitive paths to progress.

These utilise development perspectives and evaluations and assessments of north-south relations and particularly the small island developing states of the Caribbean in comparative glocal contexts, particularly in relation to gender, governance, culture, education, interreligious dialogue and understanding and Small Island States.

She has done extensive work across the connected Americas especially Caribbean and Latin American region in raising appreciation for cultural heritage, diversity and inclusion. All three Caribbean countries recently admitted to the UNESCO World Heritage lists benefitted from her work and she was also a pioneer of the Commonwealth Women Agents of Change initiative, leading the Caribbean agenda for change and educating women in political and other leadership spheres. She has also been actively involved in inspiring youth through literacy and literary appreciation across the Caribbean.

She is a UNESCO-trained facilitator for its Culture Conventions including World Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Diversity of Cultural Expressions, Intercultural Dialogue, Creative Cities, Slave, Silk and Indentured Immigrant Routes and has extensive work experiences in multistakeholder engagement and community empowerment in activating creative industries, heritage conservation and formulating programmes and mechanisms to access advance intercultural dialogue and social inclusion.

She has extensive experience of almost fifteen years in drafting, negotiating and presenting high level diplomatic texts and resolutions for equitable, peaceful and sustainable development through involvement in intergovernmental activities and consultations with agencies of the UN, Commonwealth, Organisation of American States, European Union and local to international level NGOs and CBOs

She has worked across the UN, OAS and Commonwealth and Caribbean communities in helping communities and other stakeholders access international instruments as the UNESCO Culture Conventions, in engaging civil society in inclusion, respect for diversity, rights, freedoms and governance processes through understanding how to use traditional and access conventional media as well as in advancing empowerment of rural and marginalized communities, youth and women and increasing their participation in political, social and economic processes.

She is the author of three books: Finding A Place; Through the Political Glass Ceiling and LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago and numerous articles and presentations on culture, media, gender, and community empowerment as driving forces for social, political and economic transformation.

She holds several awards for her contributions to journalism, and the arts and culture including as 2018 recipient of a National Medal, Gold for Journalism/Development of Women; Luminary Award 2015, (BWIA) Media Award for Excellence in Journalism, Pan American Health Organisation Award for Excellence in Journalism, and others from the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust, Moms for Literacy, the Global Organisation of Peoples of Indian Origin, the New Delhi Indian Institute of Mass Communication, the University of the West Indies and British High Commission/British Council UWI scholar award for literature. She was a winner of the BBC Trust/UNESCO Communication Initiative’s Development Policy Blogging for New Media.

She was a pioneer of a genre of environmental journalism in the Caribbean, and introduced the genre of agricultural journalism through establishment of the CTA/IICA/CARDI Media Awards for Excellence in Agricultural Journalism, having also spearheaded and worked for the creation and development of other funding and awards schemes as the Trinidad Theatre Workshop Fund for Literature, Culture and Drama; Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago Media Awards for Excellence in Journalism; bpTT Luminaries of Journalism Awards; Trinidad and Tobago Association of Publishers and Broadcasters Awards for Media Excellence, and as an adjudicator with the student awards committee of the Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago Excellence in Higher Education Award scheme.

She has addressed such forums as the World Summit of Information Society; World Summit on Arts and Culture, Commonwealth Diversity Conferences, International Conferences on Cultural Policy Research, Chatham House Dialogue of UNESCO, Brussels Briefings of the ACP-EU, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) among others. A format for such round-table engagement she successfully piloted in the Caribbean to explore solutions towards food security was adopted in the model used at the ACP-EU International Seminar on Media and Agriculture in Brussels organized by the CTA, to which she also coordinated the Caribbean participation.

She served as the Trinidad and Tobago Representative on the UNESCO Executive Board and chaired the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO and the National Museum and Art Gallery, and sat on committees as the Expert Panel on Arts and Culture. She served as an independent member of the Consultative Body to the Intergovernmental Committee of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention (2003). She was a founding member of the National Registry for Artistic and Cultural Workers, a pioneer organization for skills mapping in the Caribbean, and the national Tourism Heritage Committee.

