In our October 2022 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Miguel Adwin, of Fimi Market Inc. in the United States, and IT expert, Garfield Gordon, the panel discusses: how Caribbean tech can leverage the AfriCaribbean link; and a quick recap of the “forced” (digital) transformation of the past 30 months.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and Stitcher!

Over the past few years, there has been a sense that the Caribbean region is on the cusp of a digital revolution, of sorts. The evolving tech entrepreneurship and innovation space, the focus on financial technology, and the growing emphasis on developing a digital economy, all seem to suggest that the region is accelerating towards ‘something’.

In this month’s Community Chat podcast episode, we begin to explore what that ‘something’ might be.

 

Introducing our guests

Miguel Adwin

Miguel Adwin is the Chief Executive Officer of Fimi Market Inc., which is based in the United States, and is a technology company committed to leading the future of Web 3.0 in ways that champion equity, education, and access worldwide for women, Blacks Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) and other underserved groups.

Miguel has a true passion for technology and entrepreneurship that directs his work ethic. With over two decades of experience in technology leadership and product architecture, he is the archetype creator and product builder. His extensive experience ranges from financial systems, e-commerce, homeland security, managing enterprise teams and delivering tested and secure products using big data. Having heavily used cryptography before it was cool, the crypto and decentralised finance space provide a healthy environment to merge his entrepreneurial skills with his development and architectural chops.

Garfield Gordon

Garfield Gordon has 30 years of diverse IT experience including people management, sales, software development, field engineering, enterprise architecture, data warehousing and vendor management in the Caribbean, Canada, the United States, and Central and South America. He has worked in several verticals and industries, including the public sector, aviation, real estate, financial services, business process outsourcing, contact centres and telecommunications. More recently, he has been focusing on delivering architectural and technical solutions for service providers, governments, large enterprises and small to medium businesses.

Garfield has been on the blog and Podcast before as a guest for the Expert Insights series on cyber threats and security. A link to those conversations can be found below.

 

 

The topics discussed

Our first topic was inspired by the recently held first AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum in Barbados, which sought to strengthen the trade and investment links between Africa and the Caribbean. Some of the areas in which there will be bilateral cooperation and greater trade include investment, technology transfer, innovation, tourism, culture, and other services. However, I envisaged a lot of trade from Africa to the Caribbean, but not necessarily much the other way around. So, I suggested the panel discuss How can Caribbean tech leverage the AfriCaribbean link? In other words, what can the Caribbean tech community offer to Africa to facilitate trade from the Caribbean to Africa?

In a different vein, and although the digital transformation efforts accelerated in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, important triggers occurred prior to that, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which forced organisations to examine their systems and processes from the ground up – albeit from a privacy perspective. Since then, a lot has happened, which is not only limited to how newer technologies are being used, but also the ways in which people interact with technology and their workplaces.

For our second topic and noting that much of the excitement across the region regarding digital transformation seemed to have died down, Garfield thought it opportune for us to discuss, The “forced” transformation: a quick recap of the past 30 months.  

 

We would love to hear from you!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit: M Adwin; G Gordon; Gerd Altmann (Pixabay); Cytonn Photography (Unsplash); OpenClipart-Vectors (Pixabay)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support:  Mayra Bonilla Lopez