News Americas, KINGSTON, Jamaica, Weds. Nov. 14, 2012: In order to help Jamaican mobile start-ups leap from great prototypes to profitable companies, infoDev and Caribbean BETA will launch Jamaica Startup BootCamp, a two-month-long pitching challenge with virtual business coaching—on November 17-18, 2012.
The challenge will launch over a weekend-long event at the New Kingston Headquarters of the Jamaica Promotions Corporation, (JAMPRO), as part of the second annual Caribbean BETA, a premier conference for the tech entrepreneurship community in Kingston, Jamaica, and the region. The event is staged by Connectimass, an organization driving tech entrepreneurship and innovation in the Caribbean.
To register for the Startup BootCamp launch weekend and for more information on the program, visit the official site.
The Startup BootCamp will bring intensive, interactive mentoring by industry experts to the region’s mobile app innovators, aspiring and new entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts.
In order to nurture the local tech community and magnify the impact of existing World Bank programs, the BootCamp will emphasize youth outreach and bring in Caribbean BETA’s most talented participants, as well as the winners and finalists of this June’s Digital Jam 2.0.
Digital Jam 2.0—a three-day tech conference, and a collaboration between the Government of Jamaica, the World Bank, local and international business and development partners—took aim at high youth unemployment in the country by showcasing the new opportunities of the app economy. The event attracted more than 2000 young Jamaicans with features such as an app competition and a Sports Hackathon.
The Startup BootCamp is part of infoDev’s mobile innovation offering within the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) backed Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC). The challenge’s structure and rewards will build on the lessons from infoDev and Nokia’s m2Work Challenge, which ran earlier this year.
For updates on Caribbean BETA follow @caribbeanbeta on Twitter and Facebook.