A model for cross sectoral engagement she devised for the Caribbean was adopted by the CTA/ACP-EU for its international seminar on media and agriculture.

This has taken her across the Caribbean to Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago and across the globe, working and volunteering in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean towards advancing the MDGs through agencies of the UN as UNESCO, UNDP, UNIFEM and WSIS; the Commonwealth Foundation, organs of the Organisation of American States, the Inter-American Institute for Agriculture, and units of CARICOM. 

Arielle is a natural born leader, tech entrepreneur and digital marketer. She holds a BSc. in Business Management and a MSc. in Tourism Management from UWI, St. Augustine.

In the world of work, Arielle is currently a Creative Director at Connect Media Advertising pioneering trendy digital media campaigns and video productions. Outside of her day job she is also the founder of the travel brands - RoamTT, Roam Reality & Roam Caribbean. The latter two being described as innovative app projects which are both in the seed and funding stages, due to launch in 2022. Both ideas have won top place recognition in three recent competitions. (2021 & 2022)

Over the past 4 years her efforts can be seen with her brand RoamTT through the development of an online e-commerce platform for tours in Trinidad, non-profit tourism related initiatives/events and cutting edge destination videography campaigns.

Outside of work, she finds joy in the great outdoors, in fact her active and adventurous personality is the driving force behind her brand and remains her number one motivator when things get tough. As for the future, Arielle has her eyes set on creatively revolutionising the regional travel industry by fusing technology and digital advertising.

Human being, becoming human. Aunty Sister, Daughter, Friend, joyful collaborator, and enthusiastic conspirator.

I’m fascinated by complex systems and dynamic equilibria - process plants, human language, multimodal human communication, festivals. Both at them and looking at the meaning that we make around them - narratives and myths and stories. I have trained in mediation, linguistics, ammonia production, dance, fire fighting and stage production.

Breathing is fundamental. I’m grateful to be sharing fundamentals in a time with such a feeling of uncertainty. Radical Breathing is a Caribbean based breath work facilitation practice that exists to realize opportunities by teaching and in practice, for people of the region and diaspora to embrace their breath and harness it for power, balance and flow.

Future Law Virtual Summit Negotiating the New Normal 2020 https://negotiatingthenewnormal.com/speakers/ , https://vimeo.com/468727578 , East Yard and Hamil's Better Man Expo 2021, Cup of Joe https://youtu.be/ckLJQsYqpQM , Edinburgh International Arts Festival, Fringe Festival Producer's Breakfast 2017, The PALM Foundation Launch 2015.

At AGENDR, our mission is to create a female-centric space that fosters and promotes the collaborative creativity, empowerment, education, equity, awareness, diversity, participation and opportunities for women and girls in the audio and visual industry and in other technical fields related to AV. ​ Our vision of education, empowerment and awareness are the pillars that drive us to be a go-to space offering support and valuable resources and opportunities to learn and be empowered. ​ We believe that equality is necessary, and collectively, we are working to make the AV industry a more inclusive, balanced and diverse community for all. 

Letetia holds the Ph.D. Mathematics and M.Phil. Statistics from the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus. She is currently a Project Officer and consulting Statistician at the University Office of Planning at the UWI. She is involved in survey administration, statistical and mathematical modelling and has over 10 years’ experience lecturing tertiary level courses in Probability, Statistics and Mathematics. Her research interests include mathematical modelling of dynamical systems and applications of statistical modelling for sustainability.

An ADDY award-winning Product Manager with an adaptable, results-driven approach, creating innovative technology solutions across diverse industries within the Caribbean. Collaborates with all levels of internal and external developers, designers and project stakeholders. Leads teams in the development of new, and existing products; driving integrated solutions that encourage long-term business growth. With experience as an Internal Auditor and Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, I have a unique approach when undertaking digital projects. My work has helped startup companies like the Unqueue App, Smile Inn Dental and WhereDPump. Creating digital solutions and impactful user experiences. I’m always dreaming up new strategies, product launches, and talks to inspire any audience.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QJeGRWZuwJ4FYQVvqCnWodeSwMeLkqsD/view?usp=sharing 

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